by Orson Scott Card.  I picked this one up on our last day in San Francisco when I realized that I had only about ten or so pages left of The Eternal Footman, which simply was not going to be enough to get me all the way through the flight back to Austin.  I'd been thinking about this book since I read in one of Brandon's posts that this was one of his favorite all-time sci-fi books, and since he's read more sci-fi than I ever will, I figured it was a worthy recommendation.  And oh was it ever.  I'll just say straight out, I loved this book.  I read about half of it on the plane on the way back.  Once home, I had my nose in it every free second I got.  If we were going to the store and Ashley needed to go to the bathroom real quick before leaving, I made sure to sneak in a few sentences.  I thought about it a lot while driving.  In short, this book became something of a mini obsession.  So what happens is: it's the future, which is sort of a given.  Aliens have attacked Earth twice already, nearly wiping us out like the vermin we are.  To prepare for the dreaded third invasion, the government develops a program to breed and groom military geniuses, the ultimate result of which is Ender, a sweet kid with a killer's instinct who simply does not lose, ever.  I hesitate to say "this is great sci-fi" since I don't read very much sci-fi, but I will say that this is an intense and jarring read.  Not to mention the fact that even though you can sometimes detect the book's cold-war era feel, what with numerous mentions of difficult relations with Mother Russia, the themes it brings up (and there are many) are still relevant and will be until aliens actually do come and wipe us out...and now that I think about it, it'll be relevant after that too.  Read this book.  Then we talk.