Good reads

I mentioned recently that I was reading Fannie Flagg's Welcome to the World, Baby Girl for the third time and enjoying it just as much as when I'd read it first. In fact, the impression was so positive that I was prompted to re-visit my other Fannie Flaggs immediately afterwards.

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man proved a bit of a chore (I don't remember what I thought of it originally). It's written in the first person from the point of view of a young girl growing up in the '50s in the American South. Daisy Fay is naive, bubbly and utterly truth-telling, and it's all a very impressive piece of characterisation - but still it left me untouched and cold. All a bit too clever for its own good. It's a good deal shorter than Baby Girl, so I finished it quickly.

Standing in the Rainbow re-visits the same rural backwater which was home to the heroine of Baby Girl and features many of the same characters in a 'prequel' sort of way. It's on a par with the earlier book, though more episodic in approach and lacking the strong central character which makes Baby Girl so memorable. STill an excellent and effortless read, though, and I'm also enjoying this just as much as I did when I first read it.