6) The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fjorde

Book the sixth - The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fjorde.

Rating:
4.5/5

Review:
This book is the first in Jasper Fjorde's series concerning Thursday Next, heat-packing Literatec (think Mathnet, but for books) in alternate-reality England, circa 1985. All is somewhat quiet in the office of London's SpecOps Literatec division, until a rare Dickens manuscript is stolen and the characters within it start getting murdered!

This book is definitely more enjoyable if you have a grasp on literature (read: if you were a Lit major and payed VERY CLOSE ATTENTION in all of your classes). For the rest of us, it is still supremely entertaining, and I can't wait to read the next one!

5) A Feast For Crows, George R. R. Martin

Book number five - A Feast For Crows by George R. R. Martin.

Rating:
4/5 stars

Review:
This book is the fourth installment in "A Song of Ice and Fire".

This is the first epic fantasy series (akin to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time or Tad William's Otherland) that I've undertaken (I still haven't worked myself up to diving into Jordan's world). I can't recommend this series highly enough, but a few disclaimers.

Disclaimer the first: it is kind of hard to get into. I misliked about half of the first book, but work through it! It's totally worth it!

Disclaimer the second: all the books are incredibly long, to the tune of six or seven hundred page bruisers.

Disclaimer the third: GRRM is a pretty slow writer. This book was slated to be released nearly 2 years ago and just came out a few months ago.

Disclaimer the fourth: He doesn't do much background rehashing or any kind of synopsis, so I've found that I usually need to reread the others before starting on the newest, since there are so many characters and plots.

All disclaimers aside, if you like fantasy, read this series! It is really great!

4) The Tent, Margaret Atwood

Book number four - The Tent by Margaret Atwood. I actually bought another of her books while I was in Chicago this past week called "The Handmaid's Tale". It got soaked with perfume when a bottle broke in my luggage, so it will be a *fragrant* literary journey when I get to it.

Rating:
3/5 stars

Review:
Margaret Atwood is prolific, that's for sure, witty, sometimes crass, enduringly sharp-tongued, and this collection of essays, poetry, and flash fiction shows off each of these traits of hers quite well. There were around 20 stories inside, but three were my favorites: "Bring Back Mom: An Invocation" was downright sad but very poignant; "The Animals Reject Their Names" like a mini-epic regarding the de-evolution of the world; "Orphan Stories" is harsh but by the end you feel pegged. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone to buy, but for a quick read inside Barnes and Noble, sure! Some of her longer works, such as the Handmaid's Tale, may be more worthy to bring on a trip - "The Tent" isn't long enough to provide much diversion.

3) Here I Am To Worship, Tim Hughes

Three on the list - a gift from a friend for Christmas - Here I Am To Worship by Tim Hughes.

Rating:
For what it is, 3/5 stars

Review:
This book is pretty tiny - the pages are about the size (not the thickness) of a kid's board book, so it was a quick read. Tim Hughes, a quite well-known worship artist from the UK, writes on the spiritual and practical side of leading worship, being a worship band leader, worship song-writing, and other topics worship-related. This book really challenged me as a worship band member (and small group worship leader) to take this responsibility more seriously instead of throwing songs together at the last minute... and not practicing nearly enough. I'd recommend this book to anyone that is in a worship band, wants to be in a worship band, or wants to lead small group worship. The chapter on song-writing is a good read for anyone interested in writing songs to be sung in congregational worship.

2) Freakonomics, Steven Levitt

Book number two: Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

Rating:
5/5 stars

Review:
If you find it hard to believe that a former English major could rate an economics book so high, you're not alone. I was surprised by how great this book was, and that I read it in two days. Subtitled "A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything," Levitt truly does shed light on many trivial and a few not-so-trivial issues. The authors (joyfully) sift through troves of data to prove that sumo wrestlers and public school teachers have something in common, abortion can be strongly linked to the fall of crime in America, and that most crack dealers still live with their moms. Oh, and that the same amount of money is spent each year by Americans on chewing gum as on campaign finance. After reading this book, you'll have enough quirky anecdotes to get you through many cocktail parties!

1) Carpe Jugulum , Terry Pratchett

First book of the new year: Terry's Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum.

Rating:
3.5/5 stars

Review:
Pratchett's Discworld series marches on, now numbering around 30 novel-length installments. They can be divided, as the amazon.com review says, into the "good" and the "brilliant". I think that Carpe Jugulum, while definitely better than Eric, is nowhere near as good as Small Gods, Mort, or Monstrous Regiment. It belongs firmly in the camp of "good", however, and is an enjoyable and very quick read that will make you laugh aloud, thus garnering suspicious glances from the other people on the plane with you... Not that that happened to me, of course.

This book is approximately the 20th Discworld book I've read, and happens to be the last unread Pratchett holdout on my bookshelf. So, unless I borrow, beg, buy or steal, you may not see any more Pratchett on the list for awhile.

Intro

This blog is to chart the process of a new year's resolution - to read 100 books in 2006. I and my brave friend and soon to be roommate will attempt to *each* read 100 books this year.

Not to aim low (though it has been said that low expectations are the key to success), but I will consider it a success if I read more than 50, which was my number for 2005...