I just picked up Jedi Search yesterday and I ended up reading half the book in one sitting. Minus Lando's excursion to the blob races, I think it's pretty kick ass. This will be the first EU book I've read minus the graphic novel adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy.

After I finish Jedi Academy and go back and read the regular Thrawn Trilogy, I was thinking about skipping on ahead to Hand of Thrawn. Are there any other books in between that people would recommend or are they pretty much all crap as I've heard?