When I was in high school, I was a very big Heinlein fan. I believe I've read every one of his novels (even the later, ponderous ones) and most of his shorter work back then. Heinlein died in 1988, but oddly, a "new" Heinlein novel was recently unearthed and published: For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs.

Sadly, I cannot recommend this book. If you're a Heinlein completist, then you have to get it, of course, but if you haven't read much of his work, this is not the place to start. The story itself is pretty lame: the protagonist, in 1939, wrecks his car and wakes up in 2086. Our hero then learns (as does the reader) the ways of that future world. Surely there are some ideas in this book that show up later in Heinlein's later work, but it's all presented here in a bunch of expository lectures thinly disguised as story. Not good story either, but excessively talky story. Which is to say that this was a pretty boring book to read.

I found it interesting to learn that this book was written before Heinleins's first short story sale to John Campbell. Heinlein always had this sort of myth about him that he effortlessly sold his first work and just kept on building. The fact that he had this trunk novel that he was unable to sell knocks him off his lofty pedestal.

If you're new to Heinlein, I do recommend you start with some of his other works. A few of my personal favorites include The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, and The Puppet Masters. If you enjoy shorter work, many of Heinlein's stories interconnect loosely in a common outline of future history, and are collected in The Past Through Tomorrow.