What I’ve been reading
1. John B. Thompson, Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century. By an order of magnitude, this is the best book on the economics of contemporary publishing. It covers the UK scene as well.
2. Adam Feinstein, A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers. A lengthy and informative treatment of how thought on autism evolved, and most of all a tale of how badly science can misfire, even "these days." I am not sure how much the portraits of researchers are intended as positive, but overall I take away from this book the message that many of them are arrogant and also partially incompetent. It is possible that this is a better book (and for different reasons) than the author himself realizes.
3. Wallace Stegner, The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail. An excellent book, based on a blockbuster combination of writer and topic.
4. Jean-Christopher Valtat, Aurorarama. Think French steam punk, Inuit characters, a strange dark ship hovering over an ice-locked retro-futuristic town, and a plot which might have come from an incoherent Japanese anime movie. So far I like it and it's also my favorite book cover in some time:
There were other books which I put down quickly or not quickly enough. I'm also reading more Thomas Bernhard, never a mistake.