Good books, intelligent, interesting....?

Question:

Good books, intelligent, interesting....?

Hello, I'm a 28 year old gal looking for some new books to read this summer. They can be fiction or non, but I don't really want any like...sappy romance smut books and whatnot. If you have anything that comes to mind as being interesting, intelligent, and a "must have" then please feel free to tell me. No young adult books, please. Thanks to everyone! : ) Have an enjoyable summer!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You've already had some great suggestions, but I'll toss in a few more books that I love. I just finished The Kite Runner, which is very sad but so heartwarming. I can see why it's had great reviews. I also read the non-fiction Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. If you love American history, especially the West, and you love the Southwest, it's a page turner. I couldn't put it down.

Wendell Berry's Andy Catlett is another book to warm your heart and make you think. Well written and thought provoking. Anything by Barbara Kingsolver fits in that category and they are all good. Bean Trees is her first novel and they just get better (great characters, great plots, solid writing with beautiful imagery). Jan Karon has a great series set in the Smoky Mountains, I think. I love her characters.

Elizabeth Berg's books make me think, and she writes well, too. Anything by Pat Conroy if you want a long, very sad book. Isabelle Allende for some mystical, political, thought-provoking reading, Anne Tyler books are well written and thought provoking, anything by Joanne Mapson, Linda Hogan, and Leslie Marman Silko. Cold Mountain by Frazier was spectacular, and I loved the classicTo Kill a Mockingbird.

Now for some solid mystery writers who keep my interest and make me think, Margaret Coel, Micheal McGarrity, J. A. Jance, Michael Connelly. (sometimes too dark), and Earlene Fowler, I check the mysteries out but I own the others because I thought they were that good.

It's nice to know there are readers who value a great story that leaves them thinking. That's my favorite part of reading--closing the book and mulling all the thoughts it has provoked.