I have to agree with wwh, that it is so difficult to make a couple of recommendations and stop. The list can threaten to become exhaustive. To those wonderful afore listed books, that I have had the pleasure of reading and experiencing, I would add two more that might be good to start with and are wonderful for appreciations of style. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Beginning and the End - Naguib Mahfouz(who I list as one of the all time greats); The Prisoner of Zenda - Anthony Hope...
WW: in response to One area that I've been personally disappointed in is history, may I suggest Lenin's Tomb - David Remnick; a book I recently read and was extremely impressed with. Its an informed, well researched, first hand account of the collapse of the Soviet Union and is written in an easy narrative style that makes for an engrossing read.
