My First Book Review

One of the things that I thought I could do in my blog was write about books that I've read (yes I do read books that aren't cookbooks). Unfortunately for you, it's been at least 17 years since I've written a book report. So this could be all over the place.

I should preface this by stating that since I got out of school I have read basically nothing but mysteries. It's my favorite genre and why should I read anything else if I don't have to? Within the mystery genre, there are several sub-genres (I don't know if that's an accurate term but since my university seems to think they gave me a degree in English - which they didn't - I'm going to go with it). My favorite sub-genres are Historical and Cozy:

• Historical should be fairly self-explanatory.
• Cozy is a light read where the sleuth is usually an amateur and the violence takes place behind the scenes. I also usually think of a cozy as taking place in a small town/village (for instance, the Miss Marple books by Agatha Christie are classic examples of the cozy). Often cozies are centered on a theme - cats, dogs, tea, quilting, needlework, baking, etc.
  

Ok, enough of that. I was in the library last week picking up some books for my mom and I to read (she's a mystery freak too). I saw a book by an unknown-to-me author and loved the title so much that I just took it (well not "took" it - no stealing, checked it out). When I got home, I actually read the back of the book and found out that author also wrote The Princess Diaries and a number of other teeny-bopper books. So I was less enthused. Until I started reading it. So, here's the title and the back-of-book description. Then I tell you what I thought.

Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
'Heather Wells Rocks! Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two - and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

'The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls...and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen - not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives - even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

'But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong.'

Ok, so it sounds far-fetched. But that's one of the fun things about cozy murder mysteries. It seems to be directed at a slightly younger audience (it takes place in a freshman dorm) which is fine but I can't relate to elevator surfing. I don't think kids did that when I was in college. And there are some annoying things like she refers to the fact that she works in a "dorm - excuse me, residence hall". Yeah, that happens about 50 times in this book. It gets old. But the thoughts Heather has - pretty normal. For example, Heather explains how she gets in her daily 60 minutes of exercise as recommended by the US government: a 10-minute walk to the sandwich shop, 10 minutes to her favorite boutique shop, 10 minutes to Dean & Deluca and so on (including trips back home/office) till you've gotten to 60 minutes. I totally do that!

The great American novel, it's not. And it's not definitely not my favorite series (I'll talk about those another time). But it's a fun read and I'm going to get the next book, Size 14 is Not Fat Either, when I go to the library again.