Junot Diaz- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
I hadn't read anything awesome in a while and almost forget how that even felt. I feel like this book blows Fortress of Solitude out of the water for best nerdy hero in the hood novel. The language is visceral and elegant, not masturbatory like so much literary stuff. It's fun, sad and as a bonus may improve your Spanish. I'll bet a lot of people have already read this, it isn't like this is new, but for everyone else...go and pick it up, this is a bang bang winner.
