Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson. I enjoy her later fiction as well, but this, her second book, is her masterpiece, I think. It's a postmodern fairytale set in an English village in the early 1960's (mostly -- the story goes back in time a lot). I discovered it before I discovered Tolkien, but I think I go back to it for similar reasons.
Human Croquet is much more psychologically brutal than a book like
Lord of the Rings, but, like Tolkien, Atkinson loves her characters, and, for a postmodern author, she does seem to believe in absolute evil, which is interesting. Her sense of place and atmosphere is also something I admire.
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It's the scope, it's all about the scope.
And amazing daring.
I'll be coming back to this later.