Dennis Smith

Buy San Francisco Is Burning at Amazon

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Vintage, $15). Better than any other book, Crime and Punishment convinces the reader of time and place at every turn. And after we’ve followed the murderer Raskolnikov through torment, guilt, and exasperation, we feel as if every synapse of his mind has been revealed.

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Downtown by Pete Hamill (Back Bay, $15). I have lived in New York all of my life, and until I read Hamill’s book, thought I knew as much as I needed to know in order to love every line in the sidewalks. But then Downtown brought me into the hallways, the lobbies, and the alleyways, and into the minds of some of the greatest New Yorkers. It’s a learning experience on the way to true love.

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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (Modern Library, $10). This is still the only book I know that illustrates successfully how a society changes little by little until it becomes thoroughly corrupt and falls apart. Plus, Gibbon is a writer’s historian, up there with Dante and Shakespeare.

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Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (Scribner, $14). I knew Angela McCourt. She was a wonderful woman, as filled with charm and wit as her son Frank is with intelligence and talent. Frank’s acclaimed memoir is a book about voice, and all English teachers in the world should memorize every page. But, indeed, everyone should read this book: It will make you laugh.

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Little Chapel on the River by Gwendolyn Bounds (Morrow, $24). As clean a book about small-town American life as I have read, better than Winesburg, Ohio. This new ode to a pub is a beautifully told tale that shows how people come to know one another—talking, laughing, and learning.

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Christianity and Culture