This took me awhile to figure out. If you go into the shuffle section of iTunes itself, and then click on the left hand column header (the one with numbers in) it will put it in play order (in other words, how it will play when not set to shuffle. Then you can drag around individual tracks. I used this to put my podcasts first.

I run my bitrates between 160 and 256. I think 192 is probably the sweet spot for the shuffle. 160 would probably work fine as well.

I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!