An award-winning author with four titles and two film credits under her belt, Ruth Ozeki’s greatest talent may be her ability to ask the right questions. Her fifth novel, "The Book of Form and Emptiness," demonstrates that her inquisitive side is still on point.

The Book of Form and Emptiness, by Ruth Ozeki560 pagesVIKING

“I’m fascinated by subjective experiences, by unshared experiences,” Ozeki says. “Is something real because it's externally verifiable, or is it real because I felt it and heard it? What do we think about subjectivity? In the world that we live in now, if (an experience) can’t be empirically verified and counted as a data point then it's not real. But I don't believe that.”