If you like historical fiction, try The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. It's a thriller/murder mystery based on Dante Alighieri's Inferno. A tight and gripping read with many good twists.
Recently I finished reading Harlan Greene's The German Officer's Boy that tells the account of 17-yr-old Herschel Grynszpan's life that climaxed in his killing of Ernst vom Rath, a German embassy's officer in Paris. The murder supposedly ignited Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Holocaust. It's moreso a fiction than a story of facts, but it's a compelling one. Contains homosexuality.
Fantasy:
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is a good start. I myself is trying to find more of his books.
Jacqueline Carey's The Kushiel Trilogy is also nice if you don't mind some R-rated stuffs.