James Davis, rare books librarian: “The Club...

James Davis, rare books librarian: “The Club Dumas” by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Harcourt Brace).

“Bibliographic information that may or may not be correct, various red herrings and the anticipation of seeing how Perez-Reverte will pull these elements together make ‘The Club Dumas’ a terrific read. I’m anxious to get to the end but really don’t want to.”

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Lewis Teague, director: “Master and Commander” by Patrick O’Brian (W.W. Norton).

“I inherited a love of the sea from my father, who turned me on to the Jack Aubrey series about the British Navy in the 18th century. ‘Master and Commander’ is perhaps the best sea story ever written.”

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Jim Newman, radio-television broadcaster: “The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert N. McCormick” by Richard Norton Smith (Houghton Mifflin).

“McCormick was the curmudgeonly owner of the Chicago Tribune. Unlike today’s homogeneous editorial opinion, the Colonel always stood out. He’s a great American character.”

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Amy Gerstler, poet: “The Selected Letters of James Thurber” edited by Helen Thurber and Edward Weeks (Little, Brown).

“Thurber was a very funny letter writer, and this is one of the best, most cheering books I’ve read in a long time.”