Novels I re-read and thus, recommend

I posted a list like this once before, some years ago, and find that it is out of date. So here’s a more recent take on the type of fiction that is most likely to draw me in. 

Note: I’m not claiming these are the best novels ever written. I know for a fact that some of them will raise eyebrows; the point is, I felt enough resonance with that piece of storytelling that I go back for more now and then. There are also novels I truly admire, but could not bring myself to read again.  So you won’t find them here.

This list is not divided up by genre, so let me warn you: you’ll find pretty much everything here, from espionage and romance to very dark crime and sci-fi. And then there’s Austen and Dickens.

Richard Adams The Girl in a Swing 
Jane Austen Persuasion; Pride and Prejudice
Toni Cade Bambara  Gorilla, My Love
Amy Bloom Come to Me
James Lee Burke  In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead; White Doves at Morning; A Morning for Flamingos
A.S. Byatt  Angels & Insects; Possession
Chelsea Cain Heartsick (Gretchen Lowell series)
Jetta Carleton The Moonflower Vine  
Michael Chabon The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Loretta Chase  Lord Perfect; Lord of Scoundrels
Wilkie Collins The Woman in  White
Laurie Colwin A Big Storm Knocked It Over 
Jennifer Crusie Crazy for You; Faking It; Welcome to Temptation
Judy Cuevas  Dance; Bliss
Junot Díaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Stephen Dobyns The Burn Palace 
Dorothy Dunnett Niccolo Rising  (House of Niccolo; 8 volumes)
Daphne Du Maurier  Rebecca
George Eliot  Adam Bede 
Ken Follett Eye of the Needle
Ariana Franklin City of Shadows; Mistress of the Art of Death
Charles Frazier Cold Mountain
Thomas Hardy Far from the Madding Crowd; The Mayor of  Casterbridge
Mo Hayder Poppet  (the Jack Caffery series)
John Fowles The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Mark Helprin  A Soldier of the Great War 
Judith Ivory  Beast 
Baine Kerr  Wrongful Death 
Stephen King  The Stand; Black House; Dolan’s Cadillac
Barbara Kingsolver Animal Dreams; The Poisonwood Bible
Lisa Kleypas  Smooth Talking Stranger; Blue-Eyed Devil
Stieg Larsson The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (and the next two)
Margaret Lawrence  Hearts and Bones (Hannah Trevor series; 4 volumes)
Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird 
Dennis Lehane Gone, Baby Gone; Darkness Take My Hand
Elmore Leonard Pagan Babies, Cuba Libre, Get Shorty
Gabriel Garcia Márquez A Hundred Years of Solitude
McCarry, Charles: The Bride of The Wilderness
Larry McMurtry  Lonesome Dove
Jacquelyn Mitchard  Second Nature; The Breakdown Lane
Toni Morrison Beloved, The Bluest Eye 
Jojo Moyes  The Girl You Left Behind 
Alice Munro  Friend of my Youth
Audrey Niffenegger  The Time Traveler’s Wife 
Tim O’Brian  The Things They Carried
Michael Ondaatje  The English Patient
Joseph O’Neill Netherland
Ann Patchett The Magician’s Assistant 
Susan Elizabeth Phillips Ain’t She Sweet 
Annie Proulx The Shipping News; Wyoming Stories
Mario Puzo The Fortunate Pilgrim
Mary Doria Russell A Thread of Grace 
Richard Russo   Straight Man; Empire Falls 
Karin Slaughter Will Trent series (8 volumes) 
Jane Smiley A Thousand Acres 
Scott Spencer Waking the Dead; Endless Love
Jessica Davis Stein Coyote Dream 
Kathryn Stockett  The Help 
William Styron  Sophie’s Choice 
Barry Unsworth Sacred Hunger
Gore Vidal  Burr; Lincoln
Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five
Edith Wharton  Ethan Frome
Laura Ingalls Wilder The Long Winter