Reading List
Ione Skye
Actress and Memoirist
Ione Skye was cast as Diane Court in Say Anything at eighteen and has worked in film and television since, in River’s Edge, Gas Food Lodging and Zodiac among others. The daughter of the Scottish folk singer Donovan, she grew up between London and Los Angeles on the fringes of two scenes, and wrote about it in her 2025 memoir Say Everything. Her reading runs to Hollywood history, English children’s classics and writers who are funny about heartbreak.
The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham
by W. Somerset Maugham · 1951 · Fiction
“Maugham was famous for his novels and plays, but I love his short stories best. He often uses a narrator drinking a nightcap at a men's club, recounting a recent scandalous tale of adultery or murder set in the morally questionable British Far Eastern colonies.” — via Article
Heartburn
by Nora Ephron · 1983 · Fiction
“Ephron's novel is a brilliant and funny comfort read about the end of a marriage, inspired by the author's own split with Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein.” — via Article
Giovanni’s Room
by James Baldwin
“Baldwin's emotional intelligence and insight into human behavior are absolutely stunning.” — via Article
Music for Chameleons
by Truman Capote · 1980 · Essays
“I love his Southern, almost surreal sensibility in his early short stories, as well as the portraits, such as "A Beautiful Child," about a day spent with his friend Marilyn Monroe.” — via Article
The Magic World
by E. Nesbit · 1912 · Children's
“Nesbit was a fantastic and witty writer. This is one of those brilliant children's books that grown-ups will love as well.” — via Article
West of Eden
An American Place
by Jean Stein · 2016 · Nonfiction
“Stein explored the history of Los Angeles through intriguing and dark stories, both well-known and obscure, that took place in and around the movie industry.” — via Article