Books Read in May

• Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (Sunday Philosophy Club book 2) - Alexander McCall Smith.
• Deja Dead (Temperance Brennan Book 1) - Kathy Reichs
• The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party (#1 Ladies' Detective Agency book 12) - Alexander McCall Smith.
• Death Du Jour   (Temperance Brennan Book 2) - Kathy Reichs
• Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron - Jasper Fforde

Most of these are books in a series.  I did not enjoy the first Sunday Philosophy Club book because he writes Ms. Dalhousie as this old maid spinster who'll never be married and can never be a romantic lead.  She's 42!!  Ugh.  I read the second book mainly because I was in the McCall Smith section of the library and decided to give it another shot.  I enjoyed it more and will continue the series.

I've listened to many Temperance Brennan books on audio, but have never read any, so I decided to start with #1 and work my way up.  She is sooooo different from TV's Temperance Brennan (aka Bones.) The ONLY thing they have in common is their name and what they do.  The end.  Book Brennan has an ex-husband, a daughter in college, an alcohol problem and oh...yea, a personality.  I wonder how Kathy Reichs felt about "Bones" and how they completely destroyed/changed/whatever that character.

Shades of Grey. NOT THAT ONE.  Not the one that people are reading and I can't figure out why.  From all the reviews I have read, it's horrible fan fiction based on Edward and Bella from Twilight, and it's basically porn.  No thank you.  THIS Shades of Grey does not have '50' in front of it and is by Jasper Fforde, who is probably wishing that other author had chosen another name for his/her story.

Fforde's story deals with a Dystopia where people are classified by colors of the spectrum they can see.  There are purer colors at the top of the chain (red, purple) and those lower in the chain, especially the greys who are the bottom of the barrel.  It was slow going for me.  I was not getting it; there were many obscure references to their particular work I did not understand.  It picked up better in the middle, and in the end, you're shocked by the levels of evil and subterfuge the so-called government is involved in.  I'm interested to see what comes of the characters in book 2.