Since you started me thinking about other things I'd recommend, and since you said you read a wide range, I had a good nostalgic wallow and thought I'd put some things here. Some of these I've mentioned before on Book Club, and some not. Here's hoping you'll see something that's new to you that you might like to sample. (I don't know how this board handles a long post, so I may cut it into "replies". We shall see.)
Historical
The most literate author I’ve ever read, and my all-time “most favorite read” is the late Dorothy Dunnett. She writes highly complex, utterly fascinating, intelligent characters and plots -- immensely satisfying to read, but neither light nor simple. I’ve never run across anyone else who writes anything remotely similar to Dunnett.)
The Lymond Chronicles (main character Francis Crawford, Master of Lymond)
(Begins in Edinburgh in 1547 and ranges from Scotland and England to France, Malta, Turkey, and the Russia of Ivan the Terrible)
01 Game of Kings
02 Queen's Play
03 Disorderly Knights
04 Pawn in Frankincense
05 Ringed Castle
06 Checkmate
Dorothy Dunnett -- King Hereafter (a stand-alone book, not part of a series)
(Set in 11th century Britain as the Viking era gave way to the Christian. Thorfinn of the Orkneys takes the Christian name of Macbeth in Scotland. Like her other books, filled with politics, religion, and history of the times as well as amazing characters.)
Dorothy Dunnett - The House of Niccolo series (kind of a prequel to The Lymond Chronicles, but written after she completed the Lymond series)
(Begins in 1459 in the Duchy of Burgundy and the Italian States)
01 Niccolo Rising
02 Spring of the Ram
03 Race of Scorpions
04 Scales of Gold
05 Unicorn Hunt
06 To Lie with Lions
07 Caprice and Rondo
08 Gemini
Dorothy Dunnett also wrote a series of mysteries featuring the portrait painter Johnson Johnson who is a British Secret Service agent. The books had different titles in the United States like “Murder in the Round” but in Britain they all (except the last one) had “Dolly” in the title -- which is the name of Johnson Johnson’s yacht. The “Bird” in each case is a woman who is the viewpoint character. There’s no just accounting for the title of the last one except a fit of insanity in the publishing house.
Dorothy Dunnett - The Dolly Series -- mysteries featuring “Johnson Johnson”
01 Dolly and the Bird Of Paradise
02 Dolly and the Singing Bird
02 Dolly and the Singing Bird
03 Dolly and the Cookie Bird
04 Dolly and the Doctor Bird
05 Dolly and the Starry Bird
06 Dolly and the Nanny Bird
07 Send a Fax to the Kasbah
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Science Fiction - I prefer the “fantasy” end of the spectrum to the “hard science” end of the field. I have enough “reality” to deal with. At one time I read a lot of science fiction mainly because I couldn’t find anything that engaged my brain in mainstream fiction.
J. R. R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers,
The Return of the King). The Hobbit is a “prequel” to the Trilogy, but is a much lighter book. If all you know are the movie versions with their monsters and battle sequences, you have no idea of the power of the worlds that Tokien built. He started with an interest in languages, and every time I reread the books I am in awe all over again of what he accomplished.
Lois McMaster Bujold -- the Miles Vorkosigan Books.
Another complex and fascinating main character is Miles Vorkosigan. The first book I read by Bujold in 1986 was a three-in-one called Vorkosigan’s Game put out by the science fiction book club. Then I found Shards of Honor and Barrayar which are about Miles’ parents, who are strong, intriguing characters in their own right and worthy of their own series of books. The series has continued, along with other good books by Bujold, who is still writing today. These books are entertaining but not as deep as the others above.
Other Science Fiction writers I enjoy:
Barbara Hambly - Antryg Windrose Series (Silent Tower, Silicon Mage, Dog Wizard). Antryg is a wizard who encounters the first female computer systems analyst I ever ran across in fiction. Hambly also writes a non-sci-fi series I admire, mentioned below in a later section.
Robin Hobb - Ship of Magic, Mad Ship, Ship of Destiny. Hobb writes other science fiction books, but these three are my favorites. One criteria for well-done books is whether the characters change (for better or for worse) in the course of the story. In these books, ALL of the characters change, even the ships themselves.
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Non-Fiction -- (I’m listing these categories somewhat in the order they’re filed on my bookshelves.)
