The Best of Us

We celebrate births and deaths, we mark anniversaries. But what are we really celebrating or marking? Sometimes the real significance lies in events that have long preceded that which we are marking.

When we celebrate a birth or an anniversary, we’re really looking back on the events that lead to it. We’ve gotten better as a society with marking death as a celebration of life. But it’s more than just the life of the one that passed, it's all the people they touched, the ripples of impact that they had, and the way in which their legacy is carried on.

And so with Joyce Maynard's new memoir, The Best of Us, she marks some of these powerful and significant moments in her own life.

My conversation with Joyce Maynard:

A Novel way to end the year

Being pulled into the world of a gripping novel can trigger actual, measurable changes in the brain that linger for at least five days after reading, scientists have said. The new research, carried out at Emory University found that reading a good book may cause heightened connectivity in the brain and neurological changes that persist in a similar way to muscle memory.

Over this past year I've spoken with a wide array of novelists. Some of the conversations we've posted during the year include  Jeannette Walls, Marisa Silver, Adam Mansbach, Manil Suri, Edwidge Danticat, Jesmyn Ward, Meg Wolitzer, Kris Jansma and many many more.

However, we weren't able to put every conversation with every novelist, up on the site. So as a year end effort, here are a few more of my conversations about books that might trigger those "measurable changes in the brain."

My conversation with Paul Harding about Enon:




My conversation with Jonathan Lethem about Dissident Gardens




My conversation with Jo Baker about Longbourn




My conversation with Meg Clayton about The Wednesday Daughters




My conversation with Joyce Maynard about After Her




My conversation with Susan Choi about My Education





My conversation with Fred Waitzken about The Dream Merchant