You don't have to be a fan of Garrison Keillor to appreciate his taste in poetry. This collection has introduced me to so many talented poets I would have likely never encountered. These aren't "the classics" and may not even be the "best poems." But they are good--good for your soul.

"The truth, the truth! Who even knows what is the truth?" My favorite line from one of my favorite books. I've read only one other Styron (Lie Down in Darkness) but this one must be his best. If you've only seen the movie, you're missing so much of the story.

This is a very readable, mostly useful summary of lots of random bits of advice about writing from many famous writers. It's fun to read but after you've finished, you're thinking "What did I just read?" The weight of all the advice and all the writers and all the topics collapses by the end. I've revisited it a few times but find it less and less useful.

This is a dark book, weighted by story after story of atrocity and more atrocity, both systemic and specific, about the struggle to suppress, control, and extinguish any hope in the African-Americans who were born in Mississippi in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is exhausting to read--so many numbers. So many killings, lynchings, missing persons. I finished it, but the cost was knowing how my home state had transgressed again and again.

As I write this review, I'm working on my first long work of fiction. I'm not writing a thesis. But this book has helped me so much. Eco writes with humor and clarity and (rare in my experience) practicality. His recommendations are based in an age of paper and typewriters and note cards, but the wisdom behind his ideas is clear. This small volume is a useful as any writing advice I've ever read.

So many baseball-loving readers describe this one as the gold standard for baseball fiction. I love the subject (Christy Matthewson) and setting (early 20th century New York) but just couldn't finish the book. I really really wanted to like it.

The first story was my first Alice Munro and, well, I couldn't stop reading after that, not for a while anyway. I've read two of her collections and almost every story is a gem.

If you have half a heart or even a whole one, this story will break it. These poor boys gave their lives for men and women they never knew and many born. This account is not dry history--it comes alive with blood and tears and intrigue.

I used to play tabletop baseball games (like APBA and Strat-o-matic) so a friend told me that this was the book for me. Well, not exactly. It's interesting but it turns. It turns hard. It lost me. But the prose is beautiful and the world is built so, so thoroughly well. Read it for the first few chapters alone.

If you want to give Modiano a try, start here, or perhaps with Dora Bruder. Those two books are almost two sides of the same coin, fiction here and non-fiction with Dora. Dip into the first chapter--you'll know by Chapter Two that Modiano can evoke a slippery, elusive melancholy like no one else.

I'm a long time Faulkner fan and this is my second favorite of his books, but the one I recommend to anyone who hasn't tried him. It's his shortest novel but probably as enjoyable as his greatest (to me).