Finished three books within the past few days.
1.
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I enjoyed this tale of a time traveler who sought to visit Europe during the early 14th century but accidentally found herself instead in the
mid-14th century during the time the Black Death was ravaging Europe. The book seemed almost as if it had been written by two people, as the people and world of the near-future seemed somewhat shallow and unconvincing, while the people of the Middle ages seemed to come alive with quite a bit of depth. The sense of reality in the latter seemed to me to more than make up for the faults of the former, and I give this book a hearty thumbs-up. This is the current MobileRead Book Club selection, and more of my opinions on the book as well as the opinions of other club participants can be found in
this thread.
2.
Evolution of the Word by Marcus J. Borg. Someone with the academic credentials necessary to do the job finally published the 27 books of the New Testament in the order in which they were written; beginning with the 7 letters of Paul nearly universally accepted as genuine and ending with II Peter, which most scholars believe was written sometime in the second century by an unknown author. I highly recommend this to anyone who is curious as to how Christianity and the Christian Bible grew took shape in its formative years.
3.
The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime by Adrian Raine. This is a somewhat controversial book, but it is very thought-provoking and the author seems to bend over backwards in his attempt to fairly portray opinions contrary to his own. Very heavily footnoted and well-researched; I give this one a big thumbs up also.