I would also recommend The Time Traveller's Wife, plus Connie Willis' novel To Say Nothing of the Dog (riotous, science fiction, time travel, classic writing, academia, history, period piece...) and The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon), just for starters.

This question is really hard to answer, as it all depends on the friend and their attitudes, etc. I usually know when a certain book might not be someone's cup of tea if I know them well. That being said, I do have a couple of what I think of as sure-fire hits that I recommend over and over.

Life of Pi, The Time Traveler's Wife and Ender's Game

As I was thinking of my day enjoying the first cup of coffee this morning, I decided while I wait for my child to get done swimming I was going to hit the book store for a few hours. I started to make my list. Then I decided to pop on here and see what my friends were all reading. The following question then popped into my head.
If you could only recommend one book to a friend to read what would that book be? Why did you choose that book for your recommendation? I am hoping everyone answers this question then we will all have a nice list to take with us to the library or the book store the next time we go.