Non-fiction book recs: Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061097314/sr=8-1/qid=1149409435/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-2449747-6870240?%5Fencoding=UTF8) and its sequel Pigs in Heaven (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006109868X/ref=pd_bxgy_text_b/002-8117737-1880828?%5Fencoding=UTF8) (I also recommend The Poisonwood Bible (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060786507/sr=8-2/qid=1149409865/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-8117737-1880828?%5Fencoding=UTF8)). Re-reading them now and still love them.

On an entirely different shelf in the bookstore, naominovik's Temeraire series (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/91728/ref=pd_sr_ec_ser_b/002-8117737-1880828), which are (to quote the mod of the fan community) an "AU historical regency naval fiction" series. Absolutely fantastic: well-researched, fleshed out characters that feel real, funny but appropriate scenes, and a Jacobin dragon. In the Napoleonic wars.