Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

So, in 2002, a mysterious plague wipes out every last mammal on the planet Earth with a Y chromosome. Except Yorick (he's a dude) and Ampersand (his pet monkey). With the joint purpose of finding his girlfriend/fiancée Beth (last heard of somewhere in the Australian outback) and discovering the reason for his immunity to the plague, Yorick joins forces with Agent 355 and Dr Alison Mann, along with a bunch of crazy Amazons, some astronauts, a varied cast of regulars and other villagers and idiots, to entertain us for 9 mighty volumes. Volume 10 is due to be released in a couple of days...

Global Frequency by Warren Ellis

A really neat idea, this... One thousand and one ordinary people, linked by the extraordinary Miranda Zero - each one of them an expert at something, and each one of them needed to help save the world in their own way. Highly recommended.

Jack of Fables (vol. 1 and 2) by Bill Willingham

These stories pick up the tale of Jack, a Fable who having stolen from the Fable-community was banished into the "Mundy" (mundane) world. He's a total dick. Which is probably why he is such a good character. I don't think these are as good as the original stock, but they're entertaning enough so if Con buys anymore of them, I'll read them.

Lucifer (vol. 1 to 11) by Mike Carey

These volumes pick up the tale of Lucifer Morningstar from when he left his kingdom of Hell in the capable administrative hands of the angels Remiel and Duma (in Neil Gaiman's masterpiece, the Sandman). On the whole, this is fan-freaking-tastic, BUT (and I promise I'm not giving anything away here) given story's trajectory, there is really no other way that it can end and that's a pity. Sometimes, I wish these things could go on forever, but I suppose they wouldn't be as good then. Let's just say that there's no fear of Lucifer jumping the shark, even though he could if he wanted to!

Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation by Jean Lave & Eteinne Wenger

This is an absolutely incredible book. It is really interesting and presents some fairly radical views on the nature of knowledge and learning in an accessible and engaging way. A seminal text in the field of organisational learning and organisational knowledge studies and forming the basis of the concept of 'Communities of Practice', this book has been cited and appropriated as the basis of many others' work - and as is always the case, has also been badly misrepresented and misappropriated at times. Well worth a read though and then you can make up your own mind about how it has been used since.

Fables: 1001 Nights by Bill Willingham

Snow White is sent to the Caliph's court as Fabletown's emmisary and finds herself having to entertain him in order to keep her head. Scheherazade learns her lessons from the mistress of story-telling...

Fables (vol. 1 to 9) by Bill Willingham

Fables (vol. 1 to 9) tell the on-going story of the eponymous 'Fables', who escaped from their worlds to ours in order to escape the power-mad Adversary. They have been secretly living amongst us for centuries... They're all here: Snow White, Bigby (Big Bad) Wolf, King Cole, Prince Charming, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Jack and some that you might have forgotten! Great fun.

The Intellectual and Social Organization of the Sciences by Richard Whitely

About as interesting as it sounds, so not very. Unfortunately, I will have to try and wade through this again because I couldn't bring myself to read the whole thing. In the interests of fairness, there will be no star rating until then.

Merde Actually by Stephen Clarke

So, it's a good while since I read this. I know that I had tried to read it before and given up (Chapter One was very familiar), which is never a good sign. All in all, not a bad read. Popcorn for the brain. Not as funny as the first one, but not entirely terrible either.

Atomised by Michel Houellebecq

This is not something that I have done since I started this reviewing business, but sweet Christ, I could not read this book. I'm sorry. I tried. I kept plodding along with it in the hopes that I'd get into it, but no joy. The story is tragic, even worse, it is hopeless; the protaganists have no redeeming qualities, because their mother has fucked with their heads so badly; the sex is simultaneously prolific, profane and completely devoid of any heart or heat. I suppose that it's a feat to be able to write something so filthy without any eroticism whatsoever. Whatever. It wasn't enough to keep me turning the pages. Maybe I'll give it another go in a year or two... but for now, Houellebecq: nil points.

The Portable Door by Tom Holt

OK, so I'll let you in on a secret - the post date is a bit of a lie. I am in the future writing this blog and posting it back to today's date. This is why I can't really tell you much about this book. I enjoyed it. It made me laugh in places. Out loud, on occassion. But that's really all there is to say about it. Nothing so overwhelming that it stayed with me for longer than it took me to decide what to read next, but entertaining enough for what it was.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Kind of an odd tale. Not one that could have been published five years ago, and certainly not one that could have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize then. I picked this up to see what it was about, started to read the synopsis on the back and next thing I knew, I'd already finished two chapters. If nothing else, the narrative will keep stringing you along.

The story centres around a young Pakistani man who has lived in the US for several years. He went to university in Princeton and then got a job as an analyst with a prestigious company in New York. He has fallen in love with a beautiful woman and his world seems to be coming together just nicely. Then September 11 happens and everything changes.