An eclectic list of works that influenced, intrigued and entertained our guests.

There is something special about works I can read in full on a rainy Sunday afternoon or in the lamplight hours between supper and bedtime.

Writing from Taiwan, she shaped her readers’ idea of romantic love with a raft of best sellers, many adapted for the screen. Newborns were named after her characters.

What happens if half the population is no longer involved in reading and writing?

Shanghai straddles the past and the future, a dizzying prism of many histories and cultures. The poet Sally Wen Mao shares books that illuminate this cosmopolitan city.