What sorts of books inspired you as a child?
I remember reading in my early teens on themes of scientific and medical discoveries, struggle and transformation (Joanne Greenberg¡¯s I Never Promised You a Rose Garden stands out), and alternative worlds (Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke) that are still important to me today. By early college, I was inspired by more existentially oriented reading such as Albert Camus (The Plague), Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead), Doris Lessing (The Golden Notebook) and Hermann Hesse (The Glass Bead Game) as I began seeking out my own direction in life.

Which books prompted you to work in religious studies?
It was not so much books as a freshman theory of religion course, coupled with the sense that studying religion addressed the big questions. Only after a year of medical school did I take up a path that allowed me to focus on the big questions.

Which books would you recommend as giving vivid insiders¡¯ accounts of particular religious or spiritual experiences?
Anthropologist Paul Stoller¡¯s Stranger in the Village of the Sick: A Memoir of Cancer, Sorcery, and Healing looks back on his time among the Songhay of Niger, his apprenticeship to a Songhay sorcerer, his study of West African traders in New York City and his immersion in the US medical system after a cancer diagnosis. During treatment, he felt the presence of his Songhay teacher, who coached him along the uncertain path to recovery. Tony Kushner¡¯s play Angels in America is a brilliant demonstration of how the appearance of angels and ghosts ¨C in this case imagined ¨C could help survivors work through loss and grief due to Aids. As many of us grieve for Hillary Clinton¡¯s loss, Kushner¡¯s complex treatment of Donald Trump¡¯s mentor Roy Cohn particularly stands out.

Your new book, Revelatory Events, explores three ¡®new spiritual paths¡¯ represented by Mormonism, Alcoholics Anonymous and A New Course in Miracles. Which texts most influenced the style of analysis you adopt?
In When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God, Tanya Luhrmann ¨C anthropologist and long-time conversation partner ¨C modelled the mix of empathy and explanation that I aimed for. My approach to the emerging spiritual paths was shaped by scholarship on early Christianity that teased apart texts to identify layers of development. Wayne Proudfoot¡¯s Religious Experience, with its insistence on the importance of both descriptive analysis and scientific explanation, influenced my decision to divide the book into two distinct parts.

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What was the last book you gave as a gift, and to whom?
Katherine Cramer¡¯s The Politics of Resentment, to my husband. We are trying to understand the presidential election.

What books do you have on your desk waiting to be read?
I¡¯ve started Richard Dawkins¡¯ The Ancestor¡¯s Tale. Next in line are Emma Donoghue¡¯s The Wonder on my Kindle and Clark Barrett¡¯s The Shape of Thought on my desk.

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Ann Taves is professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her latest book is (Princeton University Press).