Norte, by Edmundo Paz Soldán. Too soon to talk about it but fascinating so far; looks like it's something I will definitely be recommending. I am also reading Antología de crónica latinoamericana actual, edited by Darío Jaramillo, a unique compendium of the best chroniclers in Latin America. A book every Spanish speaker should own (or at least read).  

What was the last truly great book you read?
A wonderful novel by one of my favorite contemporary authors: Javier Marías. His last book, Los enamoramientos, tells the story of a man's brutal death, stabbed by a stranger on the street. Throughout the novel Marías unravels the twisted story behind the death, never fully confirming the truth to his readers because The Truth, as such is never what it seems and may not even exist. The captivating story, as in all his novels, is merely the backdrop for all types of questions about love, death, loyalty, finding out the truth and what to do with it if you are able to; do you plant a doubt in someone's mind which will destroy his/her life? It only takes a second, a few words.

Are you a fiction or nonfiction person? What’s your favorite literary genre?

I am definitely a fiction reader. As Barbara Kingsolver said in her conference at BEA, "Nothing else out there puts you inside another human mind" and novels that accomplish that are my favorite. I love a good story, but only if it takes me inside the characters' flow of thoughts, if I myself can feel the moral dilemmas they are confronted with, if there is a philosophical, metaphysical, psychological undercurrent. But I also enjoy non-fiction, particularly biographies and essays.

Any guilty pleasures?

My teenage daughter's first love novels, like Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Those galleys Becky and Jeanne give me for my daughter are a great temptation. 

What book had the greatest impact on you?

Just one? La náusea by Jean Paul Sartre, Enduring Love by Ian McEwan, La broma by Milan Kundera, La mujer rota by Simone de Beauvoir, Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, La paloma by Patrick Suskind, Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

What is your ideal reading experience?

Wake up late on a Saturday morning to an empty home, make coffee, start reading still in PJ's on the living room couch and read all day. Break for a very late lunch, shower, maybe go watch a movie with friends, have a tequila (or two), and then come back and read until 2 or 3 am. Wake up REALLY late on Sunday and lounge on the same couch to read until sunset (and the reality of Monday with all the unaccomplished to do's) falls on me. Before I worked at Books & Books, I loved spending the whole day reading at the Gables store, moving from the courtyard into the restaurant (in the great company of Susie Horgan's photographs) and out into the courtyard again.

Your reading habits?

Unfortunately my ideal reading experience seldom happens (it does, but only a few times a year), so I really read sitting at the Books & Books bar while having lunch (my favorite time of the day in my favorite place in the world!), in the car while waiting for my daughter to come out of after school activities, before bedtime, and as much as I can on weekends. A habit I cannot seem to break is needing to read many books at once. I'm always finding a book (or two or three or four) that I can't wait to read until after I finish the one I'm reading. I literally don't wait, I start peeking at the first pages and when I read too much, I end up having two or three started at the same time, advancing a little in each while trying to decide which one to really settle with and read first. If I just can't pick, I read two, get a third one in audio book to listen to on the way to work and back, and then plots and characters get very confusing. When my daughter asks me what we're having for dinner and I can't figure out which novel she belongs to, I know I've gone too far!

Do you prefer a book that makes you laugh or cry?

Neither really because that brings me back into reality, wakes me up, so to say. If I have to stop to dry some tears, the magic has been broken, I'm back on my couch or bed and not inside the novel; if I laugh out loud, it disrupts the silence. I like to absolutely inhabit whatever I'm reading, lose my sense of self. In terms of the emotions I like to experience while reading, I think I prefer almost crying to almost laughing. Of course, my favorite are those authors that have you on the brink of crying or gasping and then with masterful writing make you laugh instead, or vice versa.

One that teaches you something or distracts you?

More than teach me, show me, take me inside another life, its vulnerability, and have me questioning everything all over about mine when I come out again. Of course it's great to get lost in an easy read once in a while: best, healthiest escape ever!

What were your favorite books as a child?

Charlotte's Web, Little Women, Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Gone With the Wind.

Who are your favorite heroes and heroines of fiction?

La Maga and Oliveira from Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (Hopscotch) and Jaime, Marcos and Jose from Almudena Grande's Castillos de cartón.

Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, and didn’t?

Embarrassing to confess, but El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges.

Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

Posar desnuda en La Habana, by Wendy Guerra but only because it made me want to go back to the original Anais Nin's diaires. I will go back to finish it sooner rather than later.

What’s the funniest book you’ve ever read?

I really don't read for laughing, but La Tía Julia y el escribidor is the kind of funny I enjoy.

If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be?
Julio Cortázar

What would you want to know?

Nothing in particular, just being able to spend a day talking with him about literature and life, over coffee or a nice dinner as you would with one of your closest, most influential friends, would be the best treat ever.

What do you plan to read next?

The whole list? I have towers of books lying around my apartment, and except on rare occasions, have trouble deciding. So far, I've read the first pages and am dying to read: Atlas de geografía humana by Almudena Grandes, The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist by Orhan Pamuk, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Leer la mente by Jorge Volpi, Dublinesca by Enriqe Vila-Matas, Quiet by Susan Cain, Sam no es mi tío edited by Diego Fonseca. Maybe it will be one of these, or maybe I'll find five or ten more during the week at Books & Books.