What I Read in July 2015 Part V

What I Read in July 2015 Part V ...

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate  (An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery) by Alexander McCall Smith -- mystery

Isabel Dalhousie's niece Cat asks Isabel to mind Cat's deli while she goes off to a wedding in Italy. Isabel is worried Cat will fall in love with an Italian lothario or worse - mafioso. [Um can we say stereotypes?] Isabel would much rather Cat get back together with Jamie who has pledged his undying love for her. Nevermind Isabel's little crush on him- she's far too old. She agrees to run the deli for awhile, putting her own work with the Review of Applied Ethics aside. Then, while eating lunch one day, she meets Ian, a psychologist and recent heart transplant patient. They have a wonderful discussion on cellular memory and other [largely boring] philosophical discussions. Ian's questions aren't merely hypothetical. Since his heart transplant he has had a image in his mind of a man and is convinced it is a memory of the young heart donor. Isabel is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. She's certain there is a deeper mystery here, one that involves murder. Her housekeeper and friend Grace believes in spiritualism but Jamie is more practical minded. Both want to help Isabel get to the truth. She might be momentarily distracted by the Italian man who followed Cat home. Cat seems to be trying to set her aunt up!

After reading his version of Emma, I was curious about Alexander McCall Smith. I liked his writing style in Emma but here I found it very ponderous. There was way too much philosophical discussion and ruminating on whether an older woman can be with a younger man. OK we get it! Isabel doesn't want to be a so-called cougar. I took offense at her stereotypes of Italian men. I know of more supposed Italian-American mafioso (in my own state) than I do in Italy. My parents have friends who fit neither stereotype and I felt Isabel's worries were unfounded. The mystery doesn't happen until about midway through and then it gets interesting. The resolution left me confused and disappointed.

Isabel is a non-nonsense practical type. She's a spinster aunt of the old-fashioned style though she is only in her early 40s. I found it hard to relate to her though she is close to my own age. I thought perhaps the book was set in the past due not only to Isabel's behavior but also the references to Isabel using a corded phone and sending notes in the mail. (Or was Scotland that old-fashioned still in 2005?) Anyway, I found her long philosophical discussions boring and skimmed most of them. She seemed to come alive more when she met Ian, but sadly he's married so no romance there. Her potential romance never gets off the ground unfortunately and that part was kind of superfluous and bizarre.

I didn't care enough about the novel or the characters to want to read more of the series.

Death of a Mad Hatter  (Hat shop Mystery #2) by Jenn McKinlay-- Cozy Mystery

Scarlett has settled into life in London at her family's hat shop. She handles customer relations while Viv and apprentice Fee create the hats. Scarlett needs to summon all her customer service skills to work with the eccentric Grisby family. Matriarch Dotty is as dotty as her name - she thinks Viv is her old friend Ginny, Scarlett and Viv's Mim. The Grisbys are throwing an Alice in Wonderland tea party to raise money for a new hospital wing in the name of Dotty's recently deceased husband Geoffrey (even though the lying, cheating bastard doesn't deserve it; the family pretend for Dotty's sake that he's away on business). Geoffrey, Jr. has inherited everything lock, stock and barrel due to the law of male primogeniture - at least until he turns up dead in the rose garden at the Grimsby estate. His sisters are seething with resentment but are they angry enough to kill? What about his wife Tina? She seems kind enough but Geoffrey was pretty awful to her. Scarlett is determined to help Tina no matter what but her investigation may cost her her life and her friendship with Harrison.

This mystery is cute like the last one. It's fluffy and fun. It does take too long to get to the murder though. I never guessed who the murderer was and never even suspected something like that. There are several plot twists that surprised me. I liked catching up with Scarlett and Viv and I especially liked how Scarlett's romance starts to heat up. (It's still sweet and clean with one passionate kiss).

Scarlett kind of annoyed me a bit in this one. She does some pretty stupid stuff in her investigation and is pretty stubborn. I would have reacted the same way to Harrison's interference though. She also leaps to conclusions about romance and denies what's obvious.
The Grimsby family are a pretty awful bunch. Dotty is the only one I liked and felt affection for. She's so sweet and confused. I find it hard to believe that Mim and Dotty were young together. (Mim can not possibly have been in her 20s in the late 1960s and early 20s. That would make her my mom's age and I don't think my mom is old enough to be Scarlett and Viv's grandmother! Scarlett and Viv do make me feel old but I'm only 10 years older).

If you're looking for a fun, fluffy mystery without any gore try this series.

What I Read in May 2015 Part I

What I Read in May 2015 Part I ...

