Spies of No Country, by Matti Friedman

I highly recommend this excellent book to anyone interested in the history of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Not only is this book a real page-turner, it's also extremely informative about the origins of Israel and the way it relates to its Arab neighbours. Matti Friedman is not only a great writer, but also a sensible and accurate thinker, I've reading his columns and books and wish there were more people with his acumen, intelligence and sensibility.

Crossing, by Pajtim Statovci

My Cat Yugoslavia was a remarkable debut novel, a work of genius. And Pajtim Statovci doesn't let you down with his second novel, Crossing. It's a mesmerizing read, so good you just don't want it to end. Always moving but never corny, often funny is an ironic way, Crossing puts the questions of identity and the search for one's true self in a non-judgemental way, refusing easy labels or victimizing. Pajtim Statovci comes across as one of the great contemporary writers, I cannot but highly recommend reading his books.

The Book of the New Sun - Shadow & Claw, by Gene Wolfe

I don't know how I hadn't heard about this book before, there was a time when I read a lot of science fiction. This is a very good book of sci-fi / fantasy - actually two books, The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator, of a series of four, and I hope to read the other two soon. I'm always fascinated when an author can convey a whole believable alternative world, and this one is on a par with Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea and much better than JRR Martin's Game of Thrones. It's an engaging and page turning read, and still intelligent and interesting, for its clever plot and its original depiction of a world thousands of years from now, when the Sun is cooling.

Looking forward to read the next two books!