FUN and GAMES recommendations:

_The Fifth Elephant_, Terry Pratchett
_Forests of the Heart_, Charles De Lint 
_Cold Shoulder_, Lynda LaPlante
David Lindsey, _Absence of Light_, _Heat From Another Sun_, _Mercy_
_All Tomorrow's Parties_, William Gibson 
_Cryptomonicon_, Neal Stephenson 
_The Poetry of Meditation_, Louis Martz
Vince Flynn, _Term Limits_, _Transfer of Power_
_The Truth Machine_, James L. Halperin 
_Hyperion_, David Simmons
_Ella Minnow Pea_, Mark Dunn

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Best Mysteries of 1998
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1998/12/24featureb.html
_While Other People Sleep_, MARCIA MULLER
_The Northbury Papers_, JOANNE DOBSON 
_The Last Manly Man_, SPARKLE HAYTER 
_The First Eagle_, TONY HILLERMAN
_Tanner on Ice_, LAWRENCE BLOCK 
_The Moor: A Mary Russell Novel_, LAURIE R. KING
_Like a Hole in the Head_, JEN BANBURY
_Gone, Baby, Gone_, DENNIS LEHANE
_When Last Seen Alive_, GAR ANTHONY HAYWOOD
_The Organ Grinders_, BILL FITZHUGH

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Recommendations for Science Fiction as Literature:
Clarke's _Childhood's End_, and a number of his early short stories might 
work well (try "The Nine Billion Names of God," for instance). And it might 
be fun to read "The Sentinel." 

In late jr. high/early high school age range, include:
Pat Franks' _Alas, Babylon_ 
Nevil Shute's _On the Beach_
Daniel Keyes' _Flowers for Algernon_
John Christopher's _White Mountains_ (trilogy)
Heinlein's "Juvenile" novels, e.g., _Red Planet_, _Citizen of the Galaxy_, 
_Starship Troopers_, _Glory Road_, _Have Spacesuit -- Will Travel_

Varley's work is rich in themes to discuss ("Press Enter" and 
"Persistence of Vision" come to mind especially), ditto Joe Haldeman

"Jupiter Novels," which is an attempt to create something like Heinlein juveniles for the current generation. _Higher Education_ by Jerry Pournelle and Charles Sheffield (?)

_The Machine Stops_, E.M. Forster
_A Boy and His Dog_, Harlan Ellison
_Passing of the Third Floor Back_, Jerome K. Jerome

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Recommendations:  
Mark Helprin, _Winter's Tale_
Melissa Scott, _Trouble and Her Friends_
Gene Wolfe, _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_ (New Sun, Long Sun, Short Sun)

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Books and Authors to read:
_The Quick and the Dead_, Joy Laurence Shames 
(crime with a comic twist and the whacky local flavor of Key West)
Jeffrey Deaver, a master of crime thrillers
Val McDermid
Junkin
O'Dell
David Foster Wallace
Jedediah Purdy
Thomas Pynchon
Tom Wolfe
Michael Thompson, _Raising Cain_

Authors that looked good in , San Diego, June 2001:
Daniel Hecht
Zoe Heller
Don Imus
Susan Howatch
Michael Kandel
Maureen Howard
James W. Huston
John Katzenbach
Tim Dorsey

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Noteworthy books read:
_Rainbow Six_, Tom Clancy, Oct. 1999
_Earthly Powers_, Anthony Burgess, Nov. 1999
_Starship Troopers_, R.A. Heinlein, June 2000
John Irving, _The Cider House Rules_ June 2000
John Irving, _A Prayer for Owen Meaney_ July 2000
_The Bear and the Dragon_, Tom Clancy, August 2000
_Mysteries of Pittsburgh_, Michael Chabon, April 2001
_Half Paradise_, James Lee Burke, July 2001

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Favorite Authors in crime fiction:
Robert B. Parker
Ross MacDonald
Elmore Leonard
Ross Thomas
James Lee Burke
Nelson DeMille

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You can print these free via Project Gutenberg
http://sailor.gutenberg.org/by-title.html
        20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
        The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 
        The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sherlock Holmes
        Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
        Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
        At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs
        A Connecticut Yankee by Mark Twain
        Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
        The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells
        Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
        From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne
        The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
        The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
        Off on a Comet by Jules Verne
        Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs
        A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
        The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
        Tom Swift & [....] by Victor Appleton 

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