Salam,
The overwhelming bulk of comments I've recieved in the last post had made it apparent- ya'll read quite a lot. Thank you to the 1 or 2 of you who reccomended some awesome books. Below is my current summer reading list, some of which you guys might be interested in. It's basically an amalgam of fiction, and non fiction (of the anthro/socio medical type), etc;

The Bluest Eye: Toni Morrison

The Years of Salt and Rice: Kim Stanley Robinson

The Calcutta Chromosome: Amitav Ghosh

Girl in the Tangerine Scarf: Mohja Kahf

The Namesake: Jhumpa Lahiri

A Thousand Splendid Suns: Khaled Hosseini

The Secret: Rhonda Brynes (only because I'm hearing so much about it)

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer: Tracy Kidder

Infections of Inequalities and/or Pathology of Power: Paul Farmer

Palestine: Peace not Apartheid: Jimmy Carter

Mama Might be Better off Dead: Failure of Healtcare in Urban America: Laurie K Abraham

Guns Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human societies: Jared Diamond

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Med. Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to Present: Harriet A. Washington

The Syringa Tree- Pamela Gien

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As for islamically relevant books, I’m probably going to stick with just a few including Imam Zaid’s Scattered Pictures and someone recommended to me, Riyadh as- Saliheen Vol I.

I find that the best way to increase islamic knowledge is with audio lectures. Mothers of Our Believers; Anwar Awlaki’s series of pure awesomeness; and if anyone is interested in online summer courses: sunnipath.com is the way to go!

Keep it halal.