I'm not a person to recommend books. As each and every person has his/her own different tastes that need to be respected. But without hesitation here's four books I can recommend...

Luncheonette by Steven Sorrentino. In short, it's memoir of a son that takes over his father's luncheonette/cafe I read this a really long time ago, so I don't remember much of it, but I DO remember the father/son relationship reminded me a little bit of my relationship with my relationship with my own father. I laughed really loud in parts just because I realized that that's something that could happen in my own life.

Redefining Girly: How Parents Can Fight Stereotyping and Sexualizing of Girlhood, from birth to tween by Melissa Atkins Wardy. A must read of every and any one. I think the title says it all, but the author does talk A LOT about boys too. I'm not one to recommend sociology type books just because I think the field has a lot of [untested] opinions and much of it is observation [and forming opinions based on said observations]. While the author does seem a little opinionated on the topic, it sparks discussion and/or thought process in regards to stereotyping/sexualization of childhood.

Food Matters by Mark Bittman. This book changed my life as well as my eating habits and everything I knew about beef and the environment. There were also parts of the book I already knew, too. Like I firmly believe that we (Americans) just need to be eating whole, good foods. No diet foods or whatever. It was a little refreshing for me to have an "authoritative" figure write about this stuff.

Catcher In the Rye by J.D Salinger. A classic. Some people love it and others hate it. I can read this book a million times and always pick up little parts that I missed the last time I read it.