Ha Jin's War Trash is the fictional memoir of a Chinese POW during the Korean War. Worth a read, though somewhat depressing.

Charles de Lint's Someplace to be Flying was a drastic change of pace from War Trash. It took me awhile to get into, but I think was worth the effort. Like the other book of his I'd read (Trader) this one is urban fantasy. No elves or swordfighting and set in a modern-day (but imaginary) North American city.

Douglas Adams and John Lloyd wrote The Deeper Meaning of Liff a dictionary to words that should exist but don't. Definitely not something to read straight through, but it had some funny points.

Affluenza as a book came after a PBS series of the same name (which I have a hold on at the library now). It's a look at our collective spending and saving habits. There wasn't that much I hadn't heard before, but it was a pretty good complement to Bowling Alone.
posted by kristin at 2:22 PM