Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett

Uproarious! Taking these un-traveled women through countries patterned after Spain, France, etc and exposing the traditions of each place to the ridicule of these travelers was hilarious - I was glad to be along for the ride.

The concept of "stories" and what it takes to make an ending (ie: whether Cinderella, (or Emberella, as the case may be) gets married to the prince) is thoroughly drawn apart and put back together with enchanting and thoughtful twists. The idea that the people and their lives have to change with the times is pretty hard for one of the characters to swallow.

Mirrors are a powerful symbol and the concepts Pratchett creates surrounding their use are very creative and yet, as always, make complete sense.

Take note of all the things Granny Weatherwax tells Margret not to do.

There is some old-lady bedroom discussion that was quite forward, so for that reason this book goes on my 'not-squeaky-clean-therefore-not-recommended' list.

Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

Lovely, hilarious; a good reminder of what Terry Pratchett is all about. I want to read more of his work after reading this one!

The idea of the golem carrying out instructions, no matter what, provided a lot of pondering material for me. So many situations are presented in the book that gave me a lot to think about with Mister Pump and his fellows.

The main character was a con-man in a former life, and his innate ability to read people and provide exactly what they need was instructive. There are so many fascinating characters with valuable outlooks on life.

The ideas presented by the wizards were incredible - and both modest and outrageous at the same time - "Not doing any magic at all was the chief task of wizards - not 'not doing magic' because they couldn't do magic, but not doing magic when they could and didn't. Any ignorant fool can fail to turn someone else into a frog. You have to be clever to refrain from doing it when you know how easy it is. There were places in the world commemorating those times when wizards hadn't been quite so clever, and on many of them the grass would never grow again."

The filthiness of the city Ankh-Morpork was something of a fairy tale to me until I visited New York City. Then I found that Pratchetts descriptions of how vile the pigeons are (based on their diet of eating things off the streets) made complete sense. There are places in the world where one can live and never have a desire to go barefoot outside. That was incomprehensible to me before I knew NYC.

"Words are important. And when there is a critical mass of them, they change the nature of the universe."