Best books … chosen by Jeffery Deaver

Jeffery Deaver is the award-winning crime novelist whose eighth Lincoln Rhyme thriller, The Broken Window, was

New and Collected Poems by Richard Wilbur (Harvest, $17). The former poet laureate writes compact gems of poems. I continually return to his work as a reminder to pay attention to the musical quality of words and, most important, to be economical in my writing.

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (Signet, $10). This book tells the story of an ambitious young man’s rise and his downfall at the hands of his nature and fate. The prose can be ponderous. But you stay riveted from the very beginning, and by the time you reach the harrowing final pages, you know the young protagonist as well as you know your best friend.

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