The Wonder Spot, by Melissa Bank

A few years back, I had read Bank's top seller debut, The Girs' Guide to Hunting and Fishing. It has a thin plot but is very funny; Bank has a wonderful sense of humour. The Wonder Spot is in essence a remake of, not even a sequel to, Bank's first novel. Consequently, while it still has numerous hilarious lines, I found it frustrating to read something that exhibits no growth from an obviously talented writer. We are back to the topic of relationships, of a young woman who is, well, out of it when it comes to just about every relationship in her life: with her parents, with her friends, with her boss, with her co-workers, and most of all, with the men in her life. Just as The Girs' Guide, The Wonder Spot is obviously autobiographical. It is almost impossible to believe someone with Bank's talent could have been such a loser (there is no nicer way of putting it) in life. I did finish the book, but Bank's style and subject matter have lost their freshness and attraction.

Devil May Care, by Sebastian Faulks

Devil May Care, The New James Bond Novel by Sebastian Faulks

I took advantage of the couple of days of free time to read a light book before the trip to Europe. Like most people, I am a fan of the 007 movies. When it comes to the novels, I've only read, many years ago, Goldfinger by Ian Fleming.

One can see that Sebastian Faulks wants to maintain Fleming's style of simple writing and exciting story-telling. The absurdity of the main villain seems more pronounced in a book than in a movie: somehow, one can easily treat a Bond movie as science fiction or a cartoon, but it's harder to gloss over the belief-defying plot when it is written down on paper. I remember enjoying the book while reading it, but now, five weeks later, I have only the vaguest recollection of the story, which means I can safely read the book again in a few months and enjoy it all over.

The Logic of Life, by Tim Harford

The Logic of Life by Tim Harford

Tim Harford's first book, The Undercover Economist, was the sort of book on economics that I like: precise, logical, and full of sharp observations backed up by facts. So when I read a positive review in the Economist on Mr. Harford's latest work, I bought it promptly.

I'm afraid I'm not quite as enthusiastic as the Economist about The Logic of Life. In fact, I'm contemplating on writing Mr. Harford a long letter arguing about some of the points he made which are, in my humble opinion, illogical. After reading The Undercover Economist, I learnt many useful and eye-opening things in everyday life. While reading The Logic of Life, I found myself saying either, Hey, this is not true, or, Well, tell me something I didn't know. Also, it is unsatisfying to read that, Situation A and Situation B are different because A is caused by X while B is caused by Y, but the author has no explanation on why one group arrived at X while another arrived at Y. I know it is not easy to explain human beings. One would have to write a separate book for each of the topics touched by Mr. Harford. That is the biggest problem with The Logic of Life. It is supposed to be on economics, but it strays too far into social issues, a minefield best left untouched by anyone who really wants to use scientific methods and logic.

Battle Creek, by Scott Lasser

Battle Creek by Scott Lasser

Years ago when I was living in San Francisco, my friend Paolo loaned me this book. I enjoyed it so much that I had to get my own copy, even if all I could find was a paperback, nothing like Paolo's hardcover -- even autographed by the author.

While playing couch potato the last few weeks, watching first the Olympics, then the US Open tennis, I thought I'd read an easy book during all those commercial breaks. It also seemed appropriate to read one related to sports, in this case, baseball.

Lasser's book is about the coaches and players on an amateur baseball team trying to win the national championship. I'm a baseball junkie, but when it comes to playing, baseball is one of the few sports that I'm hopeless at. However, I've played organized tennis for nearly twenty years, including the years in California when friends of mine were on teams that made it to the nationals, so I'm familiar with how seriously some people take amateur sports. It can get silly, really; Jeff jokes all the time about writing a TV series called Desperate Tennis Players. Winning -- or perhaps more important, not losing -- seems to mean so much to some people.

If Lasser's book were only about how people can become obsessed with winning even at amateur levels, it would be a boring story. Battle Creek is really about life -- not in the hopelessly sentimental way that the likes of Kinsella usually bring into baseball-themed novels, no, not at all. This is a very sad story whose on-field happy ending was achieved at tragically high prices. In the end, it was about choices that all of us have had to make at some point in life. Baseball is but a backdrop to the real story of life.