Casual Star Wars viewer here. (Yes, we exist. No, please don't flame me.)
 
My girlfriend and I just finished the Blu-Ray box set. It was pretty good. I didn't enjoy the prequel trilogy as much as episodes 4 through 6 (yes, I know they were edited, and no, it didn't really bother me). So now that we're at the end of it all, we both kind of want more. My attention has turned to the many novels that apparently extend the Star Wars story, and I'm kind of overwhelmed by how many there are. I'm in the mood for serious stuff, so I'm tempted to stick to the titles marked "Adult Novel" on the Wookieepedia page, but even so, there's a whole lot of these and I have no idea which are any good... or where to even start.
 
Has anyone here read some of these novels, and which would you recommend us?
 
Oh, and I'm not really one for e-books, or novelizations of the existing films.

Start with the Heir to the Empire Trilogy. It's basically Ep 7, 8 and 9 and really good. After that you can check out the Hand of Thrawn series, that's 2 books. Most of Timothy Zhan stuff is good. TheX-wing series is good too.

I've only read Deceived and Revan from the Old Republic line but those are good, they read smoothly.
 
They're not as much extending the story of the flicks though, the Old Republic is a whole thing before it so that could be either confusing or plain not what you're asking here.
But just my two cents.

@Metal_Mills said:

Start with the Heir to the Empire Trilogy. It's basically Ep 7, 8 and 9 and really good. After that you can check out the Hand of Thrawn series, that's 2 books. Most of Timothy Zhan stuff is good. The X-wing series is good too.

Basically this. The X-Wing stuff is really good, as it doesn't directly involve the well known characters from the movies. Just Wedge Antilles, the only other guy to survive all the battles of the original Star Wars trilogy. Start with Rogue Squadron (1996). Outside of those, I liked

The Courtship of Princess Leia (1994)

The Callista Trilogy - The Children of the Jedi, Darksaber & Planet of Twilight (1995-1997)

Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore (of Kingdoms of Amalur) is notable for the fate of an original trilogy character. (1999)

One I haven't read but details the fate of another important Extended Universe character is Sacrifice. (2007)

Thanks for the responses so far. I'll look into Heir to the Empire and the others. :-)
 
I've also been considering the Dark Forces trilogy, as I quite like the game Jedi Knight.

I'll second the Heir to the Empire trilogy and X-Wing series. Heir is still amazing and the Corran Horn from X-Wing has become one of my favorite characters. I, Jedi is a great book about him.

I'd check that stuff out first then if you're still enjoying it look into the series that deal with the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Stuff gets reeeal dark when they show up.

To bring more light to Episode 1, I suggest you read Darth Maul: Saboteur and Cloak of Deception. The Darth Maul: Saboteur short story talks about how the Trade Federation became a monopoly and Cloak of Deception talks about how they managed to acquire a droid army to invade Naboo. To be honest, those are the only ones I've read so far. I'm working on Darth Revan right now.

I would also suggest reading the Star Wars Legacy comics. It goes into details about Luke Skywalker's grandson, Cade Skywalker. I'm only halfway through and it is amazing. Some pretty dark shit is going on.

Well, I finished the Heir to the Empire trilogy last night, and I was in no way disappointed. I don't think my girlfriend finds them as enjoyable, though, as she never got past the first book. Even so, this was exactly what I was looking for. It's like you guys said, they're basically episode seven, eight and nine! So thanks for recommending them to me. I've already ordered the Hand of Thrawn duology – can't wait to see what's in there. I think I'll stick with Timothy Zahn until I've decided what other stuff to branch into.