An excellent book

I don't get to read as often as I used to, but it's rare lately that any book interests me enough to make me want to stop the rest of my life to read it. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is such a book. It's well-written, fresh and interesting, and keeps the reader involved throughout its close to 800 pages. Susannah Clarke has the rare gift of making her reader believe that they are reading a history of something that really happened. There is a richness and depth to her story that makes it both believable and interesting, as well as easily accessible. For a first novel, that is quite an achievement, and one that I highly recommend.

Also, as a design nerd, I was particularly happy to see that this book was released with two covers, one as you see at left, and the second, which I own, that has the black & white reversed. In an age where multiple covers are usually part of some cheap marketing campaign to sell more copies to collectors, it's nice to see something like this done because it relates to the story (I won't spoil the reason for any potential readers).