August 8: A Beautiful Saturday!

Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery by Susan Juby
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Juby's Truth Commission, so I tried a few of her other books. This one, published in 2008, was certainly disappointing. I'm not sure if the male persona was clunky, or if the plot was just too draggy, or what, but the story didn't grab me and I ended up skimming just to see if everything turned out the way I expected it to (it did). Great title, but it certainly lacked zip and energy.

A Good Year for the Roses: A Novel by Gil McNeil
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If this had been the first Gil McNeil I'd read, I think I would've loved it. However, having read her Beach Street Knitting Society series (and loved them!), I was disappointed to find this novel a near-carbon copy of the characters, situations, plots, and settings of those books. A husband has left (divorce, not death, this time); family is difficult (exs and immediate relatives, this time); elderly relatives are lovable, feisty eccentrics; kids are sometimes annoying but good at the core, still nicely differentiated, but otherwise nearly exactly like the Beach Street gang; there is a high-maintenance but supportive friend from away and several on-site supporters; the setting just needs some sprucing up to become a going concern, and, in fact, the whole resolution feels suspiciously like the resolution of the entire Beach Street series. I do enjoy those chatty, funny "chuck it all and start again" stories, but Molly even suffers "slow-motion panic attacks" at night the way the BS woman did, and the kids "tut" in scorn as well. Why didn't McNeil continue that series if she had nothing new to say?

One big new issue was the nearly complete lack of commas in this text: while British usage employs far fewer commas in direct address than we Americans do, in this text the lack was jarringly obvious. Example: "That wasn't Roger's fault Molly, you know that."
"I'll see you later Mum."

While I soldiered on to the end, I was disappointed by McNeil's predictability and lack of originality. While many writers I enjoy (Katie Fforde and Jennifer Crusie, to name just two) create similar plots with happy endings and meet cute romance stories, their books are not essentially interchangeable. A Good Year for the Roses and the other McNeil novels I've read to date are.

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to I am Malala over a few weeks, finishing it en route home from my vacation. As a work of literature, there are certainly a few rough spots, and Malala's commitment to providing context and information about family connections makes the plot drag in spots, but the story it tells is remarkable. Not only is Malala a brave, focused, and determined young survivor, but the story of how extremism took over her homeland and nearly cost her her life is informative, scary, and absorbing. As a feminist, a woman, a graduate of a women's college, and a teacher, I want all my female students--the male ones, too, but less urgently--to read this book and consider how we can use our benefits in this world to extend those benefits to other women who are denied them because of their gender.

Questions: why is Malala's mother still illiterate? I was a little bothered by the way Malala was the chosen child in her father's eyes, and no one seemed to consider her mom much.

What is the best way for educated Western women who have enough money to live lives of ease to help women who live lives of unimaginable hardship? I think Nicholas Kristof might have some ideas. Much to think about here.


Beastly Things by Donna Leon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another hit: this one is typically disturbing, involving both the issue of our food chain in the 21st century and ethical choices with grave consequences. However, it somehow manages to be both interesting and good, so a strong Brunetti outing start to finish.

Happy Returns by Angela Thirkell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Not her best. Way too many skimmable/skippable passages (even pages!), and way too little happening. Still: I read it, and that says something--either about me or about Thirkell. Your choice.

Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery by Susan Juby
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Juby's Truth Commission, so I tried a few of her other books. This one, published in 2008, was certainly disappointing. I'm not sure if the male persona was clunky, or if the plot was just too draggy, or what, but the story didn't grab me and I ended up skimming just to see if everything turned out the way I expected it to (it did). Great title, but it certainly lacked zip and energy.

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