I'm going to branch out and talk about an adult author today. Crazy, I know! Of course, his recent books are about nursery rhymes and fairy tales, but give me a break. I can't go cold turkey off the young stuff.
I went to see Jasper Fforde speak at a local Barnes & Noble a few nights ago. He's the author of the Thursday Next books (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, and so on), and most recently the Nursery Crime series. The first Nursery Crime is The Big Over Easy, in which Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and Mary Mary investigate the death of Humpty Dumpty. The second book is The Fourth Bear. Just bought it, haven't read it yet, but the story has something to do with the rights of anthropomorphized bears and the lucrative but illicit ursine porridge trafficking industry, among other things.
Mr. Fforde is a very entertaining speaker as well as a very clever author, and it's well worth the excursion if he's appearing in your area. The Thursday Next books are literary crack for English majors (and lots of others) the same way Harry Potter is for kids (and lots of others). JFf's websites are also nicely done and good for a bit of daft fun, you might say. If you were British. Here's the Nursery Crime Division site, with links to the others. I couldn't decide who to buy his book for, so he signed it like this:
Fantastic.
Most exciting news of the evening: his next book will be the fifth installment of Thursday Next. His publisher shot down Apocalypse Next as a title, but I'm sure he'll think of something equally clever and punny.
I even got an awesome Ginja Assassin postcard w/ signing.
My only disappointment: the new Porridge t-shirt was not available for purchase.
Oh well, that's what the internet is for, I suppose.
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