5 Books: J. Ryan Stradal

Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories by Ben Katchor
Forty Stories by Donald Barthelme
Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

J. Ryan Stradal (LA, Ep. 2) lives and writes in Los Angeles, California.  His writing has appeared in Hobart, The Rattling Wall, Midwestern Gothic, The Rumpus, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Nervous Breakdown, Facsimile, The Faster Times, and The Foghorn, among other places.  He also volunteers for826LA, helps make products and materials for the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, and sometimes produces TV shows.  He likes books, root beer, wine, and peas.  

5 Books: Simone Muench

“Men, Women and Chain Saws” by Carol Clover 
“Blow-Up and other Stories" and "Hopscotch” by Julio Cortázar  
“The Palm at the End of the Mind” by Wallace Stevens
“The Voice of Robert Desnos: Selected Poems” translated by William Kulik
“Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan” translated by John Felstiner

Simone Muench (Chicago, Ep.3) is author of “The Air Lost in Breathing” (Marianne Moore Prize; Helicon Nine, 2000), “Lampblack & Ash” (Kathryn A. Morton Prize; Sarabande, 2005), “Orange Crush,” (Sarabande, 2010) and “Disappearing Address,” co-written with Philip Jenks (BlazeVOX, 2010). She is a vegetarian and horror film fan.

5 Books: David Whitehouse

“Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk” by Ben Fountain
“Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth” by Chris Ware
“The Adult” by Joe Stretch
“Busy Monsters” by William Giraldi
“The Sisters Brothers” by Patrick deWitt

David Whitehouse (London, Ep.16) is 31 and lives in London. “Bed” is his first novel. He really tries.

5 Books: Krys Lee

"The Man Who Loved Children" by Christina Stead
"Blindness" by Jose Saramago
"Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie
"The Laws of Evening: Stories" by Mary Yukari Waters
"Jesus' Son: Stories" by Denis Johnson

Krys Lee (L.A., Ep. 8) is the author of Drifting House published by Viking/Penguin in 2012. Viking will also publish her novel-in-progress in 2014. She was a finalist for Best New American Voices in 2006, received a special mention in the 2012 Pushcart Prize XXXVI, and her work has appeared in the Kenyon Review, Narrative magazine, Granta (New Voices), California Quarterly, Asia Weekly, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and Condé Nast Traveller, UK. She lives in Seoul, South Korea, with intervals in San Francisco.

5 Books: Chip Cheek

"Housekeeping" by Marilynne Robinson
"Loving" by Henry Green 
"So Long, See You Tomorrow" by William Maxwell  
"Selected Stories" by Alice Munro 
"Moby Dick" by Herman Melville 

Chip Cheek’s (Boston, Ep.8) stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Southern Review, Harvard Review, and other journals and anthologies. He has received awards from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the St. Botolph Club Foundation, teaches fiction at Grub Street in Boston, and is currently at work on a novel.