We have a friend who is doing some commuting and has asked me for science fiction and fantasy recommendations -- specifically for someone who has not read a lot of speculative fiction.

Here are some of mine. They are not a top ten list or a best of or anything like that. They are just ones I have loved or found interesting or even ones that I think are "important" to the genres. In no particular order:

1. Dune (Herbert)
2. The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood)
3. Stranger in a Strange Land (my hero, Heinlein)
4. Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead (Card)
5. The Gate to Women's Country (Tepper)
6. Cryptonomicon (Neil Stephenson)
7. A Spell for Chameleon (Anthony) (yeah, yeah, but you don't have to read the OTHER 57)
8. Foundation (Asimov) is probably important enough to give a read -- I have not read it in forever, but it is part of my brain DNA.
9. Harry Potter (Rowling)
10. The Hobbit, LOTR, Tolkien. Egad, I temporarily forgot Tolkien.
11. The Liveship trilogy (Hobb)
12. A Wrinkle in Time
13. Doomsday Book (Willis) is always in my top 20 or so. I have read it many times.

I will add others as I think of them. Recommendations/reminders are welcome.

Edited to add: Anything after number 9.

Everything on this list has been read at least twice by me; several have been read many more times than that.