READING L.A.

Samantha Mathis, actress:

“The Mao Game,” by Joshua Miller (HarperCollins).

“The Mao game is played in Chinese prisons; the rules are determined daily by the guards, and in Miller’s novel, it’s a brilliant metaphor for the disintegration of a young man’s life, surrounded by an ailing grandmother, an eccentric mom, an abusive father and a wild young stripper.”

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Fred Barton, robot designer and producer:

“Inside Star Trek: The Real Story,” by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman (Simon and Schuster).

“Solow and Justman have provided readers with an honest unromanticized retrospective of a ‘60s television phenomenon.”

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Alison Sowden, museum administrator:

“Under the Tuscan Sun,” by Frances Mayes (Broadway Books).

“In this story of her renovation of a Tuscan villa, Mayes communicates her delight in the rich history of Tuscany and her relish for Tuscan cuisine. Read this book with a glass of Italian wine and bruschetta, and you’ll feel like you have taken a vacation there.”

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Maureen McGovern, actress-singer:

“Black and Blue,” by Anna Quindlen (Random House).

“For years, Anna Quindlen’s columns were marked by clarity, heartbreaking humanity and humor. In her novel “Black and Blue,” she brilliantly writes of an abused wife who struggles to put together the fragments of her psyche for herself and her son.”