A week has passed, and in it so much change:

On a personal level to have re-embarked on a career in publishing, and having the great fortune to attend the Robb lectures given by Marina Warner at the University of Auckland, most notably Thursday’s discussion: Metamorphosis: After Ovid.

This idea of alchemical transmutation was evoked by Marina Warner’s sensuous and exotic use of language and illustrated through literature and contemporary artists. It seems that the 'soul leaping from one shape to another' has brought light into the events of the week.

On Tuesday, Alistair Cooke passed away at the age of 95 after 58 years of broadcasting Letter to America. At the announcement of his retirement just a few weeks ago, it was noted that this may well be his final signing off. Nick Clarke, Cooke’s biographer, accurately described Letter as providing 'the thread of continuity through his life…'

Our own literary giant, Michael King’s untimely death on the same day, has created a ripple that one knows affects the whole of the New Zealand sub-conscious.

And as Ovid noted in Metamorphosis 'But nothing dies' there is simply a shifting of residence, a pulse in the body of art …

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Jennifer Crusie’s new novel Bet Me has a cover that foretells 'candyfloss'. The book jacket featuring a pair of high-heeled shoes and cherries, was an awkward choice. The first few pages where the female-lead orders a rum and diet-coke at a bar was the point at which I should have thrown the book across the room in disgust, instead I was caught in an affair of opposites attract.

The story follows a woman who is chastised by her mother for being overweight and frumpy, her body an object for self-loathing. She is picked up in a bar by a dark, handsome and successful bloke (arranged as a bet – another set-up that warranted distaste). However, through a series of fateful events they realise their deep connection to each other.

There are other layers to the story, but for all intents and purposes it is a romance novel. The good thing about romance fiction is that it delivers the goods: 'the happily-ever-after' buzz. Jennifer Crusie is obviously successful at what she does, she’s been on the bestseller list of The New York Times on a number of occasions. For now, I've had my fix.

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What was she thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] is Zoë Heller’s second novel.

The protagonist, an unlikely older woman reveals far more than the affair of a fellow schoolteacher with an underage boy that she is reporting on, and more of herself: a lonely 'do-gooder'. Her 'story' describes her own neediness and an obsessive nature.

The gist of the story is that 40-something year old Sheba Hart, mother of two, and 'happily' married to an older man, embarks on a teaching career where she meets fellow colleague Barbara Covett, an aged spinster, as well as a student who begins to woo her. An affair begins with this 15 year-old fellow, the story tracing Barbara’s view and Sheba’s reminiscence of this futile relationship.

The book, a page-turner, creates discomfort for the reader, not only by divulging this unusual sexual relationship, but, of Barbara’s own coquettishness and ultimate betrayal of the affair. It raises issues of friendship, obsession and need in a satirical and revealing way.

A great discussion piece for book groups, and for rolling over in your mind, long after the last page. Read another review.

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