Photo: J Muckle/Studio D

A Dance to the Music of Time
By Anthony Powell

"When Gene Norris, my former English teacher, was dying, I started this 12-volume opus. I had bought it years before but never gotten to it," Conroy says. "On the days that Gene went to chemotherapy, I'd read to him. Powell's magnificent books let us talk to each other about life and death and love."

Conroy's next pick: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell