Dear Fatty and A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French. This amazing actress, comedian, and TV writer, writes a boring boring book.
The Story of Yiddish by Neal Karlen. This is the most boring non-informative book. So disappointing. Not funny either.
The usual great mystery read from Atkinson.
This is the true story of an English woman who moved to Egypt in circa 1850, on the premise of her health, and her maid. The two women became involved with the local community, in particular the men. It is written with very little reference to time and place---you'd hardly know you were in 19th C. Egypt. I found myself longing for greater insight and description.
However, because it is a true and unique story, you must read it.
I give this one three stars for being a fascinating and unique story, but the writing is pedestrian. This is the story of King George VI, his speech impediment and all the behind-the-scenes pain and anxiety. In that sense, the book is remarkable in it clear how important an issue this was to the royal family, the country, and the British government. It seems extreme to us now, but it was so different then.
A prize winner but I didn't really like it. It seems like a lot of people doing their best to make choices that are doomed.
I am a fan of Mankell's Kurt Wallander mystery series, and this is my first non-Wallander book. A very tense and dark book, impeccably written, and unique for providing insight into post-apartheid Zambia, a must read for that reason. The story is always compelling, always real, and really heats up in the last third, when the plot lines are at last resolved.
The neighbouring white farmers, the black farm employees and their families, the local shaman and controller, the black activist reporter from the city, the very helpful white UN worker, and the Indian merchant are tied together with various levels of necessity, fear, blackmail, friendship, and duty.
Mankell switches back and forth to the protagonist's childhood in Sweden, which one tends to read quickly, so as to get back to the riveting characters, living with suspicion, periodic violence, isolation, and the overarching the motive of business and profits, on Hans Olson's egg farm.
This book follows last year's Stuff White People Like, and is just as good. Very clever.
