Twenty contemporary literature must-reads! If you've read all of these, you are well on your way to an honorary Contemporary Literature degree. This list is ordered alphabetically. This page follows another page of 10.
1. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. 
2. The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
con Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon's insular world-and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.
3. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.4. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II.5. The Second Coming, Walker Percy
Will Barrett is a lonely widower suffering from a depression so severe that he decides he doesn't want to continue living. But then he meets Allison, a mental hospital escapee making a new life for herself in a greenhouse.6. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
Annie Proulx focuses on a Newfoundland fishing town in a tale about a third-rate newspaperman and the women in his life -- his elderly aunt and two young daughters -- who decide to resettle in their ancestral seaside home.7. Them, Joyce Carol Oates
A novel about class, race, and the horrific, glassy sparkle of urban life, them chronicles the lives of the Wendalls, a family on the steep edge of poverty in the windy, riotous Detroit slums.8. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
A simple story of a "strong man" whose life is dominated by fear and anger, it is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.9. White Noise, Don DeLillo
White Noise is the story of Jack and Babette and their children from their six or so various marriages. They are happy enough until a deadly toxic accident and Babette's addiction to an experimental drug make Jake question everything.10. White Teeth, Zadie Smith
Set against London's racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.