I picked up a novel while visiting my mother's house (always a good place to pick up novels). The book was The Sparrow, which I finished a week or so ago. It was a very intense novel, both fascinating and ultimately disappointing, for me. I won't go into the details or make an effort at a review–better discussions and reviews can be found many places on the web, including the Amazon spot linked above. I will only say that basically I concur with the Publisher's Weekly reviewer who states "The final revelation of the tragic human mistake that ends in Sandoz's degradation isn't the event for which readers have been set up."
I enjoyed the anthropology/linguist themes, and they are developed quite well (as to be expected given the author's background). I had less fun with the religious/sociological aspect, as for the most part it seemed a rather pat re-hash of the 1492 encounter, and excessively and unnecessarily sympathetic to the Eurocentric viewpoint. Those aliens are real savages! How can we possibly interact with them, ultimately, except to end up murdering them or exploiting them? It's us vs 'the Other.'
It was a rather dark novel, but I won't blame it for the darkness of my overall mood lately. More just a curious synchrony than any kind of cause-effect.