97 author recommendations from a dark forest

I'm on a dark forest server where people a lot of times talk about books but it's always nerd shit, sf and fantasy, sometimes horror, etc. You know, the dominant form of books, film and entertainment during my lifetime. Anyway, I decided to help these dorks out with my own highly personalized recommendations of Normie Books Regular People Like To Read.  Significant responses are collated at the bottom of the post.

This is just a recommendation list, anyone who attempts to recognize this as Discourse will be forced to write a 5000 word essay on how Understanding Media applies to Booktok. Also note that this is from a random stroll through my kindle library, it isn't typical of my shelves (or really of my reading.)  There's lots of shit you can't get on Kindle still!

How reading this type of stuff helps your sf and fantasy gaming more than reading sf and fantasy is left as an exercise for the reader.

• Dickens. A Christmas Carol, unabridged if you can find it, is a 10/10 experience, absolutely vicious and fun to read. However, the climb into Dickens is a lengthy, slow process and once you get past Great Expectations there's a lot of time investment that doesn't pay off. Read these highlights and if you love it, be assured there's a lot more.
• Wodehouse. Even the lamest Wodehouse is still lively and very funny. You'll find a fount of modern comedy springs from here. Do not miss this.
• Wharton. The place to turn for capital-R Romantic lushness and vividness. Like Dickens, though, the very best of Wharton and the very worst of Wharton are night and day. Read the highlights.
• Chesterton. If you love a genre or topic and Chesterton does something in that genre or topic you'll love what he wrote in that genre or topic. But if you are just reading Chesterton qua Chesterton you're gonna find him insufferable. Skip until you find him in other ways than just reading him.
• Zane Grey.  Overrated due to his influence, nevertheless if you are interested in the Western, you have to read him, in the very least in the "Western Writers Are Actually Like This" way, but for enjoyment you can skip him.  If you must dive into Zane Grey, start with his baseball stories! But you don't have to read him.
• Nora Roberts.  If you're a weirdo and you don't know how to read a regular romance novel, read the first few books of the In Death series (Roberts writing as J.D. Robb). This will teach you what a romance novel is, what a romantic suspense novel is, and what merit you can find in them as a weirdo, because they're quite creditable sf police procedurals. Very worth reading. 
• Max Brand.  Beware the dilution of the Max Brand - there were lots of series where he was a lead contributor but someone else wrote almost all of it.  More exciting than Zane Grey, but less historically necessary for understanding.  Hit the highlights, or skip.
• Rex Stout. You'll learn racial slurs for groups you've never even considered before, but over time you'll see Stout become more of a 1950s liberal in his outlook.  Still, because there's no real continuity in Stout novels, and they're all just as charming and exciting as any other, there's no reason to not skip some of it and hit the highlights.
• Le Carre.  Yea, just read it all.
• Balzac. I would recommend Balzac over Dickens for "realist" (not realist-IC) fiction actually. They're shorter, more pointed, and delve just as deeply into the psychology and morals of the characters. Also Balzac seems to care about women as full characters just a bit more than Dickens. Recommended highly.
• Stephen Ambrose. Not really that good. You get both better information from other sources and better sentimentality as well. Skip.
• Louis L'Amour. This is the problematic fave of the Western genre. Just as wrong as Zane Grey but actually can write an engaging story and a decent action scene.  Caution is recommended ("this is what Western writers actually think!") but there is solid pulp fun waiting here.
• James Lee Burke. He was a lot more special in the pre-internet days when being exposed to the folkways of other regions was harder to casually get. Still, you're probably going to have a real good time reading them. Nothing special but solid. Don't pass him up if you have an interest.
• Barbra Kingsolver. There's some kinda turgid books in her bibliography but her debut trilogy is a wonderfully observed warm blanket: The Bean Trees, Animal Dreams, Pigs in Heaven. Don't worry about it beyond those highlights.
• John Nichols. The Milagro Beanfield War trilogy (including The Magic Journey and Nirvana Blues) is, similarly, very special, a wonderful experience, but little else he does reaches that height. Read the highlights.
• Ed McBain. The man who perfected the police procedural, a lot of his books are now actually of interest as historical pieces for how New York cops acted in the 1960s and 1970s, at least as they acted when they were on their best behavior. His legal thrillers are very up and down but if you are into him you'll read em all, as I did. Ax is one of my favorite police procedurals of all time and it's like 80 pages.  Read a few short novels and if you like him be happy cos they're all like that.
