Why I chose this book: I was researching "chic lit" on the web, and stumbled upon a recommendation for this book. What I thought: Very quick easy read that had everything you would want, humor, love and mystery. Loved the book, and wish that she would write more......did she? ( )

http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/12/swimming-upstream-slowly.... ( )

It was Melissa Clark's Swimming Upstream Slowly that prompted me to regain pleasure in reading novels. I picked it up randomly from the library bookshelf. I read the summary and thought the premise was so implausible as to be unappealing. Luckily, I opened up the book anyway and read the first couple of pages standing in the library. I borrowed the book. I few days later, I found myself engrossed in it during lunch, not wanting to put it aside but knowing I was supposed to get back to work. And I realized that for the first time in seemingly forever, I had been oblivious to my surroundings as I got absorbed in the fictional world created by an author. What a treat!

So this implausible premise I mentioned? The heroine, who hasn't had sex (in the broadest sense of the term) in the previous two years finds herself pregnant. She is apparently the recipient of "lazy sperm," which has caused her current pregnancy but dates from wayyy back, a condition that had been theorized to be possible but of which the is the first known case.

Despite the implausibility of it all, the novel works. Really works.

Both the book (http://www.swimmingupstreamslowly.com/) and the author (http://www.melissaclark.org/) have websites.

The novel is set in Los Angeles but the city doesn't play a prominent role, I would say. Scenes take place at Sasha, the heroine's work place (the set of a children's show), her apartment, doctor's offices and the like. She does give backstory about herself and the places she's lives. Perhaps the most descriptive of these is Boston, her hometown, where one of her friends accompanies her at one point and the reader is given the perspective of someone visiting for the first time.

I can't remember if the book is written in the first person or third, but it is definitely from the heroine's perspective.

The heroine's name, Sasha Salter, is memorable, in large part, because it forms the basis for the name of the show she produces, Please Pass the Salter.

The idea of a woman who specializes in early childhood pedagogy feeling clueless at the thought of having her own child is reassuring.

Definitely looking forward to more from Melissa Clark. ( )