Pamela Paul

Pamela Paul is the editor of The New York Times Book Review and oversees books coverage at The New York Times. She is also the host of the weekly podcast, Inside The New York Times Book Review. Prior to joining the Times, she was a contributor to Time magazine and The Economist; her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, and Vogue.
She is the author of My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues; By the Book; Parenting, Inc.; Pornified; and The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony.
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Pamela Paul on editing By the Book
Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review, discusses 'By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review.'
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Where are you from?
New York
Who are your favorite writers?
George Eliot, Thomas Mann, Tolstoy, Edith Wharton, William Dean Howells, Joan Didion, Marjane Satrapi, Henry James, George Orwell, David Lodge
What are your favorite books?
Middlemarch, War and Peace, The House of Mirth, Portrait of a Lady, big fat presidential biographies
Which book/books have had the biggest influence on your writing?
James B. Stewart's Follow the Story, and lots of George Orwell
Which teacher had the biggest impact on your life?
James Morone at Brown University
What's the best baby advice you have received?
My friend Holly told me, "Relax. Our parents didn't do half the things we do with our kids and we turned out fine."
My friend Amy told me to savor all the cute things your kids are doing right now because those cute things will go away. New cute habits and idiosyncrasies will pop up, but you'll still miss the old ones.
What's your favorite piece of advice to new parents?
On a practical level: Borrow, recycle, and reuse.
On an emotional level: Focus on where your children are, not on where they're going.
And for second-time parents: Forget everything you thought you knew about babies. What you know is all about your first baby. Now you have to learn from scratch about your second one.
What inspired you to write your first book?
Sadly, the end of my first marriage.
Where do you write?
Harlem
My Life with Bob
Pamela Paul
Picador
Picador
People Pick • O Magazine Title to Pick Up Now • Vanity Fair Hot Type • Glamour New Book You’re Guaranteed to Love This Summer • LitHub.com Best...
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By the Book
Picador
Picador
Sixty-five of the world's leading writers open up about the books and authors that have meant the most to them
Every Sunday, readers of The New York Times Book Review turn...
Available in:


Parenting, Inc.
Pamela Paul
Henry Holt and Co.
Holt Paperbacks
"An entire industry preys on parental anxiety . . . Paul tries to lead us out of the catastrophization of childhood."—The New York Times Book Review
Parenting coaches,...
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