• Italo Calvino. Probably you know about him cos you're a weirdo but if you don't, you're about to find out that one of the most heralded European literary figures also writes the kind of weird shit you're into. Read it all.
• Agatha Christie. As I mentioned in a recent thread, despite her association with classic mystery formula, she was a relentless experimenter in the field. Watch out for anti-semitism though! Weirdly, her best known novels are also among her strangest. You might get more benefit from reading a couple in the "second tier."   Read with caution and sharpness.
• Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason is weirdly the least interesting parts of Perry Mason novels. There's probably better ways to absorb historical information about Los Angeles in the last century, but in terms of construction of formula he's instructive. I wish Cool and Lam had become his main meal tickets, those are good. The high popularity stuff is missable tho.
• T. Jefferson Parker. The ultimate airport novel guy. A nice pastime but you don't need to seek it out.
• Ellery Queen. Weirdly, Queen's characters are less charming for all that they're kinda "nice". You'd rather have Nero Wolfe being an insufferable prig than just a bland smart guy being smart. You might read a few for the classic mystery "challenge to the reader" format since that's of interest to gaming nerds (and Umineko pals) but otherwise don't worry about it.
• Isabel Allende. I don't like calling her "elevated romance" because romance is completely valid and doesn't need to be elevated. But there's no doubt that she is reaching for something even when she's writing, like....a Zorro novel. Just a real pleasure.
• Dorothy Sayers. It's fine but if you've read some classic mysteries, you'll kinda know how these go. A little too middle of the road to be of great interest. Skippable unless you're in love with her subgenre.
• Guy de Maupassant. There's a lot of churn, but if you find a good anthology by someone who loves his stuff, there's some great short works in here to not miss. Follow an expert's anthologizing here. 
• Leslie Charteris. There's absolutely no reason at all that nobody is doing a series of splashy, quippy Saint movies. They're a little out of date socially but the Saint is such a charmer you could easily see him turning on a dime on any of the prejudices laying around.  More fun than any adaptation you've been easily able to see in your life.
• Simenon has both sociological and historical interest, as well as being very charming (though as a Francophile I am prejudiced.) When Maigret is doing his Maigret thing there's really nothing better.  There are an awful lot of them and some (especially the later ones) fall off in quality but even those are quite short.  Read as many as you can, but don't worry if you can't find some.
• Len Deighton - Often derided as a poor man's Le Carre, I actually think Deighton's humor is a strong point (Billion Dollar Brain, Violent Ward) Le Carre often suppresses, making him, if not Le Carre's equal, at least in the same conversation. Definitively worth your time.
• David McCullough - The biographies are too long and I feel the hand of an editor in shoving them towards mediocre hagiography. But The Johnstown Flood is good. Read that one.
• Donald Westlake - His most successful stuff are the Dortmunder novels and the Parker novels (under the name Richard Stark), which are well deserving of the recognition. But don't overlook his chintzy pulp period either!  I think it's important that Westlake doesn't take his heroes as seriously as sometimes his most famous series imply that they are.  Ultimately this is a pulp guy who found mainstream success, so, in his heart, he's one of us.
• Joyce Carol Oates - Same principle. She may write some literary stuff, some romance, some autobiography, some historical, but in her heart of hearts she's a horror fanatic and she loves every piece of it.  Bizarre twitter feed and all, she's one of us too.
• Janet Evanovich - Read one of the early Plums, if you wanna have a good time. But don't bother continuing to read them unless you REALLY like them, it's honestly one of the  most formulaic series out there. I guess it's bubbly enough. But I'd only read one.
• Umberto Eco - Like Calvino, he's actually as weird as we are. Unlike Calvino his prose is very very slow moving. It's thought provoking, and if you want to read ten pages and really think about it for a little bit, this is where to be. But read for thinking, not always entertainment. Meh, I guess this makes it sound less fun than it often is?
• Elmore Leonard - Recently discussed here, a towering figure of modern entertainment literature. Reading him will tell you a whole lot about TV and film in the 80s, 90s and 00s, and you'll get a clear picture of a type of entertainment that game nerds built on that isn't necessarily being done anymore. Very entertaining and enlightening.
• Dennis Lehane - Has a deep insight into cultures of abuse - sexual, familial, spiritual - and layers it through the mysteries with scrupulous care. Less careful about other political issues. Solid.
