Group Book Review - kinda, sorta

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith

You may remember that I queried all of you in March about these books ... wanted to know if they were suitable for my airplane trips back and forth to Wisconsin.  I ordered the first two books from the library, took them along but did not pay any attention to them.  Just last week I finally made myself open the first one and start reading. 

About now you're expecting me to say that I loved them.  Unfortunately, you would be wrong ... I disliked them.  I say "them" because I made myself read both books.  They are indeed charming, they paint a doting picture of Africa in general and Botswana in detail.  It's clear that the author loves Africa.  My problem is that the characters are over-simplified and stereotyped.  The cadence of the dialogue is charming but the content is repetitive.  The plots are ... oh, I want to say charming again ... not all that interesting and the solutions have no surprises.

Maybe my problem is expectations:  I expect a British or American mystery story with sophisticated characters and twisty plots but that's not what these books are.  One thing that surprised me when I tried to explain them to some one else is that the tone of the books is judgmental ... there are many, many should and should-nots woven into so many of the conversations. 

Here's what you said in March:

Bethie: I loved the Ladies No 1 Detective series on HBO, but I did not read the books.

Brenda: I enjoy the Ladies series and "read" them by listening to an audio version ... the reader-- Lisette Lecat -- is just wonderful ... this is a result of turning my Mother into a Book-on-Tape addict ... she would soon outstrip the GNE's 1,000+ audio library and started buying her own books ... one day I came home and was told to write down ALL my credit card numbers as it appeared that these audio-books companies would prefer that form of payment ... I too enjoyed the HBO series even though the gay hairdresser neighbor is not in the books ... I can lend you the audio books but the first titles are in cassette format, but the later ones are on CD

Susan: Haven’t read the Ladies No. 1 Detective series but I have read a couple of his 44 Scotland Street series, which are immensely charming but not mysteries. I am pretty sure Brenda HAS read the No. 1 Detective series, so I’ll leave it for her to chime in.

The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth

Fellow sunglass wearing book club members:

Congratulations Chairman Ann. You have hit upon a good idea. I just finished a book that I suspect you have all read, but I will put it out there anyway.

I had not read any of the John Madden mysteries, but I like these post WWI (Maise Dobbs) WWII English mysteries. Naturally, I started with one later in the series, The Dead of Winter. I was surprised that Rennie Airth kept my interest.

Is it worth going back to the other books in the series? Bethie

Ballet de Lyon Book Club 2.0

Oh, so much better an idea, Chairman Ann! We can just recommend books to each other and if a dialog ensues, so much the better.

This way, I can sneak in the liberry book club pickings as though I am an intellectual and read high-toned tomes, instead of someone who has just completed a trilogy about a knitting club (not particularly a good one, either).

I will excuse you from reading the harrowing book we just completed, Half the Sky, about the oppression of 3rd-world women due to sexual slavery, lack of education, and maternal mortality.

But the next book is Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, which comes highly recommended by the person who nominated it (moi) and by our unofficial leader, the local librarian, who read it ahead of time and then made her husband and daughter read it too. A quick read, a classic (if you can jerry-rig mysteries into the classic category) that's still highly readable, 60 years after it was written. One of the zillion reviews I read in prep for the nomination party we have annually said, "A mystery about history." In other words, a 20th century detective tackles an historical event (did King Richard III really have his two innocent nephews killed in order to clear a path to the throne in 15th century England?) like it was a contempory crime needing to be solved, rather than just accepting the 500 years of myth and bad history surrounding this event.

And thanks to Chairman Ann for bravely kick-starting the BLBC again.

Ann wakes up ... oh, it's April already

Wow ... that was a long spell of writer's block!  My New Year's resolutions include at least one update per month for the book club blog.  Yes, I know it's April, not January ... my resolutions also include something or other about procrastination.

My plan for 2011 is to talk about whatever I'm reading.  This means that all of us are released from any obligation to read the books mentioned.  This is a no-guilt, no-obligation book club so you can comment or review as the mood strikes you.

I hope you will feel the same and add posts about whatever you are reading ... or not (see no-guilt, no-obligation by-laws).

I spent way more time than I should have between January and March reading trashy books.  My new favorite is an historical fiction / time travel / mystery / romance series by Diana Gabaldon.  Susan has already heard all about this.  It's set in a combination of Scotland 1700's and England post WWII.  There's lots of Scottish history ... clans, wars, Bonnie Prince Charlie ... and interesting questions about whether or not you can change history.  The characters are well developed, there's lots of charming Scottish brogue and enough romance/relationship stuff and cliff-hanging adventures to keep you awake.

The down side:  I really wish I had a Kindle or iPad to read these books ... all seven of them are long, heavy books.

The first book in the series is Outlander:

http://genealogy.about.com/od/writing_family_history/gr/outlander.htm


And here's the author's website ... not the background you would guess.

http://www.dianagabaldon.com/writing/the-outlander/


and a little more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Gabaldon