Anything and everything (including papers) by Marty Isaacs. I am more familiar with his "Finite Group Theory" book, but from the little I have seen, the same holds for his "Algebra" textbook. Of course, his book on Character Theory is the canonical text in that area.

The power of Isaacs' writing lies primarily in the clarity of his arguments. You are never left wondering where a certain bit came from, and he manages that without over-repeating himself, or over-explaining.

Then it's the content itself. In the first 70 pages of his FGT book, one already learns "exotic" stuff like the Chermak-Delgado measure, and the Theorems of Horosevskii, Lucchini, and Zenkov.

Another merit of his books is his choice of exercises. He really can't be commended enough on this. All are carefully chosen to supplement and strengthen the material presented in a flawless way.

A huge bonus is that nearly all arguments presented are his, and are as close to "from first principles" as possible.