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re: Foster Wallace
I read the cruise essay in his "Another Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" - indications of his ... issues were there (in hindsight). I have "Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself" by David Lipsky (author shadows DFW on tour) on my TBR.
re: Murakami
I couldn't get into "Kafka on the Shore" but liked "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "After Dark"; "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is on my TBR pile.
I don't read that much literary fiction, but found Tom Rachman's "The Imperfectionists" worthwhile, in case anyone is undecided.
After putting the book off fearing it was over-hyped, a while back I read Jane Gardam's "Old Filth" ... which was excellent! I had read "The Queen of the Tambourine" previously; you get the idea early on the protagonist is an unreliable narrator, but how much?
For non-fiction, I'm going to strongly recommend folks think of trying Barbara Demick's "Nothing to Envy" - stories of six North Korean refugees. The government goes to great pains to hide what's going on, so this is about the only way to find out the truth. The stories are given in narrative format, rotating among the defectors, so there's a nice element of tension regarding the build up to their decision to leave, as well as the actual escape.
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