2 great recent books: one is "The Goblin Emperor" by Katherine Addison. It's been out about a month and I have read it 3 times -- It is a Fantasy of manners to some extent and reminded me of the Liaden cultural bits, and I seem to find it a ogood book for de-stressing. and "Ancillary Justice" by Anne Leckie which I have read twice since it came out -- it is space opera that does some interesting things with gender and identity and cultral differences.