Ragnarök: The End of the Gods by A.S. Byatt

In this book A.S. Byatt retells Norse mythology (especially as it pertains to Ragnarök, the Twilight (or Judgment) of the Gods) through the eyes of a child sent from her city home to the English countryside during World War II. This perspective both normalizes and makes strange aspects of the story that would have otherwise passed uncommented on stand out--although through the child's perspective everything is accepted in a way that an adult might not. I thought that this story made a powerful case for the relevance of myth in the modern age (and a slightly-less convincing (or maybe just more-disturbing) one for the Ragnarök stories in particular--warnings about beings who despite their power cannot stop themselves from destroying their world).

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

This book chronicles Bryson's experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail in 1996. In addition to his personal experiences, there's a lot of information about the history of the trail, and the nature and other things one encounters along the way. He's willing to push beyond the appearance of things (for example, what do the National Park Service and National Forest Service actual do with the land and resources they're protecting), and he serves it all up in an entertaining and humorous style. This book prompts some great reflection about our relationship to the natural world and to our own bodies and their capabilities. A great read.

Solar by Ian McEwan

This novel, Ian McEwan's latest, tells the story of Michael Beard, a Nobel laureate for whom success in life seems to have come to early. Although the reader can't help but be reminded of Michael's success, he's riding his laurels from the time the book opens. From someone who's intellectually lazy and personally cruel, Beard develops into an even less moral person throughout the course of the book. While Beard personally becomes very interested in the climate change debate, the book itself is more about the personal disasters that Beard fails to navigate than the global disaster that looms over us all. As I have come to expect, McEwan's prose is magnificent.