Rating: 
Summary: Save Yourselves!
Review: No, no! Go ba-a-ack! Save yourselves! It's -- the first in a series! Yes, the author leaves the whole loosely-plotted mess up in the air (his pregnant heroine living in a derelict Short Sunderland flying boat -- a fictional one, at that -- her husband still erased from existence, and her time-travelling father converted into dessert topping at the Dawn of Time) promising us another helping in the spring of 2004, in the form of "The Well of Lost Plots."Thank you, from now on I think I'll wait for the paperbacks.
Rating: 
Summary: Wooly Mamoths, Expectant Dodos, and Missing Husbands
Review: Thursday Next is back, tracking down a lost Shakesperian manuscript not written by her father and trying to escape the machinations of the Goliath corporation. This book does a marvelous job of expanding the tale that began with The Eyre Affair. There is a producer who wants to make The Eyre Affair into a movie while Goliath and the government want to keep the details of the mission quiet. Some heavy handed tactics force Thursday to find an alternate method of retreiving Goliath's top agent, Jack Schitt, from the Raven. She must also find a way to stop an industrial apocolypse and recover the husband no one but she remembers. This book is as much fun as the first and I can hardly wait for the next.
Rating:
Summary: The World of Fiction
Review: Jasper Fforde has done it again! LOST IN A GOOD BOOK is Thursday Next's second adventure in the world of books and it's just as much fun as her first, THE EYRE AFFAIR. In this adventure in an alternate version of our universe, Literotecs like Thursday Next wander through the plots of books, protecting them and their characters from nefarious people who try to change plots or do away with characters. While Thursday tries to rescue her "kidnapped" husband, she meets characters like Dickens's Miss Havisham and Marianne from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. This novel's reader, Elizabeth Sastre, does just as fabulous a job as she did with the first novel. Each character has his or her own distinctive voice and accent, and Thursday especially is very appealing. Anyone who loves fiction will love this book! I can't wait for Thursday's next adventure THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS!
Rating: 
Summary: A good book to be lost in
Review: In a strange, parallel 1985, things are very strange. Vampires and werewolves wander the countryside, dodos are popular pets and the line between literature and reality is very thin: people can enter and leave novels and sometimes affect the reality within. Thursday Next, literary detective and hero of previous novel, The Eyre Affair, is once again entangled in a mess that threatens her whole reality. The malevolent Goliath Corporation wants their vicious executive, Jack Schitt returned to the real world; he's been trapped in Poe's The Raven and only Thursday can get him out. As a form of coercion, they have eradicated her husband; by wiping him out of reality, only she (and a couple Goliath folks) remember him. Entering books isn't easy, however; in the previous volume there was a machine, but that is no longer available. Coming up with an alternative, while meanwhile avoiding a villain who can reverse entropy and cause coincidences, facing an awareness that the world is likely to soon end mysteriously and coping with the early stages of pregnancy (by a now non-existent husband) are among the challenges Thursday must deal with. Despite the many witty things within this book, this is not a comic novel; the world is far too grim for a comic world. If the book is a little too muddled and a little too reliant on deus ex machinas to rate five stars, it is still strong enough to be very good. Fans of The Eyre Affair will be pleased; others are cautioned to read that book first to properly enjoy this one; it may stand alone well, but it works better as a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: The Only Loss would be you not reading this book
Review: The first book was superb and this is even more fun.The first book had a good pun every 50 pages and an interesting situation every few pages:This one is fun in every paragraph. It is less cerebral but more thought provoking. The "Eyre affair" felt like classic literature or a spoof. This one is pure"guilty pleasure".If you read one book this year( or this decade) read this one.I won't ruin the plots. just read the book. In this one he only rarely give away the events in the small quotes at the start of the chapters.
