Non Fiction Bestsellers - "At Home" and "Dukan Diet"

According to The Age newpaper’s bestsellers list for independent booksellers (week ending June 5) two new non fiction books have made the list – At Home by Bill Bryson and The Dukan Diet by Pierre Dukan.

I’ve been reading a lot about the former in The Age lately as it has been featured a few times in different sections. While I am a newcomer to Bryson’s books, I did find interesting his history of science in A Short History of Everything, which you may recall from an earlier post, I listened to in audio book format on our long drive to Sydney at Easter. This time, Bryson tackles the theme of domestic history, primarily in Britain and America, using his house built in 1851 as the blueprint for stories about the people, craftsmen, and health of the time.  I’m not sure whether this book will capture the imagination of all his followers, as the appeal of this topic is probably not as universal across genders as that of his previous books. Maybe one to have a look at though.

My initial reaction to the second book, The Dukan Diet by Pierre Dukan, was that it sounded like a new fad diet book, so I googled it to find out why so many people are buying the book. In an article by the UK newspaper, The Daily Mail, in April this year, phrases such as “Have you ever wondered why most French women appear to be so effortlessly chic and slender, whatever their age? “ and “It acknowledges the innate pleasure to be had from eating and, incredibly, promises efficient weight loss while eating unlimited quantities of real food” caught my attention.

It appears this diet has been popular in France for 10 years and reminds me of the CSIRO diet that was popular in Australia a few years ago, in that it focusses on protein as the secret to its success.  It advocates one day a week being a protein only day, and features a staged approach, in that after the initial restricted diet to drop the desired weight quickly, it then reintroduces healthy food progressively into diet. I recall that at the time that the CSIRO diet was popular, there was a lot of criticism by nutritionists and dietitions about the high amount of protein that was recommended in the diet.  A while ago I read the book French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano which was interesting. Unlike the Dukan Diet, Guiliano maintains that the secrets are controlling the portion size, minimal consumption of processed food and the amount of physical exercise all those Parisian women get climbing the stairs to their 5th floor apartment!

Long drive to Sydney in the company of audio books

Sorry I haven’t posted over the last week but my family and I have been on holiday in beautiful Sydney. We drove up the Hume Highway which is a very long, ten hour trip for someone who gets carsick if I read or play on electronic gadgets which is what my children did. Thankfully, I had the foresight to visit my local library for a few audio books for the trip. With my husband, I listened to Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything” which was a fascinating look at science but not as we were taught at school. I learnt about planets and the solar system, alchemy and chemistry, geology, palaeontology and anthropology through the lives of the scientists themselves. What makes this book memorable and accessible to the average reader is that it focuses on the “how” question – how we came to understand the theories around some of the biggest scientific questions, both the official story as well as the untold story. He utilises humerous stories about the scientists themselves, their eccentricities, and the competitive jostling between the famous scientists to keep the reader engaged.

My choice of audio book was one by P.D Martin called The Murderers’ Club. The main character is Australian born FBI agent, Sophie Anderson, who becomes involved in a serial killer investigation while visiting her friend Darren, a police detective in Tucson. As a profiler with the FBI, Sophie just can’t help but get involved in Darren’s investigation. However, there is one extra skill that she has which is not usually found in an FBI agent’s repertoire – she has psychic visions. The setting of the novel is very contemporary with the use of computers and chat rooms, and the plot introduces the premise that there will always be people who are prepared to do what others won’t if there is enough cash involved. While the plot was suspenseful enough, I felt a little let down when the case came to a resolution not through the psychic visions and insights of the police, but due to an event which seemed to be placed at just the appropriate time. I can’t say what this was without spoiling the story, but it took the suspense out of the story for me.

I also found writing style of the novel to be a bit choppy. Maybe that was due to the audio book format, or maybe it’s because I have been reading a lot more fiction by European authors (including the crime genre) which is quite a different style. Personally, my opinion was that there wasn’t enough differentiation between this novel and other novels of I have read in this genre to make this one stand out from the crowded bookshelf that the crime genre fills these days. Still, it did keep me occupied during the long drive.

One of the things I noticed with the two audio books that I listened to is that, unlike the written book where the voices of the characters are determine by our perception of  what the characters would be like, in the audio book,  the choice of narrator of the story is very important and can affect the enjoyment of the book. With the Bill Bryson book, both my husband and I found our minds drifting away every now and again during the five hours of listening to the same voice talking about quite complex matters. In “The Murderers' Club”, the narrator became a little annoying when she was using different voices for the different characters – especially when it came to male voices with American accents as it didn’t sound at all like the type of person I imagined the characters to be. One of the audio books that I had borrowed but that I didn’t get to listen to was Sonya Hartnett’s “Butterfly” so I might give that a try in coming weeks to see if a totally different style of fiction makes a difference.