A career working with teenagers on the fringes of society has made me both sensitive to and appreciative of the complexities of character and the struggles, inner and outer, that we all wrestle with in one form or another. My writing emphasizes character development over action. Reading in a wide range of genres and working to develop what little musical talent I possess occupy my time and, I believe, serve as complements to my writing. As a lifelong Southerner, the rhythms and cadence of the Southeastern United States influence both my spoken and written voice.

These lists feature, in addition to some of my own work, books that have fascinated, comforted, surprised, moved, confused, and challenged me. They have made me laugh, and cry, and think, have given me evenings of amusement or decades worth of questions to ponder, and, in what is at once the most reassuring and most staggering to contemplate, is a tiny sample of what is available for us to read and reread.