This French series features an all-female legal firm practicing family law. Think marriage contracts, divorces, custody issues, and adoption. Two of the three lawyers are a mother, Astrid, and her daughter, Audrey, plus Sofia, the second partner. Both partners are single, while Audrey has two children and a somewhat hapless husband. The cases are serious, but also sometimes bizarre: a custody battle over a stubborn bulldog, for example.
Add in a large dollop of sex and you have moments that are fun and frivolous. Note the fashionable clothes and the always in vogue, stiletto heels. There are at least two seasons and I’m about a third of the way through Season 1.
READING
Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds by Huma Abedin
Author Abedin (slate.com)
Many people know Huma Abedin, longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, mainly because of her husband Anthony Weiner. But there is much more to this woman than her role as a suffering spouse. With an Indian father and a Pakistani mother, she was raised Muslim and grew up alternating between Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Her father’s scholarly work and academic career meant they traveled abroad extensively. Starting her post-college life as a White House intern, Huma quickly advanced to more responsible positions until she became one of Clinton’s closest staff members. I am about one-third into the book and have yet to meet her future spouse.
I’ve enjoyed learning about her childhood experiences and reading the details of what it’s like to be an advance person or a trip coordinator for a high-level politician. Thus far, her perspective on Clinton is positive and almost affectionate. She is fair and not at all mean spirited about others in her work orbit. I imagine Abedin’s charmed life will become less so as events unfold.
DINING REPRISE
Bonefish Grill in Bradenton
Bonefish Grill is a chain restaurant, founded and headquartered in Tampa, and a consistently very good one. We frequently dine at their Cortez Road location about a 5-minute drive from home and are seldom disappointed. The prices are reasonable, there are weekly specials, and the fish is fresh.
The Chief Penguin is a big fan of their ahi tuna sashimi and the Wagyu beef dumplings, while I like the grilled shrimp and scallop combo or salmon with mango salsa. The Caesar and house salads (the latter with hearts of palm and black olives) are also good. If you’re feeling decadent, forget calories with their famous Bang Bang Shrimp. For drinks, have a glass of Chardonnay or indulge in a smoked old fashioned. The wait staff changes frequently, but the food is always reliable!
Jimmy Perez is back! I missed the Scottish crime series Shetland, when it went into hiatus after five seasons. I was delighted to discover that Season 6 is now available on BritBox, not sure about on other online services. New episodes are released on Tuesdays. The Chief Penguin and I eagerly watched the first episode, and were not disappointed. Detective Jimmy Perez is at his mother’s funeral when his colleague Tosh notifies him of the death of a prominent member of the community. As in other seasons, the investigation begins, but is not completed in one episode. As I think of the many crime series I’ve watched over the past few years, this one ranks among the best!
Brethren members with Detective Matthew Venn (thescottishsun.co.uk)
While browsing new offerings on Amazon Prime, I came upon this other offering through BritBox. It’s another crime series set in England, and it’s based on work by Ann Cleeves. Ms. Cleeves is the very successful author of the Shetland series mysteries and ones featuring detective Vera (also a series, but not one I’ve watched). Here detective Matthew Venn, a gay man, is estranged from his family. He grew up in a closed, tightly ordered religious society and left about twenty years ago full of bitterness, anger, and sorrow. When a young girl in that community goes missing, he and his police colleagues are tasked with locating her. Like Shetland, this is a compelling drama of relationships as much as it is about crime. There are 4 episodes in this season.
In the lovingly told documentary, Martin Scorsese brings to life the history of an 1826 opera concert in Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Scorsese provides background on the historical figures, Mozart’s librettist, for one, who were central to the concert, and details the concert’s role in forming the city’s cultural life. The re-creation of this event in 2018 for a modern audience is the motivation for the film.
Scorsese grew up near the cathedral and has fond recollections of the neighborhood and the role of this church in his life. As concert plans and preparations are underway, there are interviews and clips with the maestro and soloists of Teatro Lirico Cagliari of Italy who will perform. Overall, it’s a fascinating piece of history. And, if you are so inclined, you can separately watch the 2018 performance also on PBS.
AWARD BOOKS: A GREAT READING ASSIGNMENT
I receive Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles’ e-mail newsletter, Book Club, each week. His take on new literature is always informative, often quirky, and piques my interest in what I might read next. In this week’s issue, he detailed an assignment his high school teacher spouse gives her students. I think it’s a great assignment and so, I’m sharing it and at the end the books the students will be evaluating. You can read another issue of his newsletter here.
