Well, I'm Canadian so the social background is only midly exotic, and I can relate to the rest of the cultural elements.

The writers in translation are the best ones. I can't think of a really bad scandinavian crime novel I've picked in Série Noire.

Not that most of these are "great novels" per say, but you get what you expect.

(I like Jo Nesbo in particular, by the way)

No, not really. I love WOT, but I see Jordan as the modern Fantasy version of writers like Dumas and Natoli, and I have a fondness for the "feuilleton" genre.

It's bit snob/rude of me, but for 10 years this was for me the crap the receptionist at the office read on her breaks.

I still don't like so much bringing US fantasy books in public places. Well, anonymous public places I don't care, but it's not the sort of books I would leave on my desk when I worked in a studio. The jokes about "the crap" I'm reading gets old really quick. Mind you, with many of the American trends in book packaging being what they are, in the milieu I work in you can get that sort of comments for reading pretty much any US-made book, Fantasy ones are just worse as they look like immature teenage boy stuff. Let's just say they don't exactly leave that good an impression in a milieu where your general culture (and bullshitting) comes into play a lot (eg: when you need to sell a concept to a fussy artsy director. If he saw the Lord of Chaos PB on your back two minutes ago, chances are you're as screwed as if you went on raving about Stephanie Meyer or how great an actress J. Lo is).