Recommendations, anonymous and otherwise:

These books are recommended by Alan Furst, who writes
historical espionage novels that move within the period
from 1933 (the ascent of Hitler) to 1944 (the end of war
in Europe, more or less):

Babi Yar by Anatoli Kuznetsov
Flight Without End by Joseph Roth
A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
Journey to the End of the Night by Celine

http://www.salon.com/books/bag/2001/02/16/furst/index.html

[WPH note:] I have read the Ambler with great enjoyment 
and thus would be inclined to trust Furst's judgment.  
And his review is good enough writing I'd like to read 
some of Furst's own  novels as well.

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Anon:  
Neil Gaiman is a personal favorite of mine.  Check out his books 
"Neverwhere" and "Stardust", they're both very fantasy-oriented 
stories, very character driven.  For a a good laugh, check out 
"Good Omens", which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, and had me 
ROLLING on the floor.  Also I would be remiss if I did not mention 
his work on DC Comics' "Sandman", a book he wrote for 75 issues, 
which are compiled into trade paperbacks.  It's truly the comic 
book as literature.  Enjoy!

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Bruce Robison:
_Wolf Whistle_, the widely-acclaimed 1993 novel of St. Andrew's 
own widely-acclaimed, prize-winning novelist Lewis "Buddy" Nordan, 
will be the featured "St. Andrew's Summer Book" for Summer, 2001.  

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20 of the best in contemporary lit
http://contemporarylit.about.com/arts/contemporarylit/library/bltopten.htm

John Edgar Wideman, _Philadelphia Fire_
Caryl Phillips, _Crossing the River_ 
Alice Walker, _The Color Purple_
Gayl Jones, _Corregidora_
John Updike, _Rabbit Run_
Tom Wolfe, _A Man In Full_
Salman Rushdie, _Midnight's Children_
Jhumpa Lahiri, _Interpreter of Maladies_
Tim O'Brien, _The Things They Carried_
Mark Bowden, _Blackhawk Down_
Joyce Carol Oates, _We Were The Mulvaneys_, _Heat and Other Stories_
Toni Morrison, _Beloved_
Charles Johnson, _Middle Passage_
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, _One Hundred Years of Solitude_
Isabel Allende, _Daughter of Fortune_
Louise Erdrich, _Love Medicine_
Sherman Alexie, _Smoke Signals_
Raymond Carver, _Where I'm Calling From_
Richard Ford, _Rock Springs_

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