Nation by Terry Pretchett

I was somewhat amazed at how good this book was. Knowing little about it before diving into it, other than familiarity with Terry Practhett's Discworld series, I gave it a chance, and it turned out to be a perfect story of survival, friendship, acceptance, and humor all rolled into one fantastically told tale. Everything about the plot is so clever and well thought out, everything about the characters were so believable, including their flaws and language barriers, and everything about the book in general was great. I can now honestly say, if I was monsooned and stuck on an island, I would definitely want to be stuck on an island like this and with Mau and Erma...I mean Daphne. Although, Nation is classified for Young Adults, readers of all ages will enjoy it.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Who would have thought a book about the postal service would be so entertaining? Well not I of course, but then again, this was my first introduction into the works of Terry Pratchett. The book was flat out hilarious, from the subtle commentary by the brilliant author, to the clever interaction between characters, and even to the well thought out names to each and every individual. From beginning to end the postal jokes got delivered (pun intended) as well as many other jokes of various shapes and sizes, leading this to be a good start for me into the Discworld series. The great thing about this series (besides it being one of the more original and creative books I have read in a long time) is that I was able to pick up Going Postal (#33 in the series) and read it as a stand alone book without having any other knowledge of Discworld. With that being said, I do plan on learning much more about Discworld through reading the various books, because they are undoubtedly just as good as this one, and who knows what order I will choose to proceed. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes an original story and fun characters, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves jokes, or is a mailman.