by Susanna Clarke
This is an awesome book. Just awesome. Imagine if traditional fantasy magic reappeared in Napoleonic Britan and Jane Austen (or any of the great, witty 19th century novelists) wrote about it.
Notes, having finished the book:
Holy schlamoly, this is an amazing book. Not in the lease predictable, a delight from start to finish. Superlatives are insufficient. It's definitely a book for people who like both fantasy AND 19th century literature, so that's kind of a limited audience, but it's still really great.
I found the way the magic worked in the story to be fascinating, and the historical aspects of it were a delight. I sincerely hope Clarke writes more in this vein.
by Beryl Markham
I'm finally getting around to reading this after receiving it as a gift a couple of years ago. I read part of it right after I got it but didn't have the time to really appreciate the slow, thoughful, descriptive prose. Markham grew up in Africa (born in England in 1902, she was taken by her father to British East Africa in 1906). She learned how to hunt from local native tribesmen and was apprenticed to her father as a breeder and trainer of horses. She went on to become the first female brush pilot in Africa, and later became the first person to fly the Atlantic from East to West. Fascinating woman!
(Book 6 in 2005)
by Dr. David Brunner, Sam Stall
It's hard to decide how to classify this - it's a useful book on cats, but it's also really, really funny. It's written up like the manual for a piece of technology (like a computer or a complicated graphing calculator). Frickin' hysterical.
Also, very useful. Rawk.
(Book 5 in 2005)
by Olivia Judson
Very, very funny look at the evolution of reproduction. There's everything about sex in here, from weird mating habits of various creatures to hermaphroditisim to necrophelia. And it's all done like a Question and Answer column, with letters from animals! Awesome.
(Book 4 in 2005)
by Terry Pratchett
Woo! This one rocked too. Yay! Tiffany Aching is back, this time serving her witchy apprenticeship under the unusual Miss Level. But Tiffany has already learned how to step outside herself and while she's out, Something steps in. Granny Weatherwax makes an appearance and helps sort things out. Much fun.
(Book 3 in 2005)
By Terry Pratchett
OMG, this book is awsome! I swear, Pratchett is amazing. His philosophy, character building, descriptions, dialog.... everything is just amazing! This is a great book for kids, especially girls. The main character, Tiffany Aching, is only nine but she's definitely a witch in the making. I can't wait to read the sequel.
To summarize: Tiffany's little brother is stolen by the Queen of the Elves and she decides to rescue him instead of waiting for Miss Tick, a visiting witch, to go for help. With the help of the Nac Mac Feegle (aka the Wee Free Men), who are sort of like drunken Scottish brownies, and Miss Tick's talking toad, she sets out to get back her brother. Awesome.
(Book 2 in 2005)
By Mary Renault
Fascinating biography of Alexander the Great. I borrowed this edition from my Mom, and it's a great one - oversized, hardcover, and packed with illustrations. Rawk!
This is also my first book of the 50-book challenge. I'm too busy to keep up with the livejournal community for this, but want to give it a shot. I read 39 books last year, it looks like (or at least, 39 that I posted about here). I gotta work a little harder at this, I guess. :) But I used to read a couple books a week, I think I can read 50 in a year, for crying out loud.