WordPress.org

This plugin shows Recently written, Recently viewed, Random, Mostly & Rarely Viewd, Mostly Commented posts with thumbnail. You may customize it in any way. It uses amtyThumb plugin to extract first image of your current post. Fully customizable. You may control thumbnail size, Title length, appearance, etc. If you don't have any image in a post, you can set default image too.

Features over other plugins

1. amtyThumb plugin is best to extract any type of image from any post.
2. No need to set separate field for image in your post.
3. If an image is deleted from the post it automatically shows 2nd image as thumbnail.
4. If there is no image in the post it shows default image which can be set. default image path need to be set in advance.
5. Appearance is fully customizable through widget panel or from short code.
6. Best for beginner to masters

Dependency

1. amtyThumb plugin must be installed for image extraction.
2. WP-PostViews plugin must be installed to display mostly & rarely viewed posts.
3. Recently Viewed Posts plugin must be installed to display recently viewed posts.