Recommended Reading | Greg Fields

Every reader has his or her own preferences. Style, genre, approach, and all the other nameless, atmospheric qualities that create a book create a blend that we all interpret according to our own tastes.

But because you’re reading this you have some affinity, or at least some curiosity, about the things I write. Writers are readers, too, and each of us is shaped by the words and works of all the other authors we’ve encountered. I’m happy to share the books that have been part of my own journey, as well as new books that are fresh, original, and wroth a read.

Prince of Tides

Pat Conroy
The most influential writer of my generation, Pat’s lyrical, intense examination of the pieces of who we are and how we are made have inspired countless other writers, myself included.

Prince of Tides - The greatest work of my generation’s greatest author

Beach Music

Pat Conroy
Storytelling at its finest, with incredible poignancy.

My Reading Life

Pat Conroy
In this nonfiction work, Pat tells the stories that shaped his life as a writer. Brilliant, clever, and a guide for anyone crossing the bridge from reality to fiction.

Four Letters of Love

Niall Williams
In my mind Niall is the Irish Pat Conroy. His works soar quietly and intently, exploring themes of love, the intersection of experience and wisdom, and the mysticism that shows itself in daily life.

As it is in Heaven

Niall Willaims

History of the Rain

Niall Williams

This Is Happiness

Niall Williams
His latest, published just this year.

Look Homeward, Angel

Thomas Wolfe

Of Time and the River

Thomas Wolfe

Field Blends

Andrew Welch
Brilliant debut novel - An intense, intelligent, lyrical narrative of characters searching for relevance in a changing society.

Here They Come

Scott Porter
Here They Come - A taut drama set in the Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s, and reflective of the cost of ethnic war on those caught in the crossfire.

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Sharon Krasny
A fictionalized account of the life of Otzi, who lived 2000 years ago and whose frozen body was discovered in the Austrian Alps in the early 1990s. Accurate and compelling.

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James Ballard
A war doesn’t end when the shooting stops. One man’s journey through Vietnam, and his quest to find a place for himself in the aftermath.

Have Snakes, Need Birds

Travis Klempan
Imaginative and well written, Klempan introduces a dose of the metaphysical into a tale of the Iraq War and those who fought it.

A lyrical tale of the relationship between an introverted teacher and an Italian musician

We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling.

Wolfe's first novel - a sprawling, overwritten, brilliant and beautiful paean to youth and promise.

Unaderappreciated for its classical approach to an individual's quest for purpose and belonging.