Under My Hat

ed. by Jonathan Strahan

Why You Should Read This:

• Contains awesome stories by some of my all-time favourite authors: Garth Nix (author of the Sabriel series), Frances Hardinge (author of A Face Like Glass and other brilliant books), Neil Gaiman (author of Sandman and American Gods as well as Doctor Who episode "The Doctor's Wife"), and more!
• So many differing view on witches/magic users. Very interesting.

And Why You Shouldn't:

• There are few very good stories. Couple good ones, couple entertaining ones. A lot of the rest I was a bit underwhelmed with.

Fluent in 3 Months

by Benny Lewis

Why You Should Read This:

• He gets you excited about how fun languages are.
• He gives tons of useful links to his website and other places.
• He's entertaining and charmingly Irish, and certainly an expert source, considering he's become fluent in seven languages while not be a "good" language learner.

And Why You Shouldn't:

• Most of the useful information is just as easily available on his website. Which is free.

More thoughts after the break...

The Cracks in the Kingdom

by Jaclyn Moriarty

Story summary: Sequel to A Corner of White. Elliot and Madeleine write letters to each other through the crack connecting their worlds--Madeleine from England, Elliot from the Kingdom of Cello. There's also adventure, friendships, spell-hunting, turquoise rain, manipulative princesses, and lots of musing about life, love, and physics.

Why You Should Read This:

• Very original fantasy world (living colours!).
• But also contemporary England.
• Great interactions between characters.
• And wonderfully complex characters as well.
• Just lots of fun, while also being thought provoking. You should read it.

And Why You Shouldn't:

• If you don't like even the hint of a love triangle.
• If teenagers and their emotional problems annoy you. (Even though said emotional problems aren't so much "Does he like me?!?!" and more "Why did my dad run away with an enemy agent?!?!")
• If you have such a strong view of your particular philosophy that you don't want to read about a girl musing on life, love, physics, etc.