Book Roundup

Reviewer Yvonne Zipp has read her fair share of unusual stories, but she's never come across a novel in which a flock of sheep solve a murder. Yet, 'Three Bags Full' is July's most entertaining read.

from the July 6, 2007 edition

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Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman (Pantheon)

Dr. Impossible, master supervillain, is languishing in federal detention (for the 12th time) and taking stock of his life in the opening of Grossman's clever debut novel. "Once I wore a cape in public, and fought battles against men who could fly, who had metal skin, who could kill you with their eyes…. Now I have to wonder if there will be chocolate milk in the dispenser. And whether the smartest man in the world has done the smartest thing he could with his life." Grossman alternates between Dr. Impossible and the good guys, as voiced by Fatale, a cyborg with little memory of her life as a normal woman and mixed feelings about her state-of-the-art body. Obviously, the New Champions are going to have to foil Dr. Impossible before he takes over the world, but Grossman is having too much fun juggling origin stories to rush the plot. "The Incredibles" did the inner life of a superhero better and with more genuine emotion, but it would be churlish to root against a novel loaded with lines such as "I'd never fought someone with her own pinup calendar and herbal tea brand" and "Wearing a cape doesn't do much for your social life." Grade: B

Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann (Doubleday)

Call it "Babe: The Detective Files." Shepherd George Glenn has been found dead in his pasture, and his sheep are determined to bring his killer to justice. Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill, and Othello, the black sheep of the flock, George's dedicated ovines head into the unsavory human world, turning up clues and all sorts of sheepy misunderstandings. When a pastor proclaims that "The Lord is a shepherd," for instance, the sheep are unimpressed. "A very bad shepherd. Much worse than George," says one sheep. Some readers are put off by talking animals, but "Three Bags Full" is well worth overcoming that prejudice. The only way I could have been more charmed is if Farmer Hoggett himself came by to read it out loud. Grade: A–

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