Numbers Challenge Wrap-Up

Hooray, another challenge completed! Thanks to Callista at SMS Book Reviews for hosting this fun one.

The rules were simple, 5 books with numbers in the title between January 1st and August 1st. 3 titles could overlap with other challenges, 2 had to be unique (which I didn't realize until I was almost done, so I'm glad she extended the date til August!).

My books were:
1. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
2. Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham
3. One of those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones
4. 21 Proms by various authors
5. Second Chance by Jane Green

Favourite book?
Well, I gave 2 of them 4 stars - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and One Of Those Hideous Books... I'd say my top fave was the Detective Agency because I found it really charming and it brought back my faith in McCall Smith (the last couple of his I'd read hadn't wowed me as much as 44 Scotland Street).

Least favourite book?
I gave the other ones all 3 stars, so none of them were bad books. I'd say it was probably 21 Proms just because I'm not really that big a fan of short stories, but I don't regret reading it.

Review: Second Chance

Second Chance by Jane Green
3 stars

Reasons for reading: I've enjoyed her other books; last title for the Numbers Challenge

Book description: The story of a group of people who haven't seen each other since they were best friends at school. When one of them dies in a terrible tragedy, the reunited friends work through their grief together and find that each of their lives is impacted in ways they could have never foreseen.Warm, witty, and as wise as ever, this is a story of friendship, of family, and of life coming full circle.

My thoughts: This book isn't my fave of Jane Green's (I think that would be Jemima J.) but it was a good story. When I discovered it was about someone dying in a terrorist attack, I braced for morbid, post-911 gloom, but Green avoided that, thankfully.

The second chances in the book are not just for romance, as I'd expected, but also second chances with old friends, which was something rather novel. Tom, the deceased, stayed in touch with all of his old group, but they didn't stay in touch with each other much. With his death, actress/AA member Saffron, mum/illustrator Holly, animal lover/recent dumpee Olivia, and scruffy journalist/husband of a Swedish fashionista Paul come together to mourn Tom but also to help each other with the type of problems you don't imagine when you're in high school. Along the way, new people join their circle - Paul's gorgeous wife Anna and Tom's younger brother Will.

Each character got their own story arc. I think Saffron was my favourite - despite her alcoholism and affair with a famous movie star, she was glamorous but also sassy yet caring. Plus I like her name! :-) Holly provided the dose of unhappy wifehood that I've come to expect as the chick lit authors have gotten a bit older (from not being able to find a man to not wanting the one you've got). While I did think her husband was a jerk, I got a bit tired of her "discovering herself" by becoming emotionally intimate with Will. Paul and Anna's futile quest to have a child was touching - I could relate to Anna, who had always gotten what she wanted by putting her mind to it and was floored when her general good luck and work ethic couldn't be applied to pregnancy. Unlucky in love Olivia seemed a bit on the sidelines, but did get thrust into the spotlight after a 4-night stand.

While not a knock-it-out-of-the-park book, if you're a fan of Brit chick lit, this is a solid effort.

Other reviews:
Julie

Review: 21 Proms

21 Proms edited by Daniel Levithan and Daniel Ehrenhaft
3 stars

Reasons for reading: was interested to read stories by all of the authors; Numbers Challenge

Summary: 21 stories by today's top young adult authors about the joys, sorrows, and sometimes weirdness surrounding the prom.

My thoughts: I'm not really a short stories girl - I like to get really involved in a story and find that short ones don't give me enough meat, so to speak. But I'd been meaning to read this since I ordered it last year and it did seem like a good chance to be introduced to some YA authors I hadn't read yet. It's certainly a who's who of hot YA authors, which was cool.

I really enjoyed "Three Fates" by Aimee Friedman, about a girl who goes from having no date to having three and "Backup Date" by Leslie Margolis, about a girl who claims to only be going to prom because her senior boyfriend wants to and she's only pretending to be drunk... Jacqueline Woodson's Geechee Girls Dancin' was a bit to poetic for my taste but was interesting from my recent South Carolina travels. There were also good ones from the fab E. Lockhart and an apparently autobiographical one by Melissa de la Cruz.

I didn't enjoy Libba Bray's "Primate the Prom" because it was one big, hit-you-over-the-head metaphor for gay dating. Apes were inserted for same-sex partners but, in case you didn't get it, the ape-human partners were also same-sex. As there were already several stories about same-sex couples in the book, the whole story felt unneccessary and heavy-handed. We've already seen it decades ago in Cabaret with a gorilla-suited person standing in for a Jew in Nazi Germany.

But it's a great book, full of high-quality writing, to recommend to teens, especially at this time of year. For me, overall, the main thing it was make me think back to my grad night (that's what we called it here in Canada in my day, I think they still do) and maybe write a story of my own. It's a sad tale of unrequited love and puffed sleeves...

Review: One of those hideous books where the mother dies

One of those hideous books where the mother dies by Sonya Sones
4 stars



Reasons for reading: I enjoyed her What My Mother Doesn't Know a few years ago, Numbers Challenge, Triple 8 Challenge

Summary (from Booklist): "After the death of her mother, high-schooler Ruby is sent from Boston to L.A. to live with the father she has never met: "He's such a scumbag / that he divorced my mother / before I was even born." The "scumbag" is Whip Logan, a famous movie actor, but Ruby is too angry to be impressed; at the airport she wonders whether to "ask him for his autograph, / or kick him in the balls." Sones' latest free-verse novel follows Ruby through her first few months in her new home, a mansion where her every desire is granted--except what she longs for most: her best friend, her boyfriend, and of course, her mother."

