I have just finished reading "I" is for Innocent by Sue Grafton.  The is a well written mystery of the page turning variety.  I definitely recommend it and it is part of a series that works its way through the alphabet so lots of potential there.  Wikipedia notes that "W" for Wasted is due out in September of this year.  These all feature private investigator Kinsey Millhone.

 

The protagonist in these stories is an interesting character - and this is where the assumptions come in. I had made the assumption that  our hero is a man (the name Kinsey doesn't give any clue either way).  It wasn't until well into the story when our hero is interviewing a character in prison that it began to dawn on me that Kinsey is a woman.  The clue to my clueless wrong assumption was when the male prisoner made a pass at our now revealed heroine.  Initially I was surprized that the male prisoner would be making a pass at another male visitor. I thought to myself that this was an interesting twist from the usual and wondered why Kinsey just didn't discourage him by telling his he was straight and not interested.  Ah yes assumptions!

 

I reminds me of the puzzle that was popular more than a few years ago: A man and his son are in a car crash. The father is killed and the child is taken to hospital gravely injured. When he gets there, the surgeon says, 'I can't operate on this boy - for he is my son!!!' How can this possibly be?

 

Of course this puzzle was popular before it was possible for same-sex couples to adopt so the answer was not 'the patient had two fathers'.  No I won't leave you hanging.  If you haven't guessed the surgeon was the patients mother. 

 

In any case it is good to remember we are all products of our times and experiences and we all make assumptions all the time which colour our attitudes towards many things and people.   

 

Enjoy the rest of the summer - it doesn't seem so endless at this point - and read something that isn't intended to improve your mind - even though it may just do that anyway.