Cory Doctorow's Makers is quite simply the type of book that deserves to be filed in the category MindBomb. It doesn't come out until November (though you can get a sneak peek at Tor's site where it is being serialized), so I'll only mention it here so that you go and preorder it now.

For those that remember, Dan Suarez's Daemon was the last book I put in this category, mostly because it was so forward-looking and yet so plausible.

This book equals Daemon on that score but also includes a very sweet story about love and passion— of people, pursuits, and most importantly, work. The two heroes of the book are the 3D printers that drive all of the action and cool technology, and the dynamic between the two main characters, both makers who keep bumping into businesses in spite of themselves. But surrounding these are a great cast of characters you will no doubt recognize immediately if you have worked around startups, awesome depictions of near-future technologies (including the most humanistic and real view of the future of the social web that I have seen), and a really compelling story that just does not let up.

In looking at who else might have read the book ahead of publishing, I found this bit by Hal Stern that I think says it all:

So what's the book about? It's about love. It's about how (and why) others love us, or don't. It's about economics and corporations, and at the same time economics and corporations don't behave the way you'd expect at all times. It's about rights - not just copyrights and rights to use, but rights of expression and relation as well. Every time you think the book is taking a financial detour, it snaps you back to a personal future that is (in William Gibson's words) just not evenly distributed.

Get it now. Reading it will make your holiday this year.