The Reading List: This Edition Compiled at Hale House's 40th Anniversary Benefit

We scoped the crowd at Hale House's 40th anniversary benefit last night to find out what the charitable-minded are reading now. For people united by Hale House's mission -- to provide subsidized daycare to children from the age of 6 weeks to 5 years -- their taste in books is diverse.

"Sag Harbor" by Colson Whitehead. "It's a great book, about African American kids living in a duality -- going to private schools in Manhattan during the school year, and spending summers together in Sag Harbor."
-- Hale House's executive director, Randolph McLaughlin

"How It Ended" by Jay McInerney
--Valesca Guerrand-Hermès, Hale House chairman's council

Thich Nhat Hanh's "Peace Is Every Step." "I'm a Buddhist."
--Janice Innis-Thompson, Hale House board member; svp, chief compliance officer, TIAA-CREF

"Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster" by Dana Thomas. "It's where we are right now. When things are bad, you go back to basics and that's not a bad thing."
--Frederick Anderson, Hale House chairman's council, business (and romantic) partner of women's clothing designer Douglas Hannant

"Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts. "It's about an ex-con in Australia who works for the mafia. It's a true story."
--Vanessa von Bismarck, event chair

The Collected Stories of Dorothy Parker
--Dany Levy, Daily Candy founder

"The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund" by Jill Kargman. "It's wonderful."
--Alison Aston

"Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout, this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. "It's one of the best books I've read." Also: "White Oleander" by Janet Fitch, "about foster care."
--Rita Zimmer, Hale House board member; executive director, Housing Plus Solutions, which creates supportive housing to help parents reunite with their children

Stephen Hawking. "Studying quantum physics and economics are my hobbies."
--Edward Tricomi, hair stylist and founder, Warren Tricomi salons

"I'm reading about Lily Dale, a Spiritualist colony in upstate New York." --Hunt Slonem, artist

"Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl. "It's about a girl with an eccentric professor father who travels all the time. It's over 500 pages. It has a mystery element, and lots of film and literary references which become leitmotifs for different chapters."
--Melissa Berkelhammer

"I can't wait to buy the new James Patterson. I'm going to read it on the beach this weekend." -- Lisa Anastos

"My Horizontal Night: A Collection of One-Night Stands" by Chelsea Handler. "It's hilarious. I was reading it on my flight back from L.A., and I was laughing so hard, the guy sitting next to me thought I was crying."
--Laura Offenhauer, a jewelry marketer; her friend, Francesca Madeo has already read the book, and won one of the raffle prizes at the event: a painting of a bunny by Hunt Slonem

(Read our last reading list from the NYPL Spring Luncheon here).