The most recent good I finished was Ringworld by Larry Niven. I kept reading about it everywhere as a 'geek classic' and just recently picked it up. Quite good, I thought. Refreshing sci-fi. I'm going to check out his other books very soon.
Other than that, a few good semi-recent reads spring to mind . . .
The Art of Travel by Alain de botton. I'm working on The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work right now. I like his insights on the world and the people in it.
Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner. It's a little repetitive at times, but it's a good book. A good 'beach read' kind of book.
I read several of Malcolm Gladwell's books late last year, Blink, Outliers, and The Tipping Point. I enjoyed all of them.
A good book for a group of music aficionados like us is This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin. All about how our minds react to music. Fascinating book.
Over the past several years I've been reading through the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian. This is the 20+ book series from which the movie Master and Commander was created. I'm 5 books into the series. If you liked the movie, you'd probably like the books. It's good, but a little slow at times.
Of course, if we're talking favorites, a couple of mine would be either A Brave New World by Huxley or Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury.
