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Suzumiya Haruhi

涼宮ハルヒ

• by Tanigawa Nagaru
• published by Dengeki Bunko

Published simultaneously as novels and magazine serialized short stories, just to confuse people.

• Suzumiya Haruhi's Melancholy/涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱

On the first day of high school, Suzumiya Haruhi stands up and says, "I've no interest in ordinary humans. If you're an alien, from the future, or have psychic powers, then come to me."
She then refuses to speak more than a minute to anyone in the class, since they are all boring. But eventually the sarcastic narrator of the book manages to get her to open up a little, and they form a club filled with other crazy characters, like the expressionless girl who never looks up from her book, the cute girl who exists only for moe purposes (because this kind of story is actually caused by the moe characters) and a 'mysterious' transfer student.
While Suzumiya herself remains unaware of it, there actually is quite a bit more going on beneath the surface of this book, and a fair amount of Kant philosophy-based sci-fi action, as well as a satisfying conclusion. More importantly, it is consistently very funny.

• Suzumiya Haruhi's Sigh/涼宮ハルヒの溜息

The second novel actually takes place after the third, just to confuse people. While still very funny, it doesn't really seem to go anywhere, as they spend the entire book making a film. The anime then made that film into the first episode.

• Suzumiya Haruhi's Boredom/涼宮ハルヒの退屈

Four short stories; the SOS gang play baseball, Kyon time travels, the computer club president is missing, and they go to an island for summer vacation, where a murder mystery might happen.
The first two stories are really good, the third quite boring, and the last one perfectly okay.

• Suzumiya Haruhi's Disappearance/涼宮ハルヒの消失

Also appears to take place after a later short story collection. The uneven aspects of the previous two volumes led to me taking a very long break from the series, but this volume was every bit as good as the first one. Kyon wakes up one morning to find the world...normal. No Haruhi, no Koizumi, and the other two girls are both ordinary humans...and he's got to jump through quite a few hoops to get things back. Part of what makes it so enjoyable is that Kyon is finally forced to become proactive, and admit that he actually enjoys all this insane shit the happens around Haruhi.

• Suzumiya Haruhi's Rampage/涼宮ハルヒの暴走

Three short stories - caught in a time loop in summer, challenged to a video game tournament, and trapped in a mysterious hotel in the mountains. The middle story is pretty good, the first story is dang good, and the last story is absolutely amazing.

• Suzumiya Haruhi's Disturbance/涼宮ハルヒの動揺

Five stories, and only one of them is any good. Four amusing but ultimately unnecessary diversions, each of which would be fine paired up with something better, but when the final story in the volume comes along, and, good as it is, takes place after the next book in the series and requires knowledge of that story to fully understand...I can't help but hope the hypothetical English edition comes out in a different order.