Man Made DIY

On the Big White Oak by Corrine Coleman - if you're into dramatic, love stories...It is a poignant tale about marriage, unrequited love, single motherhood - and the three people intertwined together.  The characters came alive off the page.  You feel for all of them - and you think about them long after the story ends.  

Blindness by Jose Saramago - it's amazing and he's a Nobel Prize winner for literature.

Anything by Haruki Murakami. He's best known for his magical realism, like 'Wild Sheep Chase' and 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,' but there are straight up realism novels like 'South of the Border, West of the Sun,' a few collections of short stories, full-on fantasy novels like 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World,' and a nonfiction narrative called Underground.

He's beloved by fans of authors like Camus and Hemingway, but I hate Hemingway, love Camus, and have read everything Murakami's written (once it's been translated into English).

Roughing It by Mark Twain is perfect summer reading.  You'll want to get out and explore.

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, it's the perfect book for summer.

"The cat who walked through walls" by Robert HeinLein. My wife likes to point out that Heinlein was a sexist old bastard but he had some good ideas and this book is fun

Pillars of the Earth.  It's about a thousand pages and way more awesome than the mini-series.  Also, on a completely different note, Water for Elephants was delightful.  Funny, heartbreaking and invigorating... you'll want to stand up and cheer at the end of it.

I really enjoyed Walking The Bible by BRUCE FEILER. I see it's a DVD now but I liked the book. here's the premise - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyUJCa2_f2I

You have robably read the last two books I enjoyed The Kite Runner and Freakonomics, but if you haven't they are a must.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.  EVERYONE should read at least once. 

Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood. The rest of my life came to a complete stop until I finished reading it.

Corrections by Johnathon Frantzen. An even more dysfunctional family than mine! Well written, or I wouldn't have spent the time.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Hunger Games and two sequels by Suzanne Collins

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff

It's the fictional account of Jesus & Biff's time from age 12-33.  Very tongue-in-cheek, but very funny and entertaining.

Not sure if it would be your speed, but have you ever read or heard of the V.C. Andrews Dollanganger series?  Flowers in the Attic and the books that go with it?  They're a bit of a train wreck, but you just can't put them down.  Modern (or at least, somewhat modern ish, given their age), no fantasy or sci fi, no detective or crime things.  It's kind of like a really intense soap opera in book form.

I have to second House of Leaves. Especially if you can manage to get one the Full Color editions that keeps all the crazy formatting intact.

Game of Thrones series. It will keep you going for quite a while!

A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A classic if there every was one; I love the last line of the book (so funny :P ).

Andy

"Edurance" all about Ernest Shackleton's failed attempt to reach the South Pole. Positively gripping story of survival and the talk of freezing temps helps cool you off during the summer.

The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera. Oh, it is good!