NIU English professor and author of “Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America’s Garage Band,” Joe Bonomo, lists five books you should have read by now.

This is pretty tough, since my list of top five favorite books changes and rotates, but here’s this week’s list:

In no particular order:

1) “The Virgin Suicides,” Jeffrey Eugenides

A beautiful novel about the longing that pulls memory and grief into the present.

2) “Up in the Old Hotel,” Joseph Mitchell

A collection of Mitchell’s nonfiction writing for The New Yorker, and great portraits of the memorable and the marginal in mid-century New York City.

3) “The Sound and The Fury,” William Faulkner

One of the greats, a story about the decaying, but persistent nature of time and family.

4) “Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung,” Lester Bangs

A collection of the great music critic’s writing, one of the best, and funniest, books about rock ‘n’ roll as an edgy life force.

5) “Henry Huggins,” Beverly Cleary

My favorite book when I was a kid, and it still is. This is the first one in the series, where Henry finds his dog Ribsy.