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I just finished the Count of Monte Cristo last night! And man is it awesome. If you've seen the movie it's about this guy, Edmond Dantes who is falsely accused of Bonapartism during the time when Bonaparte has been exiled and King Louis is back on the throne. So he's thrown in the Chateau d'If for....14 years (because he committed treason) I think and swears revenge on those who put him there. the movie is more about long lost love (because he's torn away from his fiance Mercedes *sniffle*) but the book has more emphasis on his totally awesome revenging. Seriously, he utterly destroys them, it's so clever what he does that I want to read it again later to get a better grasp of the characters and the story. there's a lot of people involved and they're all awesomely interwoven.

I really recommend it, it was so cool.

I'm now starting Pride and Prejudice.

Also, if anyone has heard of Wicked and Son of a Witch by Gregory Macguire, I highly recommend giving them a go. It's set as a prequel to the wizard of oz which you would think is a bad idea but he pulls it off brilliantly. His books have a really melancholic, shocking tone to them so they're not particuarly happy reading but they're amazing. the first one (Wicked) follows Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West - Macguire created her name from the initials of the author of the Wizard of Oz - L. Frank. Baum) as she grows up. Macguire creates a complete political situation in Oz where the Wizard is a tyrannical ruler who is slowly removing the rights of Animals (animals who are sentient and can talk). Elphaba becomes a complete social outcast because she is a supporter of Animal Rights and joins a fairly...violent pro-rights group and joins an underworld as Animals become less and less popular and more and more dangerous to be around. Anyway, it's amazing and shocking and does a brilliant job of looking at revelent social problems in a popular, fantasy world.

Read them!