Emma by Alexander McCall Smith -Austenesque Contemporary Fiction

This modern retelling of Emma has way too much backstory. The first quarter of the book is all about Mr. Woodhouse and his history, then how Miss Taylor came to live with them (with a Sound of Music reference - love it!) and how Isabella met John. Finally, about halfway through we meet Emma, recently returned from University in Bath with a degree in design and nothing to do. She hosts a dinner party for the neighbors and decides to fix up her former governess, Miss Taylor, with widower James Weston. She also invites Harriet Smith, a young woman who assists the English as a Foreign Language teacher Mrs. Goddard. Emma, fresh from her success with the Westons turns her attentions to Harriet. You know the rest or you think you do but there are some surprises towards the end. Most of the plot is removed to make room for backstory and I really wish he had included more plot and less pondering because I liked the writing style. The writing sort of mimics Jane Austen's cadence a bit without being ponderous or old-fashioned,it's witty, like Jane Austen. At times though there were some really odd passages that stuck out - Emma pondering on sex and physical attraction - that I didn't feel fit in with the tone of the story. Also the moral at the end was too much for a modern book. It didn't need to be spelled out. I wanted more plot.

Mr. Woodhouse's story is cute and funny and I really liked him as a character. I also loved Mrs. Goddard aka Mrs. God, the hippie teacher. She's a lot of fun. Harriet is a sweet girl and deserves happiness. Mr. Knightly is barely in the book. George is Mr. Woodhouse's friend and neighbor but he doesn't spend much time with Emma. He's very kind and generous and more empathetic than his brother. Emma is portrayed as controlling. From her childhood to the revelation at the end, she insists on controlling everyone in her life. I have never seen Emma that way - just spoiled, selfish and bored. This Emma is not quite as lively and witty as the original. Maybe if there was more plot she would have been. As in the original, there's no good reason why she doesn't like Jane Fairfax except for jealousy. Frank Churchill appears here too but in a limited role. He's not quite the same as the original - not fully developed and appearing briefly to advance the mystery of Jane Fairfax plot.

I preferred other retellings of Emma over this time. Even the webseries Emma Approved grew on me over time. I will try to check out some of the author's other books because I did like his writing style.

Content some might find objectionable:
discussions about sex, homosexuality
nudity
brief contemplation on physical attraction
hinted drug use
characters living together before marriage 

The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer -- Middle Grades Fantasy


Twins Alex and Connor are as different as can be. Alex is an overachiever. She does well in school, but is miserable because all the other kids are mean to her. Connor is an underachiever, a wisecracking kid who often falls asleep in class. The one thing they have in common is their love of fairy tales. Their dad used to tell them stories to make them feel better and read to them from the big Book of Stories at their grandmother's. Now their dad is dead and their mom is too busy trying to pay bills to be with the twins much. After a school lesson in fairy tales, Alex discovers The Book of Secrets acting strange. She can't figure out what to do. She really wants to peer inside the fairy tale world but clumsy Connor accidentally knocks them both into the book! Now they're stuck in the fairy tale world with no way home. They meet a frog who tells them about the Wishing Spell which will help them get home if they gather the right objects together. Off they go on a quest for magical objects in the land they know so well - or think they do anyway. They're unprepared for the dangers they face from their beloved tales. Will they ever make it home again?

I loved Chris Colfer on Glee and when I saw he narrated his own book, I had to listen to it. The story isn't all that new - at times it reminded me of Harry Potter and of course it involves fairy tales, but I enjoyed the trip through the fairy tale world. Alex and Connor's adventures start and stop a lot. They find themselves in danger but somehow manage to get out of it too easily. It wasn't until part 7 that I got really into the story and couldn't put it down. There were some surprises along the way though I had already guessed right away what took the kids half the book to figure out.

I wanted to like Alex because she's me at that age but I found her a bit too soft for my tastes. She's not Hermione, always coming up with the answer. She's kind and empathetic and sometimes that isn't what is needed. I liked clever, wisecracking Connor better. He's smarter than he thinks he is and saves the day more than once with his quick wits. My favorite characters are Goldielocks because she kicks some serious butt and Red Riding Hood because she provides the humor. Though I absolutely hated seeing women fighting. We have a hard enough time in life and should support one another not fight each other. It sent the wrong message to kids.

Chris Colfer's narration surprisingly left a bit to be desired. His delivery of the narration was too rushed. He excelled at doing character voices though, especially the female ones. He's horrible at accents and I couldn't figure out if some of the characters were sometimes speaking in a southern accent or an English one or some combination. The voices themselves were a lot of fun though and add a lot to the story.