Fatale Abstraction

Went to Queen of Sheba restaurant for dinner Tuesday. Yum. Ethiopian food is better than I remembered.
Best dish of the meal, though, was an appetizer called a sambosa which was a little triangle of phyllo pastry filled with a meat and vegetable mixture, spicy, with relish of spicy lentils and a jalapeno-laced pico-de-gallo-type garnish. YUM! Sambosas are a lot like samosas, which is an Indian dish. Loved the cardamom in several of the dishes. Ethiopian coffee at the end of the meal smelled and tasted of clove. Delicious--better than coffee usually is. Best detail about eating Ethiopian? No forks! Along with the big round tray of victuals comes a bowl of rolls of long strips of a light, fluffly bread with which you scoop up the sloppy bits. Nice. Eating with hands is a good thing. Ook!
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Had lunch at a sushi bar Tuesday and a woman sat next to me turned out to be friends with one of the doctors my mom works for. Small world, eh? Anyway, she asked about my book and then about Terry Pratchett, and we started talking about sci-fi. She said her book club was trying to branch out and try different genres, and if I were to recommend just one sci fi book, what would it be? The first one that occurred to me was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I hope I didn't steer her wrong, but I think that's a good one because for all the heaviness of the subject, it's more character-driven than big on techy-type stuff, and also the personal drama aspect is something I think would be more appealing to women who (no offense) I suspect have read too much of Opran's must-read book list. What do you think? What would you recommend to a first-time sci-fi reader? It's funny to me to turn my mind back and realize I started falling in love with that genre at about age 9 with Madelein L'engle and all that. Funny to think I've loved sci fi for 3/4 of my life. It's also funny how I've read sci-fi in fits and starts. In a strange way, I very much consider my beloved South American magical-realism to be sci-fi - Isabel Allende and whatnot.
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Despite the flip convo I posted, I'm really sad when I hear about people who slip when they are young and never get their footing again, famous or not. Beside Heath Ledger is the actor Brad Renfro who overdosed at 25 last week. It's like I always say: growing up in the glare of the spotlight warps and ruins more lives than it improves. Mamas: don't let your babies grow up to be actors.