In no particular order:

Anything ever written by Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Tan, David Sedaris and Douglas Adams. I am also very fond of Bill Holm’s poetry.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: one of the most artful authors I’ve read

The Lost World and Prey by Michael Crichton

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt — Avoid if you are depressive

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom — Avoid this one too if you are depressive

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus (I met this author in the public library of a little town in rural France–very interesting guy!)

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway — a classic

Te-Tao Ching by Lao-Tzu — to be read with The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Mothers: A Collection of Short Stories (yes, I wrote the review on Amazon!)

Spring Moon by Bette Bao Lord

Life of Pi by Yann Martel