WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

 1. What are you currently reading?  Eighteen Acres by Nicolle Wallace. This is the right political thriller for me to read at this moment. It's about our first female President, Charlotte Kramer. She has the first-ever female White House Chief of Staff, Melanie Kingston. Network star Dale Smith covers the White House and is the first woman in history to find herself in illicit love with America's First Gentleman.

 

I knew I would enjoy it when it opened with Melanie treating herself to a designer bag. In this beltway fantasy, brilliant and ambitious women wear Jimmy Choos, drink martinis and bake in the sauna as they determine the fate of our nation.  

I like these women and I'm getting a kick out of the book. It's written by the same Nicolle Wallace who worked in George W. Bush's White House and helped manage John McCain's White House bid. Now she's a commentator on MSNBC. She's my TV BFF. She writes like the savvy insider she is, and she's spinning a fun, gossipy, exciting book. It's of no real consequence, but in this season, in the run up to a most consequential Presidential election, that's fine with me. (PS The acreage of the title refers to the White House grounds.)

2. What did you recently finish reading?  The Father Hunt by Rex Stout. This book has everything I've come to love in Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries: twisty plots, minimal violence, maximum atmosphere, and a supporting cast of colorful characters. Every few pages, I felt like saying, "Hello, old friends! I've missed you!"

Which is not to say it doesn't stand well on its own. A case comes to world-famous detective Nero Wolfe through his assistant, Archie Goodwin. Archie meets a woman socially who asks him for help in a personal matter. She wants to learn the identity of her biological father. With her mother's recent death, she thinks this is an almost impossible task. Archie and Wolfe predict it'll take about a week. Boy, are they wrong. Soon the case takes them and us into the worlds of investment banking, network TV and public relations. Along the way, they identify the culprit in a previously unsolved murder. 

Complicating things is the fact that the book is set in 1967. Blood tests aren't considered conclusive in determining paternity. Forget DNA. Do today's mystery writers have it easier, or harder, in our technologically advanced world?

3. What will read next? Since Eighteen Acres has me all ginned up on girl power, I am considering a biography of one of three women I've long admired: Lucille Ball or Carrie Fisher or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.