While on vacation last week, I read four books, all published in 2015 and all good reads for some time at the beach or swimming pool.
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
When I read Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, it informed some of my television memories. When I read Funny Girl by Nick Hornby, it was absolutely informed by Armstrong’s book. How could it not be?
In Funny Girl, Sophie Straw navigates the journey from unknown to television starlet within a very short span of time. Her television career skyrockets and, though she ends up with a long, successful career, her greatest success is her first success. Set in the 1960’s, Funny Girl is as much about that time period as it is television of the time period and the cast of Barbara (and Jim), Straw’s television show.
I like Nick Horby. He creates flawed characters that I end up loving. His books don’t always stick with me, but fur the duration of each novel, I am his.
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
I’m a sucker for packaging, and the style – from artwork to physical size – of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley is just adorable. Adorable!
In As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, Flavia is sent away from England to boarding school in Canada at Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy. The school is her mother’s alma mater and she knows that while there she will be there to be inducted into a mysterious organization known as the Nide, but has no fuirther details.
On FLavia’s first night in her new room at her new school, a body comes crashing down her chimney. Liking science and mysteries, she starts investigating the identity of the body as well as the disappearances of other girls at her school.
I think this series is for young adults. It reads like Pippi Longstocking for slightly older readers (which I mean as the highest of compliments). Bradley’s style is engaging and there is quirk aplenty to keep readers surprised. Highly recommend.
This is part of a series, the Flavia de Luce series, and I look forward to checking out more of Bradley’s books.
I received a copy of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley free as part of GoodRead’s First Reads program.
Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs
I’m equally loyal to the television show Bones as I am to the Kathy Reichs series on which the show is based – I’ve seen all episodes and read all books. The latest installment in the book series, Speaking in Bones, is the 18th book but still as entertaining as the first. I view these books like a big snack. They’re not there to make me smarter (though factoids are conspicuously inserted throughout each novel) or to help me grow as a person. They are just pure entertainment!
In the installment of the Bones series, forensic anthropologist Temperence Brennan works alongside an amateur sleuth named Hazel “Lucky” Strike. Lucky is pursuing what she believes to be the murder of eighteen-year-old Cora Teague. But the bones don’t match up, which leads Brennan down a path of murder and adventure. (All of the books lead down a path of murder and adventure.)
For other readers of the series, the roller coaster ride that is the love life of Brennan and Andrew Ryan continues. As of course it should.
It’s not hard to critiques these books but it’s so much more fun to just consume them.
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
For book club this month we selected Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book quite like this one. Atkinson tells the story of Ursula Todd and her family starting in 1910. Although the story continues on on to near present, Ursula dies many times over. As do most of the other characters.
It’s like Atkinson is presenting to us the power of choice. Do this and things end one way. Make another choice and get another outcomes. The change in choice is often quite small and the outcome quite drastic.
There were a few parts early in Life After Life when I was confused but once I caught on to what Atkinson was doing… Well, I just wanted more.
Later this Fall, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens is losing a special part of its family. Harapan, also known as Harry, is a Sumatan rhinoceros and the only one of his species outside of Southeast Asia. He’s also one of an estimated less than 100 left in the world.
