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The classic children's show Captain Kangaroo aired on TV for nearly 30 years, starting in 1955. After its creator and star, Bob Keeshan, died in 2004, his estate donated a few of his beloved hand puppets to the Smithsonian.

But if you're like me and grew up in the 1960's and '70s, you have hazy memories of Captain Kangaroo telling stories, drawing pictures and palling around with a whole cast of sidekicks, including the bespectacled Mr. Bunny Rabbit, a dancing bear, farmhand Mr. Green Jeans and Mister Moose, who told corny jokes and made ping pong balls rain down on the Captain's noggin. And all of them are due to be auctioned off this Tuesday in Los Angeles.

In Elliott Holt's beautifully subtle debut novel You Are One of Them, the protagonist, an American in her 20s, moves to Moscow shortly after the Cold War. After a few months, she returns to the U.S. a changed woman.

Holt, who is 39, also lived in Moscow where she worked as a copywriter at an advertising agency as well as in London and New York. Currently, she resides in Washington, D.C. and writes full time.

I asked Holt to make a list of her favorite books about living abroad and then called her to interview her about her choices. We spoke about what it's like to be in your 20s, how Lolita is more than just a surprisingly sympathetic account of a pedophile, and why expat stories are the most classic stories of all.

The first book I wanted to ask you about is Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner [a novel about an American poet in Madrid].

Elliot Holt's Favorite 6 Books About Expatriates

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald

Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner

Mating by Norman Rush

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

"I hate to say this — it's a blast. It's kind of a Catch-22 now because, you know, since The Da Vinci Code I have access to places and people that I didn't have access to before, so that's a lot of fun for somebody like me. But I'm always trying to keep a secret. I don't want people to know what I'm writing about, so that's, I often end up asking — half the questions I ask are about something totally unrelated, and half of the places I go see are unrelated, just trying to keep people off the track of what I'm writing about."

On creating Inferno's villain, "evil genius" Bertrand Zobist

"In any novel, you would hope that the hero has someone to push back against ... I find the most interesting villains [are] those who do the right things for the wrong reasons, or the wrong things for the right reasons — either one is interesting. I love the gray area between right and wrong. Here is somebody who says we have an enormous population problem on this planet and everybody's turning a blind eye, and there are no simple solutions, but there is a solution. And while it's terrifying, maybe there's a silver lining to it. Maybe he's actually the good guy in all this."

On his place in today's world of literature

"You know, it's funny, I don't know where I would place myself in the literary landscape. I really just write the book that I would want to read. I put on the blinders, and I really — it is, for me, that simple. I'm somebody who likes codes and ciphers and chases and artwork and architecture, and all the things you find in a Robert Langdon thriller."

Read an excerpt of Inferno

If you're a homeless young adult, chances are good that you're gay, bisexual or transgender. And if you live in the Detroit area, the Ruth Ellis Center is trying to reach you. The center, based in Highland Park, Mich., has taken an unorthodox approach to helping homeless LGBT youth — and it starts on the dance floor, specifically with the dance form known as "vogue."

"It's all about your wrists and your imagination," says 21-year-old dancer Donnie Dawson. "You just have to make sure your hands are coordinated with your imagination."

Donnie, a regular at the Ruth Ellis Center, advises that you pretend you're holding a basketball, then mime with your hands the circular shape of the ball. Vogue dancing is sort of like break dancing meets ballet. But if you need a quick reference, think of Madonna's 1990 hit "Vogue" in which she sings about a dance form created by poor and working-class blacks and Latinos in New York City's gay community in the '60s and '70s. Today, vogue is still all about flipping, dipping and catwalking; it's acrobatic, sexual and at times very feminine in its movements.

See The Ruth Ellis Center's Dancers In Action