I'm keeping this list for books to read never. I want nice stories, tidy endings. (The Congressional Record reading is required.)

Books by Patricia Highsmith.

Buddenbrooks - Thomas Mann
Sanctuary - William Faulkner

The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winter

House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski

The Street - Ann Petry

Two wildly different but very dark books

The Countess, Rebecca Johns

The Long Walk (movie name was The Way Back- also very good) about these guys who escape from the gulag and walk through Mongolia, China to India.

The Congressional Record

Forget Gone Girl. Read the one she wrote before it -- Dark Places.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Pretty much all the Russian classics.

Gillian Flynn--Dark Places and Sharp Objects

Serena.

Anonymous wrote:5 Days at Memorial

Agree with this.

Rape of Nanking -- infuriating, haunting, disturbing
Hilter's Furies -- female participation during the Holocaust
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, well written and very powerful

Just finished Sophie's Choice, which is the current Wall St. Journal book club pick. WOW. The first time in my 48 years where I've read something and thought, "this is a master work." I mean, it's that well done.
And heavy. And dark.

Another book that stayed with me is the book by that escapee from the North Korean prison camp. Incredible. The only person born in a camp to ever escape. Short, and imo a must-read. It's called, Escape from Camp 14.