By Henry James
224 pages; Oxford University Press, USA
Available at: Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

A lover of James's layered prose, Holmes says she was moved by this 1880 tale of a difficult father-daughter relationship. "I didn't see myself in any of the characters in particular," she says, "but I loved the setting and the way James writes about people." The very busy actor also appreciated the book's relatively short length. "I do most of my reading in bursts, at night after everyone's asleep."

— As told to Abbe Wright