I just read Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to understand more about black people in the south -- especially 'Why don't they...?". And for a white northerner like me, it was extra illuminating.
Also in my excellent and just-read pile:
The latest Andrea Camilleri mystery (the author is a man, and the novels are set in Sicily and involve lots of delicious food!)
My Real Children by Jo Walton, a novel about how life would be if things had been just a little different -- if the protagonist had married someone else, if the Cuban missile crisis had ended in another way, etc.