Jillian

In the Country of Men
by Hisham Matar
Shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, Hisham Matar's debut novel takes place in Libya, ten years after Qaddafi's revolution in 1969. It tells the story of nine-year-old Suleiman, as he struggles to comprehend the world around him. It is a place where men who speak out are hauled from their homes and denounced as traitors and counterrevolutionaries. Public executions are broadcast live as crowds cheer wildly for more. This is a gracefully written book that deals with relationships between people in intimate, realistic, and often tenderhearted ways as their emotions are pulled taut by repression, fear, and hatred.

The Aeneid
by Virgil
trans. by Robert Fagles
Princeton scholar Robert Fagles has produced a breathtaking rendition of Virgil's Rhe Aeneid, describing the legendary origin of the Roman nation, and of the Trojan prince Aeneas, who, along with his companions, abandon Troy to its doom. They make sail for Italy, stopping at Carthage and even traveling through the very depths of hell.
With Fagles's use of modern verse, the story loses none of its brilliance, intensity, or passion. He has successfully translated The Aeneid for a modern reader who may have a limited grasp of Latin, or has newly discovered the classics.

Perfume
by Patrick Suskind
Abandoned by his mother, despised by the wet nurses who tended to him, Jean-Babtiste Genouille was brought up at the Cloister of Saint-Merri with no posession other than an exraordinary sense of smell. Years pass, when one day, while out for a walk he catches hint of the most exquisite scent...following it leads him down a path to murder...

The Twelve Caesars
by Suetonius (trans. by Robert Graves)
I read The Twelve Caesars as a compainion to Robert Graves's I, Claudius. Suetonius's writings on the Caesars are brief but informative, often mixed with the authors quirky dry humor. It's a wonderful reference to open again and again.

Martin Dressler
by Steven Millhauser
Martin Dressler is a man of vision.
The story begins with him as a young boy working alongside his father in his family owned cigar shop at the tail-end of the 19th Century. As the years pass, he moves on to build grand hotels—one more exquisite than the last— experiencing along the way many hardships, loves, successes and failure. This book draws you into one man's personal dream.
A sheer delight.

I, Claudius
by Robert Graves
Robert Graves tells the story of Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus based off of his own translation of Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars. It is a first person narrative being the first of Graves's two-part account of Claudius's early life and reluctant rise to Emperor of Rome (later deified). Gripping and informative, often times humorus, I, Claudius is still one of my favorite books and a perfect choice for those who enjoy historical novels.