Aisha Muharrar is an Emmy Award-winning writer and co-executive producer of HBO’s “Hacks,” and she wrote for the series “Parks and Recreation” and “The Good Place.” She’s a resident of Los Angeles, and “Loved One” is her debut novel.
Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?
Yes! It was probably around the time I was eight years old. “The Fairy Rebel” by Lynne Reid Banks. When I was a kid, I checked it out of the library. I loved the mix of magic and the ordinary. And I don’t remember which book made me feel this way, but I remember standing in the young readers section and thinking, “Books make me feel less alone. I want to do that. I want to be a writer.” Maybe it was “The Fairy Rebel” because literature felt like magic to me. There was some unknown alchemy to writing a book and bringing a reader into an imagined world that felt real. I wanted to learn how to do that.
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Q. What’s a memorable book experience – good or bad – you’re willing to share?
In college, I rushed to the bookstore minutes before it closed to get a copy of “London Is the Best City in America” by Laura Dave. I’d just had a breakup, and when I read about the book, I thought: This will heal me.
I might as well have been yelling, “Make way! It’s a literary emergency!” It didn’t completely heal me, only time was able to do that, but honestly, it helped.
Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?
“High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby; “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo; “Him Her Him Again The End of Him” by Patricia Marx
Q. Do you have a favorite bookstore or bookstore experience?
I love Chevalier’s in L.A.
Q. Are you someone who must finish every book you start – or is it OK to put down the ones you don’t connect with?
It’s OK to put down a book! You must! And sometimes you’re not even putting it down forever. I’ve found my way back to books. Something I wasn’t interested in becomes one of my favorite books! It has more to do with my frame of mind than the book. But I’m always glad I didn’t force it. Like any other relationship, timing is everything.
Q. Can you recall a book that felt like it was written with you in mind?
“Sorrow and Bliss,” by Meg Mason. That book feels like it was written specifically about this one character and this one character alone AND also for everyone.
Q. Do you have any favorite book covers?
Yaa Gyasi’s “Homegoing.” I usually don’t read historical fiction, but I think Yaa Gyasi is a genius. She pulled me in.
Q. Is there a genre or type of book you read the most – and what would you like to read more of?
I read literary fiction, but I’m starting to get more into nonfiction, specifically investigative journalism. I read two of Patrick Radden Keefe’s books at the beginning of the year. They were the most engrossing nonfiction works I’ve read in years.
Q. Do you have a favorite book or books?
“The Color Purple” is a perfect book. “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin and “High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby are personal favorites. I love all of Lorrie Moore’s short story collections. I have the big orange paperback book that includes all of them. It’s a treasured possession.
Q. Do you have a favorite character or quote from a book?
“But people can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, any more than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away, and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.” – James Baldwin, “Giovanni’s Room”
“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.” – Jane Austen, “Emma”
Q. What are you reading now?
“Father Figure” by Emma Forrest
Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?
My mother. She took me to the library every single weekend and some weekdays. Our home was filled with books.
Q. What do you find the most appealing in a book: the plot, the language, the cover, a recommendation? Do you have any examples?
Oh, it depends! On one hand, a book needs more than plot for me. On the other hand, sometimes I’ve picked up a book because the language captured my attention, but then the author loses me after page five, and I realize the language is an ornamental crutch, like throwing truffles over a hamburger. Yes, these truffles look very fancy, but this is just a hamburger, right? Did you even bother putting cheese on this or making it appealing in any other way?
Katie Kitamura‘s novels, for me, hit all three: plot, language, and a striking cover.
I find character and voice pull me into a book. Elizabeth Strout and Ann Patchett both do this so well. Their books begin, and whether it’s first-person narration or third-person following a character, I’m immediately immersed. If a character feels like a real person on the page and I want to know more about this person, that’s the most appealing.
Q. What’s something – a fact, a bit of dialogue or something else – that has stayed with you from a recent reading?
Chuck Klosterman, “The Nineties.” He asks the reader to guess who was the biggest recording artist of the 1990s. It was Garth Brooks! I wasn’t expecting that. I’ve shared it with a few friends and they were also surprised.
Q. Is there a book that tapped into an emotion you didn’t expect?
“Evening,” by Susan Minot. Regret and acceptance perfectly intersect in this novel. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more bittersweet reading experience. For most of the book, you feel like someone has placed a tiny shard of glass in your heart.
Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?
I’m always underlining my favorite parts in books. I’d love to know what readers underlined in “Loved One.”
Originally Published: August 25, 2025 at 3:59 PM PDT