Laura Collins-Hughes Book Recommendations & Book Mentions
This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.
Laura Collins-Hughes on X
Laura Collins-Hughes is an arts journalist. Freelance arts journalist, mostly theater. • I didn’t write the headline. • laura.collinshughes@gmail.com

Mona Acts Out
Mischa Berlinski
Psychologically acute, Shakespeare-steeped tale ... Berlinski has an intricate understanding of the dynamics of predation, the psyches of performers and the culture of theater, particularly the grittier, convention-trampling downtown variety.
Hardcover, 2025
$27.99$13.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Trouble In Mind
John Holt
Costumes I’ll miss when they go away on Sunday: Every single thing LaChanze wears in “Trouble in Mind” (by Emilio Sosa) Arica Jackson’s Washing Machine bubbles; Nasia Thomas, Nya, and Harper Miles’s Radio glam; and N’Kenge’s Moon radiance in “Caroline, or Change” (by Fly Davis)
Paperback, 2015
$4.88$2.44 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation
Hannah Gadsby
Still in the midst of Hannah Gadsby’s “Ten Steps to Nanette,” but: She takes such care to write with both clarity and compassion about the people she loves, her mother in particular. So many memoirists strafe at will. Gadsby models a more thoughtful way.
Out of stock

Change
Mo Yan
Costumes I’ll miss when they go away on Sunday: Every single thing LaChanze wears in “Trouble in Mind” (by Emilio Sosa) Arica Jackson’s Washing Machine bubbles; Nasia Thomas, Nya, and Harper Miles’s Radio glam; and N’Kenge’s Moon radiance in “Caroline, or Change” (by Fly Davis)
Paperback, 2013
$12.95$6.47 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
Taylor Mac
So, so puzzled that Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, which is doing Taylor Mac’s “Gary,” isn’t screaming Mac’s name from its “Gary” sign on Route 6, in front of all those cars en route to P-town, full of people who love Mac but don’t recognize the title of that play.
Paperback, 2022
$16.95$8.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Romantic Comedy: Reese's Book Club
Curtis Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld’s new novel “Romantic Comedy” is delicious. Like, make-me-stay-up-crazy-late-reading-two-nights-in-a-row delicious.
Hardcover, 2023
$28.00$14.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Jack Was Kind
Tracy Thorne
Very glad to see Tracy Thorne’s “Jack Was Kind,” which was so unsettling online, getting its stage premiere next month at Irish Rep.
Paperback, 2021
$13.95$6.97 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell
Intriguing take on “Hamnet” from Susannah Clapp. “Not since ‘Matilda’ has there been such a female-centred production at the RSC. Rarely has there been a drama that looked so firmly into the 21st century without losing the S in RSC.” https://t.co/0KUFWw6VKV
Paperback, 2021
$18.00$9.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
We Play Ourselves
Jen Silverman
Reading Jen Silverman’s “We Play Ourselves,” I keep having to stop, shut the book and sit just looking at it because it is so good. So wise about theater, women, artists, intimacy, failure, infamy. And rage.
Paperback, 2022
$18.00$9.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook
Joanne M. Braxton
On a new stage adaptation of Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”https://t.co/2kpfrKWN3b
Paperback, 1999
$83.00$58.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book(max discount $25)