• James Patterson - Mysteries and thrillers are worthless. But his YA series is kinda fun if you're that age! But for us elders, no thanks.
• Michael Connelly - Read the early books in the series, but then stop. The more opinionated they are, the less interesting they are. But they do have a sense of place, and in the case of the Lincoln Lawyer, a true sense of character through action (less so for Bosch).
• Clive Cussler - Only to be read ironically, via books you get at the thrift store for 25 cents. But probably not that either.
• Walter Mosley - A titanic genius who works to the absolute top of multiple genres, including ours, though he's lesser known for them. If all you know is Easy Rawlins, get into his science fiction and fantasy. Read it all.
• Martin Cruz Smith - Has never quite lost the exoticism (both good and bad) of the settings and characters. I like it, but others find it a little cloying, or perhaps a little bit overbearing - telling you what you have to think of these places and people. These days you can kinda find their own words. But you might try one and see what you think.
• Tom Clancy - Only to be read to find out "this is what Ronald Reagan Actually Thinks", or to see a window into a world where conservatives actually participated in the art world. If you want that, read The Hunt for Red October at the thrift store. But you probably don't need to.
• Upton Sinclair. A lot lower-brow than most of the guys you talked about in history class; for the same reason, there's a lot of stuff that's tied to its time and place and can be skipped. Read one and if you like his style, you can read all eleven Lanny Budd adventures if you want.
• Bruce Jay Friedman. A little self absorbed but if you can overlook that you'll have a good time.  Read one. The stylistic tics are there throughout so if you don't like it then don't read any more. 
• Robert Ludlum. Don't mistake him for Clancy - he doesn't really write technothrillers - and don't mistake him for Fleming, his most exciting books are not about "professionals", exactly. The typical Ludlum thriller is a standalone, perhaps a little over-explained and a little over-stuffed, and in a way that's a part of their charm...the best way to describe them is "Gothic but for boys who like guns". Worth investing time in.
• Michael Chabon: Don't let the literary hoopla fool you, he's one of us.  He writes alt-history, did a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is so heartfelt and passionate. 
• I recuse myself from the legal thriller world, but if you do go there, I like Grisham's sentimentality more than Richard North Patterson's stentorian declarations of slippery slopes to make every situation Important.
• J.A. Jance: An example of a truly hometown writer, she can tell you about life in Cochise County a lot better than most. But she sometimes tries to go beyond that, or write something with a romance at the center of it, and it's not that great. As a "country police procedural" she isn't bad but perhaps not truly worth seeking out. Read if she comes your way.
• Jimmy Breslin: Absolutely not overrated. Read it all.
• Ira Levin: The Seventies encouraged thriller writers to be overblown, only the greatest had the chops to survive this stylistic period. Levin does. Absolutely holds up.
• Doris Kearns Goodwin: Absolutely crushed by boomer-brain syndrome from a young age, you read her LBJ stuff and nod along and get 300 pages in before you realize nobody is ever going to tell you what, exactly, happened to the people of Vietnam.  Not hagiography, and engaging and informative (usually), but you need to supplement her with others. 
• Thomas Berger: His most famous novel, Little Big Man, is kinda middling in my opinion (the film, while important, doesn't exactly hold up).  But he does have insight into midcentury America as well.  You might start with his short stories, or just dive in on another of his novels.  Recommended.
• Roy Blount, Jr. : Shit your dad thought was funny if he attended college to not go to Vietnam. I'm glad your dad got to live, but this guy sucks. Skip.
• Lawrence Durrell: If you do a Sensible Chuckle Dot Gif at New Yorker cartoons, like I do, then you'll really like the Antrobus stories. A bit snooty overall (the Alexandria Quartet is particularly hampered by this), but worth a look.
• Loren D. Estleman: You might mix up stuff they've written with Walter Mosley, or Elmore Leonard, or even T. Coraghessen Boyle's odder historical novels. It's actually pretty easy to read Estleman and misfile him mentally, which is a shame because his work is incredibly sharp and exciting.
• Gillian Flynn: It's funny that because her one glossy novel got adapted to a big budget hit that people think her books are like these...prestige glossy novels. They aren't, they're about abuse, ultimately.  As thrillers they're pretty middling, but as character studies they often are highly revealing and interesting.  Recommended.
• T. Coraghessan Boyle: His sense of humor hits me exactly right and often in just the right amounts. Skip the adaptations - these books honestly are the case for "novels do different things with characters than films do". I like them, a lot. Recommended.
