This is a list of some of the books I've recently read and enjoyed, and that I like to recommend to my friends. Links are included to order from Amazon, since I get a small amount of money if you buy them that way. But I'd rather you just read good books than buying them here specifically.
Gladstone's Games to Go: Verbal Volleys, Coin Contests, Dot Duels, and Other Games for Boredom-Free Days. The author is my ex, and I was around for the testing of many of the games. I thought it would be a cool book when he was writing it, but the book is better than I'd imagined it would be. The design is entertaining and the writing easy and captivating. And, of course, the games are fun.
The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? The other side of the privacy debate: maybe the only way to protect our lives is to accept near total transparency. Brin doesn't answer the questions he poses, but the questions desperately need posing.
Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence John Hockenberry talks about life as a paraplegic, discrimination, and the mid-east.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. A murder-mystery told from the point of view of the main character, who is autistic. Seeing the world from inside an autistic kids head is stunning and makes for an unexpectedly excellent book.
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner eloquently and compellingly follows the lives of four friends, two couples, from their early meeting at the University of Wisconsin, where they have accepted their first faculty positions, to their twilight many decades later. A story about nothing at all except that it is movingly about four lives.
The Big Book of Misunderstanding My ex-boyfriend's first novel, a cool story of growing up in America.
Lives of the Monster Dogs Some talking dogs arrive in New York City in the very near future. Descended from some nineteenth century Prussians living in the remotest Canadian wilderness for a hundred years, they become the talk of the town. Ultimately about belonging and loneliness.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Cartoon superheroes and the allies fight against Nazis and powerlessness. Won the Pulitzer for good cause.
Maus : A Survivor's Tale : My Father Bleeds History / Here My Troubles Began Jews (mice) living with Nazis (cats), Art Spiegleman's cartoon biography of his father.
(Hit the back button on your browser to return whence you came.)