Books I've read the last two years that I highly recommend:
(this list is not crafted to position myself or to make a statement and the selections are in no particular order. I simply found these books compelling.)

• A General Theory of Love, by Dr. Thomas Lewis * * * * This very readable primer on the new brain science of love and attachment will make you think hard about your relationships and about how your memory works.

• Atonement (A Novel) by Ian McEwan, * * * * A classic style of old fashioned British novel, set on an estate in the countryside, but with such taut writing and tense character drama that he reinvigorates the form.

• The Lovely Bones (A Novel) by Alice Seybold, * * * * At first I could barely read this (as a parent, to read about a little girl being raped and dismembered, was so scary), but the rest of the book, about her surviving family, told from the dead girl's point of view as she sits in heaven, is indeed heavenly.

• The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan * * * A contemplative look at four plants: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato, portraying their survival strategy, which is to satiate a very particular human desire. 

• You Are Not A Stranger Here (Stories) by Adam Haslett, 
  * * * * Wonderful, emotionally touching stories, many of which involve a character with mental illness. People really trying to figure the world out, trying to learn how to live. The best new short fiction I've read in years. 

• The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw * * * stories of people who sacrificed for the war effort and upon returning to America were content with a simple life, having seen such horror 

• All I Could Get (A Novel) by Scott Lasser * * * the most well-shaped (nothing faked) and well written story of one man's attempt to make a buck on Wall Street before it ruins he and his family.

• The Soul of a Chef, by Mark Ruhlman * * * we meet three chefs as Ruhlman looks for perfection, in cooking and in life

• Killing Pablo, by Mark Bowden * * * no Black Hawk Down in its storytelling style, but equally important for what it says about going after warlords. Chronicles the decade+ effort to hunt down Columbia's cocaine king, Pablo Escobar

• Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden * * * * * minute by minute account of US military action in Mogadishu

• The Shadow of the Sun, by Ryzsand Kapuscinki * * * * some of the best writing I've ever beheld; various accounts of the journalist's decades in Africa

• The Duke of Havana, by Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez,
  * * * * the incredibly true story of Yankees pitcher El Duque Hernandez's immigration from Cuba

• Diamonds, by Mathew Hart * * * * decently written, totally fascinating expose of Diamond trade

• The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro, by Joe McGinniss * * * * season long account of minor league soccer in Italian mountain town

• Operating Instructions, by Anne Lammott * * * * heartfelt and moving account of her son's first year

• Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand * * * * * a story of a famous horse I couldn't put down

• E = MC2, by David Bodanis, * * * the history of the famous equation

• In Harm's Way, by Doug Stanton * * * okay writing, but mindblowing story of USS Indianapolis survivors

• The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, by Judith Wallerstein, * * * important research for our generation that grew up with divorced parents

• Carry Me Across the Water (A Novel), by Ethan Canin * * * * innovative narrative structure that writings students will emulate for years

• How to Read a French Fry, by Russ Parsons - fascinating science of cooking

• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers * * * * will always be grateful for how he cracked open the memoir narrative without employing the off-putting tricks of metafiction

• Momma and the Meaning of Life, by Irvin Yalom * * * * accounts of his personal involvement with therapy patients that really reveals how hard it is to overcome grief

• White Teeth (A Novel), by Zadie Smith * * * * genuinely warm, amusing, and terrific writing

• Buffalo Soldiers (A Novel), by Robert O'Conner * * * * * intense novel set on US military base in Germany during the 80s

• Manhattan Nocturne (A Novel), by Colin Harrison * * * * a Manhattan newspaper columnist tries to solve the death of a murdered filmmaker

• Bringing Out the Dead (A Novel), by Joe Connelley * * * * novel about ambulance driver haunted by his passengers

• Eat the Rich, P.J. O'Rourke * * * *  capitalism vs socialism vs monarchy vs communism all around the world

• Fight Club (A Novel), by Chuck Paluhniuk * * * * shockingly new voice and style, stirring insight into the dark needs of men

• The Man Who Ate Everything, by Jefferey Steingarten * * * *

• The Art of the Novel, by Milan Kundera * * *

• Encounters with the Archdruid, by JohnMcPhee * * * *

• The Milagro Beanfield War (A Novel), John Nichols * * * *

• A Man in Full (A Novel), Tom Wolfe * * * *

• Freedomland (A Novel), Richard Price * * * *

• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche * * * *

• Second Chances, (the only longitudinal study about growing up in divorced families and how it affects us over time,) by Judith Wallerstein and Sandra Blakeslee * * * *

• You Just Don't Understand; Women and Men in Conversation, by Deborah Tannen

• An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks * * * *

• A Poetry Handbook, Mary Oliver * * * * *