The Eyre Affair: a Novel ; Jasper Fforde; 2001

The eventual "solution" to defeating Acheron's supernatural protections is weak, and there are certain sections of the book where the narrative drags, but Fforde otherwise delivers an incredibly enjoyable read full of "high culture becomes pop culture" references and the jaw-dropping "Rocky Horror Richard III Show".

Note: posted on 5/8/2013, backdated to when I actually read the book.

1 win down, 7 more to go...

... until we can put the Roger Clemens era behind us? Maybe not. Greg Maddux's 1st win of the 2008 season is the 348th of his career, putting him 6 behind Clemens. It's reasonably safe to say that Maddux will be in sole possession of 8th place on the career wins list at the end of this season, and he has an outside shot at passing Kid Nichols. But even with Maddux passing Clemens on the career wins list, many will probably still say Clemens is the best pitcher of his generation (ignoring, for the moment, questions of PEDs).

However, let's get ahead of ourselves a little. Maddux is only 25 wins behind Pete Alexander and Christy Mathewson. Given his low-impact pitching style, is it crazy to believe that Maddux could average 9 wins over the next 3 years and take sole possession of 3rd place on the career wins list sometime in 2010? I think not! At any rate, being number 3 on the wins list would make a much stronger case for putting the Roger Clemens era behind us. Go Padres!

Perfect Circle (Stewart, Sean) 2004

My dislike of reading about people doing stupid things is at war with the fact that I really enjoyed reading this. I may not like the main character, but Stewart manages to get us far enough inside Will Kennedy's headspace that I actually believe it when he yet /again/ acts stupidly. I need to change the rule to be that I hate reading about people doing unbelievably stupid things; if the author can make the "reasoning" behind the stupid acts believable, then I'm all aboard.

Three Cheers for the Royals

The MLB's last undefeated team in 2008! And reverse-cheers for Detroit, the last team to get a win in 2008.

The Girl in the Glass (Ford, Jeffrey) 2005

[posted 3/26/9, but backdated to 4/3/8 because that's when I finished the book]

A perfectly fine semi-mystery set in Long Island during the Great Depression.  Nothing deep here, just a nice easy read from cover-to-cover with a well-realized teen and his father figures as the main characters, their less-well-developed love interests, and assorted sketches of minor characters ranging from entertaining circus sideshow acts to the Long Island well-to-do to a villain about as believable as Max Zorin.  Not sure this is Nebula finalist material, but well worth the read.