Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America's Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
I enjoyed this well-researched look inside the world of what once was New York publishing and wondered whether there ever again will be such stories to tell of large personalities and eccentrics in the future as the now very-corporate publishing world locks horns with digital.
Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker
This is a collection of interviews with people who knew and played with Charlie Parker, so the five stars aren't for the writing. They're for the fact that the many and diverse interviews make you feel you once hung with Bird. What an honor that would have been, as difficult and unpredictable as he was. If you love his music, you'll love this.
Master and Commander
I've read the entire series and loved each and every one. No one better captures the sea and the age. And what a wonderful pairing of characters, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. I wish they would hurry up and fade from memory so I could start the series all over again.