Robert Sullivan
Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants
It's the cover that starts it off -- a rendition of a rat composed of New York's city streets. This is not for the squeamish, although the author is forthright about his own squeamishness regarding rats. Rat tails. Uck. A great natural history, combining the history of New York, of one alley in New York, and the history of rats' involvement with mankind, all woven together with personal observations, interviews with some of the leading figures in Ratdom's human pest control companies, and the tale of the fall of the World Trade Center's impact on Ratkind. If you like wandering natural histories, this one is for you.
A. S Byatt
The Little Black Book of Stories
There's two kinds of A. S. Byatt books -- ones in which she takes a semi-mythological tone and others that are very contemporary. The contemporary ones I have never gotten into, but "Angels and Insects" and "Possession" are both incredible books. Her short story collections are usually very good, and this recent collection contains 5 stories. Two of them are just haunting. "The Stone Woman" first appeared in the New Yorker, and was the kind of story that could induce either a fugue state or a trip to Iceland. On second reading, it's still that powerful.
