Let's see...I went to Mac OS X Server advanced training at MD Anderson in Houston at the end of June, we spent a week in Branson, Missouri with my wife's family, built a dulcimer with my son at a class hosted by Tom Yocky, went to Crystal Beach (just east of Galveston) for a few days with our friends the Magees (big fun, gotta make that an annual trip!), and generally hung out with friends and family during our "back home" time. And, I read a good book.
While in Missouri, we made a day trip to Mansfield, which is (was) the home of Almanzo and Laura (Ingalls) Wilder, author of the "Little House" book series. Their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was a noted writer and author in her day, and I purchased one of her books: The Discovery of Freedom, written in 1943 (ISBN 0-930073-00-2). I highly recommend this book, both because it will give you a new appreciation for America and because it will give you a rare insight into the Founding Fathers' reasons for arranging our government as they did. You will also gain some understanding of why the Islamic culture of today is vastly different from, and more dangerous to freedom than, the Islamic culture of 1300 years ago.
The only cautionary note I would offer on the book is to remember that Ms. Lane is not writing from a Christian perspective (my opinion is that she leans more toward a Muslim perspective), and expressly states that she is not out to compare religions, but that her purpose is simply to look at the human side of freedom. She does an excellent job in that regard, but it does cause the book to have, perhaps unintentionally, a decidedly humanist tone.