From a New York Times By the Book interview headlined “Tara Westover Likes to Read Herself to Sleep, When She Can”:

What books are on your night stand?

Hilary Mantel’s “Giving Up the Ghost” and Judith L. Herman’s “Truth and Repair.” Judith Herman because she is one of the best experts writing on the topic of harm and healing — how we confront the past in order to leave it behind.

Hilary Mantel because she passed away last year, and I can’t stop thinking about what a loss that was to literature. Years ago, I used to say Toni Morrison was my favorite living writer. When Morrison passed, I said Hilary Mantel. Now I don’t know what to say.