The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

Bertie Wooster is an upper-class twit, and Jeeves is his genius butler. There is a silver cow creamer, a stolen policeman's hat, and several quasi-romantic misunderstandings. Wooster has a very verbose style with plenty of unexpected metaphors that I enjoyed. This book was an Agatha Christie, without the mystery, crossed with a Monte Python sketch.

-Amy

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth, by Chelsea Cain is a parody of sorts. Nancy Drew claims that the story of her life was told less factually than it was actually lived. In "Confessions" we get snippets of cases that explain and follow Nancy's life until her death in the mid 1990s.

All in all, it is a fun read, even for someone who has never read a single sentence of a Nancy Drew story.

-Jeff

The Face of Trespass by Ruth Rendall

An English mystery, with very little blood and gore and lots of psychological twists. Her books also have a smattering of literary references but not so many that it makes you read slowly, so you can read a brain-candy mystery and still pretend that it's making you smart. If you like Agatha Christie, you will probably like this book.

-Amy

Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

This was a good book. It was about Ramona the Pest going to kindergarten. She was kind of bad. My favorite part was when she dressed up like a witch on Halloween, because I like witches.

-Zoe

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Queen accidentally reads a novel and becomes obsessed with reading, much to the annoyance of her staff and family. A short, amusing tale of the dangers of loving books.

-Amy

The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass: We meet Lyra in an alternate universe, where everyone has a daemon (a physical, animal, manifestation of one's soul). There's darkness and magic and militaristic polar bears, and scenes of pure childhood joy and scenes of pure childhood terror. The Hero's Journey begins!

The Subtle Knife: Arguably the coolest of the three tools, but messy and breakable. We meet Will, from our version of Earth, and he meets Lyra, and they travel through realities.

The Amber Spyglass. Lyra and Will finish out the trilogy. We learn about "Dust", traumatic upheavals, allegory, angels, daemons, love, death, new beginnings.

-Jeff

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

An annoying born-again-Christian and a slightly less annoying sex ed teacher have problems that keep on making you want to go and kick some of the characters in the shins. Despite the frustration that you cannot actually harm fictional characters, it is a strangely compelling read, a book that you have to pick up whenever you can sneak five minutes to yourself.

-Amy