•  About Grace (2004) is Doerr’s first novel, which tells the story of a man whose dreams foretell the future and who attempts to avert the fruition of a dream about the death by drowning of his infant daughter. Readers who enjoy The Shell Collector: Stories will enjoy how Doerr handles this Cassandra theme with a twist.

•  Caldecott Medal winner Snowflake Bentley (2004), by Jacqueline Briggs and illustrated by Mary Azarian, tells the story of the photographer Wilson Bentley, who set out to record snowflakes on film. One of Doerr’s science heroes, Bentley had an interest in the fine details of the natural world that is similar to Doerr’s own.

•  The eight stories in the National Book Award winner Ship Fever (1996), by Andrea Barrett, tell stories that braid...