A couple of the questions and answers:
What’s the last thing you read that made you laugh out loud?
Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. I've bought 12 copies in the past two weeks.
* * *
Which book changed your life?
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Read the entire Q & A.
Ann Patchett has won numerous fiction prizes, including the PEN/Faulkner Award and Orange Prize in 2002 for her fourth novel, Bel Canto. Her memoir of her friendship with fellow writer Lucy Grealy, Truth & Beauty, was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and Entertainment Weekly. Patchett's latest novel, Run, is due out in September.
--Marshal Zeringue