Well, the new year’s resolutions have been and gone, the weather isn’t great and it seems a long time to Spring. On the other hand, the days are getting longer and the snowdrops are poking through in the garden, and it’s the time of year to curl up with a hot chocolate and a good book. Regular readers of this blog know that I started reading ‘Lessons In Chemistry’ by Bonnie Garmus last month and had every intention of linishing it but oh dear… The book is set in the 1950s and 60s and tells the story of Elizabeth Zott who is a brilliant scientist but is mocked, ignored and even sexually assaulted as she tries to assert herself in her chosen profession. Fast forward to the 1960s and she has become a host on a TV cookery programme, and an unlikely superstar.
I struggled with this book on two levels. It is garlanded with praise and has been highly recommended by a friend but I found it rather tedious and the heroine was not particularly likeable although the reader is meant to be rooting for her. The plot too, is longwinded and I think I got bored with it. The other problem is that I don’t know if I really believed it, and one thing I like when reading a book is to be able to suspend disbelief which I really struggled to do.
Now I am not doubting for a minute that women in science, the professions and even in manual jobs suffered huge discrimination at the time. They were not paid the same as men for the same work, and scientists perhaps did not receive the recognition they deserved although that has changed dramatically in my lifetime. The real problem with this book is that I can’t get away from the image of Margaret Thatcher whose first career was in science, and whose greatest achievement surely, was being part of the team who created Mr Whippy ice-cream. Was she the genius who found that sticking a chocolate flake into the ice-cream was truly a marriage made in ice-cream heaven? Perhaps not but I can’t imagine her putting up with the venom and harassment that Elizabeth Zott is meant to have suffered.
If by now you are thinking that perhaps I do not appreciate the great work that is produced by scientists, my next book choice may allay those fears. Purely coincidently I picked up ‘Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze?’ in a charity shop. This is a collection of readers’ questions sent to the New Scientist magazine over the years and is full of intriguing, clever and sometimes simply dotty requests for information and knowledge. As well asking why don’t penguins feet freeze, the questions range from ‘why is snot green?’ to ‘why should water to make tea or coffee be freshly drawn rather than boiled twice?’.
The last question drew a flurry of answers and this is part of the charm of the book. Eminent professors, scientists and more modest readers who don’t mention their scientific credentials from all round the world, wade in with their particular views. As well as being educational, it’s great fun although somewhat alarming to read the answers to whether left-handed people are more risk of accidental death than those who are right-handed. As a leftie, I am doomed! More prosaically, the answers point out that machinery and guns are designed for and by right-handed people, so left-handed people have to adapt, and this may cause more accidents. Highly recommended for those of us who enjoy the weird and wonderful.
There was no book club choice in December but this month’s book was ‘Proof’ by Dick Francis. He was a prolific writer of thrillers set in the world of horse racing, so that was what I expected. The story starts when wine merchant Tony Beach delivers champagne to a horse racing trainer who is holding a big party for his owners. A horsebox rolls down the hill and crashes into the marquee, killing several of the guests. So far, so predictable but then the plot veers off into a complicated plot where ordinary wine and whisky is decanted into bottles and sold as expensive vintages. As Tony gets drawn into untangling the web of deception, (in thrillers, they’re always webs of deception) he teams up with a private investigator, gets shot and captures the villains, as well as slaying his own private demons in the process.
I have to say that I found the plot and the ending unbelievable, although I did appreciate the murderer’s way of despatching his victims. With a nod to Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger who suffocated one of his victims with gold paint, Dick Francis’ killer used the rather more mundane method of applying plaster of Paris. Macabre but different to the usual shootings and poisonings that most crime writers use. I also felt the book was very dated (it was published in 1984) and I won’t be rushing to read any more books by this author.
In total contrast to this, one of my Christmas books was ‘Miss Deacon Investigates’ written by Susan Leona Fisher. I had the pleasure of talking to Sue at September’s Books and Beverages when she spoke about her writing and the research which went into the book. Spanning both World War One and the Boer War, it tells the story of Lily Deacon who is sent to the Western Front to investigate stories that members of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps were indulging in immoral behaviour. Through this she hears about a young nurse who disappeared during the chaos of the Boer War, and resolves to find out what happens to her.
The cover describes this as a medical romance and although I know these are very popular, normally this would put me off. I have worked in hospitals and have never understood the attraction of blood and snot. However, I wanted to read this particular book as I know that Sue always undertakes detailed research before she writes her novels, which gives them depth and authenticity. Miss Deacon does not disappoint. The main character is based on a real woman who headed up a committee to investigate the behaviour of the women who were supporting the troops just behind the front line. It sheds an interesting light on the war where amongst all the carnage and destruction, the government were concerned that the unmarried women might have been having sex, whereas they didn’t seem to be too concerned about the behaviour of the men.
Beautifully and sensitively written, I loved this book and was genuinely sorry when it finished. Highly recommended.
Well, that’s all from me this month.
Happy reading.
Sue
Books and Beverages UK 
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