Carolina Comments: Reading & Eating

SUMMER READING

Last One Out by Jane Harper

Harper(panmacmillan.com)

Last One Out is Australian novelist Jane Harper’s sixth book. It’s a mystery, but one with a slow burn.  For the fifth anniversary of her son Sam’s disappearance, Ro Crowley returns from Sydney to the small town of Carralon Ridge for the annual memorial event.  She and her husband Griff are separated, and he stayed in the town.  

Carralon Ridge is as much of a character here as Ro, Griff, their daughter Della, and assorted family and friends.  A big coal mining company’s operation runs constantly, and over the years, the company has bought up many of the residents’ homes.  Ill feeling often reigns between those who sold out and those who held on.  And the town has shrunk as businesses and organizations died out and people moved on.

Every year, Ro traces Sam’s last actions looking for answers to what happened to him.  Griff has cousins locally, and an uncle of his committed suicide.  For a student project at the university, Sam interviewed many residents and relatives about their lives there, what they did, and what they thought about the town’s future. The notebook containing the interview transcriptions is a document Ro reads over and over again.

The town and its environs are painstakingly described, the nuances and intonations of conversations are caught, and slowly, one sees a picture of the past unfolding as truths are finally revealed.  I found the initial chapters slow going, but as I got further into, I very much appreciated Harper’s skill in weaving and then untangling complex relationships in a dying place.  Recommended especially for fans of her work!  (~JWFarrington)

CASUAL DINING OUT AND ABOUT

Doc B’s Restaurant (Fenton in Cary)

The Fenton residential and commercial complex is only a short drive away, so the Chief Penguin and I have been trying some of the restaurants there.  We love Brewery Bhavana there even though it’s small and its menu more limited than the original in downtown Raleigh.  Doc B’s Restaurant began in Chicago, named for the owner’s father, and now is also located in Florida, Texas, and Indiana. 

Doc B’s here is a large, expansive space with a prominent bar, loud music upon entry, and plenty of tables and booths spread around.  Wisely, the hostess seated us near the back of the restaurant away from much of the noise.  

Grilled artichoke

Rather than ordering entrees, we concentrated on starters and first off ordered the grilled California artichokes.  Split in half and definitely grilled, three halves were on the plate with some remoulade sauce.  As anyone who has ordered artichokes this way knows, there is a certain amount of work involved to eat them and the return in terms of quantity is limited.  But we enjoyed them.  

We also sampled the Buffalo shrimp poppers which came with the requisite ranch dressing, cucumber spears, and carrot sticks.  They packed a nice punch!  Lastly, we shared the oven roasted chicken wings.  I expected maybe 4 or 5 wings but instead received a generous platter; later we learned that it was a full pound of wings.  They were delicious and easily enough for three or more people.   

The menu has a full roster of meat dishes from steak to fried chicken and a variety of pastas, salads, burgers, and sandwiches.  Some friends raved about the homemade Oreo ice cream, but we never got that far.  We liked everything we tasted enough to plan to return. 

Doherty’s Irish Pub (Pittsboro)

Doherty’s interior

Doherty’s is a local pub chain with restaurants in Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, and Pittsboro. My sisters and I had lunch in Pittsboro before spending time and money in some of the charming shops along the main street.  As you would expect, Irish favorites such as shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, corned beef and cabbage, and beef and Guinness stew are on the menu along with a full range of soups, salads, and sandwiches such as Reubens and Rachels.  And of course, fish and chips!  

Two of us ordered the half fish and chips entree with cole slaw (other option being crispy green beans), while the other sister had a healthy salad with arugula, berries, and goat cheese.  All tasty fare! The venue is cozy and feels like an Irish pub including very nice service from our waitress.  Some nights, there is live music.  

Summer Reading 2026

BOOKS FOR SUMMER

For some years now, I’ve been in the habit of drawing up a list of books I hope to read over the summer.  Some are long hardbacks or biographies I have put off, others are just fun mysteries or beach reads, and one or two might be titles for my book club.  It’s a mix of fiction and nonfiction with some works more demanding than others.  My list is aspirational; I never read everything on the list and always, along the way, I buy or pick up other titles that appeal to me more in the moment.  

What’s on your summer reading list?  If you need a different approach, the New York Times this year offers a “Summer Reading Bucket List.” It is 10 suggestions of what book to select, everything from a book published in the past year to a classic you missed or need to revisit, to a book in translation.  The categories are broad enough for lots of personal choices with the challenge being to read at least five.  Despite the bucket list, I’m going with my usual approach, and this time have grouped my dozen titles by type.

