Some interesting books...
Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMasters Bujold is two books...Shards of Honor and Barrayar. Its set in the Miles Vorkosigan space opera universe. A number of her MV books I've reread three times. One of her books made me laugh out loud and cry in the same book.
St. Valentine's Night by Father Andrew Greeley is one of his romance novels about love and the Irish in Chicago. Its not neccessarily the most memorable. Greeley taught me a lot about love and humanity.
Wolftime by Lars Walker is delightfully demented as it describes the human condition. Good and evil warring with the background of comedy. Odin has come to post-Lutheran Minnesota to face off against a dissapointed English lit professor who cannot lie. Very funny.
Blood and Judgement also by Walker is stranger, probably less well done, and much harder to understand with grimmer topics.
Infectress by Tom Cool, Commander in the USN...which makes him 'Commander Cool'! A bioterrorist in the near future and a man's loyal AI duel over the fate of the man. Cool has an interesting bit where he has two halves of the AI arguing with each other as to whether the spiritual realm exists. He also posits an interesting reason for pain...after the AI is first turned on, its a total sophist...err, solipsist. Its only after being tortured for some time that it admits reality exists outside of itself. A 'cool' read.
The Moon is Always Full by David Hunter is a set of short, true, Southern cop stories. Yes, the South is sometimes violent and crazy. But while it can be depressing in too large a dose, a small bit can be quite amusing.
Vigilant by James Alan Gardner. He also wrote 'Expendable'. He has some seriously wild ideas, and some deep thought about forgiveness. In his universe, there is no interstellar war because the godlike League forbids it. If you intend to, or have murdered by act or ommission, knowingly, you die as soon as you hit interstellar space...no exceptions. But you can send someone off to likely death. And it helps the locals back home to know that the people sent off to die are ugly. So if you're born with a facial birthmark, you don't get the easy surgical repair. Instead, you get drafted into the Expendables as they call them selves. He's very good.
Count Scar by Robert A. Bouchard is a medieval fantasy about an old soldier given a castle for his retirement and he's put in the midst of a religious war. The opposing side has the doctrine of Perfected aka once God accepts you, you don't sin any more. For those of you, who've met a Christian for longer than ten minutes, you're no doubt laughing by now. One benefit of this doctrine is that it breeds arrogance, and arrogance makes for more powerful magicians.
Its an unexpected book in a lot of ways.
Jannissaries by Jerry Pournelle has a group of American mercs given a ride to an alien planet populated with different groups of humans so they can grow drugs for the aliens. Its a conquer the locals, scheme against the aliens military SF with a lot of drawings in it as well. I've read it a number of times. Its one of the military SF that ends with a large battle which gets drawn out on a map. This is a common thing in a number of military SF.
Cradle of Saturn by James P. Hogan offers a startlingly different take on human history and the formation of the solar system. Its also a blistering slam against the Bishops of Big Science, and thats the first half. The second half is the predicted disaster.
All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot is not the first book in the series. They are the tales of a Yorkshire vet working in the 40's and 50's. In one book, he discusses the first time he used pennicillin. They are terrifically funny as he narrates the various hardships like sticking one hand up a cow's butt while laying on slick stone at midnight without a shirt on in freezing weather with good humor.
