Top Shelf With Lauren Sams

BOOKS BY LAURA BRADING

Lauren Sams is a fashion editor who writes about the local and global fashion industry. She is also a published author and prolific reader with exceptional taste, and a swathe of recommendations up her sleeve at any given moment. We asked Lauren about her ideal reading room, the book she’s embarrassed to have loved but loved all the same, and the one she recommends to everyone. Have your pencil ready, dear reader, your to-be-read pile is about to get a whole lot longer.

Describe your ideal reading room.

Quiet, occupied solely by me. Rain pouring outside (if it’s sunny I’ll feel like I should be enjoying the outdoors). Coffee in hand. No deadlines. Chores done. In other words: nothing but uninterrupted reading ahead of me.

A book you recommend to everyone.

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason. Meg is a good friend of mine and so this may come with some bias, but even if I’d never met her, I would tell everyone I knew about this glorious, deeply felt, laugh-out-loud book. I have read it at least five times and each time, I find something new and wonderful to love about it. Meg’s mastery of language and flair for human observation is so admirable. I am lucky to have read this book and luckier still to count her as a friend.

A book that made you cry.

A Little Life . I read the last part in a single sitting, eight months pregnant and in absolute tatters. Circle of Friends is my comfort read. Benny and Eve forever. Contemporary. The list of classic books I haven’t read is long and shameful.

An author whose books you will always read.

Curtis Sittenfeld. I have adored her since I read Prep many years ago (I am fascinated by boarding schools; I think it’s an Enid Blyton hangover) and I have read everything she has written since then. I even read her short story collections and I hate short stories. I think she manages to be smart and light at the same time, which is a very difficult thing to achieve.

Meet The Women Making Thousands From Their Wardrobes

BY CAROLINE ZIELINSKI Arrow READ IT HERE

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