2. Speaker for the Dead- Yea, it's the sequel to Ender's Game, but a totally different type of story. Ender is an adult. He travels to Lusitania, an insignificant planet other than the fact that a primitive alien race dwells there. Ender goes to speak the death of one of the Xenologists on the planet, who was studying the alien race. With his compassion, understanding, and insight Ender is able to pull together a family, bring more understanding between an Alien race and the humans of Lusitania, and avenge his own personal demons. Honestly this book is as close to the quality of Ender's Game a book can get, but is totally different in the story. The one constant is the brilliant characters Orson Scott Card is able to bring to life.
3. Watership Down- It's a tail of perseverance as Hazel, Dandelion, and other rabbits' journey to reestablish their way of life. They work through dangerous situations, and find themselves on a hill they call Watership Down. They journey to find female rabbits and end up in warren of General Woundwort. The story ends with their heroic battle to save Watership Down, and return to their way of life. All in all a brilliant piece of literature.
4. Lies and the Lying, Liars Who Tell Them - In his latest book, Al Franken goes after those who have made a living off of telling lies. I was won over at the beginning of the book when 2 early chapters were dedicated to Ann Coulter, who is the most clueless person in politics. She specifically has said that, "All Liberals hate America." I get a kick out of Frankin's USO chapter every time I read it, because he combats Coulter's nutty lies so sarcastically. Also Franken goes after Fox News, a station which has the clearest conservative agenda I have ever seen. He exams the fact that Alan Colmes the stations "liberal" is a self proclaimed moderate who isn't even allowed to correct Sean Hannity who lies throughout the show. Bill O'Reilly is the major no spin, host, who is an independent that somehow was a registered Republican. All of this was disturbing to me, but not nearly as disturbing as how the Republican's used the death of Paul Wellstone to win elections. The chapters on Wellstone are heartwarming, and yet sad. It makes you realize what a shame politics really can be, and how they really need to change.
5. The Last Amateurs- Feinstein's excellent Season on a Brink was the first of his books getting us into the world of college basketball; however, I would argue The Last Amateurs was his best. He goes into the small time world of Academic schools which also play college basketball. His tale of the Patriot League was enjoyable to the end. It showed a different side of college sports from the one we are used to seeing, and it brought us into the minds of the players and coaches of the Patriot league. As a huge college basketball fan I would recommend it to everyone.
6. The Foundation Series- Yes, I do love science fiction. I feel bad lumping together Asimov's 7 book series, but every book is so good, and I there is no need to explain them all. In the Foundation series humans have spread throughout the galaxy. However, the Empire which has stood for thousands of years is going to collapse, leaving the Universe in shambles. Along comes Hari Seldon with his theory of psychohistory...the science of human behavior reduced to mathematical equations. Predicting the future with math. Hari uses psychohistory to soften the fall of the empire, and make the chaos last only 1000 years instead of 10,000. The foundation series chronicles the fall and rebirth of order in the galaxy. This is Asimov at his finest.
7. Tricky Business- Dave Barry's second fiction book is tons of fun. It is the tale of a gambling boat which also doubles as an illegal drug smuggling boat. This book is the hilarious tale of all the characters on the boat during a huge storm. If you like humor, Dave Barry is as good as it gets for reading.
8. Brave New World- Aldous Huxley's tale of a world where people are grown instead of born is disturbing and entertaining at the same time. The book shows how people are brainwashed into acting the same way, and paints an eye-opening view of the future. Through books like this and 1984 we realize the importance of Individual freedoms, and always keeping an eye on your government.