My wife, Dawn, has started one of her favorite projects with her 11th graders. She brings in copies of the five finalists for the National Book Award in Nonfiction and breaks the class into five groups. Each group reads the first chapter of one of the finalists. Then the students devise criteria for a winning book and explain to the class how well their finalist meets those standards.
Next Wednesday, just hours before the National Book Awards ceremony, her students will vote on which title they think should win. It’s a fun way to introduce these kids to the country’s best new nonfiction books.
You can follow along, too. The NBA ceremony will stream on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. ET. (free, but donations appreciated). I’ll be there (virtually) to introduce Nancy Pearl, winner of this year’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as All Saints Day. The evening before was dubbed All Hallows Eve which later became Halloween. Whether you honor saints or celebrate with pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts and candy corn, have a wonderful day!
FLIGHT AND SO MUCH MORE
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
I’ll start right off by stating that I loved this novel! The characters are complex and fascinating, the writing is rich in detail, but not overdone, and I quickly became immersed in it. Over one hundred years, these characters and their descendants connect and overlap and impact one another. Marian and Jamie Graves are twins. Their father, Addison, a ship captain, saves their lives and his own when his ship is sinking. Their childhood is a strange one in Missoula, Missouri as their father disappears and they are raised by their alcoholic Uncle Wallace. Marian is enthralled when she meets a barnstorming flying couple and becomes determined to learn to fly.
Enter the dangerous and seductive Barclay McQueen who wants to possess Marian but grants her wish for flying lessons. With shorn hair and in trousers, Marian looks more male than female and uses this to her advantage. She makes air deliveries for McQueen’s business and later delivers fighter planes in England during WWII. And she works toward making an ambitious and arduous flight over the North and South Poles.
Interleaved with Marian and Jamie’s stories are chapters set in the present day. Hadley Baxter is an actress who’s been selected to play Marian in a movie about her life. Echoing Marian’s experiences, Hadley too was raised by a single uncle, and like Marian, she would like to take better control of her life. This is Hollywood with a steady stream of gossip and lots of celebrity hook-ups.
Marian is a pilot, Jamie becomes an artist, and Hadley wants to take herself and her craft more seriously. Who these individuals love or lust after and how they experience race and gender combine for a wide-ranging romp through the history of the 20th century. I found the Hadley story not as compelling as those of Marian and Jamie, but overall was impressed, engaged, and amazed at how Shipstead put together the various puzzle pieces. I found the ending unexpected, but very satisfying. It’s a marvelous novel and so deserving of its nomination for the 2021 Booker Prize! As one of the best books I’ve read this year, I highly recommend it. (~JWFarrington)
Footnote: My book group’s discussion brought forth a host of differing opinions. A few individuals actively disliked the novel. Some thought Marian was too self-centered; others thought her extreme self-focus was due to her dysfunctional childhood. Probably Jamie was the most liked character with Eddie and perhaps Ruth close seconds. All of us agreed that the Hadley story, while necessary for the plot, was less interesting overall.
Adam Stern (hmhbooks.com)
THE LIFE OF A RESIDENT
Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training by Adam Stern
A graduate of Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, Adam Stern arrived at Harvard for his psychiatry residency feeling seriously outclassed. This memoir of his four years details his interactions with various patients both in the hospital and in private practice, but he also shares the challenges of arranging a social life on a resident’s demanding schedule. It’s a quick read and he’s a good writer.
I gained a better sense of the contrast between hospital psychiatric admissions and private practice. If you’re interested in medicine and mental health cases, then you should find it engaging. (~JWFarrington)
SNOW ON THE Great Plains
The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
This is a novel about the tragic 1888 blizzard in Nebraska and Dakota that took the lives of hundreds of school kids. At times it reads more like a documentary than a novel as the characters are not as well developed as you might expect. Two sisters, Gerda and Raina, daughters of Norwegian immigrants, are teachers in schools three hours apart. They make different decisions about how to respond to the midday temperature drop and the arrival of heavy snow. One sister is hailed for her efforts, the other castigated.
Gavin Woodson, a somewhat jaded young reporter, provides an overarching view of the depths of the tragedy. He travels around after the storm visiting families, witnessing the devastation, and hearing firsthand accounts of the lives of those who froze. If you know little about this event, this novel graphically puts you there in the cold and snow.
Benjamin is also the author of several other historical novels I’ve read including The Aviator’s Wife and Mistress of the Ritz.
