Magical! Another well-executed foray into fantasy land, with fancy spells and mysterious places and giant, man-eating hedges. What can I say, I like the Harry Potter.

The story of an extraordinary kid, Oskar, trying to sort out his life after his father dies in the World Trade Center. Foer once again dreams up incredibly lovable characters and sticks them in a heart-breaking, backward-looking drama.

Like Sartre and the rest of those crazy existentialists, Abe’s characters spend an awful lot of time worrying about everything. None the less, the book’s extraordinary premise makes for a fascinating parable on the more futile aspects of the human condition.

Not Egan’s best work. His more recent novels are full of interesting ideas, this has one moderately interesting idea. There’s a protein that uses quantum effects to “search” DNA mutation space for modifications that increase fitness. And the characters are annoying.

Marginally inspired sc-fi from the seventies. I have no idea why this won the Hugo and the Nebula, maybe relativity was in fashion at the time.

Rilke was a melancholy man, but I appreciate his sentiments on loneliness.

A quirky game where you play a defense attorney and investigate crimes for clues that help you to defend your clients. The game play is nothing to write home about (conversation trees, annoying “click everything until you figure out what’s important”), but the stories are amusing and there was enough wackiness to keep me engaged to the bitter end.

The story of how a man’s mother and father met in ye olde Chinese-village. Very romantic, and without all the wire-work that one find’s in Zhang’s recent films.

A polished gem of a film. Comic, dramatic, puerile, sophisticated, chock full of cute little bunnies. Even the coldest heart would be warmed by its viewing.