THE TRUTH ABOUT STYLE (Stacy London)

I originally picked up this book (OK, I also ordered it for the library) because I'm a fan of "What Not to Wear" and I was interested in how Stacy would make over the 8 women chosen to be featured here.  London, it turns out, is not just an attractive woman with a talent for figuring out what looks good on other people; she is a insightful and sympathetic person with many issues of her own.  She doesn't just dress a person, suggesting colors and styles that complement shape and lifestyle.  She gets to the heart of WHY they have failed to develop their own fashion sense and in the course of doing so she reveals in each chapter her own vulnerabilities and mistakes.  Stacy London suffered very badly from psoriasis during her adolescence and still carries scars from the steroid cream the finally gave her relief but nearly destroyed her skin in the process.  As a college student at Vassar she struggled with eating disorders, her weight fluctuating between 90 and 180 pounds during her first year working at a fashion magazine.  She describes herself as not very good at relationships and has never been married or had children.

In addition to the surprising insights into herself and her own life, London also offers the reader an interesting analysis of each of the eight women she transforms.  They include a wide range of "types:" a 48-year-old divorced mother who would like to start dating, a petite but curvy young career woman, a very tall newlywed who feels that her shape (narrow shoulders, long legs, thick waist) is impossible to dress, a successful, fifty-something Silicon valley career woman who wants to look youthful without looking like she is trying to look younger, and more.

I enjoyed The Truth About Style thoroughly.  I thought I would flip through it , look at the pictures, and read a few paragraphs here and there, but I ended up reading the whole book over the weekend.  I feel like I have a whole new perspective on how and why to dress, as well as new insight into Stacy London.  She's very interesting, and she's really nice (not that I had thought otherwise)!  I guess the truth about personal style is that it has nothing to do with the latest trends, how much money you invest in your wardrobe, or how much you weigh.  It has to do with feeling good about who you are and expressing that through the way you dress.  By projecting your love of color, your artistic sensibilities, your professional confidence, etc. to the world through your choice of clothing instead of focusing on and trying to disguise your real or imagined physical flaws, you let the real you shine through.  What could be better than that?

DEATH OF A SCHOOLGIRL (Joanna Campbell Slan)

Slan's portrayal of Jane Eyre as amateur detective is quite successful, to say the least, and I expect this to be a very interesting series.  After Thornhill burns, Jane and Mr. Edward Rochester reunite and marry.  Edward Thornhill's ward, Adele Varens, now 10 years old, has been sent to a prestigious boarding school and, due to the birth of son Ned, Jane and Edward have been unable to visit the girl.  When a strange note arrives indicating that Adele may be under some sort of threat at the school, it is decided that Jane will travel to London on her own to investigate since Mr. Rochester has been ordered to rest at the moment to avoid endangering damaged eyesight.  During her trip to London Jane is beaten and robbed at a coach stop and on arrival at the school she is confronted with the sight of a corpse being transported from the building.  In a lucky coincidence, the school is temporarily short a teacher and Jane, concerned about the well-being of both Adele and the other students, decides to take the job and investigate the death of their classmate.  Slan manages to combine some humorous slapstick with sharp detective work for a very satisfying conclusion to this mystery.  Jane and Edward's devotion and Jane's intelligence and feistiness make for appealing characters that you will want to know better.  I can't speak to the comparisons between Slan's writing and Bronte's because if I did read Jane Eyre it was many, many years ago, but I understand from other comments that her style is very comparable.  I'm looking forward to the next in the Jane Eyre Chronicles!

BEING A LIBRARIAN

One of the saddest and most difficult parts of my job as a librarian is "deselection," weeding books from our collection.  We weed for a variety of reasons: too many copies after the demand is over, lack of circulation, poor condition, outdated information, etc.  I always feel especially bad when I see the hopeful, excited face of a first time author or the confident expression of an established, popular writer looking out at me from the back cover of a novel as I stamp DISCARD on what could be their life's dream.  I definitely have an emotional connection to my work!

The fact is that most libraries have space limitations.  There have been protests in some areas of the country over libraries dumping books that are no longer needed into the trash, but that doesn't happen very often.  We just don't have room to keep every book, no matter how good it is, if no one wants to read it.  In our library, we hang on to books with literary or educational merit (there are actually professional resources that identify these for us, so it's not just our personal opinions) for as long as we can, and sometimes they sit on our shelves for 6, 10, or even 15 years with absolutely no one reading them.  Eventually the time comes when the shelves could literally be stuffed with books that no one wants to read, so we have to take action!  When we weed fiction and nonfiction, we consider writing quality, how long it has been since the book was checked out, if it is part of a series, how many times it has been borrowed, publication year, whether a blockbuster movie is likely to be based on the book, its condition (ugly, dirty, REALLY old-looking) and whether the information in it is outdated or even dangerous (like really old health resources or legal forms). 

We always weed reluctantly.  I hate getting rid of great literature or really interesting pop culture books, but sometimes it is necessary.  When we weed, our discards go into our book sale and, if not sold, are donated to charity or sold as a lot.  Books that are simply useless because they are outdated may be thrown out so there is no chance of people accessing incorrect information.  Books that are old and ugly may be thrown out, too, but don't worry.  If they are classics we usually have multiple copies already or have ordered a replacement.

If you are concerned about the library discarding great books the solution is simple:  Check them out!  Libraries, including ours, have all sorts of resources to help you find wonderful materials that have stood the test of time.  Be sure to go beyond the NEW area and into the stacks.  There are all sorts of treasures there, but if no one looks for them they may eventually be gone.

