From a New York Times By the Book interview headlined “Ocean Vuong Brings Books to Lunch Dates, ‘Just in Case'”:

What books are on your nightstand?

“A Lesson Before Dying,” by Ernest J. Gaines, “Walking in Wonder,” by John O’Donohue (in conversation with John Quinn), “A Death in the Family,” by James Agee, “Afropessimism,” by Frank B. Wilderson, “We Think the World of You,” by J.R. Ackerley, “Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Brontë, “Hot Milk,” by Deborah Levy, “Poetics of Relation,” by Édouard Glissant, “The Sign of Jonas,” by Thomas Merton.