Royal Affair: Night is SUCH a good book. Have you read his other ones? In that kind of area I also love "All Quiet on the Western Front". I just picked up "What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany" by Eric Johnson and Karl-Heinz Rueband. It's an oral history of a bunch of people living in Germany during the Nazi Regime. Looks really good.
I just finished "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodie Picoult this morning. I liked it well enough, interesting concept. Think it could have been much better with a different author. I found there was too much fluff and nothing I could really get into. I want a book I can really sink my teeth into, get down into the bones, rip it appart and walk away with something. My mom teases me that she always can tell what books I like based on how much of it I've highlighted, dog eared and posted noted. This was simply a book I could put down, walk away and think nothing of it.
Day before yesterday I finished "Persopolis" by Marjane Starapi. It's an autobiographical comic book about her growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Really good, interesting read. You get to see everything through the point of view of a child. It's nice on both a historical, and psychological front. Interesting period of history, and you also get to see the processing and coping of a child during a high stress time period.
Books I currently have on the go:
~Uses and Abuses of History by Margaret MacMillan (author of Paris 1919). Basically the importance of history, traps in studying history, and how history can influence society (for good and bad). Quick read, a bit shy of 200 pages.
~Love's Executioner by Irvin D. Yalom, M.D. It's an old book, from 1989 detailing different cases he worked with as a psycotherapist. Really intestesting as it gives the therapists point of view on psycological issues.
~A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers. Shortlisted for a Pulitzer prize, autobiography. Author, who is in his early 20s, has both his parents die of cancer within 5 weeks of eachother. He gets custody of his younger brother, who is 9ish (forget exact age). Really interesting.
~ Alice in Wonderland (self explanitory, rereading it because I'm wicked excited for the movie)
~ The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker. About language and how it relates to human nature.