beetiger

...I'm going to give a couple of each. I can't help myself. But they'll all be totally distinct, and one of them I owe you from when you last visited, anyway. :-)

Fiction:

• Dreams Underfoot, Charles de Lint. A short-story collection, so they're all bite-sized; one of my favorite authors with some of his very best stories. Wonderful stuff in a wonderful setting, with a sense of place that not much can match.
  
• Finder, Carla Speed McNeil. Comic, with three graphic novels available. I have a strong weakness for stories where the setting is one of the characters, and this is another one of those. You get the feeling reading it that, if you asked, McNeil could tell you the life story of that guy who appears in the background of page 3, panel 4, issue 19; it's just that well-realized. Her art is occasionally murky, but it's very well suited to the story, and her sense of graphic composition -- especially in service to storytelling -- shines.
  

On the non-fiction side:

• The Clock of the Long Now, Stewart Brand. A fascinating philosophical dissertation on time in the broad sense, in the context of the world's slowest clock (one that can count tens of thousands of years). One of those books that may well change how you think.
  
• The Elements of Taste, Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky. This is that nifty book on flavor that I was showing off to you when you were out this way; well worth checking out in more detail, and possibly even professionally justifiable. :-)
  

Sorry I couldn't quite stick to two, but at least I came close! Pick one of each, if you feel you must.