As for books that I think people ought to try:

Jeff VanderMeer, Finch (already reviewed here and on the OF Blog)

Jesse Bullington, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart (see above)

Cherie Priest, Boneshaker (Steampunk...zombies...alt-history 19th century Seattle...enough said?)

Brian Evenson, Last Days (see OF Blog for review; like the others mentioned above, strong candidate for Best of 2009 for me)

Toby Barlow, Sharp Teeth (long poem involving werewolv.../weredogs. Totally kickass)

J.G. Ballard,The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard (see why "Ballardian future" has been bandied about much on several sites)

Charles Finney, The Circus of Dr. Lao (STRANGE...but in a totally awesome way. Freak show weirdness)

Naguib Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy (some of the best mimetic fiction of the 20th century. Author won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 198

Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor (for some reason, the experimental aspects of this novel work even better for me than his more traditionally-told tales. Plus it influenced much of the style of VanderMeer's Shriek: An Afterword)

Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (2009 National Book Award winner. Review forthcoming in about a week or so)

Paul Auster, Invisible (one of Auster's best and most chilling tales. Will review shortly)

Stephen Asma, On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears (fascinating cultural history of our evolving perceptions of what constitutes being a "monster"

Milorad Pavi?, Second Body (available online, this is a great, great story that is based in part upon a medieval legend involving the Virgin Mother)

Dave Eggers, Zeitoun (not-so-ghostwritten memoir of an Arab-American survivor of Hurricane Katrina and the hell he endured after the flood from DHS.

Eggers, Wild Things (Eggers had two outstanding books published this year. This is a loosely-based novelization of the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are. Damn good YA novel)

And I could continue this for hours, no doubt...