Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Brilliant. This is a kids story, and I would have adored it when I was a kid, but I loved it as an adult, too. It's a short, easy read, as you would expect for a kids story. Like all of Neil Gaiman's books (he is one of my favorite authors, and I read this in my attempt to read everything he has written - I haven't quite been able to convince myself to read his graphic novels, though), this is a tale of an altered, bizarre, fantastic world just a heartbeat away from the world we know. In this case, a young girl finds her way into a duplicate world where the Other Mother has trapped her, some dead children, and her parents. It's a creepy story, and a lot of fun. I'd recommend it for kids and adults.

Plane Insanity by Elliott Hester

Hahahahaha! That's what I thought of this book. Human beings are idiots. And as long as they are not idiots around me, idiots provide good laughter.

The author has been a flight attendant for the past 20 years (I think), and he has seen almost everything. There are, of course, tales of sex in the air, but there is a lot more that he goes into. It provided a few hours of laughter, so I enjoyed the book.

Candyfreak by Steve Almond

Eh. The info about the candy world is actually quite interesting, and I enjoyed learning about the realm of candy makers. However, he takes far too many random diversions that have only the tiniest of connections to the theme of the book. Far, far too many. If he cut those out, it would be a greatly improved book. It would also no longer be a book, but that wouldn’t be a bad thing. With the harsh hand of a good editor, this would make an excellent long article in a magazine like Atlantic Monthly. Also, I find the very casual tone of voice kind of annoying. That tone isn’t entirely out of place considering the fact that this is a book about the author’s obsession with candy and his explorations of candy makers, which is not exactly a serious topic, but still the casual tone just seems to go too far.