‘Wanting’ author Claire Jia shares the book covers she’s obsessed with – Orange County Register

Los Angeles-based Claire Jia is the author of “Wanting.” She’s written for the Peabody Award-winning video game “We Are OFK,” as well as released a comedy series, “Crash Outs,” written and directed by her and her friends Jennifer Kim and Lisa Deng, on its own app. Jia spoke with correspondent Michael Schaub about the book, and here she responds to the Q&A.

Q: How do you decide what to read next?

Reading for me, possibly foremost, is about forming community — I want to read the things my friends love so I can understand them better. So when I’m looking for a new read, friends’ recommendations (or friends’ own books!) lead me there first.

Q: Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?

Two books I read in school that stayed with me were “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury and “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles. One taught me about living and dying; the other taught me about envy and regret.

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But earlier, my favorite book(s) growing up was the Silverwing series by Kenneth Oppel. A small silverwing bat gets separated from his family and goes on an epic journey to find them and falls in love with an older lady bat on the way. Amazing. I was so attached to that bat. Throughout the series, the tiny bat grows up and becomes a father, and I’ve never cried as much as I did reading the final book in that series. Silverwing taught me about love and character.

Q: Do you have any favorite book covers?

I’m obsessed with all of Yan Lianke’s Grove Press book covers. They feature paintings of people that are just a bit scary. If I could give kudos to the designer here, I would but I can’t find who did his covers!*

*Ed. Note: We love when kudos reach their intended targets, so we looked into it, and the cover designs are credited to both Cindy Hernandez and Matthew Broughton; the paintings featured are by artists including Chen Yu, Zhong Biao and Xu De Qi. —EP

Q: Which books do you plan, or hope, to read next?

I have a lot of friends who have debut books out this year, and I’m looking forward to having some quiet moments to dive in deep. I’m really enjoying Silvia Park’s “Luminous,” a book that does what every book should do — be fun and interesting and take risks.

Q: Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?

My friends! I was never good at reading. I’m heinously slow; I read in my mind at nearly the pace that I read aloud. So I always felt discouraged, reading. But then I met friends who read 50, 100 books a year, and I was in awe — how was this possible! I wanted to consume the world like they did, and so I pushed myself to hone my reading practice the way I honed my writing. I got faster at reading — but I also learned to embrace the slowness.

Q: What do you find the most appealing in a book: the plot, the language, the cover, a recommendation? Do you have any examples?

A great recommendation from a friend will draw me in, but humor and a good surprise will keep me. Lorrie Moore has long been my favorite hilarious, surprising writer; George Saunders is a relatively new discovery (sacrilegious, I know).

Q: If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?

What do you want most?