61. Pratchett, Terry. Making Money. 394 pages. 5.29.09.

Making Money is the latest of the "industry" or "government" books in Terry Pratchett's Discworld collection, and is a delightful look at the financial institutions that develop in prosperous communities. Following the themes and ideas established in Going Postal, Making Money once again introduces the lovable conman Moist von Lipwig, and he once again finds himself at the mercy of Vetinari's agendas and - most importantly - his own desires to pursue dangerous vocations. And it is truly amazing how exciting a bank can be.

Like always, Pratchett's satire is both brilliant and captivating, and his sesne of style is unparalleled in modern fiction.


62. Harris, Charlaine. Grave Sight. 320 pages. 5.31.09.

Grave Sight introduces readers to a young woman named Harper Connelly, who gains the ability to find (and marginally communicate with) the deceased after being struck by lightening as a young teenager. In this first novel Harris places Harper in an inbred community in the Ozarks, where she runs into quite a bit of trouble after locating the body of a missing teenage girl.

In comparison to early Sookie Stackhouse books, Grave Sight is very smartly written, and shows quite a bit of growth on the part of the author, Charlaine Harris. As a character, Harper is tragically flawed, which works to increase the reader's interest in her thoughts and actions. Unlike Sookie, there is quite a bit of depth and history to Harper, and the character is strongly developed before the plot of the novel itself even begins. Her weaknesses humanize her, and her narration reveals a deeply skeptical and cynical young woman that (perhaps sadly) fits much more easily into a modern landscape than Harris' vampire-loving waitress.

One of the things I found most interesting about the book itself is the contempt Harper shows for the citizens of a small town in Arkansas. While the Stackhouse books criticize what is identified in the books as a Southern discontent with literal and figurative "outsiders", Grave Sight seems to illustrate the same kind of contempt for small Southern communities in general. Sarne is depicted as backward and corrupt from the very beginning, and is easily identified as an insincere - and often dangerous - place to be.

Another detail that I found interesting in the novel is Harper's relationship with her stepbrother. While Harris overtly "hints" that their relationship raises eyebrows for more than just readers, there is a complexity to the pair that retains interest, and lays the groundwork for several possibilities as the series continues. While the desire to analyze their relationship in a Freudian sense is strong, I am attempting to withhold opinions until Harris herself develops something a bit more concrete.

All in all, Grave Sight is a very interesting book, and I'm looking forward to reading the next installment in the series.