Here's a list I posted on this board several years ago, slightly updated. I invite anyone else to share their list of favorites (or just great reads).

Mystery series (mostly light on plot, heavier on amusing characters):
-- Janet Evanovich
-- Kathleen Taylor
-- Liza Cody
-- Lindsey Davis
-- Robert Parker
-- Tony Hillerman
-- Sara Paretsky

Novels, Biographies:
-- Larry McMurtry: Last Picture Show, Texasville, Lonesome Dove
-- Mary Doria Russell: The Sparrow and its sequel, Children of God
-- Uncle Tom's Cabin: Harriet Beecher Stowe
-- Corelli's Mandolin: Louis deBernieres
-- A Civil Action: Jonathan Harr
-- A Fine Balance: Rohinton Mistry
-- The Shipping News: E. Annie Proulx
-- Smilla's Sense of Snow: Peter Hoeg
-- The Living: Annie Dillard
-- Mere Christinity: C.S. Lewis
-- A Suitable Boy: Vikram Seth
-- The Bone People: Keri Hulme
-- Truman: David McCullough
-- Remains of the Day: Kazuo Ishiguro
-- A House for Mr. Biswas: V.S. Naipaul
-- Trevanian: Shibumi, and also The Main
-- In Cold Blood: Truman Capote
-- The City of Joy: Dominique LaPierre
-- The Makioka Sisters: Junichiro Tanizaki
-- Life and Death in Shanghai: Nien Cheng (amazing autobiography)
-- John Irving: Garp, Owen Meany, Cider House Rules
-- Out of Africa: Isak Dineson
-- Midnight's Children: Salman Rushdie
-- Their Eyes Were Watching God: Zora Neale Hurston
-- Song of Solomon: Toni Morrison
-- Anne Tyler: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Accidental Tourist
-- Love Medicine: Louise Erdrich
-- The Constant Nymph: Margaret Kennedy
-- Things Fall Apart: Chinua Achebe
-- The Jewel in the Crown: Paul Scott
-- A Chain of Voices: Andre Brink
-- The Golden Notebook: Doris Lessing
-- Personal History: autobiography by Katharine Graham
-- Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein
-- A Perfect Storm: Sebastian Junger
-- Crossing to Safety: Wallace Stegner
-- House of Mirth: Edith Wharton
-- The Giant's House: Elizabeth McCracken
-- Mating: Norman Rush
-- Jim Harrison: Dalva, Sundog, Farmer (3 books I don't recall well, but liked)
-- The Joy Luck Club: Amy Tan
-- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole: Sue Townsend
-- The War: Marguerite Duras
-- My Antonia: Willa Cather
-- Ragtime: E. L. Doctorow
-- Annie John: Jamaica Kinkaid
-- Barbara Pym novels
-- Traveling Mercies: Annie Lamott
-- The Price of a Dream and How to Change the World by David Bornstein
-- Blindness: Jose Saramago
-- Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West: Gregory Maguire
-- Memoirs of a Geisha: Arthur Golden