• Robert B. Parker: Pretty by the numbers. You'll like them if you come across one but you don't need to seek him out.
• Sara Paretsky. Now if you want a modern PI novel series that actually kicks ass, the V.I. Warshawski books are classics for a reason. And they actually work as a series, unlike many of the mystery folks I've discussed so far! Top tier recommendation.
• James Clavell: Just no.
• Caleb Carr: A good example of how one idea can't make a novel. The guy should be writing short stories! Don't bother.
• John Steinbeck: Absolutely not overrated, the more you read the more you will agree. Read it all.
• Lee Child: The Jack Reacher novels are a good example of the "action" novel which used to be extremely common, but which is now often relegated to the back stacks at Amazon, and their success is well deserved. You are gonna chow down on these like popcorn. Go for it.
• John D. McDonald: The highest recommendation I've got. Even beyond his excellent mysteries, he's giving you a glimpse into midcentury American self-loathing and sex. Don't miss any of it.
• Carl Hiaasen: Maybe the only guy who can put together a true caper in the Elmore Leonard style. I just wish he had  more books out! Recommended.
• Joseph Wambaugh: He kinda worships cops (The New Centurions - give me a fuckin break man), but when he pulls away from that (The Secrets of Harry Bright) or emphasizes their place in a dangerous, unjust system (The Black Marble), his knowledge and care makes for an enthralling read. Check it out but if he starts going on about how unfairly cops are treated, you might skip ahead.
• E.L. Doctorow: I feel like I missed the boat on this guy. A lot of smart people I respect think his stuff is good but I just can't fuckin get it.  Maybe it's just not my thing. But I wouldn't recommend it.  Maybe I'll give him another chance...
• Tony Hillerman: I do feel like his later novels fell off a little (and Anne Hillerman's follow-ons don't have the same energy), but his unique point of view and well-observed style make him almost a guaranteed good read.
• Daphne Du Maurier: Rebecca is great, read that. Then stop.
• Jo Nesbo: For all the emphasis people put on how melancholy his books are, I find it to be a pretty thin veneer on pretty by-the-numbers cop-and-killer books. I guess people love them so you might as well try one and see if that's you.
• Mario Puzo: He has one all-encompassing point of view, and at times that runs him into trouble that, if he could step just one step outside his comfort zone, he could really get somewhere, but he never does. Watch the movies instead.
• Barbara Tuchman: Her books are a little pat, but is that really a good critique of a pop history book? I never finished one without enjoying it, thinking about it, and learning from it, so what am I complaining about. I should just recommend it instead.
• James Michener: I guess they're interesting from a perspective of trying to identify what a genuinely American "epic" novel is in the 20th century? But if you don't care about that, there's no reason to read it.
• Jim Thompson: An exceptional, vicious, and insightful read. Read it all.
• Graham Greene: The people who pompously talk about the political or social aspects of Greene or lushly adapt Greene into prestige film or TV make it hard to fit inside your head that he wrote deft, sharp works that carry the reader away. Read it all.
• John Updike: Similar to Puzo, he can't quite get outside the head of his characters far enough to make them really pop, in my view. The exception are the Witches of Eastwick novels. Read those.
• Craig Johnson: The Longmire books, like J.A. Jance's books, succeed when they bring you deep into a geography that you don't normally get to experience. The characters are fairly flat but the points of view in his books are quite multifaceted. I enjoyed them - though they are a bit all of a piece.  Read one and see what you think.
• Patricia Highsmith: Just the best. Read it all, in order.
• Erskine Caldwell: I think people see Tobacco Road as kind of "misery porn", but ultimately it has a spiritual heart to it, and you can see it throughout Caldwell's work. Perhaps rightfully considered lesser than Steinbeck, but aren't we all? Recommended.
• William Faulkner: I can't be objective about him, I love everything he's ever done. So what, it's my list? Read it all.
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Terrific. Not even slightly overrated. The famous works and the lesser known works are all great. Read it all.
• Ross Macdonald: Weirdly I do think some of his stuff is a bit overrated. Every once in a while the literary world seizes on a genre guy and tries to "elevate" him through unfair comparisons to other genre writers. So you find all these reviews of like, The Underground Man, and they're trying to make it out to be something it isn't. The Underground Man isn't that good! But there's a LOT of really good Macdonald.  Almost all of it is phenomenal, actually. But it's just good solid genre writing about a PI tryin to solve a tough case! Recommended.
