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MIDDLEMARCH by George Eliot -Donna Morrissey

If there's anyone out there who hasn't read Middlemarch, please, start marching–straight to your nearest second hand store and swipe it off the shelf–yup, for two bucks •

THE SAVAGE GIRL by Alex Shakar -Henry Presente

The Savage Girl is a savage beast of a book. It's hard not to be torn to the ground by Alex Shakar's raging animal of a novel. It is the thematic sequel to his first widely published foray into fiction •

ITALIAN DAYS by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison -Karl Iagnemma

To call Barbara Grizzuti Harrison's Italian Days a travel book is to diminish it, by lumping it with so many went-there-saw-that narratives that feel like little more than dandified Fodor's guides •

PLANT LIFE by Pamela Duncan -Lynn Pruett

It is rare that a talent as fine as Pamela Duncan's illuminates working-class lives. Plant Life, her second novel, is a refreshing portrayal of women who work in the Revel textile mill in Russell, North Carolina ...more

ANTARCTICA by Claire Keegan -Michael Lowenthal

Last summer I had the privilege of staying at the Hawthornden Castle Retreat for Writers in Scotland. Hawthornden is owned by Mrs. Drue Heinz, the publisher of The Paris Review, and the castle's library includes the back issues of that venerable journal •

ROBERT WALSER -Kevin Canty

Pedestrian is an odd word. We don't mean anything kind when we apply it to someone. Pedestrian crossings slow us down in our exciting automotive adventures. Pedestrian movies, pedestrian meals, pedestrian conversation are all odious ...more

OPEN DOORS by Leonardo Sciascia -Peter Orner

I'd like to recommend the novella “Death and the Knight” by the Italian novelist Leonardo Sciascia. It appears in a book of Sciascia's novellas called Open Doors •

Michael Byers and THE COAST OF GOOD INTENTIONS -Roy Parvin

By all rights, I should have come to know of Michael Byers sooner. Both of us in the mid-nineties had a story within the covers of the same anthology •

TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis -Tom Franklin

A novel one shouldn't ever read in the middle of trying to write a novel is Charles Portis's True Grit. Over the last four years I've been struggling to complete my first novel, Hell at the Breech, and made the above mistake •

THREE AUSTRALIAN NOVELISTS -Sabina Murray

As of late, I have found myself wanting a book full of outlaws who terrorize the (corrupt/tyrannical/despotic) powers that be. Perhaps I'm not the only reader in this disposition. With this in mind, I have three books to recommend, all Australian ...more