Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

This book is Pratchett at his finest. Moist von Lipvig is the consummate con-man--until he is caught. Then, after a convincing hanging, Lord Vetinari gives him a second chance, but only if he takes over the Postal Service (which has gone into decline with the advent of the clacks to send messages across long distances). As Moist cons his way around the post office, he learns that the clacks are being operated along a different kind of con--and he suddenly realizes, after a life of deceiving people, he must do the right thing--restore the post office and set the clacks to rights too. Full of humor and Discworld characters I came to love, Going Postal is satire with a warm heart.

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

This book starts with a war in Borogravia--not that that's anything new--there's almost always a war on in Borogravia. But this time, Polly Perks is in on the action as she has joined the army to bring her brother back. Polly, now known as Ozzer, slowly realizes that she's not in an entirely normal regiment when someone hands her an extra pair of socks in the latrine. And when the women finally start getting honest about going to war, Borogravia finally has a chance of a better life for all of its citizens.

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

The Time Monks are at it again, in this novel: they've sent Sam Vimes back to the beginning of his career just before the birth of his first child. And Sam realizes that he can't go home until he deals with the criminal who came back with him, lest time be altered too much and his home, family, and career disappear. I thought this book was a time travel story at its best: it pushes the imagination to figure out how all the parts work together, but in the end I was satisfied with how all the parts worked together. I thought the time travel device also worked really well in allowing the series to fill in some great backstory to both the Night Watch and the city's political structure. This book is a great entry in the Discworld series.

Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

This novel is Discworld at its best. There's a bit of a Bond spoof, lots of Death (who works to reunite the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but doesn't count on Ronnie, who left before they hit it big), lots of Susan, and a great storyline involving monks of time and a glass clock that can stop it entirely. It's the sort of story you have to read to fully understand, and reading it is a real pleasure.

Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre

This book is a send-up of US media culture. In the wake of a school shooting, the shooter's best friend--and the book's narrator and protagonist--is suspected of being involved with the plot. As the aftermath unfolds, however, we see the incompetent police, news media, and legal system, unfairly target Vernon Little. Although many descriptions of the book describe it as humorous, I was more horrified than amused. Winner of the 2003 Booker Prize.

The Truth by Terry Pratchett

This book spoofs the publishing industry as Ankh-Morpork gets its first newspaper just as the Watch uncovers a plot to unseat the Patrician. This book was definitely one of the more humorous and well-conceived entries in the Discworld series: it works! The plot hangs clearly together and I found the humor especially well done (Gaspode, the talking dog, is one of the newspaper's first sources, but he speaks to the newspaper anonymously as Deep Bone, for example).

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett

In this book Samuel Vimes, commander of the Watch, is sent as Ankh-Morpork's ambassador to Uberwald where tempers are running high over the latest dwarf election and the ceremonial Scone may be missing. With the help of his sharp wife Sybil, Vimes must negotiate a diplomatic solution in a country full of vampires, werewolves, dwarfs, and Igors but noticeably short on the rule of law. I am enjoying the Watch books more and more.

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

This book centers around three editors for a vanity press in Milan. When the press decides to start publishing a series on the occult, the editors, up to their ears in conspiracy theories, decide to create their own version of the Plan, by which the Templars secretly went into hiding in the fourteenth century, and which they were supposed to use to return to power in 1944. But as the conspirators cook up the Plan, they realize that others are taking their game very seriously. Part of this book is a fun conspiracy story--it puts together an almost-plausible narrative that links the Templars with other mysterious groups through the ages (and has a ton of literary and cultural in-jokes, to book). What separates this book from something like The Da Vinci Code, though, is that the other part of the book is so moving. Belpo and Causabon, in particular, are well-developed characters, and the reader comes to understand that their manic devotion to finding the truth behind these conspiracy theories (which in the book are lined up like a house of cards) is about a lack of meaning in their day-to-day lives (which they only realize too late) rather than from any value inherent in the theories. I really enjoyed this story.

Jingo by Terry Pratchett

This book is definitely one of the better City Watch Discworld novels. When a small island appears in waters between Klatch and Ankh-Morpork, both countries claim the territory as their own and prepare to go to war. But as the Watch quickly finds out, some of the diplomatic incidents that precede the war stink. I found this book to be quite funny and a good satire on war and politics. I also loved the Leonard of Quirm character--great take on Leonardo da Vinci!

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

In this book the Hogfather (the Discworld equivalent to Father Christmas) has gone missing, and Death has taken it upon himself to do the job. Naturally, a brilliant satire of Christmas follows (replete with little match girls who are supposed to die to make everyone else feel better about themselves). As usual, Death puts in a more sympathetic performance than most of the humans around him. What really pushed this book above the standard Discworld novel, for me, though, was its meditations not just on Christmas but belief (or faith). Also, all the plotlines came together in rewarding ways. One of my favorite Discworld novels.

