There is a segment on Classical 89 called "Bookbeat." A woman who works at the Bookstore at BYU gives a book review each week. I like Bookbeat and Linda Brummett, the reviewer. She is insightful and selects a wide range of books to literature to discuss: children's and young adult works, fiction and non alike.
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa was a novel she reviewed, and based on her review, I thought it would be a fun one to read out loud with Kent. She compared Nicholas Drayson's writing to that of Alexander McCall Smith's, one of my favorite authors, so I was eager to read it. Although the premise of the story is engaging, the actual writing isn't, at least initially. Kent and I are not nearly as consistent with our reading as we were 3B (before baby Brandt), and even less consistent now that we are 2K2B (KentKatherineBrandtBlythe), and this book was just not engaging enough to make us want to read every night or even every other night. Kent especially couldn't get into it.
That said, I did finish reading it on my own and I enjoyed it. The story is this: Mr. Malik, a quiet widower, has a crush on Rose Mbikwa, the leader of a weekly bird walk he attends. He wants to ask her to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball, but is too shy to act. A man whom Mr. Malik knew in his youth, Harry Khan, returns to Nairobi and also takes a liking to Rose. A bet is wagered between Mr. Malik and Harry Khan: he who can identify the most individual species of birds in one week wins the right to ask Rose to the Hunt Club Ball.
After a bit too much ground-laying, the story becomes very engaging, and perhaps had Kent and I endured a bit longer together he would have gotten into it. As it was, I found the book charming, but it took a number of chapters before I was really excited to read it all the way through and not just jump to the last chapter to see how it ended. It isn't really a very long book and is a quick read (if not reading out loud), and without any objectionable subject matter or bad language.
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