What's Your Poo Telling You? (Josh Richman and Anish Sheth, M.D.)

Hardcover

The authors seem to want to take the subject seriously, but can't resist the (literal) potty humor.  In straddling the line, they don't go far enough either way and it makes the book rather meaningless.

I never laughed out loud nor did I learn anything new.  At least it didn't waste a huge amount of my time...after all, I was just sitting there "waiting it out" anyway.

C-
Non-fiction #2

Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl)

Paperback

So this is the book that is "brimming with just way too much description" that I mentioned a couple of weeks back.  I admit that I was impressed by some of the verbal pictures in the early chapters -- but since it turns out that the author refuses to allow anything to simply be itself, instead insisting on turning whatever into an adverbing adjective blahblah, the charm wore off but quick.  Oooh, ooh -- it was like being enchanted on a first date at the movies when you notice a single tear tracing down his face when the plucky dog finally dies...only to find out that he cries six times a day, sometimes just because someone cut him off in traffic (see what I did there?).

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were to be uncovered that Pessl has been keeping a spiral notebook for jotting down apt similes and metaphors since she was in sixth grade...and that cramming every single last one into her debut novel has been her dream since.  And don't even get me STARTED on all of the annotations -- tiresome, to say the least.

OK, to the story.  Smart girl with blowhard father starts hanging out with some asshole slutty friends and their pretentious film studies teacher and things get mysterious.  And convoluted.  And I just wanted it to END.  But there were still, perpetually, more than 200 pages left.

D+ 

Danny the Champion of the World (Roald Dahl)

Hardcover

Danny idolizes his father, his only parent -- and rightly so.  His father clearly adores Danny and enjoys his company.  There's a story before bed every night, days spent learning about Dad's business (auto shop), midnight feasts, and amazing crafts like kite making and fire lantern launches.

But Dad's also a poacher. It's totally OK, though!  The man who owns the land from which Dad poaches is a real jerk who once treated Danny like the help when Danny came out to wait on him at the service station.  So, you know, if a guy's a jerk, stealing from him's fine!  Plus all of the "cool" people in town poach from him too (or at least happily cover up poaching activity): the doctor, the reverend and his wife, and even the local cop.

I'm not sure why this book left a bad taste in my mouth.  It's lightweight and good-natured, and I definitely don't have a problem "sticking it to the man."  But there was just something unseemly about the blatant thumbs-up given to thievery.  It was as though, as long as you're affable, anything you do to an asshole should be excused and even celebrated.  I'm taking this way too seriously, I know.

But anyway, it was a quick read but not a particularly memorable one.

C

The Egypt Game (Zilpha Keatley Snyder)

Paperback

I picked this up off of a recommendation made for a young boy in The Borrower (coupla books down).  I've always enjoyed young adult books as they're usually entertaining and quick; this was no exception.

The story was almost written in shorthand.  A young girl is dumped on her grandma by her flighty mother.  She makes a new friend despite her guarded and abrasive attitude, starts a wildly imaginative secret game with a few friends, and is inconvenienced by the "play inside" rule instituted due to a child murder in the neighborhood.  These are big plotlines dealt with by way of a mention, exactly the way a child would deal with this type of stuff.  Each event is absorbed and life gets going again.

Because I'm also in the middle of a book that is brimming with just WAY TOO MUCH description, this was refreshing.  I agree with The Borrower's narrator: this is a perfect book for 10-12 year olds.  And it wasn't too bad for a woman in her 40s either.

B