• Frederick Forsyth: When he's at his best it's pretty hard to beat him. And he writes war and soldier books a lot better than his nearest competitor, Ludlum.  But a bad Forsyth novel is just about the worst thing you can think of. Read the early stuff. Then if you really want to see something bonkers beyond belief, read The Phantom of Manhattan. LMAO.
• Dick Francis: Reading a Dick Francis novel is inexcusable when Stephen Dobyns' "Saratoga" series exists.  Dick Francis is who we should be using instead of Agatha Christie for "a formulaic mystery where sucking up to wealth is the whole point". Abysmal.
• Stephen Dobyns: Shouldn't be on this list because he's not very popular but he writes solid poetry, the Saratoga mystery series is terrific, his other thrillers are also really great....just an all around cool guy. Check him out.
• Larry McMurtry: Fully embraces the emotional end of the Western and is better for it, making his stories more universal and elevating them beyond the genre. He followed his interests there and kept going. Worth your time.
• Sue Grafton. The first few books in her series are pretty great, but eventually she got to retreading and then re-retreading and then re-re-retreading...you get the picture. Read the early stuff.
• Eric Ambler: Exceptionally popular in his day and now largely forgotten, he writes a kind of slow-moving espionage or "regular person caught up in deeper plot" thriller that certainly influenced and was influenced by Deighton and Le Carre.  Worth seeking out.
• Cormac McCarthy (I was just coming to him in my library!): Solid, bleak, it takes a while to get what a "Cormac McCarthy book" is, because it's so varied, but if you read enough you will see what he's trying to get at in the core of his characters. I am not sure the film adaptations (which are good, in their own ways) are able to accomplish this.  Recommended.
• Zora Neale Hurston: Exceptional works, very deeply observed and considered. They are particularly valuable to the modern reader as they speak to an element of the 20th century black experience that is not often trod in modern historical works. Recall as you read that Hurston did not support Brown v. Board of Education... Read it all.
• Gregory McDonald: If all you know is the Fletch movies, you should be aware that even if you like them a lot, the novels are much funnier and much better, and he has a whole second set of novels that you haven't come across.  Recommended.
• Haruki Murakami: One time someone asked me "who's the President of books?" as a joke, and I thought about it seriously (taking jokes seriously is an excellent way to troll) and eventually landed on Murakami. Hardboiled Wonderland is great, of course, but if that's all you've gotten, there's much much more there - and still more coming! Read all you can get.
• Tess Gerritsen. Unbearably bland. Let Rizzoli and Isles kiss each other Tess!!! Skip.  (Edit: I forgot that she actually has some interesting POVs in her books - forensic scientists of various unusual kinds, etc. But there's only so many cases she seems to be able to send them on.  The early books in these series work all right.  Read those.)
• Toni Morrison. I think there are some works that she's produced that are less universal and more personal than critics will let her be. Sometimes it's okay to just write a good book folks!! If you're shaken up by all  The Discourse and are too tired to try to gain some Deep Meaning, it's actually fine, she's completely readable and you can absolutely immerse yourself in her books.  Delete your accounts and read some Toni Morrison. Recommended.
• Ernest Hemingway. Not overrated now, though perhaps there was a time in your youth when he was. Like Morrison, sometimes you're trying to lift some interpretation onto the back of a modest, poetic experiment in language.  Recommended.
• Truman Capote. I find his fiction to be just a little bit much, his "non fiction fiction" like In Cold Blood is much more engaging, to me. When he keeps his feet on the ground, at least within reach of the journalistic eye, he's incredibly effective. Hit the high notes.
• Norman Mailer. One of these guys who you can just feel the excellence of his style, the passion of his work, you're fully swept up in it, and then 150 pages in there's a conversation that makes you wonder if he's ever talked to or looked at a human woman.  Read with caution.
• Katherine Anne Porter. Honestly she has such a small output and it's so incredibly good that you will wish that  there was more.  Read it all, so to speak.
• Thomas Harris.  If you watched the Hannibal TV show and thought "well this doesn't seem quite overwrought enough" HAVE I GOT GREAT NEWS FOR YOU!!!  I can't recommend it.  But I love it.  Recommended anyway.
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A lot of people have one idea about his stuff because of the pop culture view of "the dour Russian novelist" but I think it's best to classify him as a conservative Christian writer deeply concerned with the effect of society's pressures on the soul. These novels are almost incomprehensible if you can't take Christianity really seriously.  But if you can, it's Recommended.