Edward Abbey - Desert Solitaire -- I stumbled across this book in the gift shop in The Arches National Park in Utah and picked it up because it was about a park ranger who spent a winter alone in the wild country around The Arches before it became a Park. It only took a few pages before I realized this was no “ordinary” nature-trek-camper but instead was a first-class intelligence at work in the book’s pages. He talked about people being afraid of that awe-inspiring country because of its “implacable indifference.”
Dervla Murphy - Eight Feet in the Andes -- Murphy is an Irish travel writer. This was the first book of hers I read, (probably the first she wrote) and it describes a journey she took across the Andes, following the route of the Conquistadores, with only her eight-year-old daughter and a mule. I was stunned that anyone could even contemplate doing such a thing in such remote country all alone, much less with a young child. She has continued to make similar stunning journeys over the years, now with a granddaughter, and although some of her later books express strong political opinions about the areas she chooses (like Through the Embers of Chaos), it’s enlightening to hear political views from a perspective outside the USA.
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Humor
We both mentioned British author Terry Pratchett as the co-author of Good Omens. His books about the Discworld began with Rincewind the Wizard and his Luggage in:
01 The Colour of Magic
02 Light Fantastic
03 Equal Rites
04 Mort
and have evolved over the years into something which isn’t exactly satire or parody but more an alternative look at society, politics, religion (Small Gods) and technology. The same sense of humor (and of the ridiculous) that made Good Omens such a treat runs through all of his books. Guards, Guards, for example, is “in honor of all of those unnamed people who died while rushing to aid in the first reel of the movie. Nobody ever asked them if they wanted to.”
Begin with the first book and work your way through the series. Characters and institutions recur, and soon become eccentric friends you look forward to encountering again -- like Lord Vetinari (“What part of absolute despot did you not understand?”). Note: Pratchett also writes some children’s books and a few others which aren’t part of the Discworld series -- check in the front of recent books for a list of which is what.
P. G. Wodehouse -- another British social-strata humorist. His Jeeves and Wooster books are only the beginning. Not as satirical as Pratchett, Wodehouse delights in his eccentrics and their goofball social situations with the affection you reserve for your own slightly odd relatives. Light-hearted, easy-to-read fun when you want stress relief.
Patrick McManus -- An American writer makes the cut. McManus wrote a series of humorous columns for one of the outdoor magazines, but you don’t have to enjoy either hunting or fishing to laugh out loud at the self-deprecating stories of his adventures, along with his dog Strange, his sister "The Trol!", his mentor and favorite old-man woodsman, Rancid Crabtree, and his lifelong friend Retch Sweeney. The columns are collected in book form, and some of the titles are:
A Fine and Pleasant Misery
Never Sniff a Gift Fish
The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw
Real Ponies Don't Go Oink
In the last few years, McManus had also been writing the Sheriff Bo Tully Mysteries, set in Blight County, Idaho, which have the same type of humor.
01 The Blight Way
02 Avalanche
03 Double-Jack Murders
04 Huckleberry Murders
05 Tamarack Murders
06 Circles in the Snow
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Mysteries
There was a time when I never read “mysteries” because I thought they were all of the “blood and guts” “hard-boiled detective” “shoot first and ask questions later” school of literature. My first exposure to something else was one of the D!ck Francis books with a steeplechase background. My first reaction was similar to my encounter with Edward Abbey -- a former jockey writes with this kind of STYLE? Wow! In all of these listed, it’s the strength of the writing, the depth of the characters, and the power of the setting that keep me reading, not the mysteries as such.
D!ck Francis -- periodically I go back and re-read everyone one of his books just for the pleasure of his writing style. Nobody does understatement better than Francis, and it really doesn’t matter whether you’re a horse lover or whether you care anything about the world of racing.
Barbara Hambly - the Benjamin January Books, beginning with A Free Man of Color. In New Orleans before the Civil War, January is a former slave, trained as a doctor in France, who returns to Louisiana to be near his family after the death of his wife. Again, it’s the characters, the setting, and the immersion in a whole different way of living, more than the mysteries themselves, that make these books so exquisite. (I also mentioned Hambly’s science fiction above. She is an amazingly versatile author.)
Tony Hillerman - the Leaphorn and Chee novels, about the Navajo Tribal Police and the Four Corners country. It’s a glimpse of a way of life I had never encountered. The series begins with The Blessing Way.
