The Desperate Housewives star likes tea in bed with family sagas, a zippy mystery, a monk's meditations, and a child-rearing playbook.

People think my life must be much different since Desperate Housewives went on the air. Actually, it's very much the same: I still drive to work, go to the farmers' market, and hang out at home. And I still have to read before I go to sleep. The truth is, my only hobby is reading in bed with tea. I come by it naturally—reading in bed is one of my mother's favorite pastimes, too.

One of my earliest memories is of crawling in bed with her in the middle of the night. In the morning, she'd sit up, have her coffee, and read. So I'd have some of her coffee and read, too. I'm the youngest of eight children—I think she was too tired to get up right away.

These days I go on grazing trips to bookstores. I'll read almost any genre, though I do have one criterion for books: They have to somehow, somewhere hit a sweet spot of truth.

What's on Felicity Huffman's Bookshelf? Read more!