43
43. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
42. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson
41. Days of the Dragon, D. K. Caldwell (not yet published)
40. Poltergeist, Kat Richardson
39. The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love: A Fallen Southern Belle's Look at Love, Life, Men, Marriage, and Being Prepared, Jill Conner Browne
38. Greywalker, Kat Richardson
37. Blockade Billy, Stephen King
36. The Pelican Brief, John Grisham*
35. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann
34. While My Pretty One Knits, Anne Canadeo
33. Ur, Stephen King* (audio)
32. The Firm, John Grisham*
31. Free-Range Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee*
30. Misery, Stephen King
29. Spook Country, William Gibson (audio)
28. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, Bill Bryson
27. People are Unappealing*: True Stories of Our Collective Capacity to Irritate and Annoy *Even Me, Sara Barron
26. The Green Mile, Stephen King*
25. Bag of Bones, Stephen King*
24. The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology, ed. Christopher Golden
23. Relentless, Dean Koontz
22. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting
21. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
20. Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
19. The Stand, Stephen King*
18. Hollywood's Stephen King, Tony Magistrale
17. Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card
16. Harem, Dora Levy Mossanen
15. Dies the Fire, S.M. Stirling
14. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan
13. Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing, & Rolling to Free Your Inner Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot
12. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, Linda Lawrence Hunt
11. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
10. Patient Zero, Jonathon Maberry
9. God's Country, Percival Everett
8. Heart of Stone, C. E. Murphy
7. The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, William Kalush and Larry Sloman
6. The Good Fairies of New York, Martin Millar
5. Limeys: The True Story of One Man's War Against Ignorance, the Establishment and the Deadly Scurvy, David I. Harvie
4. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
3. Tatham Mound, Piers Anthony
2. Alas, Babylon, Pat Frank
1. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
I started reading this one once before, but I didn't get very far before I quit. Which just goes to show that I can be ridiculously dense at times.
This book is funny, witty, smart, quirky, literary, science fiction/political/alternate history/fantasy/adventure/time travel all wrapped up together. There's a lot going on, but the basic idea is that Thursday Next, of the Special Operations unit dealing with literature (SpecOps-27), and she gets pulled in on an operation being run by a higher unit in SpecOps. They're searching for Acheron Hades, a really bad guy who does things that are bad just because they're bad. He's evil, in a word. And he loves it. Well, he's stolen the original manuscript of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, and the SpecOps folks are worried he'll do something to it.
Well, things go on, and eventually Hades steals Jane Eyre from her book, which of course fucks things up since the book is told in first-person, and once Jane leaves, there's nothing. Thursday's job: get Jane back in Jane Eyre and capture Acheron Hades.
Other stuff I loved: dodos are back, thanks to cloning; the book's set in 1985 but they're more technologically advanced than we are; Thursday's dad has gone rogue and leaps about through time; the real origin of the banana is exposed; Thursday's crazy uncle; the idea that a book can change, so it's therefore worth a re-read; Thursday's aunt being wooed by Wordsworth.
It's all good stuff, and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.
42. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson
41. Days of the Dragon, D. K. Caldwell (not yet published)
40. Poltergeist, Kat Richardson
39. The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love: A Fallen Southern Belle's Look at Love, Life, Men, Marriage, and Being Prepared, Jill Conner Browne
38. Greywalker, Kat Richardson
37. Blockade Billy, Stephen King
36. The Pelican Brief, John Grisham*
35. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann
34. While My Pretty One Knits, Anne Canadeo
33. Ur, Stephen King* (audio)
32. The Firm, John Grisham*
31. Free-Range Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee*
30. Misery, Stephen King
29. Spook Country, William Gibson (audio)
28. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, Bill Bryson
27. People are Unappealing*: True Stories of Our Collective Capacity to Irritate and Annoy *Even Me, Sara Barron
26. The Green Mile, Stephen King*
25. Bag of Bones, Stephen King*
24. The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology, ed. Christopher Golden
23. Relentless, Dean Koontz
22. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting
21. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
20. Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
19. The Stand, Stephen King*
18. Hollywood's Stephen King, Tony Magistrale
17. Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card
16. Harem, Dora Levy Mossanen
15. Dies the Fire, S.M. Stirling
14. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan
13. Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing, & Rolling to Free Your Inner Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot
12. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, Linda Lawrence Hunt
11. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
10. Patient Zero, Jonathon Maberry
9. God's Country, Percival Everett
8. Heart of Stone, C. E. Murphy
7. The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, William Kalush and Larry Sloman
6. The Good Fairies of New York, Martin Millar
5. Limeys: The True Story of One Man's War Against Ignorance, the Establishment and the Deadly Scurvy, David I. Harvie
4. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
3. Tatham Mound, Piers Anthony
2. Alas, Babylon, Pat Frank
1. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
I started reading this one once before, but I didn't get very far before I quit. Which just goes to show that I can be ridiculously dense at times.
This book is funny, witty, smart, quirky, literary, science fiction/political/alternate history/fantasy/adventure/time travel all wrapped up together. There's a lot going on, but the basic idea is that Thursday Next, of the Special Operations unit dealing with literature (SpecOps-27), and she gets pulled in on an operation being run by a higher unit in SpecOps. They're searching for Acheron Hades, a really bad guy who does things that are bad just because they're bad. He's evil, in a word. And he loves it. Well, he's stolen the original manuscript of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, and the SpecOps folks are worried he'll do something to it.
Well, things go on, and eventually Hades steals Jane Eyre from her book, which of course fucks things up since the book is told in first-person, and once Jane leaves, there's nothing. Thursday's job: get Jane back in Jane Eyre and capture Acheron Hades.
Other stuff I loved: dodos are back, thanks to cloning; the book's set in 1985 but they're more technologically advanced than we are; Thursday's dad has gone rogue and leaps about through time; the real origin of the banana is exposed; Thursday's crazy uncle; the idea that a book can change, so it's therefore worth a re-read; Thursday's aunt being wooed by Wordsworth.
It's all good stuff, and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.