Birds and Bees
Oct. 24th, 2004 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
library_mamaWell, OK, so this first one looks kinda like it's about that S thing, and the second one definitely has lots of stuff about bees in it... is that reaching too far? Anyway, both mainstream fiction of the sort typically marketed to women.
Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner *Warning to my ttc friends: a major character in this book is pregnant.* (I couldn’t tell from the book description, honest!) This book was described as “chick lit, but deeper”, which does pretty well as a highly superficial description. That is, you won’t feel your brain cells either being numbed by the shallowness of characters or plot, but neither is it so dense that you’d need extra sleep and a study guide to get through it. So. Cannie is a moderately successful journalist, fairly content with her life. Then her ex-boyfriend – whom she dumped – publishes an article in a major women’s magazine called “Loving the Larger Woman” in which he describes the difficulties of dating a fat woman. Meaning her. Suddenly her life seems to be falling apart, and her mother’s newly lesbian identity – complete with gravelly-voiced girlfriend – isn’t helping. And then things get more complicated. The characters are genuinely funny, and the plot manages to be amusing and still say something about the important things in life.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd Monk So I finally read this book after probably dozens of library patrons told me that I must read it. It is a really good book. It also has a plot that sounds so improbable as not to function, yet somehow, the story flows so smoothly that I didn’t notice until I tried to describe it. Here’s the outline: 14-year-old Lily Owens lives with her emotionally abusive father and a black nanny, Rosaleen, in the south of the 1960s. She’s burdened with the guilt of having killed her mother in a horrible accident when she was four. When her nanny gets into trouble trying to register to vote and her father won’t do anything to help, saying only that Rosaleen will probably be killed, Lily decides it’s time to leave. The pair run away and find refuge in the house of three black beekeeping sisters. Told in beautifully poetic language, it’s a thoughtful portrayal of Lily’s coming of age amid the tense race relations of the 1960s.
Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner *Warning to my ttc friends: a major character in this book is pregnant.* (I couldn’t tell from the book description, honest!) This book was described as “chick lit, but deeper”, which does pretty well as a highly superficial description. That is, you won’t feel your brain cells either being numbed by the shallowness of characters or plot, but neither is it so dense that you’d need extra sleep and a study guide to get through it. So. Cannie is a moderately successful journalist, fairly content with her life. Then her ex-boyfriend – whom she dumped – publishes an article in a major women’s magazine called “Loving the Larger Woman” in which he describes the difficulties of dating a fat woman. Meaning her. Suddenly her life seems to be falling apart, and her mother’s newly lesbian identity – complete with gravelly-voiced girlfriend – isn’t helping. And then things get more complicated. The characters are genuinely funny, and the plot manages to be amusing and still say something about the important things in life.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd Monk So I finally read this book after probably dozens of library patrons told me that I must read it. It is a really good book. It also has a plot that sounds so improbable as not to function, yet somehow, the story flows so smoothly that I didn’t notice until I tried to describe it. Here’s the outline: 14-year-old Lily Owens lives with her emotionally abusive father and a black nanny, Rosaleen, in the south of the 1960s. She’s burdened with the guilt of having killed her mother in a horrible accident when she was four. When her nanny gets into trouble trying to register to vote and her father won’t do anything to help, saying only that Rosaleen will probably be killed, Lily decides it’s time to leave. The pair run away and find refuge in the house of three black beekeeping sisters. Told in beautifully poetic language, it’s a thoughtful portrayal of Lily’s coming of age amid the tense race relations of the 1960s.
