Morality for Beautiful Girls (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #3)

#883
Title: Morality for Beautiful Girls (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #3)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Year: 2002
227 pages

Light fun, but it didn't hold together as well as Tears of the Giraffe. Smith has trouble keeping his characters consistent and showing their changes over time. Like a weekly sitcom, they seem to revert. I don't buy Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's depression, for example--it appears to exist solely to be a plot complication.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

#882
Title: The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
Author: Reif Larsen
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2009
375 pages

While I enjoyed this very much, I thought it ended with a whimper when even the same action could have been a bang. I'd recommend it anyway as an ambitious and entertaining piece that falls just short of its promise.

Wan Sapraes Blong Mama

#881
Title: Wan Sapraes Blong Mama
Author: Aukusitino Tualasea
Illustrator: Josefa Uluinaceva
Translator: Viran Moah
Publisher: University of the South Pacific, Institute of Education
Year: 1989
1996 pages

An early reader in Bislama, a creole spoken on Vanuatu. It's not too hard to understand if you immerse yourself for awhile (and remember that save is derived from French or Portuguese and means "know"). It's not clear from the scant traces of this book online, but my best guess is that the English A Surprise for Mum was the first and that O se meaalofa mo Tina (in Samoan), Wanfala Sapraies Fo Mami (in a different pidgin or creole), and this volume are translations.

Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

#880
Title: Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea
Author: Chelsea Handler
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Year: 2007
264 pages

I've never heard Chelsea Handler, and I imagine that timing would play an important role in the delivery of these (I presume) monologues. Handler is at best entertaining, but over-relies on obscenity and scatology for her humor. This is too bad because it's clear that she's smart and observant, which would be sufficient on its own and arguably more enjoyable.

A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today

#879
Title: A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today
Author: Kate Bornstein
Publisher: Beacon Press
Year: 2012
280 pages

An enjoyable though at times heartbreaking memoir, recounting Borenstein's intertwined journeys in gender, religion, and self-knowledge. It's interesting to speculate about the course of her life if she hadn't been booted out of Scientology, where she seemed pretty happy and productive.

The latter section where she addresses her daughter directly didn't work as well for me. It may still be too close to Bornstein's heart to receive the same slightly distanced, slightly ironic treatment that gave the rest of the book its compelling tone.

In the Shadow of the Banyan

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Title: In the Shadow of the Banyan
Author: Vaddey Ratner
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Year: 2012
336 pages

Received as a giveaway from Goodreads First Reads. I don't think I've read a novel set in Cambodia yet, though I've read plenty of non-fiction, memoirs, travel books, and bird guides.

***

After reading: Ratner chose to fictionalize her lived experience rather than writing a straight memoir. While I imagine I'd appreciate her memoir as well, her decision means that she was able to change events for greater narrative coherence, symbolic resonance, and lyricism. In the Shadow of the Banyan is both more clearly structured and more literary than any of the memoirs I've read of the Khmer Rouge time. While the rawness and veracity of the memoirs holds the readers' attention, Ratner comes at the same content as fiction, which opens other possibilities to engage and hold the reader's attention. A strong effort, and I look forward to her future work.

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

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Title: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Dover
Year: 1897/1979
712 pages

Not quite as enjoyable as Twain's The Innocents Abroad. The latter is more pitched toward travelogue, whereas this is a blend of travel, history, politics, and amusing digressions. This is not to say that it's not a good book, but that it ranges about in a way that readers of Oliver Sacks's Oaxaca Journal may recognize.

Readers who complain of Twain's racism seem to me to be missing the point. Give that this is a man whose childhood was before the US Civil War, he is remarkably respectful and appreciative of the people he meets. What some readers seem to miss is that he exaggerates for effect; that the effect sought is to render the racist/colonial/imperialist perspectives of the majority people absurd through exaggeration; and that he mocks everyone. I'm not suggesting that some of his comments aren't problematic by today's standards, but they are less so than much of what I read in US newspapers.