Best place to start with Balzac (and other French lit queries)

As the title suggests, I am looking to get into some Balzac this summer (he has been on my reading list for probably 6 years now) and I'm wondering if anyone has a personal preference of a good starter novel. I have only read a few of his shorter works.

Also, I figure that I will dedicate much of my summer to French reading. While not unexperienced in French literature, my knowledge is limited to the bigger names. I'm wondering if someone could recommend a good contemporary novel out of France (with an English translation)?

I recommend "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky a French writer of Jewish Ukrainian origins.her book was intended to be written as 5 parts but she only wrote the first 2 and left notes for the third.She died in Auschwitz but left her notebooks with her daughters who did not read it until many years later. I read it in English but it is available in the original French I liked it very much and her own story is a tragic one.