Can someone recommend books set at the TOR era?

Hello,

While waiting for swtor to come out I'd like to increase my knowledge of what was going on in the star wars universe around the time of KOTOR and TOR. I did play KOTOR 1 and 2 back in the day but I cannot remember what happened in them for the life of me.

Can someone recommend some novels that could help me understand what is going on in the universe at this time?

Thanks