READING L.A.

Patty Cunha, co-owner-director, Oakdale School:

“You Can’t Go Home Again,” by Thomas Wolfe (Perennial/Harper & Row).

“I am thoroughly enjoying it despite the small type and the lengthy, intense stream-of-consciousness passages. I find the writing beautiful. It reads like an autobiography.”

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Joan Weinstein, program officer, Getty grant program, J.P. Getty Trust:

“Gauguin’s Skirt,” by Stephen F. Eisenman (Thames & Hudson).

“Unlike most accounts of Gauguin’s lurid existence in Tahiti, Eisenman offers not only a rich view of the complexity of avant-garde artistic identity but of fin de siecle Tahitian culture as well. And the book has marvelous photographs.”

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Paul Strand, associate pastor, St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church:

“Right Ho, Jeeves,” by P.G. Wodehouse (Penguin).

“When the difficult realities of life overwhelm me, religion helps, but nothing lifts my spirits as much as P.G. Wodehouse. The exchanges between blustering Bertie Wooster and his manservant Jeeves are endlessly entertaining.”

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Tatiana Erbstoesser, seventh grade, Carden Hall School:

“To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee (Warner Books).

“I like its morals. It says that life isn’t always fair, which is kind of sad because an innocent man is convicted by a prejudiced jury and is killed. It’s also about growing up; Dill is a lot like me. He’s 9 and is kind of adventuresome.”