Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory.

Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life.

All will come to a terrifying conclusion in Ken Follett's unsurpassed and unforgettable masterwork of suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart.  

Roots by Alex Haley

One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, Roots, galvanized the nation, and created an extraordinary political, racial, social and cultural dialogue that hadn’t been seen since the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Roots opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America’s past.

The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh

Fifteen-year-old Lynda Mann's savagely raped and strangled body is found along a shady footpath near the English village of Narborough.  Though a massive 150-man dragnet is launched, the case remains unsolved.  Three years later the killer strikes again, raping and strangling teenager Dawn Ashforth only a stone's throw from where Lynda was so brutally murdered.  But it will take four years, a scientific breakthrough, the largest manhunt in British crime annals, and the blooding of more than four thousand men before the real killer is found.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Two two-time losers living in a lonely house in western Kansas are out to make the heist of their life, but when things don't go as planned, the robbery turns ugly. From there, the book is a real-life look into murder, prison, and the criminal mind. 


Gripping!  

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

Sex and drugs and shlock and more--Jacqueline Susann's addictively entertaining trash classic about three showbiz girls clawing their way to the top and hitting bottom in New York City has it all. 


I read this in the late 60's. I was very young and very shocked. :-)

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Rebecca is a novel of mystery and passion, a dark psychological tale of secrets and betrayal, dead loves and an estate called Manderley that is as much a presence as the humans who inhabit it.  


Slow start but mesmerising the rest of the way. A must read!

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The God of Small Things is nominally the story of young twins Rahel and Estha and the rest of their family, but the book feels like a million stories spinning out indefinitely; it is the product of a genius child-mind that takes everything in and transforms it in an alchemy of poetry. The God of Small Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that's completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language.


I have not read a better novel than this one. A must read. Superb!

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

After living for three months with the Kabul bookseller Sultan Khan in the spring of 2002, Norwegian journalist Seierstad penned this astounding portrait of a nation recovering from war, undergoing political flux and mired in misogyny and poverty.


Quick read. Loosely written but entertaining nonetheless.  

The Betrayal by Sabin Willett

In 409 pages Willett's heroine, Louisa Shidler, transforms from dutiful public servant to convicted traitor and then to a fugitive betrayed and abandoned by almost everyone--everyone, that is, except her resourceful 12-year-old daughter, an irascible old newsman, and a pot-smoking trucker named Bear.


Tremendous suspense novel! I could not wait to get back home everyday so I can contunue reading this book.

The Two Mrs Grenvilles by Dominick Dunne

This is a delicious story about the higher echelons of New York society in the 1940's and 50's. It was inspired by the real life of Ann and William Woodward, and William's murder in 1955 by his wife. 


I could not put this book down.  

The Charm School by Nelson DeMille

The sustained action of this chilling vision of modern Russia starts with a young American tourist phoning the U.S. embassy in Moscow to report an unusual encounter with a U.S. Air Force major in the forest near Borodino. The tourist then vanishes and the officer is identified as a Vietnam MIA. Attaches Sam Hollis and Lisa Rhodes eventually uncover a spy school graduating several hundred "Americans" each year.  


WOW!

The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille

What happens to a priggish, WASPy, disillusioned Wall Street lawyer when a Mafia crime boss moves into the mansion next door in his posh Long Island neighborhood? He ends up representing the gangster on a murder rap and even perjures himself.  


All the good reviews about this book are true.

Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan

San Francisco socialite and art-world doyenne Bibi Chen has planned the vacation of a lifetime along the notorious Burma Road for 12 of her dearest friends. Violently murdered days before takeoff, she's reduced to watching her friends bumble through their travels from the remove of the spirit world. Making the best of it, the 11 friends who aren't hung over depart their Myanmar resort on Christmas morning to boat across a misty lake—and vanish. 


I laughed and cried and rejoiced. Amy Tan is a genius! I've read all her books.

The Princess of Burundi (Ann Lindell Mysteries) by Kjell Eriksson

When the badly mutilated body of John Harald Jonsson—a working-class family man and an expert on the tropical fish known as cichlids—is found in the snow in the provincial Swedish town of Libro, homicide detective Ola Haver and his colleague, Ann Lindell, quickly identify a suspect, an embittered sociopath.


Borrowed this from the library because Kjell Eriksson is the first Scandinavian author who sold a bestseller in the USA. I love the setting of the Swedish town. But I didn't like the book towards the end. It was a letdown.

The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans

One morning while teenage Grace Maclean is riding her pony, she meets with a megaton truck that leaves her and her four-legged friend damaged in mind, body, and spirit. Meanwhile, back at the ranch her mom, Annie Graves is working out a wrinkle in her self-absorbed existence when she gets a call at her Manhattan office about Grace's accident. Racked with guilt, Graves makes it her calling to find the mythical horse whisperer who has the ability to heal horses (and broken souls) with soothing words and a gentle touch. He arrives in the form of Tom Booker-- a rugged, sensitive, dreamy cowboy who helps the pony and Grace repair their fractured selves. 


Nice romance without the sentimental rubbish. I found the writing style to be smooth and beautiful. A great summer read!.