[Xenalyte]

The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Ffolke, fiction

The year is 1985, the setting is England, and the world is not as we know it. Thursday Next, a literary detective (in the literal sense; she investigates lit fraud and theft) gets involved with a criminal who can travel through time, dodge bullets and enter works of literature (with nefarious intent, I assure you). My favorite part: a Rocky Horror-type performance of Richard III, complete with audience participation and props.

Rating: 5 FReeps, for the fabulous mix of sci-fi, lit-major jokes, and detective-novel cliches, and because the inventiveness got me to read it in one sitting.

And . . .

Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, David Starkey, nonfiction

It's another book about Good Queen Bess, focusing on the largely ignored first 20 years of her life. Starkey explores her early years, and does a wonderful job of demonstrating her solidity of character by placing her in the context of the reigns of her father, brother and sister, not just the pre-accession vacuum.

Rating: 4 FReeps, because Starkey showed me that my hitherto-flighty role model was in fact quite consistent, and how she got that way; minus 1 FReep for not continuing for the rest of her life in such detail. Darn.

[Dawgsquat]

Sounds interesting. I usually stay away from fiction, but I'll give that first one a look.