Making Money - Terry Pratchett

Phenomenal. Pratchett is just so witty. This is one of his most recent books, and I'd put off reading it for a while - it's a direct sequel to one of his other books, and I'd worried that he was getting lazy and formulaic. Silly me - it doesn't matter if he is (which he isn't), because he's just so funny. So many laugh-out-loud (literally) moments, and so many quotable lines. I'll dredge up a few if I get a chance.

[Name Redacted]

Another of Kenyon's coworkers provided a Twilight alternative in the form of their favorite romantic Vampire book. I got through it quickly, but I rather despised it. It was written like one of those gritty "private eye" books, where the main character is emotionally distant, a tough chick (since this one was female). The pacing was cheap, a thrill-a-chapter with no growth, contrast or movement. Things didn't make sense, and I was left with the impression that the author just wrote whatever came to mind at the time. It's the first of the series, and while this one was fairly clean with just a couple bad words and the typical vampire violence, it turns out later books in the series get pretty explicit. So, this one's a no-go.

Castle in the Air - Diana Wynne Jones

Sequel to Howl's. So sweet. I was halfway through the book before I realized we actually were going to see characters from the first book.

Making Money - Terry Pratchett

I love this guy. His books aren't perfectly constructed pieces of literature, by any means, but he's just so funny. I love his wordplay. His writing is grown-up oriented but PG at worst (although he does some great kid books, too), which is refreshing.

Moist von Lipwig returns to attack the failing banking industry, after resurrecting the Ankh-Morpork Post Office in Going Postal. I had several laugh-out-loud moments, and felt cosmically in-tune with Pratchett with the main character expressed his distaste for any day "that has two four o' clocks in it." When Will was a newborn, I realized that I could handle a heck of a lot of sleep deprivation and disorderliness, but I could not handle being up at both 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. Any day where that happened was a bad, bad day.

More Diana Wynne Jones

Since I liked Dark Lord so much, I picked up Year of the Griffen (sequel to Dark Lord of Derkhelm) and Howl's Moving Castle for our recent California trip. I loved both of them. YoG takes up 8 years after DLoD and is a fun romp about youth, rejuvination and intellectual freedom from contraints. I saw the movie of Howl's first and loved it. The book is vastly different but still good in a different way.