Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess .
Hilarious collection of essays about her childhood and her life. I had to read it just for the ethically taxidermied mouse on the cover. The mouse is standing on his hind legs, dressed as Hamlet with a velvet cape and a lace ruff, and holds a cleaned and polished mouse skull in his right paw.
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Well worth reading, but alerts for adult language and situations. Highly recommended.

Understanding The Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism edited by Rose Zimbardo and Neil Isaacs.
Darn it, every time some Tolkien-based movie comes out, I relapse into my addiction. Sure, I can read only one chapter.... OK, maybe two... now I have to read more about the Ents! Get away while I look up some hobbit family trees, you!

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling.
A local councillor dies and there is much jockeying for his vacated position. It would have helped if I had known more about British small town governance (although Rowling makes it clear from context.) The author is excellent at characterization. However (SPOILER WARNING) this doesn't end as happily as the Harry Potter books did.

Agent of Hel: Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey.
The author of the "Kushiel" series stays in the current world, where the title character is a half-demon, half-human girl who is literally the Agent of Hel, Hel being the Norse goddess of the underworld, and the liaison between the human and eldritch communities. Things aren't going well in Pomkowet, a small resort town - there has been a murder and there's a link to the Underworld. Well-written, snappy, and light-reading fun.

A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix.
I've liked Nix's work ever since I read "Sabriel" years ago. He doesn't disappoint with this stand-alone novel about a Prince of the Empire. The Emperor is abdicating in two years and all the Princes of the Empire are angling for his position. One of the ways to get ahead is to kill your competition. Our hero comes of age and has to grow up. Not as good as the "Sabriel" trilogy but still enjoyable reading.