I never read according to theme so I never use a theme for my book reviews. Here is yet another no-theme theme.
• Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple: A quirky and fun tale, this book tells all about the life and times of Bernadette Fox, mother, brilliant architect and a woman with an increasing case of agoraphobia. Bernadette’s beloved daughter Bee aces her report card and lets her family know that she intends to take her parents up on her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. Bernadette is thrilled for Bee but is less pleased for herself; she hates leaving the house. Bernadette’s allergy to the outside world slowly increases until her virtual personal assistant, located in India, is doing the most basic tasks for her. Unfortunately for Bernadette, her virtual assistant can’t actually go on this trip in her place. Read this entertaining novel when you’re in the mood for something fun.
• Rush of Blood by Mark Billingham: Three English couples meet while on vacation in Florida. They don’t have much in common but they bond over good times in the warm sun. Tragedy strikes on the last day of their holiday when a young girl, also staying at the resort with her mother, goes missing. All three couples are shaken my the mother’s understandable fear and, on that note, their vacation ends. Because they had got along so well while away, and because they all live near one another, the three couples decide to meet for a dinner party a few weeks after returning home. Inevitably the subject of the young girl comes up. They each discuss their memories and talk about where they were when she went missing. Over the next couple of months, they meet two more times. Each time, they discuss the crime and each time new evidence is revealed.
• Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann: This is an interesting book that ties a group of very different people together using an amazing incident: a man walking across a wire between New York’s twin towers. The first group of stories details the life of Corrigan, a radical young Irish priest who ministers to a group of prostitutes in a bad part of the city. The story then goes on to a group of mothers who have lost their sons in the Vietnam War. From there, we learn about the life and times of a young artist and after that we hear about a judge. These disparate stories end up beautifully woven together.
• Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss:This non-fiction book takes a critical look at the power the fast food giants have over the consumer. The amount of research fast food companies have done on what makes salt, sugar and fat so irresistible is mind-boggling. This book then goes on to discuss what these companies have done with this information. We all know that large amounts of fast food are bad for us but we eat ourselves sick anyway. This book doesn’t remove blame from the individual but it does highlight the amount of money thrown at these food products to get us to spend our limited dollars on them.
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published on Wednesdays. Sharon Visser Araujo works at PoCo’s Terry Fox Library.
