All poetry, all the time recommendations:
Two about Brooklyn
Everyone should read this.
A wonderful reimagining of a piece of American history. The novel blends the real character of Mary Ellen Pleasant, an extremely successful black businesswoman from California, with the raid on Harper's Ferry, and a Jamaican abolitionist, and...it's great!
Both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln celebrate 200th birthday on 12 Feb -- or, rather, we should celebrate their joint birthday by reading stuff by and about them.