Now, I'm not reading it currently, but I highly suggest reading Ender's Game. It's an Orson Scott Card book, so get ready for underlying messages, but I'd say read it chiefly because they're making a movie of it. A movie which looks very very separate to the book, and for some reason tells you the ending in the trailer. In short, read for the bending of Ender's mind and the social commentary on the compliance of mankind when faced with annihilation.
I just finished a decent book, Child of Vengeance. It's a fictional account of the early life of Miyamoto Musashi/Miyamoto Bennosuke and as such it takes one of the many possible variations on his tale. Interestingly it goes for a far more outlandish take, causing Game of Thrones-esque political manipulation bound up in the honour code of samurai. In terms of time period, it's at 1600 AD, and the climax of the novel occurs at the Battle of Sekigahara. For those with an interest in Japanese culture this is a decent start, as most of the real accounts are muddled and conflicting. For the Dynasty Warriors fans out there, this is just after Nobunaga Oda kills himself, and the battle is his apprentice Tokugawa Ieyasu facing off against the Clan Ukita. The winner of said battle goes onto become Shogun, and yet another reunification of Japan.
