Here are mine (subject to change at any moment):
I'm not going into classic literature because I can't pick among so many.
There are an awful lot of runners-up in those categories, but right this minute that's who I'd pick. How about you?
Just finished reading 2/3 of a trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (SciFi). "Forty Signs of Rain" knocked my socks off, "Fifty Degrees Below Zero" left me wanting more, and I'm agitating for my town library to get copies of the just-released "Sixty Days and Counting." The subject is global warming, the writing is tight and knowledgeable. I give it a ten on a ten-point scale.
Posted by: terryinaz at March 22, 2007 03:17 PMMy favorite list varies depending on my mood, but Rex Stout is always well up there. Other good mystery writers: Dorothy Sayers. Josephine Tey - "The Singing Sands" is a masterpiece. And a new favorite: Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series - start with "The Beekeeper's Apprentice."
Fantasy: Ursula Leguin. Patricia McKillip. Some Anne McCaffrey.
I have to be in the mood for science fiction, I'm not sure I have a favorite.
I don't normally read thrillers, but I did read "Cryptonomicon." Believe it or not, what you really get from that is a whacking good World War II adventure story.
I should read history and biography (I did read "The Guns of August", you're right about Tuchman), but I don't much...
Posted by: hedera at March 25, 2007 06:31 PM