Woah, whats wrong with Thrawn? i loved him in the books!
Novels after the SW trailogy are numerous, but they range in quality from awesome to aweful. if u just want to stick to the "must reads:"
- Timothy Zahn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command)
- Jedi Academy Trilogy (Only mediocre books, but important for stuff later)
- I, Jedi
- Hand of Thrawn Dualogy
After that it greatly depends on your like of the start of New Jedi Order series . i didnt like it at all, and stopped reading very early on. My wife loves it though. Also, Im a huge fan of the X-Wing series (8 books from memory) but then Wedge Antilles is my favourite Star Wars chaarcter, and these follow him a lot. Theres other ones interspersed that are decent as well, but thats the main ones I think u need to have it make sense.