NIGHT TABLE READING

"I'm actually surrounded by books right now. I'm currently reading Bohemian Paris, by Dan Franck [Grove], Surreal Lives, by Ruth Brandon [Grove], and The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan [Bloomsbury], who was a brilliant man and one of the great critics of our time."

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family, by Patricia Volk (Knopf). "A tender and funny scrapbook of family memories by a master of observation who makes you crave a chopped-egg sandwich even as she conjures a New York of glamour and grace. Aunt Lil, phone home!"

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles (Bantam).

"It inspired me to learn, as well as inspired my education in an all-male boarding school and, in the end, inspired me to want to teach and be involved."