Reading in the Garden

Betting on Birds A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson is a novel that centers on two men who want to ask the same woman to the annual Hunt Club Ball, but they don’t want to put her in the awkward position of having to choose between them.  So, how do they settle which one of them should invite Rose, a lovely widow, who leads a bird walk every Tuesday in Nairobi, Kenya?  The men engage in a wager. Whoever can identify the most number of bird species in a week’s time will have the privilege of inviting Rose to the dance. And just to keep things honest, there are three committee members in the Asadi Club to officially record their bird spottings every evening and see the rules are adhered to. You do not have to be an ornithologist, or even like birds to read this book. Human relationships prevail over the feathered variety. Of all the people he’s competing against, Mr. Malik’s opponent happens to be his old high school rival. Harry Khan is a loud, boist...

Mrs. de Winter’s Frosty Reception Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier begins with one of the most famous literary opening lines: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”  It’s about a young, naïve woman who marries a widower and he brings her to his estate called Manderley. There, an unfamiliar world of servants and social expectations await her. The new Mrs. de Winter, whose first name is never mentioned, tries to fit in, but quickly discovers all is not what she thought it would be.  Mrs. Danvers, housekeeper and devotee to the late first wife, Rebecca de Winter, does not make her life easy. Mrs. Danvers is a tall, lanky woman dressed in black like the grim reaper with a fake, smug smile pasted on her skull-like face. She's as cold as a dead fish and likes to remind the new insignificant mistress that Rebecca was flawless. Rebecca's beauty was unsurpassed. Rebecca was a skilled horsewoman and handled a sailboat as smoothly as a man. Rebecca was polished...