THE BOYS IN THE BOAT * THE CASUAL VACANCY

The Boys in the Boat - Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown - First of all it's a great story - but has anyone noticed that many of the latest non-fiction books include lengthy add-on phrases as part of their titles which explain what the book is about?  I'm not sure I appreciate the explanation.  Is the title as strong if it has to be supported by more words on the cover?  Just asking.  Now back to the book, which is really good, slightly overwritten, but complete.  It's a study of the sport of rowing, and the tale of a group of incredible competitors from the "greatest generation".  It's a little bit magical, and would be more so if you could read it without knowing the outcome.  It's a good old fashioned Epic Quest, much different than the Epic Quests of modern day video games, because this Epic Quest was undertaken in real life by young underdogs whose only weapons and powers were their strong bodies, their intelligent minds, their resilient boat and their long oars.   The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling - In the parlance of quaint (or maybe not so quaint) British towns, a Casual Vacancy is when certain conditions occur  resulting in an empty seat on the local government council.  I was 150 pages into this story and still had no idea why I was reading it when I decided to a) read the book jacket summary, and b) just read a chapter or two every 50 pages until I'd finished.  It worked and I liked the book a bit better for having done so.  It's the laborious story of the people in a small town, their motivations and actions, and their interactions.  Read it the regular way and you might be as bored as I was (unless you enjoy chatty long novels), read it the way I did, and it might be OK.  Or skip it, and read the one J.K. wrote under a pseudonym, which is supposed to be better.  And which I will duly read next week.