I've been reading a lot lately. Stuff I think is pretty tasty.
Here's a sampling.

Everything by Alastair Reynolds, he writes hard sf. I've gotten to the point where not only do I not wait till it comes out in paperback and buy hardcover, I can't wait till it's published in the US and buy it from the UK (in hardcover):
Revelation Space
Redemption Ark
Absolution Gap
Chasm City
Century Rain
Pushing Ice

George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire Fantasy Epic. You all probably know all these:
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows

Historical Ficton:
The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
The Killer Angles by Michael Shaara
Pompeii by Robert Harris

Bestsellers:
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Shutter Island by Dennis LeHane
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (I know boohiss, but I thought it was ballsy of him to pen it)

Texas by and for Texans:
Goodbye to a River by John Graves (Malse recommended this to me)

Trashy Detective Novels:
The entire Prey series by John Sandford, starting with Rules of Prey, ending with Broken Prey

Hybrid of Cyberpunk and Trashy Dectective Novels:
The Takeshi Kovacs Series by Richard K Morgan
Altered Carbon
Broken Angels
Woken Furies

More Science Fiction:
Ventus
Permanence by Karl Shroeder

Singularity Sky
Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

The Golden Age
The Phoenix Exultant
The Golden Transendence by John C Wright

Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson but I'm not sure I can recommend it, go read his Red Mars series instead.

Books recently made into movies:
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Suggest you pick up "Angels & Demons" for a fast, fun read also by Dan Brown. Although there are some events toward the end that provoke the "Oh, give me a break" response, it is still a good one to read as an intro to "The DaVinci Code", although DVC can easily stand on it's own without ever reading the other.

I also recommend any of the Michael Slade books although I did prefer the earlier works, Headhunter, Ghoul, etc. Great reads using the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and it's forensic department in the pursuit of serial killers. Michael Slade is the pen name of a group of attorneys, btw; they have a great grasp of the subject and genre, I must say.

. Although there are some events toward the end that provoke the "Oh, give me a break" response...

That is probably exactly how I'd describe it too.

EDIT: I'm a nerd and hit reply too fast.

Some interesting books on that list some I've heard of and some I haven't. I find myself purely engrained in the fantasy genre and I can't find my way out :( I am currently reading Chainfire by Terry Goodkind and I'm hating this book most out of the whole series I think I'm getting tired of the never ending series. But I tend to mostly read him, Jordan, Brooks, and whomever else looks interesting as I'm perusing the isle.

I'd be interested in hearing other suggestions in the same genre if someone has them :)

I have really been kind of let down by most of the recent fantasy/sci fi stuff, and have found myself picking up old books again.

I highly recommend the Piers Anthony trilogy ("Split Infinity", "Blue Adept", and "Juxtaposition"), and the always great "Foundation" series by Asimov.

And for just plain fun, Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" and several others of his always seem to trump the new issues.

I have really been kind of let down by most of the recent fantasy/sci fi stuff, and have found myself picking up old books again.

Give Alastair Reynolds a try. I was browsing one of my favourite authors and there was a sign on the shelf: "If you like this-author, then you might like Paul Anderson, some other famous established sf author I don't recall or Alastair Reynolds." Having never heard of him, I figured he was some half-assed author that was being given a push for who-knows-why but I was like what the hey and picked up Revelation Space.

He quickly jumped up to being my favourite author, brilliant, refreshing, pretty amazing stuff. The hard part was waiting for him to write the next two books in that trilogy. (he wrote Chasm City in the interim which was set in the same universe but not a part of the trilogy per se)

I'm burned out on bad sf/fantasy too, but all the books in the genre I've been reading are pretty choice. The Golden Age Trilogy is very hard sf, mostly went over my head but still interesting. If you liked The Da Vinci Code or detective novels, you may like the Takeshi Kovacs series. Fun stuff.

Damn, Londreigh! These are books you've been readin "recently"? You must read about ten times as fast as I do.

Recently, a friend of mine recommended George R.R. Martin with the words, "All the thrills and chills of Jordan without the fluff. Way more bang for the buck." Or something near that.

I've read the first two and am in the middle of the third right now. I'll have to agree with my friend. I couldn't get through book 7 of the Wheel of Time because if I have to hear about the ageless faces of the Aes Sedai, ONE MORE FUCKING TIME...!!!

Anyway, R.R. is worth it, if you don't mind a book that's told from 500 different points of view. :)

The Piers Anthony books were the strangest mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy I've ever read. Ok, their the only mix of the two I've ever read. I need to read the third book, and now I know what it's called. Thanks Byl!

The problem with R. R. Martin is that he takes -ages- to write. The 4th book ended up being only half of the story he originally wanted to tell with a Feast for Crows, and took much longer than he ever thought to get it published. Its the whole story per say, but only from half of the characters' viewpoints, which drove me up the wall. I guess I'm glad that he makes sure its a good story before he puts it out, although I personally liked the third one better, but sheesh.

Yes Jordan drives me nuts with that crap and Goodkind is starting to bug me too with constantly retelling the story in every book. Why do some of them think they have to do that?!?! Just get to teh damn story already.

In any case, I have a few new authors to read.

The Piers Anthony books were the strangest mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy I've ever read. Ok, their the only mix of the two I've ever read. I need to read the third book, and now I know what it's called. Thanks Byl!

I have also picked up a copy recently, although not started it yet, of "Out Of Phaze" by Piers Anthony, and it is referred to as Book 4 of the series, which I had always thought of as a trilogy. Hmmmmm.......

Damn, Londreigh! These are books you've been readin "recently"? You must read about ten times as fast as I do.

The past year or so. ;) A detective novel or Dan Brown will only take me a day or 2 to read. An historical novel, especially the 900 page ones, I'll chew on for 3 or 4 weeks, mainly cause they have so much to absorb. Something like The Sunne in Splendour will make me run to the computer to do web searches about various people, topics, historical tidbits, etc. I believe I was reading the bulk of the "Prey" novels a couple years ago but much of what I listed I've read in the past 6 or 8 months.

My stack of to-read books has dwindled, it's almost time to order a new batch from Amazon. Since I mention it, here's what's in my stack:

Lady of Mazes by Karl Shroeder: I just abandoned not 100 pages in. It sucked, this can't by the same guy that wrote Ventus and Permanence, both really good reads.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - Malse was cleaning his apt and I mentioned an interest and ended up with it. Not sure if I'll ever read it.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: I really should stop shuffling the classics to the bottom of my list, been looking at this one for months.

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf: Watching the excellent "The Hours" motivated me to pick it up.

Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson: more Stephenson cryptology. I sort of keep losing this book and finding it and not sure I want to start another trilogy.

The Grass Crown and Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough: Next 2 in the series after the First Man in Rome.

Mm, time to toss half a dozen books into my cart on amazon.com.