Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary

#889
Title: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary 
Author: David Sedaris
Illustrator: Ian Falconer
Publisher: Little, Brown
Year: 2010
159 pages

I generally like Sedaris, and this was an interesting idea, but I didn't enjoy it. The first piece that ended with a shocking twist was fresh, but the same mechanism was used repeatedly and reductively. I get it--people are awful and not cute and benign like little bunnies. If I want to read stories that simply provide repetitive examples of this idea, I'll read Chuck Palahniuk.

In a Sunburned Country

#888
Title: In a Sunburned Country
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Broadway Books
Year: 200/2001
335 pages

Bryson's enjoyable peregrinations in Australia, which were not only enjoyable to read while there, but also gave me something to chat about with the Australians with whom I shared a table while on tour in the South Pacific. It's true--mention funnel webs or croc attacks and you won't have to say another word for the whole meal as Aussies regale you with anecdotes about their poisonous and/or toothy creatures for hours. Bryson, like Twain and Theroux, brings in a lot of history and natural history, which I appreciate in a travelogue.

Cutting Toddy in Kiribati

#887
Title: Cutting Toddy in Kiribati
Author: Tebuai Uaai
Illustrator: Buatia Kauea
Publisher: University of the South Pacific, Institute of Education
Country: Kiribati (replacement)
Year: 1987
20 pages

Kiribati.

A basic low-level reader, made more interesting b the fact that it's from Kiribati and about toddy production. If you're not from a community that collects and ferments palm sap, this is a good illustration of how inexplicable even an easy reader can be when it's culturally incongruous.

The Full Cupboard of Life (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #5)

#886
Title: The Full Cupboard of Life (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #5)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Year: 2005
198 pages

Okay enough, but what would have kicked it to a 3 or 4 star book for me is if the wedding had actually been Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's idea, revealed as a surprising twist at the end of the novel. About those orphans--what are they, props? They barely figure in the narrative at all.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #4)

#885
Title: The Kalahari Typing School for Men (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #4)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Year: 2002
201 pages

Another "eh" installment, suffering the lack of an adequate editor. What happened to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's depression? It's alluded to, but functionally gone. What about Mma Makutsi's excellent work at the garage? It just seems to disappear, as does the work ethic she appeared to have instilled in the apprentices? Why does Mma Makutsi give up on her love interest for no particular reason? And I could swear that in the second book she said she didn't like bush tea, yet she's drinking it constantly. It would be very easy to make this hang together more tightly, but I don't see that happening in this series.

Awareness Raising on Court Rules Relating to Domestic Violence in Vanuatu

#884
Title: Awareness Raising on Court Rules Relating to Domestic Violence in Vanuatu
Author: Shirley Randell
Publisher: Blackstone
Year: 2003
72 pages

A grant report on programs intended to increase ni-Vanuatu awareness of changes in legal definitions of and remedies for domestic violence. Interesting for this reason, but also as an example of outcome reporting (including quotes from participants in Bislama with English translation). Includes recommendations based on participant feedback.

If you need a book from Vanuatu for a challenge, this one is available as a PDF at http://www.sria.com.vu/docs/dvpcocolour.pdf

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.