 | Maia by Richard George Adams
Buy used from: $2.00 One of the best fantasy novels ever written. A great epic. Adams is also the author of "Watership Down," "The Girl in a Swing," and "The Plague Dogs."
|
 | The Martian Chronicles (The Grand Master Editions) by Ray Bradbury
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 One of the best by the master. Great short stories that can be read separately, but in total make up a novel.
|
 | The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
Buy new: $8.60 / Used from: $1.43 The quintessential NOIR novel. Tough and hard boiled. Superb.
|
 | The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $1.57 Another great NOIR masterpiece. Captures the "cynical private eye" better than anything I know.
|
 | Persuader (Jack Reacher, No. 7) by Lee Child
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Lee's Jack Reacher is a great, vivid character. Hard to pick the best, but this one is pretty representative.
|
 | Tell No One by Harlan Coben
Buy used from: $0.01 One of the better "page-turner" authors out there! I like the stand-alones the best.
|
 | The Lincoln Lawyer: A Novel by Michael Connelly
Buy used from: $0.01 It's hard to pick Connelly's best. I'll go with one of the more recent, his first legal thriller. But there are many in his catalog that are terrific.
|
 | The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
Buy new: $9.86 / Used from: $2.69 My favorite science fiction writer. Many great ones, but this one stands out in my mind as truly memorable. A total mind f**k!
|
 | From Russia with Love (James Bond Novels) by Ian Fleming
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $2.00 Well, duh. Fleming is the best. And FRWL is my favorite of all his works. A masterpiece of Cold War spy fiction.
|
 | The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman
Buy new: $13.59 / Used from: $6.99 Gaiman writes real novels, too, but his "Sandman" graphic novel/comic series elevates the medium to quality literary status. This volume is my favorite of the series. Brilliant.
|
 | What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 I've always liked her books, but this recent one in particular really impressed me.
|
 | Vanish (Jane Rizzoli, Book 5) by Tess Gerritsen
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Hard to pick my favorite Tess book. This one stayed with me. The earlier medical thrillers are all great, too.
|
 | Replay by Ken Grimwood
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $2.94 This is the only book I've read by Grimwood and it's one of my favorite novels of all time. On the strength of this book alone, he's one of my favorite writers. I've "replayed" it several times!
|
 | The Rainmaker by John Grisham
Buy new: $11.20 / Used from: $3.50 What else can one say about the master of the legal thriller? Among many great books, this one is probably my favorite.
|
 | The Quiet Game by Greg Iles
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $0.01 This guy is terrific! Every book is a little different, but this one is arguably his best.
|
 | The Cider House Rules by John Irving
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $0.01 My favorite writer of quirky yet sensitive portrayals of Life As We Know It.
|
 | The Shining by Stephen King
Buy new: $11.70 / Used from: $2.50 The best storyteller of our generation. When he's at his best, he can really scare you. And this one still does.
|
 | Kiss (87th Precinct Mysteries) by Ed McBain
Buy used from: $0.01 Oh my gosh, how do you pick a favorite among THIS guy's zillion books? (He also wrote under his real name, Evan Hunter.) I pulled this one out of a hat.
|
 | Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Although I actually prefer his contemporary modern life novels such as "The Last Picture Show" and "Terms of Endearment," this western is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.
|
 | A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell
Buy new: $10.21 / Used from: $1.93 Rendell is my favorite living writer, period. (She also writes as Barbara Vine.) Complex, psychological mysteries. Simply amazing. And this one really is the best.
|
 | The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Buy new: $10.07 / Used from: $4.60 Why did this guy write so little? A true enigma, but a genius. Not much else to say!
|
 | Winter Prey by John Sandford
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $0.01 Hard to pick a favorite, but this one stands out in my mind. The "prey" series just goes on and on...
|
 | The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
Buy new: $9.86 / Used from: $4.33 You can't get much more nihilistic and hard-boiled than this. Thompson was a master of pulp fiction.
|
 | J.R.R. Tolkien Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Buy new: $19.77 / Used from: $7.50 Okay, on the basis of the trilogy and the prequel alone, Tolkien is one of the masters.
|
 | The Time Machine (Signet Classics) by H.G. Wells
Buy new: $3.95 / Used from: $0.94 One of the fathers of science fiction, Wells can't be beat for that Victorian/early 20th century speculative stuff.
|
Listmania!
