Corduroy Mansions

Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith

It's no surprise that I enjoyed Corduroy Mansions, the first book in McCall Smith's newest serial novel series, since I so enjoyed 44 Scotland Street (see post) and its sequels.

Corduroy Mansions is quite similar to 44 Scotland Street. It's been touted McCall Smith's "first internet novel" as it's published on The Telegraph's website, but in practice I expect the writing and publication work the same way as 44 Scotland Street did with The Scotsman.

Corduroy Mansions follows the lives of the residents of mansion-turned-apartment building located in the Pimlico area of London as well as some of their associates and associates' associates. One of the book's most memorable characters is Freddie de la Hay, a Pimlico terrier (see Tea Time for AMS for a discussion of the breed). He comes to live with wine merchant William French who owns the top flat of Corduroy Mansions and hopes that Freddie's appearance will encourage his 24-year-old, dog-hating son to finally move out.

My favorite character, though, is Terence Moongrove. His connection to Corduroy Mansions is a bit tenuous: he's the uncle of the vile Oedipus Snark, MP, whose personal assistant, Jenny, shares the middle flat. He's a complete crackpot (following a Bulgarian mystic, he practicing sacred dance as a way to connect with "beings of light" he also drives an ancient Morris Traveller that he's often to absentminded to remember to gas) and his presence adds so much to the novel.

Part of the reason that I like Corduroy Mansions and 44 Scotland Street so much is that McCall Smith's sense of humor really shines in the series (or maybe the humor in these two is just much more in line with my own). I'm not saying that there are not funny moments in his other books, but these series seem to yield many more laugh-out-loud-moments for me.

more recent reading

Witch Child by Celia Rees
The year is 1659, a time of fear and lies. For Mary Newbury, it is a time of desperation. While she watches, unable to intervene, her wise and beloved grandmother is falsely condemned, tortured, and hanged as a witch. Soon the relentless crowd may turn upon Mary.
When a mysterious stranger offers her a way out--safe passage to America--she knows she must go. But she doesn't know that the turbulent voyage will bring her to yet another society where differences are feared and defiance is deadly. To survive, Mary pretends to be a pious Puritan girl. But when witch frenzy begins to tear apart the community, Mary must finally choose between the precarious safety of her disguise and her own true nature.

The time period and subject matter are both of great interest to me and I thought this book was very well done. I particularly liked the archival aspect of it - the fact that the bulk of the book was Mary's diary that she hid in a quilt and was only discovered 400+ years later.

I found Mary's character quite sympathetic and ended the book hoping that she'd met up with Jaybird and lived happily-ever-after with his tribe. Now that I know there is a sequel (Sorceress), I've put in on my wishlist.

The Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld series by Alexander McCall Smith
Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances (all published in 2003).

I feel the end to harken back to something I wrote about The Sunday Philosophy Club, the first book in another AMS series:

One thing that occurred to me as I was listening to the book is how different Isabel is from Precious Rambotswe (star of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books). Not that I expected them to be similar, but I found it interesting that while McCall Smith's core audience probably has the least in common with Precious, she may very well be his most sympathetic protagonist (I don't know anything about the 44 Scotland Street series, though, so I could be completely off base).

Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld is if anything less sympathetic than Isabel Dalhousie. He's a quirky, clueless, self-important academic who manages to get himself into very Bridget Jones-y situations. I did, however, like the books (though the over-the-top situation in At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances may have put me off reading more books in the series if there were any). They are very tongue-in-cheek and because I know more about German culture than the average American (and more than I probably care to know about academe), I was able to appreciate a lot of what AMS was going with the books.

The highlight of the series, however, has to be the case of mistaken identity in The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs. I was so amused (though, again, AMS carried it a bit too far later in the novel).

series

It's probably quite obvious that I haven't been getting a lot of serious (read: assigned) reading done lately. I've been a bit of an escapist and I've been drowning myself in quick, untaxing reads many of them series books. So here's a look at what I've been reading lately.