Dana Stabenow -- her Kate Shugak mysteries do for life in remote modern Alaska what Hillerman did for Navajo country. Kate Shugak, an Aleut Indian, is a terrific character surrounded by equally vivid supporting characters, including wild Alaska itself. The series begins with A Cold Day for Murder.
Craig Johnson - The Sheriff Walt Longmire Mysteries, a modern-day Western set in Wyoming next to the Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Intelligent characters with a moral center -- rare on both counts! The TV series on A&E does a good job of capturing the flavor of the books without necessarily following the stories.
Martha Grimes is an American author who writes British mysteries about Richard Jury of Scotland Yard. He is an island of normality, totally surrounded by those who are richly quirky, right down to the supporting dogs, cats, and children. Grimes’ book titles are wonderfully strange: The Anodyne Necklace, I Am the Only Running Footman, The Five Bells and Bladebone, The Grave Maurice -- all are the names of pubs. She has written 22 Jury books so far, plus a smaller series about a vivid young girl named Emma Graham (01 End of the Pier, 02 Hotel Paradise, 03 Cold Flat Junction, 04 Belle Ruin, and 05 Fadeaway Girl) who reminds me a lot of Flavia de Luce in Alan Bradley’s books which began with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
There are also two books (Biting the Moon and Dakota) set in Santa Fe, where we reconnect with Mary Dark Hope, an intriguing fourteen-year-old girl who has a pet coyote who was in one of the Richard Jury mysteries when he ventured into the US.
The Martha Grimes stories are less rich than the other books mentioned above, but are worthwhile when you’re looking for “something different” that’s still a good read. The characters go on living in your head long after you finish the book.
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Other Characters I’m Fond Of:
Mary Stewart -- her early books of what were known as “Romantic Suspense” have stood the test of time and good reading. The Ivy Tree is still my all-time favorite book about an “assumed identity impersonation.” Her later books weren’t as good, but I still enjoy rereading these early ones:
This Rough Magic, The Moon Spinners, Airs Above The Ground, Wildfire At Midnight, Madam, Will You Talk, My Brother Michael, Nine Coaches Waiting, Thunder On The Right
Also, I’ve always liked retellings of the Arthurian Legend. These are my two favorites:
Mary Stewart -- 01 Crystal Cave, 02 Hollow Hills, 03 Last Enchantment, 04 The Wick'd Day. Her version gave me a whole new concept of Merlin the first time I encountered her books. (There were three words in this post the computer censor objected to -- the first name of author D. Francis and the "W" word here -- don't know why.)
Jack Whyte - Camulod Chronicles -- This version is how the story might really have happened. And I still have vivid impressions of the characters long after my first reading -- one of my own personal tests for my “Classics List” (never mind what might be on the “official” lists!).
01 Skystone
02 Singing Sword
03 Eagles' Brood
04 Saxon Shore
05 Fort At River's Bend
06 Sorcerer: Metamorphosis
07 Uther
08 Lance Thrower
09 Eagle
C. S. Forester -- The Horatio Hornblower Books. I have no particular interest in naval history or sea battles, but I thoroughly enjoyed the books and the intelligence of Horatio Hornblower. I missed associating him when I ran out of books.
Patrick O’Brian’s books are still on my “get around to one of these days” list. I thought the movie version was pretty dreadful, but I still want to see how the characters hold up to Hornblower’s standard.
Unclassifiable, but on my list of “classics” is Stephen Vincent Benet’s “poem-as-novel” John Brown’s Body. Years after my first reading, the wry reactions of the shattered Black Horse Troop still live in my brain. Here’s a sample of the part about the worth of their Confederate currency:
“That you can use for a trouser’s patch
Or lighting a fire, if you’ve got a match,
Or making a bunny a paper collar,
(Or most anything else, except a dollar)
And finally, to finish, the most recent addition to my personal classics list, that I read just this year. It is an altogether charming small book, in spite of its awkward title -- not much on plot but truly wonderful in memorable characters, including the setting and the time, when the whole vast area overseen by one priest in the Southwest was in transition between Mexico and the United States: Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop.
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My list runs a lot to a series of books. Given a choice, I'll pick a big fat book over a short one every time because if the author is good, I get to spend a lot of time in that world with those characters. A series gives me a super-long book to enjoy.
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Enough already -- probably w-a-y MORE than enough!
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