Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations - Alexander McCall Smith

This little book of short stories by Alexander McCall Smith called to me at the library last month, and so it came home in my May book batch.

I am a fan of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, the Sunday Philosophy Club novels and the 44 Scotland Street novels.

I wasn't quite sure what sort of tone the short stories would take, but I thought them likely to be worth the effort. Unfortunately I was wrong.

Let me cut to the chase, I found it to be a disappointment.

The subject matter is relationships, as the title would indicate. It covers all sorts of relationships many of which could not be described as salubrious. The writing covers three continents and wanders through different eras. Many of the resulting musings on these relationships is dark in nature, occasionally a bit obtuse (either that or I was away with the fairies when I was reading), and generally unsatisfying.

I found myself asking "What was the point of that?" after reading a number of them. Perhaps there wasn't actually a point. Perhaps I missed the point. Perhaps I'm out of practice reading short stories and am doing him an injustice.

If you have read these stories and enjoyed them, let me know what you think I was missing.

In the end, I enjoyed maybe one or two of the offerings, the rest I would have been happy not to have read. They added nothing to my view of life or of bad, sad and dodgy relationships.

I regret to have to give it a 1 out of 5, but I really didn't enjoy the read. Sorry Mr Smith.

Noah's Ark - May 2008 Progress

It is the first anniversary of starting this project. Blush.

I did manage to spend a little bit of time on this in May. At long last.
As you can see, it hasn't exactly grown like Topsy, but the cats are almost completed and I did a tiny bit more of the boxed edging. Here's what it was like at the last update so you can see which bits are new.





I think that this might need to move up my priority list of ways to spend my personal time otherwise I will be finishing the supposed birth announcement sampler for Miss O's 21st.

The Month of May in Books

May was a highly successful month for reading.
All together I managed six fiction books and a very petite non-fiction book.

That puts me on target to surpass my stated goal of 24 books or more for the year. It has also suggested that May has been a much more organised month than the preceding four, allowing me the time to do these sorts of things.

In brief, the books of May were:

A Death in the Venetian Quarter - Alan Gordon
Every Boy's Got One - Meg Cabot
Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations - Alexander McCall Smith
Jester Leaps In - Alan Gordon
The Lark's Lament - Alan Gordon
The Miracle at Speedy Motors - Alexander McCall Smith

This last fiction book was my birthday present and was devoured in two nights reading. Ah, there is nothing like a nice visit with Precious Ramotswe, even if you do feel the odd need to slap Mme Makutsi.

As you can see I have discovered a new fiction writer that will be joining my stable of regulars. Alan Gordon has leapt in with his Fool's Guild series.

I also dabbled with Meg Cabot, of The Princess Diaries fame. This book was meant to be aimed a little older, with the protagonists in their early thirties. Personally I don't know anyone older than eighteen who would come out with some of the dialogue presented, but like a sore tooth I just had to keep pressing on until it was over. Mushy, cute, chicklet-lit definitely. Emphasis on chicklet. Surprisingly, the guts of the story is based on the author's own elopement to Italy but told from the viewpoint of a rather ditzy best friend/bridesmaid. There's a nice addendum detailing those things that were "true" and those that were not.

How to have kids & stay sane - Nigel Latta

This little book was a gem of a light-hearted read. Written by a kiwi clinical psychologist who actually has children, and illustrated with very un-pc cartoons, it is bound to bring a smile to your face. Or in my case, tears running down my face while reading the chapter entitled "Things they don't tell you: the bath poo."
I'd like to share an example of the writing that doesn't involve baths...

Once you understand that all kids want is to rule the world, then you'll be fine. They don't want much, just total world domination, which is of course completely mad. It's not their fault, that's just the way children are. Some of them grow out of it, some of them become evil criminal geniuses, some become parking wardens, and some of the become President.

So my daughter isn't the only megalomaniac then. Nice to know.

---

Full reviews of some of these books may follow.