What is Melanie Benjamin reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Melanie Benjamin, author of The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Her entry begins:

I just finished Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. I’m coming late to McMurtry, for some reason. I’m a huge fan of westerns, and historical fiction, of course – one of my ambitions is to write a western some day, myself! – so I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to read his work. Of course, I’d seen the miniseries a couple of times, but as fine as it is, the book is infinitely better. I love escaping into entirely different worlds, and McMurtry creates a fully realized universe, not just a world!

I’m currently reading...[read on]

Among the early praise for The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb:

"The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is a fascinating story of triumph and tragedy and one person who refused to live a small life. Part biography, with a healthy dollop of artistic liberty, it is a spellbinding tale from the Gilded Age that seems more relevant now than ever."
—BookPage

"Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, the diminutive wife of Gen. Tom Thumb, narrates her life story in this vivacious fictionalized autobiography that takes her from a small New England town to a seedy Mississippi showboat and eventually into the entourage of the impresario P.T. Barnum. ....The smart and unyieldingly ladylike Vinnie emerges as an effervescent narrator with a love of life and a grand story worth the price of admission."
—Publishers Weekly

"By turns heart-rending and thrilling, this big-hearted book recounts a fictionalized life of this most extraordinary of women in prose that is lush, and details that are meticulously researched. I loved this book."
—Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of Ape House and Water for Elephants

"Melanie Benjamin's striking novel about the diminutive Lavinia Warren Bump, one of P.T. Barnum's "oddities," shows that love and desire, strength and ambition come in all sizes. Mrs. Tom Thumb brings out the humanity in all of us."
—Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling author of Prayers for Sale and Whiter Than Snow

"Melanie Benjamin has created a compelling heroine, whose dramatic and poignant story will capture the reader's heart to the last page."
—Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude & Camille: A novel of Monet and Marrying Mozart

Learn more about the book and author at Melanie Benjamin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Alice I Have Been.

The Page 69 Test: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

My Book, The Movie: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Writers Read: Melanie Benjamin.

--Marshal Zeringue