Authors I was asked about that I didn't read enough of to have an opinion

Richard Russo, Louise Penny, Daniel Silva, Dan Brown, Rachel Carson, Bill Bryson, Diana Gabaldon, Doris Lessing

Retorts From Others, imagine the rudeness

"Hard disagree on sayers. When she's on she's incredible, she does one of the great genre romances, and I love the way she constructs most of her mysteries, where is rarely a question of who, but rather proving it."

"I remember reading A Widow for One Year by John Irving and Empire Falls by Richard Russo. That may have been when I read The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx as well. It was a hell of a break from stuff like A Games of Thrones and The Diamond Age."

"Louise Penny: Excellent series if you like likable police folks, Quebec, interesting non-police characters. The series should be read in order as there are fundamental changes that happen across the books - and Penny does it well. If you are uncomfortable with Canadian police valorization; terrible technical gaffes; and poor television adaptations - do not read. But my bottom line: Read all in order"

"Footnote on Jo Nesbo and the Harry Hole novels: I have recently mainlined the first 8 books. I have 4 more to go (and a new one is coming out later this year).

Books 1 (The Bat) & 2 (Cockroaches) pretty much stand on their own but do not take place in Norway at all.  They take place in Australia and Thailand respectively (weird, but true).

Books 3-5 (The Redbreast, Nemesis and The Devil's Star) form a loose trilogy building on shared antagonist separate from the killer in each book.

Books 6-8: Have been mainly standalone with one exception: Harry has an on going relationship problem that goes ALL the way back to The Redbreast (Book 3) and you'd lose a lot of emotional context if you don't read them straight through.  But they're perfectly understandable even without that context."

"Oh I think probably South Pacific is still worth reading, if you were gonna read one Michener. My parents were gaga over Michener and I read kind of ... everything when I was in middle/high school. Probably a lot of it has not aged well -- not sure how I'd take The Source now."