To see Isabeau Levito light up on the ice is to understand how passionate the 16-year-old is about figure skating.
But get her off of the ice itself and there's only one other thing she has the same fervor for as she does skating: reading.
Lots and lots (and lots) of reading.
"The fact that you can live a hundred, a thousand, a million different lives in your lifetime through reading," Levito explains. "For me, it's like a guide. There are always things you can take out of books."
Levito reads when she travels, sometimes packing as many as 10 books on a trip. Recently she finished an entire book on a flight – with two hours to spare.
She likes to read before bed. And her shelves are full of books by female authors, which she says is no coincidence.
"Maybe it says something ... maybe it doesn't," Levito says about her propensity for female authors, laughing. "I have very few books on my shelves written by men."
In an exclusive interview, Levito walked Fan Zone through a list of her favorite recent reads, detailing just what about the works of fiction pulled her in.
All the Bright Places
By Jennifer Niven
"I read this at Junior Worlds. I absolutely love the dynamic between the main characters. I love the Finch and how he's an unreliable, unstable narrator. And I loved how heart-wrenching it was at the end."
Six of Crows
By Leigh Bardugo
"Just amazing found family in high fantasy. I love that. I love [the main characters] Inej and Kaz Bekker. I know all the book girlies love Kaz. Wylan and Jesper are so funny, and Nina is such a girl boss."
Where the Crawdads Sing
By Delia Owens
"I really resonated with the trauma. People find the beginning part of the book slow, but that's just because if you don't connect with the trauma that this girl went through then it's going to feel slow. And I loved it."
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
By Taylor Jenkins Reid
"This is the first book that I read that really got me into reading. It's about this woman Evelyn Hugo who wants to be a famous movie star in LA and does everything she [could] to become a star. Now, maybe she manipulates some people, maybe she's a girl boss at heart, but it was so amazing and ... she's a girl boss. Absolute girl boss."
If He Had Been with Me
By Laura Nowlin
"Heart-wrenching; I loved this. Everyone in the book community has read this. It's a young adult sad book. It's about this relationship where they are fiends and then there is this falling out. He dies and then somehow you forget about it as the book goes on. I loved the aesthetic of the book, as well."
Finlay Donovan is Killing It
By Elle Gosimano
"Oh my gosh this is so funny. Usually my five-star books are the ones that I can relate to or that have a deeper meaning. But this one was just funny – really funny. She's a murder mystery writer and she's at a Panera's talking about what her next book is going to be about and someone overhears her and thinks that she's an assassin. So they try to hire her and she kind of can't say no because they've given her the money and she's scared they're trying to get her. I love the relationship between her and her nanny."
Mary Jane
By Jessica Anya Blau
"Oh my goodness. This is a coming-of-age book. I really loved it. It's about this girl Mary Jane who lives in a very conservative town. She nannies for this family and she sees all these things that she's not used to: The house is a mess; everyone is also dancing around – eating whenever, having fun. It's this internal conflict between believing her family values or seeing how they live a happier life."
Convenience Store Woman
By Sayaka Murata
"This is such a short book but a good book. It's about this woman who works at a convenience store part-time in college to make extra money. It's 20 years after she graduates and she's still working there with no career and no significant other. Everyone around her is like, 'What are you doing with your life?' She lives, eats, breathes the store; the convenient store is her life. But it's truly what makes her happy. It makes me think about everything that I do is so that I can skate well. For her, it's a convenience store."
