What is the last good book that you read?

My favorite books are biographies, especially those of a historical and/or political figure. I just finished West of Kabul, East of New York, the biography of a man named Tamim Ansary. Ansary is an Afghan-American who has been living in the US since he was a teenager. He is the son of an Afghan father and an American mother, and wrote his autobiography after the events of September 11. In the book, he describes his youth surrounded by Islam in its true form, without the extremism most of us in the West know, and also about how he was considered an outsider both in Afghanistan and the US, due to his mixed ethnicity. In the US, Ansary was easily Westernized. He was a young adult in the sixties, and participated in the hippie culture that was the "thing" at the time. He had never felt fully connected to Islam, and after a few years he returned to the Middle East to travel and learn more about his roots. This was during the time of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, so even though he was able to travel all around the neighbors of his native country, he could not actually enter into its borders. I found the book really interesting. Ansary provides enough historical data to help the reader understand what was going on at the time, but he doesn't bog you down with details. The book remains an autobiography and not a history textbook. And though Ansary considers himself to be very much a liberal, the book doesn't really have a strong political agenda. He doesn't try to convince you to oppose the war or the president. He just wants to present a picture of the REAL Afghanistan, not the extremists who fill up the spotlight. If you enjoy books like this, I would really recommend it. I do not recall where I purchased it, but I'm sure you could find it at any bookstore, online or otherwise. Happy reading!