The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe Series Book 1) by Raymond Chandler

Set in 1930s Los Angeles, then a sleepy town controlled by the mob as much as the police, The Big Sleep is a non stop action thriller. Chandler’s first book is a classic and would help redefine and reinvent the mystery genre.
Chandler wrote this back in 1939 and it reads like an American classic detective novel should! The dialogues are just perfect!
 

The Ballad of the Sad Café: Wunderkind; The Jockey; Madame Zilensky and the Ki by Carson McCullers

This is a strange collection of 7 short, in some cases, almost minimalistic tales.I enjoyed them, especially the first one!
They are linked by isolation and the loneliness juxtaposed to selfless love in implausible triangular relationships. 
I love the way Carson McCullers paints a specific scenery in one's imagination while flawlessly dropping the characters there.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

 

I loved the descriptions of the depth and breath of society. 
It is full of insights into society, human nature, what to do in life when one can't quite make one's dreams come true, and how to make a marriage work. 
I love the large cast of townsfolk that round out the novel create an amazing mix of gossip and family histories.
I love the Elliot's idea in making her characters subjugated by the forces of society; they eventually have to conform to the role society has laid out for them. 
Elliot provides a great deal of historical context.
This is not an easy read but a very enjoyable one!  

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

 
Having read Flaubert's parrot I supposed to ought to read the novel that inspired it.
The book is about Mme. Bovary's thoughts of "If only X would happen, THEN I could be truly happy" and finding out that is simply not the case! I think I need to learn from her mistakes! 
In spite of the sadness of the book, I loved the descriptions of the Normandy countryside which are very vivid! 

Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes

This is the second time I have read this strange book! It is very gimmickacy - the  non-traditional biography of Gustave Flaubert, as researched by a
fictitious biographer’s, interluded with concern for, and reflections on, his wife dying of an illness.
It is unlike books I read before but I loved it for that reason!

Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie

 

I thought Agatha Christie had been clever with this story as the mystery that begins with court proceedings, as the accused suspect is being tried for the murder of an innocent, lovely girl!