Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the United States: “A Rebours (Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans. A classic of French decadent literature, the narrative focuses on an aesthete’s attempt to escape from bourgeois society into an ideal world of exotic cultivations such as a garden of poisonous flowers.”
Andrew Grossman, author of Lost Sky: “Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield—an absorbing and inspirational retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae by the only survivor.”
Jonathan Tropper, author of This Is Where I Leave You: “Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan. This still ranks as one of the oddest and funniest books I’ve ever read.”
Ben Cheever, author of The Plagiarist: “Heretics by G.K. Chesterton. We’re disappointed, according to Chesterton, because we can’t make sense of life, and—worse yet—we’ve stopped trying.”
