My Favorite Books
Jo Usmar is a writer for Cosmopolitan and co-author of the This Book Will series(系列)of lifestyle books. Here she picks her top reads.
Matilda
Roald Dahl
I once wrote a paper on the influence of fairy tales on Roald Dahl's writing and it gave me a new appreciation for his strange and delightful words. Matilda's battles with her cruel parents and the bossy headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, are equally fumy and frightening, but they're also aspirational.
After Dark
Haruki Murakami
It’s about two sisters — Eri, a model who either won’t or can’t stop sleeping, and Mari, a young student. In trying to connect to her sister, Mari starts changing her life and discovers a world of diverse "night people" who are hiding secrets.