This week I am reading “The Real Lady Detective Agency: A True Story”, the book my friend lent me. And again, it is an entertaining book witch a charming style and easy to read: biographical and comical, just like “Catch me if you can”, only, it's contemporary. Well, to tell the truth, the story is completely different, but, nevertheless, I would put that two books into one category. I am sure that if you like the first one, you will enjoy the second one too.

The story is real and I can say it's rather original. The author, Rebecca Jane is the founder of The Real Lady Detective Agency. Her case seems to confirm a known English proverb: “necessity is the mother of invention”. She started the Lady Detective Agency in 2009 at the age of 24, when her first husband cheated on her. She says there wasn't a person to help her and she asked her friends for help. They decided to follow her husband and that's how she found the idea of setting up her own business. 

In her book she talks about many cases, she describes the details of detective's work. In the book you can find many strange and sometimes even funny adventures: following unfaithful husbands, looking for lost objects of personal value, pursuits of criminals..

The author talks about her life with a humorous approach. She doesn't take her troubles to heart. On the contrary, she is able to turn them into an entertaining story.

This time I opted for more serious book, so I chose Beware of Pity (Ungeduld des Herzens) written by an Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig. 

The book relates the story of lieutenant Anton Hofmille who gets to know young paralyzed girl named Edith and starts to spend with her and her family more and more time because of the compassion he feels for her. Although he feels nothing but pity for her, Edith falls in love with the young man. The story is touching and very well told.

The characters are well developed and psychologically credible. In fact, I think that the psychology is the strongest point of the book. A reader can look into protagonist's mind and actually understand his motivations, emotions and actions. It shows how a sensible and altruist man can find himself in a very difficult situation and how the pity he feels for the disabled girl slowly makes him embroiled in the terrible tragedy. 

Beware of Pity is definitely a great book, but it is not a “light” type of reading. However, I can recommend it to every person who likes that kind of novels.

Recently I have many things to do and I don’t have much time for reading. That’s why when I was looking for something to read I preferred  an entertaining book that could make me laugh and forget for a moment about work and everyday problems.

Today I want to present to you a book just like that. It’s titled “Catch me if you can” and it tells a story of  Frank Abagnale, one of the most creative criminals of the XX century. He stole millions of dollars from banks all over the world.

The book is written like a diary by Frank Abagnale himself. Its style is very direct which makes reading a really enjoyable experience. Most of Frank’s adventures are truly incredible: he  used to fly for free dressed as a pilot using a fake license, he pretended to be a podiatrist, academic teacher and lawyer. The book also describes his numerous daring and ingenious escapes from the police from many countries.

Undoubtedly the advantage of that book is the humorous style and many fascinating biographical facts about the author who shows himself as an incredibly intelligent criminal and the most skillful imposter.