Two books that I've read recently and really enjoyed.
If you are a sports fan, you'll LOVE Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer. It's an investigation into the mind of FANDOM as studied through the legions of RVers who travel to Alabama football games. Very cool.
The second is Soul Circus which is a very interesting realistic fiction account of inner city African-American drug/gang culture. I listened to it on tape and the reader was superb!