Mr. Penumbra's 24- Hour Bookstore: A Novel by Robin Sloan (FSG, 2012)
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I've often jokingly described this book as a "more credible Da Vinci Code" because of its fast pace and the focus on the main character's quest to uncover the purpose of the titular bookstore. His techie friends inject 21st-Century flavor as they unravel the mysteries of the store's collection and customers. Sloan writes in a very quick and light prose, and the characters, quirky to the extreme, are sympathetic with the occasional eye-roll. Every generation of reader can relate to themes here: finding purpose in one's life, protecting one's legacy, and the transition from an analog world to a digital one.
On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make Our World Work by Scott Huler (Rodale, 2011)
Water comes out of the tap, a light turns on when you flick the switch. We don't give it a second thought, except when it breaks. Huler's book, a basic and friendly introduction to the infrastructure of our world, shows how our lives and utilities are interconnected, how they work, and why sometimes they don't. Using his native Raleigh as a model of a typical city, Huler's humorous descriptions and quirky asides about infrastructure (e.g. garbage trucks are affectionately called "one-armed bandits" by their operators) give a behind-the-curtain peek at the technology we depend on but don't even know about. This is not a technical manual, though there is a thorough bibliography for further reading. This book is a must read for anyone who is curious about how things work.
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