Tuesday, August 10, 2010

What is Jennifer Mascia reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Jennifer Mascia, author of Never Tell Our Business to Strangers (Villard 2010).

Her entry begins:
Since I'm in the news business, my reading selections are usually limited to newspapers and magazines. But I am halfway through Eat Pray Love, a choice I resisted for a while because of its runaway popularity. But Elizabeth Gilbert drew me in immediately with her authoritative and detailed explanations of the history behind her travelogue, like the origin of the Italian language -- who knew it was based on the poetry of Dante? -- and the purpose behind yoga (if you're going to sit for hours and meditate, you need to stretch a little first). Gilbert's secluded childhood on a Christmas tree farm left little available entertainment but books, and it shows -- her literary knowledge is...[read on]
Among the early praise for Never Tell Our Business to Strangers:
“With her intrepid reporting and unique voice, Jennifer Mascia breathes life into characters living on the fringe, people that most others ignore or try to forget: the druggies, the dealers, the scammers, the murderers and desperate ex-cons. The fact that they were part of her own loving family makes her story all the more remarkable and impossible to put down.”
— Helene Stapinski, author, Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History

“With a keen journalist’s eye and a loving daughter’s heart, Jennifer Mascia has written an incredible true story of family secrets, lies, and, ultimately, forgiveness.”
—Janice Erlbaum, author of Have You Found Her: A Memoir
Read an excerpt from Never Tell Our Business to Strangers, and learn more about the book and author at Jennifer Mascia's website.

Jennifer Mascia graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2007 and has spent the last three and a half years on the Metropolitan News desk of the New York Times.

Writers Read: Jennifer Mascia.

--Marshal Zeringue