Well, it's been awhile, and I've certainly been reading in that time, but we'll start from recent history, and maybe I'll go back and add some of my favorites from the gap in which I haven't posted.
In the meantime, a book that I read recently and greatly enjoyed was Jasper Fforde's newest, The Constant Rabbit. I was so excited this summer to read that Fforde had a new book coming out, and I was even more excited when it was finally my turn to borrow the library's e-book copy. This is just as weird as all of Fforde's novels--the premise is that there are a bunch of anthropomorphized rabbits (they're human-sized, can speak English, and walk on their hind legs) due to a spontaneous anthropomorphizing event in England back in the 1970s. The story, set in 2022, follows an apparently hapless civil servant working in RabCoT (Rabbit Compliance Taskforce) using his unusual skill at telling rabbits apart to identify wanted rabbits. But when his new neighbors are a family of rabbits--and the lady of the house happens to be his college crush whom he hasn't seen since rabbits were barred from university--he finds himself questioning most every aspect of his life.
This is satire, mostly of contemporary British politics, but you certainly don't have to know anything about UKIP or Brexit or really anything based in reality to enjoy the story at hand--there's plenty going on without worrying about catching every allusion. The rabbits' culture is particularly fascinating all on its own--they have been anthropomorphized, yes, but they have a distinct culture with their own language (though they can also speak English just fine), religion, customs (lopping the ears of rabbits who have turned traitor to align with humans; males dueling with pistols to steal another's wife), taboos (burrowing in residential areas), and sports (gamboling). I don't think I need to say any more for potential readers to decide whether they're remotely interested in such a weird story as this, but for those with a taste for the zany, I highly recommend The Constant Rabbit.
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