MY SUMMER READING LIST

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR

Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Miles (Tubman lived some of her later years in the town where I grew up, Auburn, NY, and her house there is now a museum)

Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution by Amanda Vail (Raised in the Albany, NY area, one sister married Alexander Hamilton, the other charmed the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. They also feature in the musical, Hamilton)

Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More by Fatima Ali with Tarajia Morrell (young Pakistani chef’s life of food, family, and cancer, published 2022)

HISTORICAL FICTION

Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain (secrets and disappearance in North Carolina; book group selection for July, published 2019)

Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards (young woman’s exploration of religion, faith, and love in 13th century Bruges; author Edwards is an epidemiology professor at Harvard)

A Far-Flung Life by M. L. Stedman (family in Western Australia living on a sheep station; her first novel was The Light Between Oceans)

The Safekeep by Yael Van der Wouden (prize-winning debut novel set in the Netherlands in 1960-61)

Women of a Promiscuous Nature by Donna Everhart (novel set in 1940’s North Carolina based on a government program to regulate women’s bodies and sexuality) 

MYSTERY

The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths (#9 in the archaeologist Ruth Galloway series; I’m slowly working my way through this 15-book series)

Last One Out by Jane Harper (latest novel by my favorite Australian crime writer)

Whidbey by T Kira Madden (three women connected by one man’s murder in this book by a native Hawaiian writer)

BONUS: BEACH READ

The Bookstore Diaries by Susan Mallery (life and loves of two sisters, Ryleigh, an elementary school teacher, and bookstore owner Jax whose closest friend is her talkative African parrot, Ramon)

Manhattan Memories: A Musical & A Novel

Men enjoying the sunshine
“Princess” in Central Park
Flags, Stonewall National Monument

We are back home from New York. Today’s post includes the fabulous performance of Ragtime we attended and a historical novel that is peculiarly relevant for today.

PROPULSIVE MUSICAL

Ragtime (Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center)

Spurred by its great reviews, we got matinee tickets for Ragtime.  It was a memorable experience, probably the best Broadway musical I’ve ever seen. Based on E. L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel of the same name, it’s a whirlwind tour of the early 20th century featuring historic figures like Booker T. Washington, Houdini, activist Emma Goldman, and vaudeville performer Evelyn Nesbit.  They provide historical context, some comic relief, and the occasional moral voice.  A timeline of this period provides key events linked to these and other historic figures in the play.

The real crux of the drama, however, lies with three intersecting family groups: a rich white couple with a young son and her adult brother; Black jazz pianist Coalhouse Walker, washerwoman Sarah, his paramour, and their infant; and Tateh, a poor Jewish immigrant from Latvia who arrives with his young daughter.  It’s an explosive time marked by new music (ragtime with its lively beat), immigrants seeking a better life, new inventions like the automobile, and changing roles and relationships in society.  Race drives conflict here, and while the setting is a hundred years ago, the issues and the injustice are eerily timely for today’s time and place.  

The Beaumont is theater in the round with a thrust stage and a center section that rotates, giving the entire audience good sight-lines.  The music and dancing are spirited and wonderful, but there are also somber solos and soulful ballads. The production has received 11 Tony Award nominations with winners to be announced in early June.  Performances run through August 2nd.  (Cast photo from nytimes.com)

RECENT READING: 1960’s WOMEN EXPAND THEIR HORIZONS

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

Author Bostwick (atlantahistorycenter.com)

Marie Bostwick had barely come into the world in 1963, while I was a teenager well into high school and thinking ahead to leaving the family nest.  I even had a part-time job in the city library.  Despite her relative youth (compared to my age), Bostwick has captured what it was like in the early 1960’s to be a stifled wife and mother with little recourse for employment or intellectual stimulation.  

On a whim, Margaret Ryan, decides to start a book club with three other friends.  The sophisticated and more worldly, Charlotte, a new acquaintance, suggests they read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.  Thus, the Bettys book club is born.  Friedan’s book was just the first of many to challenge these women’s tightly held and long inculcated views on what their roles in society were expected to be.  

Margaret likes to write and was good at it in college, Vic had been a wartime nurse, Charlotte is full of wild energy and aspires to be a respected painter, while Bitsy wanted to be a vet, but married young and now works with the horses in her husband’s vet practice.  Margaret and Charlotte each have several children, while Vic is already the mother of six.  Their husbands range from hard-working and caring to patronizing and are mostly clueless about their wives’ frustrations.

