This is really tough,

The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menard

JK Rowlings she has a very readable style,

Christine Feehan vampire series

Katherine Mansfield

Anthony Alpers bio on KM

Hofstadter (sp) physics books

Stephen Hawkings

Noam Chomsky

Frank Herbert

Anne McCaffrey (sp)

Ann Rice vampire series only

Gerard Manly Hopkins

Marge Piercy

Marge Piercy (Poetry)

Orson Scott Card

Gordon R. Dickson

Alan Moore

Neil Gaiman (Graphic Novels)

Satrapi (Comic Novels)

Guy Delisle

Stephen Vaughn

Terry Pratchett

Leslie Fiedler is a must read for Literary Criticism

and Alone Alone! by Rosemary Dinage is an astute grouping of essays about Female Artists (Katherine Mansfield is included as well as Virginia Woolf)

There was a history book I read recently (last year) that I cannot remember the Title or Author of, but it reinserted Americans (now called American Indians) into American History as it was. Also dealt with poor southerners, but I can't remember the name. It was around the time Guns, Germs and Steel came out.

Unfortunately, I could go on and on and on with this list, so much of it depends on what I'm reading at the time.

Will add one more that will probably get some flack but Ken Wilbur. I just think he's interesting. Although I think his philosophy could also take into account need of population in an agragarian and or warlike societies and woman's roles, vs gender that is in implicitly in charge of population.

Am re reading A Communist Manifesto, it's a lot different than I remember it 20 years ago. And plan on rereading Sartre. Have read some discourse on Camus/Sartre and French Ouvre, if for no other reason than for the word Ouvre, and have kinda got into reading dissertations. (Dissertation on Prostitutes during Medieval Europe)--brings up interesting ideas about definition and how money has changed the definition of words.

For this we almost need a favorite novelists in this category, then we can try to break that down into subcategories.

Loved reading others tastes though, there are a lot of Novelists!