{"id":75342,"date":"2025-10-15T03:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T03:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/75342\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T03:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T03:30:10","slug":"author-stephanie-lacava-shares-her-favorite-cinematic-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/75342\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Stephanie LaCava Shares Her Favorite Cinematic Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you’re looking to get lost in a book, sometimes you need your reading material to match your mood. With Marie Claire’s series “Buy the Book<\/a>,” we do the heavy lifting for you. We’re offering curated, highly specific recommendations for whatever you’re looking for\u2014whether you’re in your feels or hooked on a subgenre trending on #BookTok.<\/p>\n

In this author-curated rendition, Stephanie LaCava<\/a>\u2014the founder of the independent Small Press<\/a> and author of I Fear My Pain Interests You<\/a> and The Superrationals<\/a>\u2014shares her favorite cinematic books.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One word often attached to Stephanie LaCava<\/a>\u2019s writing? \u201cCinematic.\u201d Known for her vivid storytelling and larger-than-life characters, LaCava’s new novel, Nymph<\/a> (out October 14), marks the final chapter of what she deems her \u201ctroubled young girl<\/a>\u201d trilogy.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Over email, LaCava explains to Marie Claire that she’s interested in exploring characters who \u201care lost and unable to tap into their intuition because they are so saturated with media or the contemporary world.\u201d She says, \u201cThis is the \u2018young girl\u2019 I write about. She\u2019s feral, but numbed by forces she can\u2019t figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nymph centers on a 20-something who wears multiple hats\u2014linguist, student, model, sex worker, but mostly assassin, having come from a family of spies. Her fatalism and tendency to avoid romantic love are made complicated when she\u2019s pulled back into her family\u2019s line of work and reconnects with someone from her father\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Nymph\"\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Verso Fiction<\/p>\n

‘Nymph’ by Stephanie LaCava<\/p>\n

Though LaCava didn\u2019t watch any movies<\/a> for inspiration while writing Nymph, the cinephile (who\u2019s made a short<\/a> herself) cites Chantal Akerman\u2019s Les Rendezvous d\u2019Anna<\/a> and Abel Ferrara\u2019s New Rose Hotel <\/a>as films she \u201clogged through [her] life\u201d and returned to while working on the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cNymph seems like it\u2019s about a lot of things\u2014absence, detachment\u2014but it was originally conceived as a way of saying, \u2018Hey, that thing you felt was real. You\u2019re not wrong. It may not live now in the 3D, but don\u2019t lose faith,\u2019\u201d the writer and Small Press founder says. \u201cI think at first take, it might seem like the book is about the people who come into our lives and don\u2019t stay, but I think it\u2019s the opposite. It\u2019s about the undeniable human need for connection and the rare magic when it finds into you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.<\/p>\n

To learn more about LaCava\u2019s taste, we asked her to curate a list of her favorite cinematic books\u2014from nonfiction works about Hollywood love stories<\/a> and novels adapted for the screen to moving collections.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Bogie\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Bogie & Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood’s Greatest Love Affair’ by William J. Mann<\/p>\n

“When I\u2019m working on writing fiction<\/a>, I like to read biographies or scripts. I have a weakness for non-fiction love stories<\/a>. That\u2019s a funny way of referring to a researched book, but how much can we ever know about the truth within two other people\u2019s relationship?”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘The Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler<\/p>\n

“Of course, this is the iconic novel adapted for Bogie and Bacall\u2019s legendary<\/a> 1946 movie<\/a> of the same name. Set in gritty 1930s Los Angeles, it\u2019s also Chandler\u2019s first novel and the introduction of detective Philip Marlowe. I read that director Howard Hawks (some say Bogart) found a problem with the plot during filming and Chandler admitted he didn\u2019t have an answer.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Burning\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Burning Chrome’ by William Gibson<\/p>\n

“A 1986 collection of speculative fiction writer William Gibson<\/a>. It includes ‘New Rose Hotel,’ the short story turned into a film<\/a> of the same name in 1988. Set in a dystopian future of mega conglomerates, it’s a ‘new’ take on the time-honored mess of two troubled agents and a beautiful woman.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Six\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Six Films’ by Marguerite Duras and translated by Olivia Baes and Emma Ramadan<\/p>\n

“An experimental writing project by French filmmaker and novelist Marguerite Duras. It isn\u2019t a script or a novel, rather a fresh text that pulls from the author’s existing written works\u2014Le navire Night<\/a>, C\u00e9sar\u00e9e, Les Mains N\u00e9gatives, and Aur\u00e9lia Steiner, Aur\u00e9lia Steiner, Aur\u00e9lia Steiner.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Pornocracy\"\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Pornocracy’ by Catherine Breillat and translated by Paul Buck and Catherine Petit<\/p>\n

“Filmmaker and novelist Catherine Breillat chose to access the story behind her 2004 movie Anatomy of Hell<\/a> through novel form rather than a screenplay. It is about a woman who encounters a man at a gay nightclub, and the intimate nights thereafter.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Darkness\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Darkness Spoken: the Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann’ by Ingeborg Bachmann and translated by Peter Filkins <\/p>\n

“A massive English-language volume with 129 poems (25 never before published) by the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann. It includes new insights from the translator who is also at work on a biography about the legendary poet and novelist.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Liberty\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Liberty Bar’ by Georges Simenon and translated by
\nDavid Watson<\/p>\n

“This is one of nearly 75 novels following a French detective named Inspector Maigret. The 17th in the series, it opens in the South of France, and follows Maigret as he tries to figure out what happened to sometime sheep rancher, William Brown.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Manchette's\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Manchette’s Fatale’ by Fatale by Jean Patrick Machette translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith<\/p>\n

“I haven\u2019t read this yet, but it is by my bedside. It tells the story of a cold female assassin with nods to various genres. The bleakness and commentary sound eerily similar to Nymph.”<\/p>\n