Eat, Drink, Read: The Only Reading List Compiled Exclusively at Cocktail Parties Hits the New York Public Library's Spring Luncheon

Loans at the New York Public Library are up 17%, which means more than ever, we need recommendations for what to read next. And where better to solicit them than from the parties attracting the well-bred and well-read? So at the library’s Spring Luncheon yesterday, I asked guests, What are you reading now?

ABBY MILSTEIN, lawyer, New York Public Library trustee: “The White Tiger” by Aravind Agida, on my Kindle. It’s a good book to read while traveling. It’s written in the first person by a cab driver in Bangladesh. It’s all about his takes on modern India, his two takes, the light and the dark. He’s a humorous and insightful, though completely uneducated, narrator, who’s decided to write a letter to the premier of China to prepare him for his visit to India.

CHRISTINE SCHWARZMAN, whose husband Stephen Schwarzman donated $100 million to the New York Public Library: “Russell Brand’s book, “My Booky Wook.” It’s a riot, very silly. These days I like my reading light.”

CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG, author, “The Polar Express”: “The Lost City of Z” by David Grann. It’s about an eccentric and larger than life British explorer who made his career exploring the Amazon. He was determined to find this city. He plunged into the Amazon and never returned. The writer follows the path of the parties that tried to find him.

MARIAN HEISKELL, chairwoman, National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy; aunt of the publisher of The New York Times: The Times’ book on Obama [“Obama: The Historic Journey”].

MARILYN FRIEDMAN, design historian, president, New York Service for the Handicapped: “Lords of Finance” by Liaquat Ahamed. He's actually a good friend of ours, but the book stands on its own. It's a fascinating study of the causes of the Great Depression, with valuable lessons for us at this very moment in time. I'm working on a book about high style in interior design during the Depression so Liaquat's book was good background.

GILLIAN MINITER, executive vice president, Women’s Committee of Central Park Conservancy: “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit” by Lucette Lagnado.

ELI EVANS, historian: “An American Experience: Adeline Moses Loeb and Her Early American Jewish Ancestors” by John Loeb Jr. It’s about the Moses family, and it goes back to 1750. It’s a miracle the story has survived. I wrote the introduction and it will be published on May 5.

ALICE TISCH, co-chairwoman, New York Public Library President’s Council: I just finished Alison Lurie’s “Foreign Affairs.” I love that book. It’s good, light fun.

AMABEL JAMES, chairwoman, the Graduate Center Foundation Board of Trustees: “My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness” by Adina Hoffman. It’s a biography of a Palestinian poet. It’s a very moving story about the Middle East that makes you feel, Why are there so many problems there?

CALVIN TRILLIN, writer: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz.

ELYSE NEWHOUSE, mom: “The Abstinence Teacher” by Tom Perrotta — my son has reached that age where I need to teach him about abstinence.

ANN TENENBAUM, chairman, Film Society at Lincoln Center: “The Brothers Karamazov.”