History Lesson for Girls (Aurelie Sheehan)

This book about two girls growing up as daughters of Hippie parents makes me glad that I was born just a tad bit too late (or to parents just a tad bit too conventional…) to have experienced some of this egocentric, drug experimenting, free loving parenting that can now entertain and slightly scare me in novels… While not too original this novel is also not too cliche to be worth reading. And sometimes it’s just like reading a crime novel – the “coming of age with useless parents” novel is a certain art form within which some authors excel more than others. And it feels nice and safe to read a book that I know – not this specific book but its kind…

a most uncommon degree of popularity (by Kathleen Gilles Seidel)

I will not read soccer-mom novels for at least a few months. I’m just tired of them. They scare me of being a mom in the US and annoy me in their predictable targeting of people very similar to me (aaaaah, I don’t want to be one of them!). So I closed this one at page 37 with a sigh of relief. Yes, I am allowed to not finish books.

Goodnight Nobody (Jennifer Weiner)

Chick-lit. Nice enough. Some quite funny satire of life in the suburbs.

Dead Heat (Dick Francis and Felix Francis)

As always (Dick Francis has written more than 40 of these), there are a lot of horses, some crime, a guy who would prefer to just mind his own business but gets drawn into solving the crime, a beautiful woman etc. I quite like the fact that, because he has written so many of them, any time I am in the mood for one, I can read one. And they are so un-memorable, that I’m not even sure whether I read this specific one before or not.

However, the biggest benefit of reading this particular one is a cool quote:

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” Abraham Lincoln

One mystery that I couldn’t solve though: Why did they put a big picture of father and son Francis on the back-cover, where the father looks like he’s of rather poor health and doesn’t quite know where he is and the son wears one of his father’s ties (far too short for his huge frame)?

Something borrowed (Emily Giffin)

I’m seriously tempted to change my own rule about noting down each and every book I read…

Chick-lit. Doesn’t matter if you read it when dead tired because the baby is crying all night… as it’s no waste if you don’t remember what you read…

Murder Plays House – A mommy-track mystery (Ayelet Waldman)

Sometimes I crave a good old portion of McDonald’s french fries. You know exactly what you get, sure, they are salty and greasy (but not old-fat greasy) but you were hungry before and are not afterward, no surprises, no complaints. That’s all I have to say about this book.

Wife of the Gods – An Inspector Darko Dawson Mystery (Kwei Quartey)

Agatha Christie in Ghana? Or, as my mother would say if she longs for a good old fashioned murder mystery: “I need at least two corpses, some passionate love and a happy ending.”

Wife of the Gods has all that and is a pleasant (why is reading about murder pleasant?) if predictable read. In tried and tested Agatha Christie fashion we have an oh-so-innocent seeming murder victim whom a surprisingly high number of people wish to see dead. Some extra spice is added by the fact that the story is set in Ghana, so apart from the ordinary greed and passion we also deal with the evil eye and all kinds of magical beliefs.

I enjoyed the read, had some nostalgic longing for Ghana, which still feels like a second home. I’d read the next “Inspector Darko Dawson Mystery” – though I don’t know if I’d spend the money on buying the book. If you enjoy “No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”, you’ll like Darko.

Every Secret Thing (Lila Shaara)

A single woman in her mid-thirties lives in this house somewhere in a small town / suburb. She’s disillusioned about men but somehow lonely. Some kind of threat leads to the involvement of this tall taciturn cop in her life, who has to protect her against the evil guys. They (woman and cop) will fight and annoy each other throughout most of the book but we know from the moment they first meet, that they will get together in the end, when all the evil guys have been caught or killed.

I have read enough of them to know the story within the first few pages but still that’s the kind of book that makes me be late at work. And this is one of the better ones, with interesting side-line stories, strange family issues and philosophical quotes to garnish the ride (though only very loosely related to the story…).

For example:
“The common error of ordinary religious practice is to mistake the symbol for the reality, to look at the finger pointing the way and then to suck it for comfort rather than follow it.” Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity