SIMPLE GENIUS by David Baldacci

 

Can you tell I got this in a used bookstore for only 25 cents? Or was it 10 cents. Well at least I didn't have to worry about preserving its cover. I could do what I don't normally do which is bend the pages back around the binding or even fold down a corner if I felt like it. But I didn't. I always use a book marker.

 

That said ... this book was a page turner as is all of David Baldacci's novels. And you also learn something along the way. Make sure you read the additional pages at the back where he will let you know what's fact or fiction. But don't read it first. That's the warning given by the author, not me.

 

The two main characters, Sean and Michelle, have teamed up again. And they make a good team if they can just get their #+*^! together emotionally. Not necessarily Sean but Michelle has some buried issues from her childhood. Don't worry, I'm not giving anything away. Except there may be more buried treasures in this plot which may have to do with a place called Camp Peary but you didn't hear it from me. Does that sound like the military or the government is involved? You hit the nail on the head.

 

So get your spy on or your psych 101 refresher course out because you are going to need both to solve what is going on across the waters.

 

Simply put though, you may have to be a genius.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Howdy folks! It's been awhile I know since I wrote about a book I have read but there was Thanksgiving, then Christmas and after Christmas and things to do in January that didn't get done in December and then it had to go on the February list.

But here we are! Phew!!

So I have read this book (and others that I cannot remember at this time because I also cleaned out my book shelves since the last blog post). And this book is good and yet different. You will ask yourself, "Do people really live like this?" And I suppose the answer is, "Yes."  Maybe it's you.

At any rate, this family of three live very differently, think differently, have high powered, creative jobs but end up having the same problems us boring folk have. So what's the deal? How you cope with your problems and differences or rather accept each other's idiosyncracies? Maybe. I don't know.

But you will find out where Bernadette went and why. So the book does answer that one problem for you. The rest? You're on your own.



THE CITADEL by A.J.CRONIN

 

What a treat! My Dad stayed up almost all night recently finishing this book. He said he could not put it down. I told him that I'd love to read it so when I finished my recent book I let him know and he handed me this book and told me he wanted me to have it.

 

I was touched.

 

Why? Because this book belonged to my mother before she was married. It has her signature on the fly leaf in beautiful script before she grew older and lost her eyesight. Before it was my turn to read to her as she sat on the corner of the couch and listened and smiled.

 

When I opened the book and began to read it I realized that I had read it before. At some point in my life my mother had handed me this book and I imagined she must have told me that I would like it.

 

Both my mom and my dad were right. I did like it.

 

So I read it again but with a different mind frame. I read it thinking of both my mom and my dad. Of Dad sitting just weeks ago in his lounge chair with the light on over his head, reading in the wee hours of the morning, oblivious of time. Of my mother, young, before she was a Stewart, reading such a story that was published in 1938. If she read it that year then she would have been 20. She got married when she was 22, just like me.
 

I tried to imagine what she looked like with her wavy shoulder length hair and how she would have held the book in her hands absorbing each letter on the pages. She swallowed books like food for her soul.

 

I understand why my Dad liked this story because he always says that he likes to read about young people rising above their difficulties to success. Much like himself. I don't even know if you can find this one in the library or even on Amazon but I know I will treasure it and hope that my daughters will too one of these days when I may hand it over and say, "I think you'll like this book." Maybe they too will think of me as I am now sitting on the corner of my couch with the lamp on, blanket across my knees, a couple of cats asleep on my feet. Book in hand. Readers askew on my nose. I hope so.

Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith

OK. What can I say. Here goes.

As usual I picked this one up at Goodwill and when I approached the counter to pay for it along with two other books, the lady who rang me up predicted, "Oh, you're going to like this book."

"Really?"

"Yes. It's a T.V. series and it's really good."

"Oh? I  didn't know that."

"Yes. I have watched every episode."

"Well I look foreword to reading it then."

So I brought this lovely looking book home with the giraffe on it and read the front which said "The Miss Marple of Botswana" and thought that it was going to be as entertaining and quaint as Agatha Christie's books. But I have to say it fell short.

In fact I have put it down briefly in order to start a hopefully more interesting book that my father just gave me with the words, "I sat up all night and read this book. I couldn't believe it when I looked up at the clock and it read 5:00 a.m.!"

So I started that one last night and already I can see that it is going to be a better read. Not to discredit the 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' but it reads slow and I have yet to get in touch with the characters living within the front and back page. I should catch the TV show and see if they have dressed it up a bit with humour and character development.

