Category: Favorite Books

Carolina Comments: 2024 Favorite Books & More

JWF 2 Comments

READING: MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

On average, I read a book or more a week, a mix of literary fiction, thoughtful nonfiction, and the occasional light stuff.  Here are the twelve books I liked the most this year along with the covers of some of them.

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray (historical novel about Labor Secretary & Mainer Frances Perkins; her homestead in Damariscotta has just been named a national historic landmark)

Challenger by Adam Higginbotham (nonfiction, deconstruction of a space shuttle disaster)

Codename Charming by Lucy Parker (just for fun romance between a body guard & a personal assistant to a royal couple)

The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear (the last Maisie Dobbs mystery)

Forty Autumns by Nina Willner (family memoir, living on both sides of the Berlin Wall)

A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan (Ku Klux Klan dominance in 1920’s)

Gray Matters by Theodore Schwartz (nonfiction, comprehensive brain anatomy by a neurosurgeon)

James by Percival Everett (re-telling of Huckleberry Finn story from slave Jim’s perspective)

Long Island by Colm Toibin (sequel novel to his Brooklyn)

Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson (memoir by this Supreme Court Justice)

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips (Pulitzer Prize winner, post-Civil War novel)

An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin (memoir of her & Dick Goodwin’s involvement in 1960’s national politics with JFK and LBJ)

WATCHING: MOVIES CLASSIC & CONTEMPORARY

White Christmas

In honor of the season and because, surprise, we had never seen the entire film, the Chief Penguin and I watched White Christmas.  Two men and two women, in a break from their usual singing and dancing commitments, take the train from Miami to Vermont to a charming inn to see and enjoy snow.  The inn is being overseen by their retired Army general friend and is suffering from a lack of guests.  Principals Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, along with Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen, decide to bring their entire show to the inn.  

Set in 1954, it’s sentimental, patriotic, and dated, but also fun.  Songs are interspersed throughout with masterful dancing by Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen, and finally, near the end when there’s snow outside, you get to hear “White Christmas” in Bing’s mellow tones.

Anora (Prime Video or Apple TV, $19.99)

Ivan & Ani (phoenixfilmfestival.com)

As my regular readers know, the Chief Penguin and I try each year to see the most noted films and particularly those that have a chance of being nominated for an Oscar.  Anora showed up on a list of five possible nominees and, since it was available online, we watched it.  Not our usual fare, for sure, but worth it for the stellar performance by Mikey Madison as Anora or Ani, as she prefers.  Also of note is Russian actor Mark Aleksandrovich as Ivan.

Ani, a stripper in a gentlemen’s club, lives a hard life in a downtrodden Brooklyn neighborhood. When she engages the attentions of Ivan, son of a Russian oligarch who asks her to be exclusive, she snaps up this chance for the high life.  How this Cinderella tale plays out once Ivan’s family knows about them is action-filled with an ending rife with ambiguity and open to multiple interpretations. The film is billed as a comedy, but I didn’t find it especially funny; expect lots of foul language and sex.

Note: Header photo of bookcases ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Book covers all from Amazon.com except for Lovely One from Random House.

Tidy Tidbits: Favorite Books & A Play

JWF Leave a comment

PURE ESCAPISM 

Crazy for You at the Asolo Theatre

(Sarasota Magazine)

With music and lyrics by the Gershwin brothers, this classic of American musical theater was an afternoon of romance, some hijinks, and lots and lots of dancing!  In 1930 in a dead-end town in Nevada, earnest Bobby Child tries to revive the theater he’s been sent to shut down.  Captivated by Polly Baker, the town’s postmistress, and indulging in some theatrics of his own, he and the cast tap dance their way to a successful finale. Along the way are some all-time favorite songs such as “Someone to Watch over Me” and “Embraceable You.”

(Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

It isn’t profound drama, the plot is simple and predictable, but overall, it’s uplifting and a great respite from the politics of today.  If you’re local, see it before it closes in early January!  

SOME FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023

(courtesy Basmo)

I liked many of the books I read this year, so it’s hard to choose, but here are a few that have stayed with me. Happy reading to you!

NOVEL ABOUT A HOT BUTTON ISSUE

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer. F. Boylan

NOVEL BY A FAVORITE AUTHOR

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

NOVEL BY A NEW AUTHOR

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

NOVEL THAT READS LIKE A MEMOIR

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

MYSTERY

Exiles by Jane Harper

Runners up: Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

And White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

HISTORICAL NOVEL

Horse by Gwendoline Brooks

Runner up: Bookbinder by Pip Williams

NOVELLAS

Foster by Claire Keegan

And Small Things Like These, also by Keegan

NONFICTION/MEMOIR

Enough by Cassidy Hutchinson

Runner up: Giving up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel

To all my readers, best wishes for a most happy, healthy holiday season!

Note: Header photo of open book courtesy of Unsplash.

Reading: Favorite Books of 2022

JWF 2 Comments

At the beginning of the new year, I like to look back over my list and reflect on the books I enjoyed the most and thought were the best written.  Most of them are recent works. They are novels with a few nonfiction titles tossed in.  Here are my top 10 favorite books of 2022 arranged alphabetically by title.

2022 FAVORITE BOOKS

Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg.  A wonderful evocation of a long friendship between Totenberg and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden by Li Zhiqing.  An excellent family biography of two accomplished Chinese sisters separated by civil war.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn.  A gripping historical novel about a WWII female Red Army sniper.

