"Here Lies the Librarian" by Richard Peck

I've never read the prequel to this book, "A Teacher's Funeral," but had assumptions about it based on the humorous cover and general reviews. So, when I had a free moment I picked it up. And was surprised. Not in a good or bad way, just surprised. At 141 pages, it's a short little thing and the overall look is clearly middle school. The story, of a tomboy who works on cars but discovers another path in life, was definitely middle school focused. I guess what surprised me was the complex storytelling. Vocabulary and historical references (the book is set in 1914) are specific, and far above the heads of most teen readers, I would think (heck, I didn't even understand some of them). The book is humorous, my favorite line being "Well, we read very little, but we don't mind if others does. We're Methodist." I just have no idea who it would appeal to. There are extreme details of cars of the period but little action, so I don't see guy appeal. Lots of discussion of clothing as well, but almost too much? The period was set well in the first chapters, I do feel it was belabored after that. Peck writes like Twain, his vernacular is right on point. But I would think that is likely to distance a contemporary reader who knows nothing of the era. All in all, it was cute and had moments, but it wasn't a page-turner and I see it as a niche book -- one that will just have to find the right person to truly appreciate it.

"Boudica: The Life of Britain’s Legendary Warrior Queen" by Vanessa Collingridge

For a biography called “Boudica: The Life of Britain’s Legendary Warrior Queen”, this book doesn’t have much of actual Boudica in it. Taking me nearly nine months to read (like Zadie Smith’s “White Teeth”) this isn’t so much an exploration of the mysterious woman shrouded in history as it is an epic historical novel that covers: The history of the Roman Empire, the role of coins in solving archeological mysteries, gender reinvisioning in the face of time, the national identity of the British Empire, etc etc etc. It’s just a lot – about some fairly interesting facts and a whole lot of theory and more than a little dash of opinion. I certainly learned a lot, and have been talking about what I learned, but it wasn’t particularly – fun. It’s not a page turner, what with the various meanderings of the author to, well, pretty much anywhere she happens to wander. She starts at the dawn of humankind, and just when you think you are getting somewhere (Yay! 46 AD!) she jumps back to 250 BC to “clarify” something. Around page 150, I was wondering if we would ever get to 60 AD, the beginning of the Boudican revolt, and was thrilled when it finally arrived. Boudica, the heroine (or villain) of the piece, actually only exists from pages 169 to 244 of this 378 page tome. After we get to the meat of her life, Ms. Collingridge skips gamely on for another 140 pages or so to explore what Boudica “means” through the ensuing 2,000 years. There are the inevitable discussions of the Elizabethan Age, the Cromwell years, the Victorian age – right up to Margaret Thatcher, HRH Diana and Condoleeza Rice. Not saying there isn’t a point, just that there are, perhaps, too many. It’s almost as if this had been a serialized set of feminist essays instead of a book. The biography is also veddy, veddy, “British.” In the sense that if you like droll stories of 18^th century poets making up populist works for entertainment, then this is for you. The author also loves to describe the interviews she conducted for the book – in extreme detail. Maybe it’s a British thing. I’m also not a fan of Dickens (three pages to describe the pen a character used at his first job is pretty much when I bailed – God strike me down). Booklist called it “absorbing,” I call it mind-numbing. Not bad if you can take it in small doses, but this one ain’t exactly a beach read. Rumor has it Hollywood is on to this one. I think next time I’ll wait for the movie.