DEATH OF A PERFECT WIFE (M.C. BEATON)

I can't believe that I haven't written this review yet!  This is an older Hamish MacBeth mystery (1989).  The thing about M.C. Beaton is that only the little details (Hamish's current dog, the current state of his relationship with Priscilla, Blair's marital status) give the reader a good idea of where we are in the series.  Beaton's writing is nothing if not consistent!  It is always entertaining.

When Trixie Thomas and her henpecked husband arrive in Lochdubh to open a bed & breakfast, the atmosphere of the little village in the Scottish highlands changes dramatically.  Trixie is a perfect housewife who devotes herself to improving the women of Lochdubh and general rabble-rousing.  Poor Dr. Brodie finds his wife and his home transformed and unrecognizable, a local farmer finds an angry crowd of environmentalists protesting his plan to demolish an old building, everyone is serving healthy meals, all thanks to Troxie's influence.  Trixie is accumulating bits and pieces of "old," unused furniture from everyone in town under the guise of getting off the dole and setting up a successful business.  When Trixie is found murdered there are a plethora of suspects. Hamish is quickly on the trail of killer, but, as usual, Inspector Blair is anxious to sideline him and bask in whatever glory he can.  Hamish, despite being preoccupied with matters of the heart, continues his investigation under the radar, as usual.

This is the 4th in the Hamish MacBeth series.  It was just as good the second time around!

MURDER AT THE CASTLE (Jeanne M. Dams)

I just love Dorothy Martin.  She is so real, aging gracefully, enjoying a comfortable, affectionate relationship with he husband, Alan Nesbitt, and wearing all sorts of wonderful hats just because she likes them.  I always picture her as a normal, slightly younger and much more likable version of Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge).

Alan and Dorothy are invited by young friends Inga and Nigel to attend a week-long classical music festival in Wales.  The festival will benefit the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.  Nigel is one of the singers and famed conductor Sir John Warner, who suffered the loss of his young wife, Delia, 10 years before on a tragic cruise, is in charge of the music.  During a boat excursion for tourists one of the singers from the festival "accidentally" plunges overboard when the passengers crowd the sides of the boat to take pictures from an aqueduct and later, Graciosa de la Rosa, the festival's universally disliked diva, takes a fatal fall from a balcony during rehearsal.  Are the two incidents really accidents or is there a connection?  Dorothy and Alan are suspicious, especially when the true identity of Graciosa is revealed.

Dames takes her readers on a tour of the Welsh countryside alongside Dorothy and Alan who, as always, team up to get to the bottom of things.  You'll enjoy the experience!

DEATH OF YESTERDAY (M.C. Beaton)

Hamish MacBeth will never change, but do we really want him to?  Any one who is a fan knows that he is tall, red-haired, lazy, a brilliant investigator, and unlucky in love and always will be.  Here, as usual, Hamish is constantly thwarted by the nasty (and stupid) Inspector Blair and the publicity-loving Daviot, Blair's superior, as he attempts to investigate the murder of an artist whose body is found in a bale of t-shirts.  Who was the father of her unborn baby?  Why was she killed and what did it have to do with the clothing factory where she worked?  Why did Hamish, overcome by the stunning beauty of a suspect's visiting sister, not bother to notice that she was boring and superficial before he hopped into bed with her?  As Hamish unravels the clues, sneaking behind his superiors' backs to do so, more deaths occur.

What makes Hamish so appealing is the fact that he is more interested in solving the case than getting the credit, and he is SO good at solving those cases.  You won't be disappointed in his latest adventure.  I do wish his love life would improve, though!

THE ENGLISH AMERICAN (Alison Larkin)

Pippa Dunn was adopted in America soon after her birth 28 years ago and raised in the UK along with her sister Charlotte, her parents' natural daughter. Despite the mutual love between Pippa and her parents and her close relationship with her younger sister Charlotte, something has always been missing from Pippa's life: the security of knowing who she really is and where she came from. As a result of this insecurity, she is unable to commit to any romantic relationship, always leaving first before she can be left.  After finally tracking down her birth parents, Pippa is delighted to finally see herself reflected in someone else's mannerisms and looks, but after she moves to America to get to know her new found family, some cracks appear in the facade of her wonderful new relationships.  Larkin writes with a wonderful combination of pathos and hilarity in this novel, which is based in part on her own life experience as an adoptee. For her sake I hope it was just the basic premise and not actual people that inspired many of her characters!

Pippa's adoptive British parents are understanding and supportive of her decisions to seek out the people who gave her up and there is no hint of drama or discord in her relationship with them.  Birth mother Billie, who is in the business of representing up and coming artists of all types, comes from a family supposedly riddled with "mental illness' and nearly every relative that Pippa meets or hears mention of suffers from some form of depression, bi-polar disorder, alcoholism, ADHD, or criminal insanity (or could they all just be so narcissistic and self-involved that they appear "crazy" to normal, functional people?).  Her father has a career and family life that are cloaked in mystery.

Pippa is not looking for a world where the grass is greener, where all her problems and self-doubts will disappear.  She just wants to know where and who she came from.  She gets more than she bargained for during the process, and I enjoyed every step of her journey.  I was surprised by the number of people on Goodreads that didn't particularly enjoy this novel.  I found it witty and very humorous an I would recommend it.