An archetypal tale of self-transformation. Hesse heaps clarity upon clarity, until you actually believe you’ve grasped the secret of Enlightenment. Even so, you’ll want to go back and reread it. [New York: Bantam]

A friend of physicist Richard Feynman recounts their obsession with the Siberian country of Tuva, which started with the Tuvan postage stamps they’d collected as kids. Set in the 1980’s, the book describes how a trip to a remote part of the Soviet Union was arranged in the midst of the Cold War.

Kinski manages to slip in a few words about his acting career and personal observations, when he’s not slipping it into a friendly interviewer or flight attendant.

This story is the basis for one of my favorite movies, The Haunting (1963). An evil old house becomes the subject for a paranormal investigation. But are the ghosts in the house, or in the hearts of the visitors? Campy and scary all at the same time.

“Get us through the next few years, I say, just get us safely out of this century and into the next, and then watch what we can do.” [New York: Penguin]