To kick it off, i just finished Blindsight by Peter Watts. (And
@Eyes of Nine was wondering my reaction.)
It's a beautifully fresh hard-SF take on First Contact, or almost two first contacts in that the humans themselves are different enough from our baseline that discovering them is a co-journey.
It's got a lot of exposition, but handles it well between making it pertinent to the action or as part of flashbacks. It's a thinky, philosophic novel.
It ends up with an interested premise that I don't personally endorse, but that did not detract from the story to me.
Imagine I am quite entertained.