A look at my drafts shows me that I have not yet written about the past SIX books I’ve read(The Good Mayor, Catching Fire, Beastly, Second Time Around, How Dolly Parton Saved My Life, Don’t You Forget About Me). Which is really dreadful. At least I wrote the titles in the drafts or I would probably not even remember what they were. I must get better about writing immediately after reading because that is when I am most heated up and passionate about a book (also will remember more details, like character names and such.) So, as I am sure they will all get short shrift in their write ups, but I am going to work backwards so at least some don’t. Thus, the book I finished yesterday, The Good Mayor.
I absolutely adored this. I read about it in Chatelaine, a Canadian women’s magazine I subscribe to. In the book section they often mention books that are really interesting to me, but not available here yet (if at all.) Happily this one was easy to get a hold of. This is a romantic charming, quirky story. At its most basic, the town mayor is in love with his secretary, who is in a loveless marriage. She also loves him. One day they have lunch together and their love blossoms. The story is told from the point of view of St. Walpurnia, a bearded nun who is the town’s saint and appears on all their official things and everyone prays to. I can’t quite find the right way to describe the style of writing-it was sweet, it was funny, hmmm…does a review on amazon say it better than I can? Hmmm, no. Whimsical, fairy-taleish, magical, are all words used in the reviews, and I do agree with them. It’s just charming, that’s really the best I can do. One of the things that I thought was so delightful about it (and adds to the fairy tale quality) was the not-real place and unspecified time. Continue reading
