Mister Monkey

Okay, I'm apparently going for two in a row with Mr. Monkey (#1,099) by Francine Prose.  According to the book cover blurb, this is supposed to be a "hilarious" novel about a washed-up actress appearing in a revival off, off, off, off Broadway of a classic children's musical Mr. Monkey.  The eponymous Mr. Monkey is based on a real chimpanzee baby adopted by an American family after his parents (and the American family's mother) are killed in Africa by poachers.  After thirty pages, I couldn't see the point of continuing.  Did not finish.  Not for me, but they do say every book has its readers.

Today Will Be Different

Everyone always raves about Maria Semple's best-selling novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette, so I thought I'd give one of her follow-up books a try since it's been sitting on my beside table for a couple of years.  Honestly, I should have just left it there.  Today Will Be Different (#1,098) featured a protagonist, Eleanor Flood, who had to be one of the most entitled, selfish and unpleasant characters I've come across.  As she says several times herself in the book, she's led a fairytale life, which she is frittering away by whining and complaining about everything and everyone around her - her husband, her friends (!), her sister, her father, her kid Timby- (who she named after an autocorrection on her phone!).  Enough, already!

She vows to wake up and make today different.  She doesn't.  Don't need to spend any more time with this.  I'm sorry I bothered to finish it.

When In Rome

Sarah Adams' When In Rome (#1,097) is a romcom worth passing along.  The set up here is a pop princess who implodes from stress on the eve of a world tour.  Since Rae Rose has always related to Audrey Hepburn, she randomly chooses one of her favorite movies: Roman Holiday, to emulate.  (It's one of my favorites, too.)  

In case you're not familiar with the plot, Audrey plays Princess Ann, in Rome for an important diplomatic event.  Stifled by the court etiquette and always having to do and say the "right thing" she throws a slight temper tantrum.  Her courtiers' solution is to sedate her slightly to calm her down.  Ann's so calm, in fact, that she escapes the Embassy and sets out on her own adventure in the mean streets of Rome.  Fortunately, she's recognized by a reporter (played by Gregory Peck) assigned to her visit who takes her under his wing.  Audrey is able to have the adventure of her life while the two fall hard for each other.  In the end, though, both Joe and Princess Ann realize that they must return to their real lives.  It's a bittersweet ending.

Amelia Rae Rose decides to run off to the closest Rome she can find from Nashville - Rome, Kentucky.  And she's certainly looking for a happier ending than Audrey got.  When the old clunker car she's had for ages finally gives up the ghost, she's in the middle of nowhere.  When Noah Walker comes knocking at her car window, Amelia thinks her own time has come!  But he just wants to know why she's parked in his front yard.  Of course, one thing leads to another, but can there be a happy ending for this pop princess and her pie-baking Prince Charming?  You'll just have to read When In Rome to find out!

The Orchid Thief

Susan Orlean's best-selling book The Orchid Thief (#1,096) came out in 1998.  She wrote it following the case of a notorious theft of wild orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in Florida by John Laroche and his three Seminole confederates.  She was intrigued by the newspaper article she had read on the case and decided to check it out for herself.  Although much has changed in Florida in the twenty plus years since the book was published, the passion for orchids and collecting is as strong as ever.

Ms. Orlean wandered down so many fascinating rabbit holes in writing this book, she sucks the reader in just as surely as the muck of the Fakahatchee.  So many things I did not know about this amazing state where I live!  Although the book centers around the theft of the elusive ghost orchid from state land, I was surprised to learn from reading descriptions of this flower, that the orchid on the cover of the book I was reading was not a ghost orchid!  I couldn't tell you what it actually was although it is beautiful.  That was just one of the many surprises this book contained.  

I finally got around to reading The Orchid Thief for my book club, and I'm so glad I did after reading and enjoying her non-fiction book The Library Book (See my post of 11/27/2018.).  Here Ms. Orlean links up a string of anecdotes in each chapter, each more interesting than the last.  I've seen how caught up people are in the orchid world at local orchid shows, but I never gave the bigger picture much thought.

I just know one thing for certain; I won't be in a hurry to take a field trip to the Fakahatchee Strand!

The Marlow Murder Club

A friend at my book club passed The Marlow Murder Club (#1,095) on to me.  Its author, Robert Thorogood, in addition is the writer behind the PBS mystery series Murder In Paradise.  I thoroughly enjoyed this twisty novel.

It features a most unlikely trio of amateur detectives: Judith, an elderly lady who lives on her own on the Thames River who witnesses the murder of her neighbor while out swimming in the nude; Suzie, a down on her luck dog walker caught at the scene of a second murder; and Becks, the picture-perfect suburban housewife whose investment banker husband found his second calling as the local vicar.  These ladies all share something in common.  Deep down, they are all lonely.  Trying to track down a killer in their small village unites them in deeply satisfying way both for them and their readers.  They are joined by DS Malik, the police officer who finds herself unexpectedly in charge of a major case.  Are Judith, Suzie and Becks a help or a hindrance to helping her solving her case?

If you enjoy Agatha Christie novels, The Marlow Murder Club will undoubtedly appeal to you.  Personally, I'd like to see Robert Thorogood adapt his novel into a screenplay.  It would be delicious fun!