My thoughts: I'm usually not a verse-novel gal, but Sones is a really good writer. The poems make it really seem like you're right in Ruby's head, feeling such deep grief and anger, and they definitely resonate the way poetry should. But there's humour, as well, such as Airplane Lunch:

They

call

this

chicken?

I liked that Ruby loves to read and that she doesn't want her life to be like one of those hideous books: "I love to read,/ but I can't stand books like that./And I flat out refuse/to have one of those lives/that I wouldn't even want/to read about." I hate those hideous books, too!

This one loses a star only because the truth about Ruby's dad and some of the other events (I won't spoil it) are predictable. But even that doesn't detract much from the greatness of the book, which is a well done cross between a (non-hideous) teen angst book and a fish-out-of-water story.

Review: Cocktails for Three

Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham
3 stars

Book description: Three women, smart and successful, working in the fast and furious world of magazines, meet for cocktails and gossip once a month. Roxanne: glamorous, self-confident, with a secret lover - and hoping that one day he will leave his wife and marry her. Maggie: capable and high-achieving, until she finds the one thing she can't cope with - motherhood. Candice: honest, decent, or so she believes - until a ghost from her past turns up, and almost ruins her life. A chance encounter in the cocktail bar sets in train an extraordinary set of events which upsets all their lives and almost destroys their friendship.

First line: "Candice Brewin pushed open the heavy glass door of the Manhattan Bar and felt the familiar swell of warmth, noise, light and clatter rush over her."

My thoughts: Madeleine Wickham is better known as Sophie Kinsella. So when I spotted this book while browsing in a used bookstore and noticed the note saying that's who she was, I snapped it up, since I enjoyed the Shopaholic books and especially Can You Keep a Secret?

This one's okay, though I didn't think it had the sparkle of her other work. It's pretty darn predicitable (although the Shopaholic ones are, too, but somehow their charm makes up for most of it) - you know Candice is going to get herself in trouble with the person from her past, it's not hard to guess who Roxanne is having the affair with, and it's obvious that Maggie is in for some post-partum depression.

That seems to be a theme as chick lit writers turn into mommies - the joys but mostly horrors of having a baby. I really felt for Maggie, feeling like she had to do everything perfectly while being so completely exhausted.

The theme of the book is secrets and how we hide them from even our closest friends. I did like the message that it's good to tell people when you need help or are having problems, to avoid everything from stress and to actual crises before they get to be too much to handle.

Overall, it's not a bad piece of Chick lit - I polished it off in about a day while sick in bed.

Review: The No. Ladies' Detective Agency

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
4 stars

Book description: "Wayward daughters. Missing husbands. Philandering partners. Curious conmen. If you've got an apparently insoluble problem, then pay a visit to Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s finest – and only – female private detective. Her methods may be unconventional but she's got warmth, wit and canny intuition on her side, not to mention her friend Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Precious is going to need them all as she sets out on the pitfall-strewn trail of a missing child."

My thoughts: I've been meaning to read this one for some time - despite being disappointed in a few of his books recently, I like Alexander McCall Smith. And it seems as if this series has charmed just about everyone. I haven't heard a bad word spoken against it. And I was quite charmed, too. [Note, I may have a few spoilers here, so don't read on if you plan to read this one. But I have a feeling I'm one of the few people left who hadn't read it!]

I was surprised, though, to find horrific incidents sprinkled throughout what I thought was going to be basically a cozy mystery - Precious' husband is a violent rapist who tries to kill their unborn child, then leaves her. While Smith and Precious both love Botswana, there are still references, mostly subtle, to Africa's problems - AIDS, corrupt police, smuggling, etc.

But Precious definitely lives up to her name - she's very clever, funny and has a heart as big as her "traditional" frame. It was quite interesting and rather funny to see a fat lady be admired, for a change, and I could imagine Precious' large frame sailing through town on her missions. I did wonder, however, how she could remain a private private detective when everyone in the area knew her and she was rather hard to miss.

I also found some funny touches in the names of businesses (include the name of the agency) caused by English not being the native language in Botswana. My favourite was the Go Go Handsome Man's Bar, but I also got a kick out Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors.

I liked that there were smaller, mostly gentler cases mixed in with the larger case of the kidnapped boy. My favourite was the one about the doctor that seemed to be incredibly forgetful but was actually a set of twins. I enjoyed how Precious used her instincts, feminine wiles, and the knowledge she gleaned from both Agatha Christie novels and the PI manual she sends away for. And, of course, I liked that the kidnapped boy was found safe and sound.

An African lady written by a Scottish man seems fairly implausible, but McCall Smith is in fine form. While the sequels aren't right at the top of my TBR list, I have a feeling I'll be visiting the Agency again.

Numbers Challenge

Callista at SMS Book Reviews bring us the Numbers Challenge!

The challenge is to read 5 books with numbers in the titles between January and August, 2008.

My picks are:

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

2. Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham (aka Sophie Kinsella)

3. 21 Proms edited by David Levithan and Daniel Ehrenhaft

4. Second Chance by Jane Green

5. One of those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones