Yeah, I Know, For Someone Who Reads For a Living, It's Weird that I Read for Fun.

Whatever It Takes, by Paul Tough.
This recounts the story of Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone. I first heard about this on This American Life. And I had to pick up the book. I can't tell you how awesome and inspiring this story is about education and the war against poverty. I couldn't put the book down. Tough does an amazing job of de-politicizing the issue and not shying away from the failures of the program, along with the successes. Kick awesome

The Watchmen, by Alan Moore.
This is the granddaddy of graphic novels. I guess I'm a little weird because even though I was a comic book boy (as opposed to a baseball card boy) growing up, I liked the nerdy and geeky stuff more than the dark, post-modern brooding stuff. I appreciate the deconstruction of the superhero mythos, and I get why this is such a big deal. I get the feeling, however, that the importance of the novel was as much in its timing as it was in its form. Because the central plot doesn't seem as fresh as it probably did way back when. (Ack! I just wrote a criticism of TW on the interwebs! Heresy!)