This week, we’re featuring Summer Reading and bestselling author Caroline Leavitt! Below, Caroline has chosen the five books that inspired her to write her newest novel, Is This Tomorrow?

All My Friends are Going to Become Strangers by Larry McMurtry

“To me, the mark of a great book is how often I am compelled to reread it, and this one is so dog-eared, I could walk it on a leash. The most tragic and true book about being a writer, which is  also so very, very funny. It follows the path of the richly alive Danny Deck, who may or may not find success as a writer, even as he tries to navigate his way around three very complicated women. Every time I read it, I discover something new.”

A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne

“I want my novels to have layers, to be about more than just story. The genius of Berne’s novel is that it isn’t just about the murder of a young boy in a 1970s suburb that’s the crime. Instead, she focuses in on the carefully constructed lies of its young heroine, to elevate the story from suspense to high art.”

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

“Anything Yates writes is brilliant, but this particular book, about a young 1950s couple who plan to blaze a life in art, and instead get waylaid by the dark side of 1970s suburbia, is also chilling. If you want lessons in how to craft a character, you couldn’t do better than to study Yates.”

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

“I’ve been following Wolitzer’s career since her first novel The Sleepwalkers, and it’s not just her writing, and this particular novel, about what it means to have or not have talent,  that I find enthralling, but what she chooses to write about. She takes huge risks, she changes form, and she hones in on the issues that stick in our spirits like thorns. Even more importantly, she fights against the labels of “women’s fiction” because as we all know, when women write about domestic issues, it’s denigrated, but when men do, it’s Franzen.”

Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen

“This wonderful memoir could be called “The Making of a Writer Through Food” and it’s just sublime. What caught my interest page after page is how honest and brave Christensen is, how she doesn’t shy from telling the truth about herself, her feelings, and her actions. You come away loving the book so much, you swear you’d read her grocery list, and isn’t that what every writer wants?”

Pinterest PS – Check out this 1950’s-themed Pinterest board, inspired by the book!