Fool, by Christopher Moore (26 March − 3 April)

I've loved me some Christopher Moore since reading Lamb some crazy-long time ago (a few years?), and then Fluke and Island of the Sequined Love Nun and the others... and this new book does not disappoint!

Fool tells the story of King Lear's fool. Yes, that King Lear. Now, I've never actually read the play, but I'm going to take a wild guess that this book is only very very loosely based on it. Especially since the witches from Macbeth show up. You know how it is.

But anyway, if you're like me and don't know the story, there's a king called Lear and he's kind of an idiot and he splits up his kingdom based on how much each of his daughters loves him. Two lie their arses off and get a fair bit of land; one tells the truth and is banished for her trouble. So then politics and intrigue happen because obviously someone is unhappy.

And in this version, the fool, called Pocket, is behind it all, with the help of some enchantments from the aforementioned witches. Hoorah. And, being a fool, he tells his story with lots of bawdiness and also vulgarity. And, the book being based on Shakespeare, there is also some crazy English borrowed liberally from King Lear and other plays that is conveniently footnoted for the modern reader. And there's a ghost. And a raven. It's awesome, is what I'm saying.

Rating: 8/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

Something Rotten, by Jasper Fforde (25 November — 28 November)

Something Rotten is the last of the first four books of the Thursday Next series... I figure that since Jasper took a few years off, I can take a break now, too. :)

This was definitely a great conclusion for the set... basically, a whole bunch of odd things that happened in the previous books were recalled and sometimes explained here, and, of course, even more odd things happened!

It's a hard book to summarize, though, because so much of what happens here is tied to things that happened in other books — a fictional character comes to power, Thursday's husband is reactualized (or is he?), Thursday's friend's wife is an assassin out to kill Thursday... yeah.

The new things in the story are a plot by the aforementioned fictional leader to convince England to hate Denmark, going so far as to claim that Volvos are both unsafe and Danish; Thursday's acquisition of the Swindon Mallets croquet team which needs to win the SuperHoop to take down the Goliath Corporation; and that Thursday needs to find a new Shakespeare to rewrite Hamlet after its characters wreak havoc on the piece.

Basically, if you've liked the previous books, read this one. But do not under any circumstances read this first.

Rating: 7.5/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2004)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski (10 November — 16 November)

I put this book on hold at the library some very long time ago, after I heard an interview with the author on NPR and thought the book sounded decent. I finally got it last week, and was possibly over-excited to read it.

The premise of the book is a sort of updated version of Hamlet. Edgar Sawtelle is a mute 14-year-old who breeds dogs with his family in far northern Wisconsin. His uncle, Claude, comes back into the family after a long leave of absence, but sibling rivalry sort of explodes and Edgar's father, Gar, sends Claude away. Soon enough, though, Gar ends up dead in the kennel and Claude starts moving in on his sister-in-law. Gar's ghost tells Edgar that Claude is the murderer, but Edgar can't tell anyone — not just because he can't speak but because he's pretty sure they won't believe him.

More Hamlet happens — the Polonius character dies, Edgar goes off on an adventure, et cetera.

And I think that's my problem with the book. I liked the beginning of the novel, wherein we learned about training dogs and Edgar's relationship with his mother. I liked the part when Edgar runs away and has a great woodsy adventure with his dogs. But I didn't like the parts where I said to myself, "Oh, look, Polonius is dead now! And hey, I thought Laertes was supposed to kill Hamlet!"

Ah, well. It doesn't follow Hamlet to the letter (see Laertes comment), so there's quite a bit of wondering how the plot will turn out, which is good. And those parts that I liked, I really did like. I just don't think that the book as a whole really fit together well.

Definitely a good read if you're a Hamlet scholar or dog enthusiast.

Rating: 6/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2008)