From Kirkus Reviews
A sweet nothing of a sequel to Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast (1996), a collection of recipes, book lists, and slightly silly narrative noodlings about the lives of fraternal twins Hector and Virgil, their pets, their guests, acquaintances, and idle hours at their British Columbian island retreat. When we last left the brothers, whose stories have become Canadian broadcaster Richardson's coyly amusing stock-in-trade, life was close to perfect, even if the inn's assortment of eccentric, blue-haired guests could be counted on to set off controversies about breakfast garnishes and yogic breathing. After being offered lists of the brothers' favored cookbooks, some peculiar recipes, and titles appropriate for lavatory reading, we learn that Hector has adjusted to his intermittently passionate relationship with lubriciously feminine journalist Altona, and Virgil, who still can't abide the sound of a saxophone, can smile kindly on the fishy belches of Waffles the cat. The brothers have taken on a handyman, Caedon Harkness, an unemployed roof-thatcher and proud owner of Canada's only thatched-roof mobile home. Harkness was found acceptable by Mrs. Rochester, the inn's Bible-quoting parrot, and now shatters the mornings by humming arias from Tosca and Turandot as he dusts. A whiff of a plot appears about 70 pages in, when local poet Solomon Solomon, disreputable lecher and drunk, is apparently incinerated when his 12-foot-thick ball of cigarette foil is struck by lightning. Could the mysterious, coded manuscript found in a locked safe behind a bad painting in the brothers' inn be the poet's perverse masterwork? Did he know the bachelors' long-deceased mother? And, oh, yes, does anybody need a recipe for bottled pickles? Harmless, sweetly miscellaneous glimpses into a pastoral paradise that, at its best, resembles its author's definition of a good bathroom book: so ``sufficiently pithy that it can be absorbed in brief spurts.'' -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"A funny, cozy tale." --Anniston Star

"A whimsically gentle fiction." --Minneapolis Star Tribune



Review
"A funny, cozy tale." --Anniston Star

"A whimsically gentle fiction." --Minneapolis Star Tribune



Review
"A funny, cozy tale." --Anniston Star

"A whimsically gentle fiction." --Minneapolis Star Tribune



Book Description
A pair of endearingly eccentric bachelors--in their fifties, and fraternal twins--own and operate a bed & breakfast establishment where people like them, the "gentle and bookish and ever so slightly confused," can feel at home. Hector and Virgil think of their B&B as a refuge, a retreat, a haven, where folks may bring their own books or peruse the brothers' own substantial library. An antic blend of homespun and intellectual humor, Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast is a place readers will want to return to again and again.



From the Publisher
Praise for Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast Pillow Book: "Sweetly miscellaneous glimpses into pastoral paradise." --Kirkus Reviews "This laid-back inn, with its slightly daffy clientele, is the kind of refuge all of us need...." --Islands Magazine "Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore. You'll have as fine a night with Richardson as any bed & breakfast in these parts can offer." --Minneapolis Star Tribune "Don't miss these gems! They are really entertaining." --Chattanooga Free Press


About the Author
Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast, originally published by Douglas & McIntyre, won Canada's prestigious Stephen Lecock Award for Humour in 1994, and was published in hardcover by A Wyatt Book for St. Martin's Press in 1996. Its sequel, Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast Pillow Book, is a Canadian bestseller, and will be published in hardcover by A Wyatt Book in October 1997. Bill Richardson is host of CBC Radio FM's "As You Like It" and lives in Vancouver.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A pair of endearingly eccentric bachelors - in their fifties, and fraternal twins - own and operate a bed & breakfast establishment where people like them, the "gentle and bookish and ever so slightly confused," can feel at home. Hector and Virgil think of their B&B as a refuge, a retreat, a haven, where folks may bring their own books or peruse the brothers' own substantial library. Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast supplements each twin's distinctive and colorful description of life at their B&B with entertaining extracts from their guest book, lists of suggested reading materials (e.g., Books for When You Are Feeling Low), and astoundingly bad verse penned by a local poet. The lively cast includes Waffle the cat and the scripture-quoting parrot, Mrs. Rochester, as well as the ever-present warm memory of Mother.

SYNOPSIS

An educated, hilarious romp through the stories of two middle-age twin brothers who run a bed-and-breakfast on a remote Canadia.

FROM THE CRITICS

AudioFile

Middle-aged twins inherit a remotely situated, old house, which they turn into a B&B for bibliophiles. From this seed came a popular set of delightful, gentle, and fluffy fictive reminiscences originally read by the author over Canadian radio, and here collected on cassette for the first time. While Richardson is a better writer than reader, he is somewhat lacking in technique—the cassette is brief enough so that these bookishly whimsical pieces win over the listener in the end. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Broadcaster Richardson, billed as Canada's Garrison Keillor, suffers from the literary humorist's bane: He shoots for whimsy, but ends up wallowing in cliché.

The novel, an elaboration of segments broadcast on CBC Radio, explores the background, opinions, and experiences of eccentric twin brothers who maintain a bed and breakfast on an island near Vancouver. An inheritance from their auto-mechanic mother, Virgil and Hector's stressless house sports a hefty library of books that Richardson deems worthwhile: Proust, Kingsley Amis, Iris Murdoch, A.S. Byatt, A.A. Milne. The boys have remained bachelors into their 50s—though Hector has a girlfriend, Altona Winkler, who writes for the scandalous local newspaper, Occasional Rumor. They live quietly with a cat named Waffle and a parrot named Mrs. Rochester, taking in guests who recount their impressions and stories in the brothers' guestbook. Richardson alternates sketches narrated by Hector or Virgil with guest accounts, each of which is identified as a "Brief Life": A woman recalls how she got her cocker spaniel; a lawyer reports on a harrowing New Age Weekend; a guest complains about Mrs. Rochester's cursing. The brothers' tales are less cloying, but they often seem phoned-in. "The Top Ten Authors Over Ten Years at the Bachelor Brothers' B&B" (Margaret Atwood, Anthony Trollope) and "Virgil's List of Books for When You're Feeling Low" (M.F.K. Fisher shares space with Vikram Seth) are two examples of Richardson's annoying list-making habit; there are stories about fanciful eggcups and a meditation on the subtle arts of reading and writing in bed. Flip-flopping in this manner puts enormous pressure on Richardson to be funny, which he almost never is, mainly because he's driven to celebrate the merits of a dowdy domestic life. Included are even some bad poetry and a muffin recipe.

By and large, a collection of cloying cuteness and failed wit.