The sobering message of "Go Ask Alice" had a huge effect on my life—and then I found out the real story
"Darkness Visible" was the only book I took into the mental hospital, and it was the book that brought me out
This mysterious Russian fictionalized drug memoir spurred me to rethink my past—and write a new kind of character
Growing up, finally, with Mary McCarthy's 1954 novel "The Group"
For Novel Gazing, submit your essays on the stories that shifted your opinion
What happened when I went searching for magic underwater
Reading Paul Monette’s AIDS memoir helped me figure out how to move forward after my boyfriend’s death
For Novel Gazing, tell us about a story that put you in mortal peril
How “The Little Prince” helped me let my childhood die
Thank You!