The problem with James Ellroy is that a lot of his best books are out of print. 
My personaly favorites are The Black Dahlia and LA Confidential. The Black Dahlia is especially cool because the story is built around one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in Hollywood, though his explanation for the killing is a liiiiiittle far-fetched. Still entertaining though.
Just finished reading Ellroy’s Crime Wave, which is a collection of pieces he wrote, some fiction, some non, about famous crimes from the 50s to today, including his own mother’s unsolved murder.
I just finished THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold. (Read this book. It’s terrific!)
And I’ve just started FALLING ANGELS by Tracy Chevalier, the author of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING.
I’ve really gotten into fantasy novels this summer, but I seem to be on a losing streak right now. I read The Far Kingdoms, by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch. This book appears to have been assembled without any attempt at coherence; the heroes just wander from place to place battling various bad guys and the ending is beyond absurd.
I tried Wizard’s First Rule, by Terry Goodkind, and I have to say that it was just about the most pathetic excuse for a novel that I’ve ever read. It’s a straight copy from The Eye of the World, except that the names are changed and Jordan’s innocent winking and flirting has been replaced by violent sex and pedophilia.
My most recent choice was Darkness Descending, by Harry Turtledove. Great battle scenes, but the writing is intolerably slow and repetitive.
My next try will be A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. It had better be good, or else I may go back to science fiction.
I just finished reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace after dragging through it at a few chapters at a time. It was a difficult one to find time for.
Currently, I’m reading a chapter of de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince every night before bed
When I finish with that, I plan to start Ann Rand’s The Fountainhead.
By the way, I read Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach last summer, and the only thing I deeply understood were the parts about music! 
I also liked the dialogues.
Well, I’m reading a book on Hitler, by a psychologist, Victor. "Hitler:A study of evil’ or something like that. I’m only about 15 pages in, but it’s interesting. Evil man.
And NO, I’m not a nazi, I just like reading history these days. I felt real weird checking that out of the library.
Just finished “At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election.” Now I’m onto “Hell to Pay.”
Re-reading The Great Gatsby. Just finished re-reading 1984 for the umpteenth time. I really need to buy some new books.
I began Sailor’s Song by Ken Kesey a couple of months ago, but as usual, drifted, and began feeding my obsession (flyfishing) with book after book. I’ve read Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders, Sex, Death, and Flyfishing, Even Brook Trout Get the Blues, and Trout Bum by John Gierach, Whitewater Tactics for Western Anglers by Neal Streeks, Reading the Water, Essential Trout Flies, and Nymph Fishing by Dave Hughes,
The Habit of Rivers by Ted Leeson, Masters On the Nymph by J.Michael Migel, and a couple of books by Pat McManus, who writes outdoor humor. If you have any kind of outdoorsy background, McManus will provide some full-on belly laughs, I promise. I would recommend Sailor’s Song, just because it’s Kesey. As for the others, unless you’re a flyfishing fanatic, well…
Last night I finished Singletusk, the sequel to Dance of the Tiger, by Bjorn Kurten. If you sort of like the Clan of the Cave Bear books but got bored to death of all the silly sex scenes, these two books are for you. Kurten is an actual anthropologist and his novels reflect scientific thinking about how the early people might have been like. They’re not too long, either, so you can read 'em up and feel like you know a little bit about Neandertals and Cro-Magnans. I also read The Seven Daughters of Eve not long ago, but I think I recommended it all over the place at the time, so I won’t worry you all with it again. 
Previously, I read All Over But the Shoutin’, a memoir/autobiography by Rick Bragg of the New York Times. He is a Pulitizer Prize winner for feature writing and his word use just makes me drool. The story, of his painful upbringing dirt-poor in Alabama, is heartbreaking. He doesn’t really apologize for the type person it’s turned him into, but he’s probably more of a softie than he likes to think he is. Anyway, he’s nothing like his alcoholic father who beat then abandoned them. I recommend it. I read now he’s got another book out about his grandfather. I think it’s called Ava’s Man.
Other delightful, engrossing or enjoyable summer reads have been …
All the James Heriott All Creatures Great and Small books. I hadn’t read them since I was a teenager, and loved them all over again.
The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver. Beach book. The internet can help you if you’re a hacker who aspires to be a serial killer!
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan. She is a marvelous storyteller. A very rich and enjoyable book.
On Writing by Stephen King. There’s a book list in the back.
Just finished Manifold:Time by Stephen Baxter. Have the third one (Manifold:Origin) but don’t own the first, Manifold:Space. These are
three books with the same characters, but different initial conditions on the universe.
Also finished A Cooks Tour by Tony Bourdain. Great as usual, but he didn’t cover eating hot dogs in LA.
Now reading a History of Philosophy, and the worst sf book ever published - Galaxy 666 by Pel Torro. I read this in high school,
so I pulled it out to see if it was as bad as I remembered.
It’s worse. So bad, it’s funny. It’s the Plan 9 of novels.
Whee! I think I’ll come back tomorrow and post my 1,000th post on a book thread. That would be so me.
It’ll be like my birthday, and you all will have to read everything I recommend.
Just finished reading Euclid’s Window (about the 5 major revolutions in geometry) and Secrets of the Temple (about the workings of the federal reserve during the late 70’s to mid 80’s).
Currently reading
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Otherland book 1 by Tad Williams
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The Language of Mathematics by I-can’t-remember-his-name
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Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay.
After I’m done with these I think I’ll try 1984 and Slaughterhouse 5 (I’ve had both of’em at home for close to a year and haven’t read either one… bad Grim! BAD!)
Grim