“Almost no rock, leaf or cubic foot of air on Earth has escaped our clumsy signature” writes Nathaniel Rich in his celebrated new essay collection, Second Nature, in which he explores humanity’s relationship with nature, and the sometimes extraordinary passion and purpose people bring to the battle to preserve what remains. The American novelist and essayist is also the author of Losing Earth: A Recent History, as well as the novels King Zeno, Odds Against Tomorrow, and The Mayor's Tongue. The son of writers Frank Rich and Alex Witchel, Rich cites Martin Amis, J. G. Ballard, and Margaret Atwood among his favorite writers, but for this list he chose to stick to books that illuminate the complexity of our relationship to the natural world. In a summer season that has seen unparalleled temperatures in Canada and parts of the western United States, the message of these ten books could hardly feel more urgent.

Nathaniel Rich'S FAVORITE BOOKS

“My mother was a French teacher, so literature was very important to the family,” says Francois Ozon, the acclaimed film director behind such contemporary classics as 8 Women and Swimming Pool. The director, who in 2002 adapted one of his favorite novels - Elizabeth Taylor’s Angel - describes his childhood reading as a way to understand the world. “I was so curious as a young child, and I was a dreamer, and books were a way to discover the other side of my reality,” he says. “It’s like finding the secret behind the door. My problem with literature now is that I’m always thinking as a director, so when I read a book I’m viewing it through a director’s prism: would it make a good movie? When I was young and only dreaming of becoming a director I could be fully lost in a book.” Ozon's latest movie, Summer of '85, is currently on general release. Below are Francois Ozon's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Francois Ozon'S FAVORITE BOOKS

As a young playwright, Jon Robin Baitz, who was born in Los Angeles but grew up in part in South Africa, established his reputation with a series of witty, literary, acutely-observed plays including The Film Society (1988) and The Substance of Fire (1992). He was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his semi-autobiographical play, A Fair Country,  and again in 2011 for his family reunion drama, Other Desert Cities.  Widely associated with the ABC series Brothers & Sisters, which he created and produced for two seasons (before departing over creative differences), Baitz has a rare ability to tell it as he sees it. His columns for HuffPost in its formative years remain fresh and pertinent today. “Our mainstream culture encourages an anodyne internal shut-off of the heart, and of the senses by which we see and hear that which is real, that which matters,” he wrote in 2009. “You have to be outraged in order to be an American, and you have to be hopeful, and work hard to make this country better, or it is not going to survive.” Of the books that have left their imprimatur on his life, he says, "My list has been Hollywood/male/monster-centric, but these are part of my subject, and what I know. My list of the unread is shameful, but starts with Memories of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar and maybe I get to  Emile Zola’s The Belly of Paris. I know books will save us, because they are saving me yet again. They can save almost, almost anyone, or at least, a small tribe that was blessed with a love for them." Below are Jon Robin Baitz's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set

Jon Robin Baitz'S FAVORITE BOOKS

After emigrating from Vietnam with his parents as a child, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer and its upcoming sequel The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen spent hours immersed at the local public library in rural Pennsylvania, where his family was relocated. "I vividly remember Curious George, Tintin, Encyclopedia Brown and the Hardy Boys," Nguyen recalls. Now, as a father to Ellison, 7, and Simone, 1, Nguyen is revisiting both the classics he remembers from his youth and books he overlooked. "I remember not being attracted to books like Madeline, Babar and Where the Wild Things Are " he says, "whereas I find them more interesting now. Many of these books bear the marks of their time, for good and bad, and I do read some of them with Ellison and try to contextualize them if necessary."  His daughter Simone, meanwhile "can almost say 'book' and has her own library, which she loves to delve into. She picks out favorite books, holds them on her lap, and turns the pages. I’m happy that I’ve developed a culture of reading for them." Though Nguyen is predictably busy as a novelist, the critic-at-large at The Los Angeles Times and a professor of English at the University of Southern California, he makes sure to involve himself in the literary world of his children too. "Although I have a limited interest in the children’s versions of superhero stories that my son loves. But his passion for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, The Bad Guys, Hilo, and Dogman have brought those books to me, which I think are great. I wish I had had them when I was a kid. They’re great stories and they don’t come with the racial and colonial baggage of the books I had. I’m looking forward to the young adult world of literature that he’ll expose me to." Below are Viet's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Viet Thanh Nguyen'S FAVORITE BOOKS

“I think bad writing is essential,” Avni Doshi told The Rumpus. “Bad writing is the most important thing for learning how to write.” It took eight drafts before Doshi felt ready to publish her debut novel, Burnt Sugar, but the revisions paid off: the book landed on the 2020 Booker Prize shortlist. Built around a knotty mother-daughter relationship in Pune, India, the book has earned plaudits for Doshi’s refusal to sugarcoat her protagonist, making her challenging to like. "I wanted to push boundaries," she has said. "If that ends up feeling destabilizing for the reader, that’s okay." Born in New Jersey, Avni Doshi moved to India, after completing an MA in London, to curate, and write about, South Asian contemporary art. It was there in 2012 that she wrote what would become the first draft of Burnt Sugar, winning the Tibor Jones South Asia prize for an unpublished manuscript and, with it, an agent. Check out draft number 8, which has just been published stateside by The Overlook Press, available here. Below are Avni Doshi's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Avni Doshi'S FAVORITE BOOKS