Melanie Benjamin (penguinrandomhouse.com)
HANDMAIDEN TO ROYALS
Service to the Queen by Tessa Arlen
Marion Crawford, aka Crawfie, was a dedicated governess and companion to Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret beginning when they were young children through their late teens. Away from her home in distant Scotland, Marion sorely missed her mother and then her fiancé as she carried out her duties in London. The girls’ mother, Queen Elizabeth, known to most of us as the Queen Mother, was a dominating individual. She expected and demanded loyalty and obedience (some would rightly say too much) from those in her service.
What suspense there is hinges on whether Marion will ever marry George and how her service to the queen will end. The novel is rather flat but would still be of interest to those who are keen to know more about the princesses’ upbringing.
ADDENDUM
After reading The Personal Librarian, I bought tickets to visit the Morgan Library. It’s a grand and sumptuous place, elaborately decorated. I enjoyed gazing around Morgan’s office with its monstrous desk opposite an equally imposing fireplace. Belle Greene’s large office is also a lovely space, no longer an office. There are tiers of closed book stacks, but selected rare items are on display for closer viewing. In the new spaces designed by Renzo Piano in 2006, there are several exhibits to explore. The Chief Penguin and I last visited the library when Renzo’s glass cubes were new, so it was fun to return. I recommend a visit!
Morgan Library interior showing tiered stacks and stained glass windows
As the saying goes, you can’t go home again. But you can go visit. We spent a wonderful day in Bethlehem at Lehigh University celebrating the inauguration of Lehigh’s 15th president, Joe Helble. The campus looked lovely, and the ceremony had the requisite pomp prompting misty eyes. The Chief Penguin and I were pleased to see and chat with so many former colleagues and friends. The experience was simultaneously a trip down memory lane and a day of optimism for the future. Go Lehigh, cheers for the Brown and White!
RECENT READING–SUPER LIBRARIAN
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Belle da Costa Greene (history net.com)
Marie Benedict writes novels focused on strong women, usually ones who have been ignored by history or not fully appreciated. I’ve read several of her works, but this one stands out as one of the best. Bella da Costa Greene was initially hired by financier J. P. Morgan to catalog and document his library of rare manuscripts and books. Over time, her role expanded. She became his chief negotiator and agent in the purchase of new items, even traveling to England and the Continent solo. Their relationship was a close one, both professionally and personally, and after Morgan’s death, she was named the first director of the library. All of this would be remarkable enough for the early 20th century when few women had such prominent positions, but Greene had a big secret. Born Black, she had lived as a white woman since her teens. Benedict and Murray’s novel depicts the stresses and challenge of maintaining this façade at a time of more rabid racism.
This book will delight my librarian friends and is a welcome tribute to one woman’s determination and accomplishments. Partly due to her efforts, the Morgan Library transitioned from a strictly private library to a library and museum open to the public. Now I need to make another visit! (~JWFarrington)
COMPELLING LIVE THEATER!
To Kill a Mockingbird
After a long Covid hiatus, Broadway is back. The other evening, we went to see To Kill a Mockingbird, and it was simply marvelous! The entry lines for checking vaccination status moved along efficiently, and masks were required in line and everywhere in the theater. Theater staff enforced mask wearing, citing individuals with a reminder if they weren’t complying. We had third row seats and the hall was full.
Like many, I first read Harper Lee’s novel when I was a teen and then again later in life. I recalled upright Atticus Finch and Scout, his curious, frisky little girl. Set in the 1930’s in a small Alabama town, multiple strands are interwoven with the main plot. Atticus’s willingness to defend an innocent Black man against death penalty charges is consistent with his belief in the goodness and decency in everyone. Later, his belief is tested when events spin out of control. His two children, Jem and Scout, and their friend Dill don’t always understand or agree with him, but they defend him. It’s a powerful play, set in a different time, yet with messages that resonate today. Despite its seriousness, there are occasional bits of humor, often provided by the children acting as chorus and interpreters.
Jeff Daniels as Atticus and Cecilia Keenan-Bolger as Scout are both superb, while Michael Braugher is convincing in his Broadway debut as the accused Tom Robinson. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
CRAFT IN THE KITCHEN
Fanciful Halloween pumpkins
Clementines for Halloween
My older granddaughter loves to bake, but she also enjoys just puttering in the kitchen and inventing creative ways to make edible food items. In anticipation of Halloween, she devised a clever way to showcase clementines as jack o’lanterns.
Peeled clementines are decorated with a banana slice and some green colored yogurt for the top and the stem. Eyes, nose, and mouth are devised from slices of prune glued on with molasses or honey. Sprinkles or other decorative touches can also be incorporated. This was a fun activity for both granddaughters and me. E also has her own blog, but since it’s available by invitation only, I’m unable to share the link. Suffice it to say, she wrote a detailed recipe complete with a photo.
