Author Miranda Cowley Heller shares her favorite books

Ever wonder what your favorite celebrities are reading — whether it’s a timeless classic or the buzzy bestseller they can’t put down? Welcome to Page-Turners, where stars reveal the books that keep them hooked, inspired and up all night. Warning: your TBR pile is about to get a lot longer.

Bestselling author Miranda Cowley Heller loves “good old-fashioned storytelling” and getting lost in a good book.

“For me, a great novel — the kind that takes you on a journey, that you sink into and can’t put down — is like a delicious meal… a perfect swim in the sea… a breathtaking view from a mountaintop,” the “Paper Palace” author tells Page Six.

She adds there’s no better feeling than getting lost in a story for hours.

Heller — whose new book of poems, “What the Deep Water Knows,” came out Tuesday — tells us how one summer when she was 11 years old, she read 42 books.

“I devoured everything from ‘The Wolves of Willoughby Chase’ to ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’” she recalls. “It was one of the most wonderful summers of my life – every day I could be in a new and foreign world. Books are and were magic.”

Still thinking about her perfect summer, she explains, “There’s something so romantic about books – just you and the pages lying in a hammock, or under a tree, or in front of a fire.”

See below for Heller’s must-read book recommendations.

“This is one of the most beautifully written novels I have ever read. It is the story of fraternal twins growing up in India, and the mystery that both binds and separates them. Roy’s writing is so luscious and original that you have to stop and read lines out loud to whoever is sitting next to you. I find her writing astonishing and inspiring.”

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“The ultimate romance novel, with a wicked and acute dose of social commentary. But it also speaks volumes about the women of that period and class, unable to work to support themselves, and the constraints, sacrifices, and fears that come with utter dependence.”

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“I fell in love with this trilogy on an eight-hour bus ride when I was 12 years old. My father ran into a bookstore on Harvard Square and shoved the first volume into my hands as I boarded. When I looked up, I had reached my destination. I would argue that it is actually one of the great war novels. But it is also a sweeping historical novel – but of a world that existed only in the mind of its creator.”

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“I’m enormously proud of this collection. I wrote poetry long before I ever started writing ‘The Paper Palace,’ and much of it has found its voice in this collection that traces the evolution of a woman’s life from childhood through marriage, motherhood, heartbreak, divorce, into a place of independence and self-knowledge.”

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“There are lessons in this ‘children’s’ book that I can come back to year after year. I’m a huge reader and re-reader of my favorite childhood novels, but ‘The Secret Garden’ is one that transcends the genre with its wisdom and clarity.”

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“It’s hard to be shocked by a plot twist these days, but this novel blew me away on every level – it lulls you with the quiet, lyrical beauty of its words and then slams you awake with its raw passion and rage. I was utterly mesmerized.”

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