Also I just looked these up and they look really good. Thank you!

Thanks - I'll check him out.

I can handle weird. I think it's the "literary" thing I look for, but that's not the right way of saying it. It's cliche now, I think, but I read for the sentences.

Haven't read Eco. I will check out Pamuk

I have not. Where should I start?

I know quite a few very smart people who loved Goldfinch. To each his or her own. I can't even really articulate why I didn't like it, to be honest. So who knows! Thank you for your recommendations thought, I will definitely check them out.

Now that I have thought about it, a better-articulated way to put my question is: what or who are the first-rate writers or books you've found in the last five years other than those I listed above? Thanks to Scrawler for your response.

I will check these out, thank you. I'll probably get some money for xmas so this these will be first on the amazon list. I've heard good things.

speaking of crap that is out there

I said this in a reply in this thread, but I will say it again to put it out there: I struggle to find "contemporary" authors that are first rate. The minute any of the following writers have a new book out, I snatch it and read it right away (and I've read everything they've put out there): McCarthy, Roth, DeLillo,…

My favorite Bernhard is Concrete. Also, read Wittgenstein's nephew. Amazing, hilarious, nerve-rattling. Another sort of similar writer I just thought of is Robert Musil is one (Man Without Qualities). But it's been years since I've read it.

I'm about to read this. Very excited

Read all of Thomas Bernhard. Fantastic stuff. Have you read any Knut Hamson? Hunger is great - kind of reminds me of Bernhard (but no one really writes like Bernhard)