A couple of recent and good non-fiction reads:
The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone.
The Hidden Hand: Britain, America, and Cold War Secreat Intelligence by Richard Aldrich
Gauntlet: Five friends, 20,000 Enemy Troops, and the Secret That Could Have Changed the Cold War by Barbara Masin, Naval Institute Press, 2006.
Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (currently controversial, if that’s a bonus)
Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen (check out his others, very well written historical accounts)
Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum (won the 2004 Pulitzer prize, been reading it for months. Too depressing to read over a weekend…)
Julie Phillips’ biography of James Tiptree, Jr./Alice Sheldon: The Double Life (great literary bio, but a must read for fans)
Madness and Civilization and/or Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault.
Eland: 25 years’ dedication to classic travel writing
Thousands of new books are published each year. And you might imagine that about the same amount go out of print each year.
The history of virginity with Hanne Blank
How do you define virginity? According to historian Hanne Blank, it’s not as straightforward as you’d think. St Thomas Aquinas said that to be a virgin you had to be pure of body and mind. In Ancient Greek times the ‘parthenios’ were considered virgins and yet they often had children; and during the Renaissance the ‘piss prophets’ would study the urine of young women to test their virginity. It’s the history of virginity on the Book Show – it’s not as simple as the birds and the bees.
abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/default.htm
Be quick - this will not stay up long.
Field Notes From A Catastrophe - Elizabeth Kolbert
And one or two closer to home…
Was Linda Colley’s “Britons: Forging the Nation.” Don’t know whether British 18th century history is your thing but really a brilliant book.
Hmm…doing a definition search, “Forging” comes across as “to make falsely.”
Heat by Bill Buford.
Dave
Agreed, but also ‘forging’ as in ‘to forge’ as in iron!:
Forge: 1. trans. To make, fashion, frame, or construct (any material thing); = FABRICATE v. 1. Obs. exc. as coincident with transf. use of 2. to forge together: to frame together, weld.
2. To shape by heating in a forge and hammering; to beat into shape; to coin (money). Also with out.
b. absol. or intr. To work at the forge; to do smith's work.
Goldberg, Writing down the bones
Bettger, How I raised myself from failure to success in selling
Bhagavad Gita
Tao Te Ching
Rogers, Fighting to win
Caples, Making Ads Pay
Brande, Wake up and Live
Polya, How to solve it
Pirsig, Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
Lakatos, Proofs and Refutations
Carnegie, How to stop worrying and start living
Tolle, The power of now
Feynman, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Shinichi Suzuki, Nurtured by Love
Timothy Gallwey, Inner game of tennis
Charlie Wilson’s War - George Crile
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
Bob!
A Very Happy and Successful New Year 
Ive just noticed: Youve got the same gap in your smile, as I have in mine
Take care
Vic
Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription; William F. Buckley JR.
http://www.amazon.com/Cancel-Your-Own-Goddam-Subscription/dp/0465002420
Just finished it last night.
Great book.
By the way, perhaps if you read it, you might be able to explain to me what Immanentize the eschaton means.
Best,
Howard
The Empty Space by Peter Brook is incredible if that’s your thing.
No, don’t just tell him! Where’s the fun in that? 
Buckley meant it in the sense of “Don’t wish for Heaven on Earth,” a refutation to liberal thinking.
And then he got Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II.