Plus I have yet to read about any giraffe in the book much less witnessed any tears of said giraffe.

Ta ta.



Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan

Let me say that, first of all, the title and the books cover are both misleading. (Also an editor told me that apostrophes are used too much and therefore I have left out the one that I think should be the word 'book' used previously.) At any rate I picked this book off the shelf at (where else) Goodwill. Why? Because the title cover looked like the words inside would be whimsical and flowery to go with the cover which has some beautiful, blue wisteria above two chairs at a table with a bottle of wine on top of it. It looks airy and outdoorsy and full of a promise of a middle-aged woman having her revenge. I thought, "This should be fun."

But not so, really. No.

This middle-aged woman was a doormat to other's wants and desires and she lost everything bit by bit because she had no fight or revenge in her. She just let things happen to her. She tried to be too nice under any and all circumstances which got her exactly nowhere. So the title is all wrong.

It should be something like Middle Aged-Woman Gets Nothing, Nada, Zero.

Well you will have to read it to see what she doesn't get because I don't like to give all the story away because no one would need to read the books I have read. Let's say that if you have just been ditched by your husband of many years for a younger woman then don't read this because it won't lift your spirits if you have any left. You may think that misery loves company but you should just be trying to crawl out of your own hole at this time in your life and not someone elses. Whether you dug that hole yourself or were put in it by another, think twice before you read on.

I'd say that book was not one of the ones I have read lately that grabbed me and wouldn't let me go.

In fact I have let it go which is exactly what some relationships need ... to be freed. But don't give up without a fight and some revenge in you. At least you will have a back bone!



Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg

I literally read this one straight through this past Sunday on the couch!!! That's right. I admit it. I love how Fannie Flagg writes. (You remember Fried Green Tomatoes, don't you?). At any rate, my eyes had to adjust to seeing long distance by the end of the day but it was all worth it.

Why? Because you'll get involved with the characters from the get go in this novel. You wont want to leave them even to get a cup of tea or fulfill a bathroom break. But necessities will call and your couch will stay warm for you as you dash back to continue reading about the folks who live in the small town of Elmwood Springs (meets Bedford Falls).

I won't give it all away but life in Elmwood has been touched by Mrs. Elner Shimfissle (where did Fannie get that one?) with her wisdom and kindness to all her neighbors, relatives and strangers. Did she ever meet a stranger?

What would we do without her?

That's the question.

Also the question is, "What comes first ... the chicken or the egg?"

Enjoy this heartwarming read. It would be a good one for the upcoming holidays. I found mine ... you guessed it ... at my Goodwill store.



The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

OK. Just go ahead and tell yourself that life as you know it is about to be put on hold because you will be reading this book. Don't even pick it up if you have a project due or a thesis to write. Why? Because you  may only stop to eat or sleep or stretch your legs and you also may find yourself side clicking your friends who are calling you on their Smart Phones to see if you have left the planet.

And the answer to that one is "No", but you are "Not Available At This Time", so they will just have to "leave a message and you'll get back to them" as soon as you read all 543 pages. I highly recommend the paperback because when you read it in bed you don't want it to fall and hit you on your head and give you a concussion. Then you wouldn't be able to finish this book while you were in the ER recouping or possibly in a comma.

At any rate ... this novel is good. Could you tell?

You will be transported to Africa where a missionary family goes through trials and tribulations, each one separately as individuals in their togetherness as a family in the 1960's. It's hot, buggy, rainy, dry and full of natives who do not believe in Jesus. Oh no! And here you are as a young girl, a zealous father, a suffering wife who all have to come to terms with their lives in this god forsaken plot of the planet earth or be swallowed up by the jungle. Either the natives will conform or you will, by God or by shaman.

I would have caught an alligator home a.s.a.p. if I had been put in this situation.

But since you are not really there you can be glad you don't have to sleep under a mosquito net for fear of malaria or eat bugs to stave off hunger.  You can relax and keep reading about what it would be like if you were Orleanna, Ruth May, Leah, or Adah Price. You get to be in their brains but not in the patriarch's scrambled synapses, Hallelujah and Amen.

Look there's more than one yellow brick road to get to the almighty Wizard of Oz but there's no place like home. Moral of this book?

Don't go to Africa in the 1960's unless you've brought your ruby red slippers. Don't forget to have them firmly on your feet and click them three times.