The Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

This is Pratchett's third book to feature Tiffany Aching and the Feegles. This time around, Tiffany must restore order to the seasons, after her dance with the Wintersmith causes him to bury the Discworld in snow, threatening the spring lambs. As usual, Tiffany has a little help from her friends, who include Granny Weatherwax, Miss Treason (a very old witch with some very odd ways), Nanny Ogg, the Feegles, and Roland (who is called upon to take the role of hero.)

Sprightly, amusing, and delectable as always, King Pratchett!

Against Depression by Peter D. Kramer

Against Depression is Kramer's followup to his bestselling, Listening to Prozac. Kramer is a psychoanalyst who specializes in treating depression, and is disturbed by the tendency people have to romanticize depression--to the detriment of the depressed. This book is full of information on the recent science relating to research on depression and its effects on the brain. Very useful and informative.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

In the Bleak Midwinter introduces Episcopalian priest Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne as a mystery-solving team based in Millers Kill, a small town in upstate New York. Clare is a former Army chopper pilot, taking her first posting after seminary. Russ is police chief, and also a former military man. They are brought together when a baby is left on the steps of the Episcopal church. Within a couple of days, the baby's mother is found dead--murdered by a blow to the head, followed by exposure to the winter cold. As the bodies pile up, the mystery grows, as does the attraction between Clare and Russ.

These are engaging characters, and the mystery is well plotted. In the Bleak Midwinter is a highly enjoyable first mystery, and the start of an interesting series.

You Suck by Christopher Moore

You Suck is a sequel to the 1996 comic vampire novel, Bloodsucking Fiends and features many of the same protagonists. However, since Jody turned Thomas C. Flood at the end of Bloodsucking Fiends, it is now necessary for them to find a new minion (daylight gofer.)

Abby Normal, the goth-chick teen girl chosen by Tommy (who styles himself The Vampyre Flood to Abby) is a terrifically funny addition to the story. Her diary makes for some side-splitting reading. The Animals (Tommy's grocery-stocking, turkey-bowling pals from the supermarket) have returned from Las Vegas with a blue-dyed hooker who has somehow earned several hundred thousand dollars over the weekend. Add an alcohol-preserved panhandler with an enormous, shaved cat and a sprinkling of European Undead, and you've got another zippy, funny, and undeniably Christopher Moore-ish read.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Twilight is a vampire novel about a teenaged girl named Bella Swan. Bella has moved from Phoenix, AZ to the small town of Forks on the Olympic Peninsula of Northwest Washington state. Bella has moved to Forks to live with her father, so that her mother can travel with her new husband, a minor league baseball player. Bella has moved by her own choice, but is miserably unhappy in cold, grey, damp Washington, after years in sunny Phoenix.

Nevertheless, Bella is adjusting to high school in Forks and making friends when her attention is drawn to a group of very unusual and strikingly good looking students--all of whom are the adopted children of , the town doctor. Before long, Bella becomes very much attracted to Edward, one of the adopted sons.

This is a very slowly drawn-out story with lots and lots of description, and not so much action. Rather, there is plenty of action, but it is spread out over about 400 pages, when the pacing would have been much better in about half the space. Twilight is meant to be a teen book, so maybe all the description is meant to mirror the agonies of being a teenager. It was certainly highly recommended and roundly lauded. It was not compelling enough for me to seek out further books in the series.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

The Amulet of Samarkand is the first book in the trilogy, and it introduces the reader to the djinn Bartimaeus and to Nathaniel, an apprentice wizard. Nathaniel is an appealing human hero, and Bartimaeus is humorous and wise by turns. There are shifting viewpoints, so that sometimes we are hearing the story from Bartimaeus's point of view, and at others, we are reading an omniscient view of Nathaniel's story.

The Amulet of Samarkand is cleverly plotted and engaging. It provides an alternate world, wherein wizards rule the governments of the major countries, and the power of a country rises and falls due to the cleverness and skill of its wizards. The relentless pacing keeps you racing through the pages to the end of the book, and made me very glad to have received the trilogy as a set, so I could jump straight into book 2.

The Golem's Eye takes place a couple of years after the action in The Amulet of Samarkand. Nathaniel has been given a job in the Office of Internal Affairs (part of a magical ministry in the British government) and a new wizard master (this time a woman.) A series of "terrorist attacks" have been taking place, and Nathaniel must find the culprits. While Nathaniel suspects rogue magicians, he's being encouraged to seek out members of the non-magical resistance as the source of the attacks. Once again, Nathaniel calls on Bartimaeus for assistance. A girl we met briefly in book one, Kitty Jones, has become a member of the Resistance. The Golem's Eye uses narrative shifts to show us magical Britain from Kitty's point of view, in addition to the Bartimaeus narration and omniscient view of Nathaniel's life.

Ptolemy's Gate concludes the trilogy. Once again, the protagonists are Kitty (now a young woman), Nathaniel (now Information minister), and Bartimaeus. Nathaniel has been increasingly lured toward the corrupting influences of the magical government, although a trace of the boy Nathaniel remains. Kitty has gone underground, apprenticing herself to an elderly magician. Bartimaeus has become drained of essence in his near constant duties. The three of them are called upon to save England from a plague of power-corrupted magicians. Ptolemy's Gate proves an excellent finish to an exceptional series of books.