My co-blogger recently suggested I start keeping a reading list, in case anyone else in this nutty world has tastes similar to mine and could benefit from my trials. I shudder to imagine, but love the sound of my own voice, so here goes:

Peace Like a River, Enger. Yes. Since it was recommended by the same person who recommended Piano Tuner (see below), I was not optimistic, but was pleasantly surprised to enjoy this book a great deal. The fact that Enger mis-uses "whomever" is a bothersome but not disqualifying defect (I blame the editor, anyway).
The Piano Tuner, Mason. No. I made it fifteen pages into this. I would have stopped after the first sentence had it not come highly recommended. Mason seems to be working so very hard to weave a rich tapestry of words, when he needs to just tell the story already. Almost everything about the writing annoyed me, from the "As you know" exposition to the exhausting and distracting "that’s enough plot for now; let’s count the buttons on this guy’s coat" fits of description.
Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein. Yes, with reservations (classic). I re-read this after telling a co-worker that he couldn’t consider himself literate without having read it. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it through, but the writing was mechanically just fine, and the reactionary politics and sexism struck me as more naïve than offensive.
Altered Carbon, Morgan. Yes, with reservations. My two-word review of this is “Cyberpunk Heinlein”. Recommended by a co-worker who recoginzed that the writing would annoy me in spots (it did, especially the Heinleinian sexism), but believed the balance would be positive. I didn’t hate it, so I guess he was right. I don’t seem to be reading any more of the Takeshi Kovacs novels, though.