The Improbability of Love  by Hannah Rothschild -- great new book in the traditional novel mold. Sweeping scope, lots of characters, mystery, art-world glamour and satire, sympathetic main character. The title is from a (fictional) painting by Watteau, and it speaks for part of the book. Needless to say all comes out well in the end.

    In nonfiction, my latest favorite is The Thing With Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human by Noah Strycker.  I know I over-use the term but it is fascinating, about the behavior of birds and what they can do, and the history thrown in - just the part about carrier pigeons is worth it. It also ties in well with the DVD  Birders - The Central Park Effect by the author Jonathan Franzen, about the birdwatchers in Central Park.

More historical fiction; Sex Wars by Madge Piercy, who also wrote a lot of feminist fiction at the beginning of the women's movement; also The Mirror by Lynn Freed.

If you're not really, really into historical fiction but still consider it an option; Yxta Maya Murray's The Conquest and Margaret Drabble's The Red Queen are both excellent.

Re: Margaret Drabble - if anyone remembers Swinging London, London in the early 60's, her first few novels are set in that era; The Garrick Year, A Summer Bird-Cage, Jerusalem the Golden, The Millstone.

If you havent already read Michael Gruber's Tropic of Night, do it now. Best thriller I've read since Silence of the Lambs. The sequel is called Valley of Bones, and a new one is coming out this spring called Night of the Jaguar.