The Black Vampyre by Uriah Derick D'Arcy

This book, which is perhaps more accurately described as a pamphlet, continues to amaze me. It's formally a mess: there's a short story (hard to call it a novel, when it clocks in at less than 50 small pages), and a long poem about vampirism. While the story starts as your typical horror story, it quickly becomes a critique of a wide variety of things, including but not limited to capitalism, plagiarism, and slavery.

Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth

This book is a history of the Anglo-Irish owners of Castle Rackrent (the Rackrents) as told by their faithful retainer, Thady. While Thady's son, who is an ambitious young lawyer, manages to buy the Rackrent property from its dissipated heirs, Thady sides with the Anglo-Irish overlords. Thady's position is intriguing to me. The book is slender and goes by relatively fast--and is enjoyable as much for its linguistic feel (the non-standard English) as much as anything.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

This book, while beloved by children, is rich for any reader. The satire is sweeping and at times vicious (but what else would you expect from the author of "A Modest Proposal"). I was particularly interested in the changes in Gulliver during the journey. While at first he wanted to return to England, his wife, and children, by the end, he so misses the Houyhnhnms that he can barely stand human contact. This ending reminded me of the quick disposal of Robinson Crusoe's family in his book--but Gulliver seems to change more than Crusoe (who never worried particularly much about human contact). I was also struck by Swift's great imagination--Gulliver finds himself in all sorts of wildly different societies--and in places that could conceivably (just barely) exist within the world of that time. All in all a marvelous book--I'm sorry it took me so long to get around to reading it!

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: Medieval Studies and New Media by Brantley L. Bryant

This book is an odd hybrid: part reflection on the role of new media in Medieval Studies, part reflection of the relation of humor to academic inquiry, and in a large part, reproduction of Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog. The blog entries are written in a very passable (to my inexpert eye at least) Middle English and cover both historical events (Chaucer's election to Parliament, Bolingbroke's rise to power, and the persecution of the Lollards and other heretics, for example) and contemporary trends (Snakes on a Plane, re-imagined as Serpentes on a Shippe; "large bookes of teenage sparklie vampyre romaunce" called Vespers, Compline, and Matins; King Richard tweeting; Margery Kempe interviewing for and being given a faculty position at the MLA; and a V things meme). John Gower writes an introductory poem with the unforgettable lines: "Beware, ye shal nat L O L / The while that ye burne in helle," and Julian of Norwich writes a parody of Dorothy Parker's "Résumé." Definitely worth checking out.

Solar by Ian McEwan

This novel, Ian McEwan's latest, tells the story of Michael Beard, a Nobel laureate for whom success in life seems to have come to early. Although the reader can't help but be reminded of Michael's success, he's riding his laurels from the time the book opens. From someone who's intellectually lazy and personally cruel, Beard develops into an even less moral person throughout the course of the book. While Beard personally becomes very interested in the climate change debate, the book itself is more about the personal disasters that Beard fails to navigate than the global disaster that looms over us all. As I have come to expect, McEwan's prose is magnificent.

Mort by Terry Pratchett

This book is nothing short of hilarious. Death takes on a boy whom no one else seems to want for an apprentice, and while this boy, Mort, definitely doesn't fit in to his father's world, the job with Death really suits him. This book has humor and adventure and is definitely the product of a very smart writer. I enjoy these Discworld novels quite a bit; they just keep getting better.

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

In this book Terry Pratchett traces the humorous circumstances that result from a wizard bequeathing his powers on the eighth son of an eighth son only to discover that the son is a daughter. I found this book much funnier than the previous Discworld novels. The satire on gender conventions and on schools of wizardry was particularly good. I look forward to seeing more of Granny Weatherwax.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

This book continues the journeys of Rincewind, Twoflower, and the Luggage, who when we last saw them, were hurtling off the side of the Disc. I found this book much funnier than The Color of Magic, but that may just be because I'm starting to get Pratchett's sense of humor. I particularly liked the sidebars about metaphor and description, the way that the wizards generally had no idea what was going on, the metaphysics behind the Octavo, the star, and A'Tuin, and the new characters, especially Cohen the Barbarian. A delightful read.

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde

In this book Jasper Fforde starts a delightful new series, set in a world where people are ranked by their ability to perceive color. As Eddie Russett (who's been banished to East Carmine ostensibly for a prank but also has revolutionary ideas about improving queuing systems) soon learns, however, all is not how it appears, and soon he must choose his alliances and friends carefully. Although you can see how dystopic this society is from a mile away, Fforde's unique sense of humor and love of the eccentric make his satire quite enjoyable--perhaps even better than the Thursday Next series.

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

I found this book a delightful satire of academia generally, and the British system of universities during the second half of the twentieth century particularly. Jim is a hoot; I particularly adore how he conspires with Christine to hide the damage to the bedsheets after he burns a hole smoking in bed. Overall, though, the book is classic humor, and wonderful satire, and well worth taking the time to read.