Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Kate Atkinson
I find it difficult, sometimes, to write a review of a book I love as much as this one--I started this article a half dozen times, unsure of what to say to convince you, the reader, to march down to the bookstore and put your money on the counter.

Ruby Lennox is the main character of the story and the narrator of her own life, starting at the very beginning: "I exist!" is perhaps the most peculiar opening line I've ever seen in a book. Ruby talks about her own conception with a sort of naïve amazement and gleeful expectation. It's a happily strange opening to a truly magical novel. Never mind that Ruby's life isn't nearly the slice of joy she expects as she springs to life in that dull marriage bed--her dull and neurotic mother, Bunty, is more interested in adhering to her rigorous cleaning schedule than anything--Ruby is determined to make the best of life above a pet shop in the midst of her muddled family of eccentrics.

In anyone else's hands, this would just be the gentle story of a young girl and four generations of the women in her family. It would probably be enjoyable (if you like that sort of thing) but it wouldn't be anything special.

However, this book is far more than a generational story about women. It's a big colourful contradiction; a gently dark comedy full of silliness, war, affairs, accidents, fires, puppies and kittens, love, betrayal, and the everyday magic of childhood. It's wry, funny, and melancholy, and you'll have to stop yourself from reading passages aloud to the people around you. Many of the funniest events are tragic and many of the most awful disasters are comically absurd. Atkinson approaches everything equally with the same light touch and twisted sense of humour.

And if anyone else used footnotes as liberally as Atkinson does, it might not work; in her hands, they add a whole layer to the story. The footnotes are an early indication of the quirkiness of this book; they're the scenes behind the history and characters, and they give a tiny story sidenote a life of its own.

I want you to buy this wonderful book. I want you to buy it for yourself and, since it's on sale this month, I want you to buy one for your closest friend. He or she will thank you.

Wicked
Gregory Maguire
    There are always two sides to every story and Frank Baum’s Wicked Witch of the West from the “Wizard of Oz” has yet to have her tale told. Until now! “I would have never thought the wicked Witch of the West was a sympathetic character, but she is!"
    Read this book and try Maguire’s “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister” (takes the Cinderella Fairytale and makes it something we can all understand.There is no Fairy Godmother in this version, but it is all the more magical for being real).”