Rating:
Summary: imaginative and funny
Review: For the people that read Foorde's first book of the Thursday next series, Lost in a good book is as imaginative and funny as the first one. We meet again Thursday, who despite saving a classic like Jane Eyre from evil Hades, is subject to the same bureaucracy at work as before. But this time, her struggle with the huge conglomerate, Goliath is more personal. Fforde is as original as ever. He brings numerous famous and obscure literary characters to life and creates improbable situations with just enough prallel to reality to engage the reader. The reason I give the book 4 starts instead of five is that teh author became too preoccupied with originality and decided to bumdle too many plot lines into the novel. While he manages to resolve all of them, he does ot necessarily manage to interconnect them. After finishing the book, I felt like there were several sub plots that he could have easily left out as they did not contribute to the main line of the story--the argument with the landlord draws for several chapters to lead Thursday on a vampire hunt (completely random, but for an opportunity to describe the "undead"), a lawsuit taking place in Kafka's The Trial (again, a veihicle to demonstrate that Thursday can talk to characters in her head, a capability that she does not use anywhere else in the book), etc. Even the attempt for revenge from Hades' sister seems artificially attached to the novel, without really adding any significance. Don't get me wrong--the book is awsome. I was just a little peeved that an author that has so much to say and in such a unique way did not exercise a little restraint...
Rating:
Summary: Delightful Light Reading!
Review: My husband and I both read and enjoyed the first Thursday Next novel, The Eyre Affair, but we agree that the second book is even better, mainly because the plot takes off more quickly now that the necessary introductions are out of the way. Both of these novels are wonderful reads for literature lovers, especially those with an established familiarity with nineteenth-century British literature. You should be warned, however, that this second book ends with something of a cliffhanger - we will have a hard time waiting for the third novel to appear in 2004!
These are such entertaining novels that I am recommending them or lending them to all of my friends. They would be the perfect vacation reading gifts for the English major/teacher, librarian, wordplay fan or science fiction reader!
Rating:
Summary: This is one sequel that's as much fun as the 1st book
Review: Lost in a Good Book finds Thursday Next where we left off in The Eyre Affair. In this sequel, Thursday has to find a new way to enter into fiction, since her uncle has retired and taken his wondrous inventions with him. Once again, Thursday is interacting with fictional characters, including Miss Havisham and The Cheshire Cat (who has a liking for Moggilicious cat food). It's up to Thursday to save the world, get her husband back, and learn to leap into literature. That being said, I don't think the plot makes much difference, it's the ride not the destination when you're with Thursday. So many people compare Jasper Fforde to Douglas Adams, and I do see some resemblence, but I would compare his books more to Kim Newman's vampire books--on helium.
Rating:
Summary: Read "The Eyre Affair" first
Review: It would be difficult to read this book without first reading "The Eyre Affair". There's a large cast of characters but many of them you will already know from your reading, such as the Cheshire Cat and The Red Queen.
Jasper Fforde covers a lot of territory but if you stay alert, you won't get lost. And it's fun!
I would like to see Thursday's husband, Landen, given more to do in the next book, "The Well of Lost Plots." And learn more about her uncle Mycroft's wonderful inventions, Agent "Spike" Stoker in Special Operations-17 "Vampires and Werewolf Disposal Operations" (Suckers and Biters), SpecOps-32 "Domestic Horticulture Enforcement Agency" (Weeds and Seeds), extinct animals brought back to life, Neanderthals,--well, you get the picture.
This series is definitely a keeper. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Jasper Fforde does it again!
Review: In this sequel to The Eyre Affair, intrepid heroine Thursday Next is back for more hilarious romps through time and literary space. She is busier than ever, as she tries to save the world from a horrid (and pink) annihilation, rescue her husband Landen from his recent state of nonexistence, and guard the literary universe from evildoers, all the while evading the all-powerful Goliath Corporation. We follow Thursday into such reading material as Kafka's The Trial, Dickens' Great Expectations, Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Poe's The Raven, and a laundry label (yes, a laundry label!). Jasper Fforde, whose humor is reminiscent of Douglas Adams, is in top form here. Literary gags, puns, outlandish situations, plays on words, and irreverent jabs at anything and everything abound in this fanciful story. I recommend that you read The Eyre Affair first, if you have not done so already, since it will help you understand the quirky flavor of this alternate universe. I also suggest that you take the Spec Ops literary challenge referenced on this latest book's back cover and try your hand at its devilishly difficult puzzles. If I have any critical comment, it is that the story leaves several loose ends, which have me impatiently awaiting Thursday's next adventure, The Well of Lost Plots. But I'm sure it will be worth the wait. Enjoy!
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