Neil Gaiman. ANY of the Sandmans (trust me, I'm not a graphic novel person and I adore the Sandman series) and Neverwhere was a ridiculously awesome book.
Edgy, edgy. Do I read edgy? I read a LOT of political science/books about other places in the world. So on that list, I would recommend:
The Places In Between by Rory Stewart -- I think he was about 28 yrs old when he walked across Iran and Afghanistan, coinciding with the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He was unarmed, brilliant, had the language and a hiking stick. He weaves Afghan history in with personal accounts and sketches from the extensive diary he kept during his travels. I found it absolutely fascinating and consider him a rather brave person! He wrote a book called
The Prince of the Marshes & Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq about his one year term as deputy govenor of a southern Iraqi province after the invasion of that country.
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seirstad (I could be spelling her last name wrong, I believe she's Norweigen). Also by Asne,
With Their Backs to the World: Portraits from Serbia and
101 Days in Baghdad.
Sci Fi/Fantasy recommendations:
Anne McCaffery's Botany trilogy. Completely overlooked in my opinion and rather fun. Quick reads. Freedom's Landing, Freedom's Choice and Freedom's Challenge.
Pit Dragon series by Jane Yolen. I don't remember all the titles, they're definitely YA, but I reread A Sending of Dragons recently. Read them in order
Other recommendations:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Year of Wonders
The Virgin's Lover (same author as the Other Boleyn Girl)
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (absolutely stunning account of growing up in Africa...believe it was Rhodesia --nowcalledZimbabwe).
A classmate of mine had his story written by David Eggers in a well acclaimed novel titled
What is the What. He grew up in Sudan and was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan...displaced by the North South war, he walked for miles to find a refugee camp, one of his friends was eating by a lion. Incredible story and Valentino is a beautiful beautiful person.
umm, what else.
Bel Canto--not YA but edgy reading, excellent reading.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian --not actually a short history of tractors in Ukrainian but an excellent story. I absolutely loved this narrator. It's kinda quirky but it's a short book, good read.
okay, I'm done
This is just from this year too. Except Gaiman. I discovered him before.