Amanda Peet’s 5 Life-Changing Books

Here, Peet features five of the books that have defined her journey as a reader, from her early days as an actress to the novel that made her fall in love. (Reader: she married him.)

Nine stories from JD Salinger

“I auditioned for Uta Hagen’s acting class during my freshman year in college, and she kept a list of scenes you had to work on. Not just plays, she was taking scenes straight from novels, and she assigned me first to “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut” from Nine stories, but then we played the scene and she said I was too young for that. [laughs] Then she assigned me “For Esme – with love and misery”, and I think it was the first time that she felt I was decent to play, because she kept giving me more. Salinger after that. I must have read it in a deeper way for her, but I just had a deep affection for these characters. They are all desperate to be seen in a certain way and to put these postings on. It is very poignant, but also very desperate. I really cut my teeth on Salinger, in a way.

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The Marriage Member by Carson McCullers

“It’s probably strange that a book on Southern Gothic is on my list, because I’m a neurotic New York Jew. I fell in love with this book as a nerdy teenager who didn’t feel good about myself, so I was very comforted by Frankie. My oldest daughter is actually her name and she just turned 14, so I gave it to her. Even though I think she would have preferred to wear someone’s name External banks. [laughs] I think she expected Frankie to be some sort of hero, or a sweet, honest girl, not a goofy tomboy. She is a character who is constantly plagued by jealousy and longing for what she cannot have. And I don’t wish that on my daughter, obviously! But Frankie is also one of the most endearing characters. She feels it so deeply, and it’s a curse, but it’s also beautiful. For anyone who has a lot of FOMO or who felt left out as a teenager, this book is so heartwarming. The main characteristic of being a teenager is wanting to be someone else, right? This is what it captures so beautifully.

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Can’t we talk about something nicer? by Roz Chast

“My mom just turned 80 and has Parkinson’s disease, and I read this overnight as she was about to move in with me and my family to Los Angeles. I couldn’t understand how deep it was and how precisely it touched the point. It almost made me squirm. It’s difficult for me to see Roz Chast as a simple designer, because for me the book is a literary masterpiece. It’s so deep and moving about death and family, it’s just mind-blowing. It’s a crazy sleight of hand that this story can be wrapped up in a cartoon. It’s weird: you know how some people talk about how literature can feel like a friend? It was one of the few times that I read something and really believed that I had to be Roz Chast’s best friend. Once I would put on my son’s push-ups, then five minutes later I would put on my mom’s push-ups. And I was like, I wish Roz Chast was there so we could laugh about it together.

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“I remember when I read this, I was shooting a TV show in Atlanta, and I had those long days getting up really early and learning a lot of dialogue at night, but all I could think of was was Pachinko– I couldn’t put it down. It’s so romantic and suspenseful, and I remember staying awake too late and being exhausted all day, but still trying to be responsible in my job, of course! I was at the start of writing The chair, and I was trying to learn more about Korean history. It opened my eyes to learn more about the inter-Asian racism this family had to endure. I remember growing up with Korean friends who were the age we were allowed to drive, but they weren’t allowed to have a Japanese car, for example. It was important for me to understand this perspective before writing Ji-Yoon [Oh’s character in The Chair]. “

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David Benioff’s 25th hour

“My husband [Benioff] will be mortified I chose that! [laughs] I had a blind date with him and I liked him very much. I was excited that he was a native of New York, because I thought it would be a good start to living in Hollywood. But then it started to get serious and I fell in love with him, and the time came when I really had to read his book so as not to offend him. I kept putting it off because I was so scared. It is very painful if you don’t admire what your partner is doing. Anyway, I finally read it, and I remember in one of the first pages he described a pigeon’s foot in New York as a piece of pink gum spat out, and I remember having thought about how good he was. I was like, Oh, he’s a freak. In the right direction!”

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