The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
By Melissa Bank

The background: A collection of linked stories, Girls' Guide follows mischievous and daring Jane through the different relationships she chooses to lose herself in at particular moments in her life.

Why she chose it: This is not some deep, probing, Anna Karenina type of novel—it's a nice, cozy, girlfriend book. I read it at a time when I was working really hard and felt really young. I was shooting Felicity in Los Angeles, and I did not have a ritual girl group. I was missing that so much. Now, living in New York, I have that, but I used this book to surround myself with all those great smart-aleck, empathetic feminine voices at a time when I needed them.