book the first: Jingo

My first break book was Jingo, by Terry Pratchett. Chronologically, it's toward the middle of both the series as a whole and the Watch-centric arc; this being Pratchett, though, you don't have to know every bit of background information from the previous books to enjoy it.

Jingo is a beautifully done war satire; a mysterious island pops out of the ocean between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch, the scramble to claim it exacerbates already tense diplomatic relationships, and hijinks ensue. Said hijinks occasionally take the shape of JFK's assassination, occasionally look more like Lawrence of Arabia, and mostly look like nothing but themselves.

This is also one of the few Discworld books that actually takes on race relations as Earthlings know them. Usually, Earth-style race relations get transposed into species issues; on the matter of Ankh-Morpork vs. Klatch, though, human skin color definitely plays a role, and no one is entirely right. It's messy and it's complicated, and it's very much a picture of the real world in that sense.

This was a reread for me; I first read it in high school, and loved every minute. Up to the end, where I sort of stared at the pages in shock - and still loved it, don't get me wrong, but Pratchett knows how to rip your heart out when it counts.