What was the best book you read last year?
The most shocking book I read last year was “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II,” by Douglas Blackmon. I hadn’t heard of it when I picked it up even though it won the Pulitzer Prize a couple of years ago, so I was doubly shocked by the story it tells. The detailed chronicle of the institutional scale of horrific oppression and criminal behavior by local government and corporate interests was truly jaw-dropping, although it probably shouldn’t have been.
The best fiction book I read was “The Yellow Birds,” by the Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers, which is about to get the PEN/Hemingway Award. That’s especially nice as the award will be presented at the J.F.K. Library by Patrick Hemingway (Ernest Hemingway’s son), because Hemingway’s papers are located there. 
Your favorite book of all time? 
An impossible question. Two books that made me cry real tears were “Jude the Obscure,” by Thomas Hardy, and “A Death in the Family,” by James Agee. Two books that made me laugh out loud were “A Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole, and “Lucky Jim,” by Kingsley Amis. 
When and where do you like to read? 
I am not picky — if possible I would like to read in Rome or Paris, but since that’s usually not an option, I like to read in bed.
Paper or electronic? 
I tried electronic, but I couldn’t remember anything — maybe that’s because it was “The Gnostic Gospels,” by Elaine Pagels — but probably it’s because I am getting old — so I am now mostly going back to paper. I like to dog-ear important pages, and I don’t know how to do that on my iPad.
Who are your favorite poets? Was there a particular poet you encountered early on who inspired your love of poetry? 
One of the best things about creating poetry anthologies is that I have gotten to know some incredible poets whose work I admire. Sharon Olds, Elizabeth Alexander and Naomi Shihab Nye write about contemporary life and relationships. They have introduced me to poems I would not otherwise have read and deepened my understanding of poets like Lucille Clifton and Gwendolyn Brooks.
What’s your favorite literary genre? Any guilty pleasures? 
Books about the Inquisition and the crusades are a guilty pleasure because I feel guilty reading bad things about the Catholic Church — though it’s hard to avoid these days. Biographies of famous horses and lives of the saints are among my favorite literary genres.
What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?
“Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life,” by Nick Lane, and lots of books about networks, physics and neurobiology — they belong to my husband.
What’s the best book you’ve ever received as a gift? 
“Gender Outlaw,” by Kate Bornstein. I got it for my birthday last year from my daughter after a family discussion on the merits of transgender surgery. It’s a fascinating and illuminating memoir by a transgender playwright.
Do you ever read self-help? Anything you recommend?
I don’t read much self-help — that comes from talking to people or taking a hot bath. I do read historically oriented books about religion and faith like Edith Hamilton’s “Witness to the Truth,” which I found in our apartment and had belonged to my mother; or Garry Wills’s “What the Gospels Meant,” which I bought in an airport. I really enjoyed “God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible,” by Adam Nicolson, and “The Cistercian World: Monastic Writings of the Twelfth Century,” which my daughter brought home from college.
Where do you get your books? Do you have a favorite bookstore or library? 
I love independent bookstores and always get great recommendations from the staff there. I have gotten to visit amazing ones on my book tours — like Parnassus in Nashville, Anderson’s near Chicago, Elliott Bay in Seattle. At home, a lot of the small bookstores have disappeared in my neighborhood, but Crawford Doyle is great. I also love going into a huge Barnes & Noble just to wander around and find things I wasn’t looking for.