Stand on Zanzibar by Brunner, John Another important influence on cyberpunk, this classic 1969 Hugo Award winner is best enjoyed for its fully-realized imagining of an overcrowded world set in a 2010 of acceleratubes, intelligent computers, and mass-marketed psychedelics. Remarkably prophetic in its speculations.

Water for Elephants by Gruen, Sara As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.