The kite runner (Khaled Hosseini)

This book was given to me as a B-day gift - I will never thank my friend M. enough for it !! A powerful and devastating story of a friendship between 2 kids in 1970s Afghanistan. Wonderfully written, this book will haunt you long after you turned the last page. My best read of these past 5 years - definitely.

Sick puppy (Carl Hiaasen)

Carl Hiaasen is Dave Barry on speed. Hilarious & delirious, an urban pandemonium set in Florida involving (not necessarily in that order) toads, a dog, US senators and real estate. My eternal gratitude goes to Mr B. for introducing me to this monument of modern US literature.

A year in the merde (Stephen Clarke)

This book had me laughing out loud on the tube... and earned me weird looks from fellow commuters. The main (Brit) character moves to Paris for a year to take up a new job, and ends up in a complete cross-Chunnel cultural conflict. It is truly hilarious (the bit about French people kissing in the office and shaking hands all day long will ring a bell with many who have visited Paris on business). Clarke manages the difficult exercise of being frankly satirical about (ridiculous ?) French habits and has at the same time a real love of the country and a lot of tenderness for the locals. One downside of the book is that you need to have some knowledge of French to make the most of the excellent puns... but overall much recommended reading. His other books are no as funny as this one, but still make an excellent read for an afternoon at the beach (particularly "talk to the Snail").