Maggie Sefton's Knitting Mysteries.
So far I've read the first three: Knit One, Kill Two, Needled to Death, and A Deadly Yarn. The fourth book in the series, A Killer Stitch, is next on my list (I'm going to start it right after I publish this post).
I don't typically read a lot of cozies, but I do like this series. I can really relate to its protagonist, a young professional who is addicted to coffee and just learning to knit. After the second book I was worried that the series would end up being unforgivably formulaic (there were too many similarities between the crimes in the first two books), but I'm pleased to report that A Deadly Yarn deviated a bit.

Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris
My coworker and I are actually both reading this series now. So far I've read Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, Club Dead, Dead to the World, and Dead as a Doornail.
I like this series much better than most of the other paranormal series I've picked up. Sookie is pretty down-to-earth, the author is inventive, the secondary characters are pretty well-drawn, and there isn't an unnecessary amount of sex. The overarching story, however, is a bit of a mystery to me. Just today my coworker and I were arguing over the identity of Sookie's intended love interest. Though my coworker has cast the role, I'm not altogether sure. We both agree, however, that it's not Bill.
I'm not going to run out and purchase the other books in the series (so far Definitely Dead and All Together Dead), but I'll read them when they come my way.


I also just finished the first of Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie mysteries, The Sunday Philosophy Club.
When I was in Chicago, my aunt gave me the audio version, which we started listening to on the way home. Russell didn't care much for Isabel and her internal monologues on ethics and philosophy. I will say that she grew on me. Yes, the monologues got a bit tiresome, but I found Isabel to be an interesting character (and I liked McCall Smith's inclusion of what my dad would call SAT-words).
One thing that occurred to me as I was listening to the book is how different Isabel is from Precious Rambotswe (star of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books). Not that I expected them to be similar, but I found it interesting that while McCall Smith's core audience probably has the least in common with Precious, she may very well be his most sympathetic protagonist (I don't know anything about the 44 Scotland Street series, though, so I could be completely off base).
So far there are three others in the series: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, The Right Attitude to Rain, and The Careful Use of Compliments. I won't go out and buy the books, but I did put them on my BookMooch wishlist so hopefully I'll be able to snag them if they are listed. In the meantime I'll probably give the Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld books a go. They've been hanging around my bookshelf for a while now.

Blue Shoes and Happiness

Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith

Blue Shoes and Happiness is the seventh installment of Alexander McCall Smith's successful No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Not typical mysteries, the books meander gracefully to their conclusion rather than proceeding with page-turning thrills. As Assistant Detective Grace Makutsi says, "Mma Ramotswe [proprietor of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency] does not solve crimes. She deals with very small things. [...] But [...] these small things are important for people" (53).

Set in Botswana, the books are full of full of wisdom and humanity as well as sympathetic and subtly drawn characters. Smith writes in such a way to emphasize the different pace of life in Botswana. Just reading one of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books forces the reader to slow done and relax, making them the perfect fare for a weekday evening.

In Blue Shoes and Happiness, Precious Ramotswe and her detective agency take on a number of new cases; her new assistant-assistant detective gets a chance to prove his detecting skills; and a new character appears in the form of Aunty Emang, the local newspaper's agony aunt. Additionally, Grace Makutsi's relationship with her new fiance is on rocky ground after she admits to being a feminist. The novel's most shocking thread, however, concerns Precious Ramotswe's decision to go on a diet. Yes, there's blackmail, and a home intruder, and a cobra in the office, but none of these things is nearly as significant as Ramotswe, a champion of the rights of the "traditionally-built," deciding that she needs to lose weight.

While the books do stand alone--each begins with a little summary of what has happened in the previous books--people new to the series should probably start with a different book. Blue Shoes and Happiness, while continuing in the same vein as the earlier books, may be slightly less accessible to neophytes. Readers familiar with Ramotswe and the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency novels will appreciate the mysterious pumpkin that threads its way through the book and Smith's exploration of gender issues. To others, these things may feel just a bit too foreign.

Read the full review at Armchair Interviews...