Late addition here. Some of the responses have made me want to add more of my own favorites to the list. Just a few …

• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• Paradise by Toni Morrison
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• The Hours by Micheal Cunningham
• Another Country by James Baldwin
• The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (non fiction)