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark.  A Maine novel of the lasting friendship between two women now in their early 80’s.

Leaving Coy’s Hill by Katherine Sherbrooke.  An engaging historical novel about Lucy Stone, activist for women’s rights and abolition.

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout.  Lucy spends the pandemic with her ex-husband in Maine in this meditative novel on love and grief.

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce.  A mismatched pair of women travel to Caledonia in search of a beetle in this humorous yet poignant novel.

Oh, William by Elizabeth Strout.  A predecessor to the other Strout novel about Lucy’s marriage to and divorce from her husband William.  (Strout is obviously one of my favorite authors!)

The Palace Papers:  Inside the House of Windsor by Tina Brown.  A balanced account of the trials and tribulations of the British royals from Diana to Meghan.  

Something to Hide by Elizabeth George.  The latest mystery in the Lord Lynley/Barbara Havers series dealing sensitively with Nigerian immigrants and infibulation.  

RECENT READING

Banville (Irish Times)

April in Spain by John Banville

When the first two sentences read: “Terry Tice liked killing people. It was as simple as that,” you know you are in for something different. Irish writer, Banville’s recent crime story, April in Spain, is set in San Sebastian in the Basque region and in London. Terry Tice is the first character to appear, but the focus is really on pathologist Quirke and his psychiatrist wife, Esther, who are are on vacation in Spain. When reluctant vacationer Quirke believes his sees a young woman who was murdered, he calls his daughter Phoebe in London to alert her to his April sighting. Phoebe feels compelled to inform several others, and the plot literally thickens as a government minister, civil servants, and a detective become involved.

Banville is great at sketching out both the physical details and the personality traits of his characters. How the various players overlap in a surprise ending is masterful. Initially, I found the book a bit slow going, but got propelled forward once I got farther into it. And I loved the punning on the April of the title! (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo of readers is from lifeisthisway.com

Reading: Books & More Books

JWF 2 Comments

AN EXPLANATION

Some of my readers may wonder why I refer to my spouse as the Chief Penguin or C. P.  After he was a university president, Greg became the head (CEO) of a museum, the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco.  In an early interview with a reporter from the Chronicle, he stated that previously, he worried what the fraternity guys got up to at night.  He was relieved to forego that concern; now he just had the museum’s colony of South African penguins.  “I know where they are at night,” he quipped.  “I guess I’m the Chief Penguin.”  That was quoted, and it was adopted by many of the Academy staff as an affectionate moniker. As they say, it stuck! Now, in our home, you will find an assortment of plush penguins and even a penguin sculpture.

RECENT READING

The Magician by Colm Toibin

Author Toibin (independent.ie)

I’m a big fan of Toibin’s novels and especially enjoyed The Master about Henry James and Brooklyn.  His latest novel, The Magician, is equally wonderful.  Thomas Mann, the greatest German writer of his time and a Nobel Prize winner, is the subject along with his large family.  As a noted author, his countrymen looked to him for his views on politics, especially about the two world wars.  When Hitler came to power, Mann was slow to recognize Hitler for the danger he represented, and only belatedly, escaped from Germany to Sweden and then to the U.S.  

The father of six, Mann occasionally bore the brunt of publicity due to the activities of his relatives.  The writings of his outspoken brother Heinrich and the anti-Fascist activities of his two oldest children, Klaus and Erika, reflected negatively on him.  His public responses to the strife were more measured as he desperately wanted to hold on to his German audience and keep his books in print.

This is rich portrait of several generations of the Mann family with a focus on Thomas Mann’s creative process:   how he approached his writing, what he tried to convey in his works, and how his secret homosexual desires, detailed in his diaries, crept into his novels.   For the most part, Toibin neither applauds nor condemns Mann, but presents an immersive, fascinating take on the man and the writer. (~JWFarrington)

A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe

Karin Tanabe (goodreads.com)

I just read a review of Lost Daughter, the new film starring Olivia Colman, that posited that being a mother takes something significant away from a woman.  In A Woman of Intelligence, set in 1954, a smart married woman, who previously worked as a translator for the United Nations, finds herself tied down, constrained, and frustrated by the demands of her family.  A rising star, pediatric surgeon Tom wants Rina to be the perfect wife—solely devoted to her husband, a gracious hostess, and doting on her children.   When she is approached by the FBI to gather information on a suspect, she leaps at the chance to escape her humdrum daily life and exercise her mind.  This is a compelling novel, albeit a grim view of motherhood, that moves quickly.  Recommended light reading! (~JWFarrington)

MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021

These fifteen titles represent the books I enjoyed the most or thought were the best written of the more than fifty books I read this past year. It’s always hard to narrow down the list, but here it is. What books did you enjoy the most? One friend already sent me her 2021 list.

NOVELS, CONTEMPORARY & HISTORICAL

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Honor by Thrity Unrigar (advance copy; 2022)

Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Murray

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

MYSTERY

Survivors by Jane Harper

BIOGRAPHIES

Eleanor by David Michaelis

The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura

AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIRS

All In by Billie Jean King

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

Both/And: A Life in Two Worlds by Huma Abedin

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

NONFICTION

The Agitators:  Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights by Dorothy Wickenden

The Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Note: The header photo of kids in book boats is a bit of whimsy. Alas, I don’t remember the source of this photo.