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I used to really like Stephen King when I was in elementary and junior high, but I stopped reading his books after Gerald's Game, which was positively awful. I figured he had run out of ideas and had started just slapping together whatever gross-out scenes he could think of around a thin plot. Oh, I did get another Steven King book as a gift in high school, something about seeing peoples auras, I don't remember liking it very much, but I don't remember hating it, either. (Although, it was really long).
I really like Michael Chabon, especially The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, which is a story about two boys growing up in New York during the golden age of comic books. They start their own comic: The Escapist, and it makes it big, and it deals with their lives and their inability to seperate themselves from their comics. (I'm really over simplifying it, but it's great. I think it even won the Pulitzer the year it was published). My wife couldn't put this one down during our honeymoon.
I also like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genious by David Eggers. Don't let the pretentious title fool you, it's an excellent book. It's an autobiography about David (the editor of McSweeney's) after both his parents die a few months apart and he takes his sister and younger brother to San Francisco to live. It's very fast paced, very funny, and very heartbreaking. Everyone I know that's read it loves it. Although, it's tough getting past the first chapter because it's pretty sad.
The last book I'll recommend is Empire Falls by Richard Russo. This book is great: it's about a small manufacturing town in Maine after the last textile plant has been closed. You'll go through this booking thinking "man, this is a great book, but nothing ever happens", then BAM, it happens. I stayed up reading until about 3:00 AM once "it" happened. HBO is currently making a movie from the book, but I'm not sure what of it's production status.
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If it weren't for my horse, I never would've spent that year in college.
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