Over the course of a year, these four women deal with setbacks and putdowns and small successes with grit and determination.  How Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking book and changes in society expand their worldview and the opportunities open to them make for a heartfelt, occasionally funny, and very satisfying novel.  

Women have come a long way since 1963; now the challenge is to keep some men in power from turning the clock back 50+ years!  Any woman of a certain age will find something in common with this delightful foursome.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Manhattan Moments: Indulgence–Fashion, Art, Gold

EXTREME CLOTHING

Costume Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute)

Colorful caftans

The Costume Institute at the Met Museum has new space on the main floor.  It’s spacious and easy to locate and a real plus for visitors; the old space was so tucked away it almost required crumbs to navigate to and from.  Costume Art is the inaugural exhibition and focuses on the interplay between clothing and the human body.  

Patterned body suit
19th century corset
Gown with a bustle

Overall, I found the exhibit a mix of weird, wonderful, grotesque, and fascinating.  Each costume is paired with a piece of art from the museum’s collection, sometimes a small pen and ink sketch.  It’s easy to overlook the accompanying art, and only occasionally did I really pay attention to it.  

In some dresses, you see how the body’s organs and circulatory system have been studied and designed on clothing over the years.  There are also examples of what the bustle on a women’s dress did to enhance the buttocks, along with numerous styles of maternity garments.  

Beautiful contemporary gown incorporating ostrich feathers and glass slides

A few of the gowns are beautiful, but this exhibit focuses more on aspects of design, construction, unusual materials and techniques than on sheer beauty.  The exhibit is so large that trying to seeing everything is overwhelming.  I didn’t love it, but I’m glad we saw it.

PRIVATE ART—AN UNEXPECTED TREAT

Sotheby’s New York

Several years ago, the Chief Penguin and I visited Christie’s auction house in Rockefeller Center to see art from private collections that was going to be sold at auction.  Last week, our son suggested we visit Sotheby’s to view some outstanding works before their upcoming auction sales.  Sotheby’s now owns the Breuer building on Madison Avenue, former home of the Whitney Museum, and for several years the temporary site of the Frick Museum.  This grand space has been divided up into many smaller galleries.  During public hours, anyone can walk in and wander the rooms, quietly oh-ing and aah-ing over previously unseen works. 

Homme a la pipe (Modigliani)

 Nearly everything is part of a private collection, and each has a description and an estimated auction price.  Being close to works that may command bids in the tens and twenties of millions might provoke a gasp or two.  In fact, the stunning Mark Rothko painting below (8 feet in height) this week topped that auction sale at $85.8 million.

Brown and Blacks in Red (Rothko)

We toured all five floors and saw works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Modigliani, Renoir, John Singer Sargent, Gustav Klimt, Magritte, and others. I especially liked the man with his pipe and the gorgeous Klimt portrait too.

La Seance du Matin, Matisse
Klimt portrait
Pinks of Cherry Blossoms, Alma Thomas
Le Compotier, Magritte
Monhegan Lighthouse, Hopper

Plus a small Edward Hopper painting of the lighthouse on Monhegan Island, Maine, a scene spot we’ve visited.

WATCHING: GOLD AND GREED

The Gold (Masterpiece Theater)

Boyce flanked by detectives Tony & Nicki (theguardian.com)

The largest heist of gold ever took place in November 1983.  Gold worth about 26 million pounds was stolen from a warehouse near Heathrow Airport, London, in what became known as the Brink’s-Mat robbery.   First aired on BBC in 2023, and then offered on PBS in 2025, The Gold is a series about this astonishing feat and the detectives assigned to find out where the gold went and who had it.  

This semi-documentary is not action-packed, but rather portrays a dogged, diligent process of following up questionable leads, finding trails that have grown cold, arresting slippery characters, and then not always having enough solid evidence yet to charge them.  It’s also a study of the criminal lowlife of some south London and Kent neighborhoods, of bent cops who provide protection, and of a lawyer and others sucked in by the chance of making easy money with little effort.  There are lots of characters involved and many strands that aren’t initially tied together.

Hugh Bonneville of Lord Grantham fame in Downton Abbey plays Brian Boyce, the tenacious overall head of the investigation. We watched all six episodes, thinking everything would be resolved, only to discover that Season 2 won’t be available here until later this year.  I found the series fascinating despite its low production quality. 

Note: All photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)