Category: Books

mangroves along the bay

Tidy Tidbits: Filling Time

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OUTLETS

So, other than the routine activities such as our daily walk on the boulevard and the treadmill in the afternoon, what do we do to break the sameness of days?  

Social Distancing

The Chief Penguin has always been the household baker.  It used to be desserts, but since retiring, he’s dedicated himself to experimenting with different kinds of flour to create tasty oatmeal bread with molasses, healthy bran muffins with a touch of orange marmalade, and multi-day adventures resulting in lovely round loaves courtesy of a famous Parisian recipe.  The house smells toasty and warm, and his oven products are both beautiful and satisfying.  We can’t possibly eat all this bread—some loaves go into the freezer for another day and some he gives away.  

I, on the other hand, have been caught up in condo association business, writing notecards to my granddaughters and others, and reading for pleasure.  I have two stacks of new books in the den in addition to the stacked bench in the bedroom.  Plus, I always have a stash of unread titles on my Kindle.  

But my newest diversion is Scrabble GO on my iPhone.  The original Scrabble app which I liked a lot is no longer available.  This new app has lots of prizes and incentives which I personally find very distracting and unnecessary.  But you can play multiple games at a time and they tend to move quickly.  When someone takes a turn, you get a tone and then you can play your turn.  At one point, I had six games going simultaneously!  Scrabble GO quickly eats up any extra time on your hands!

NOVEL PLEASURES

Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff

For a change of pace, I read this historical romance set in Cornwall, England, in 1913 and 1940.  Anna Trenowyth, a Red Cross nurse was injured at Dunkirk and, mostly recovered, has been assigned to a grand estate, Nanreath Hall, now turned into a hospital.  It also happens to be the former home of her late mother, Lady Katherine Trenowyth, and a place she has never visited before nor had any contact with the family there.  Anna is curious about her relatives and her mother’s youth, and the novel alternates between the 1940 present and Lady Kitty’s escape from her proper upper crust family to a wild affair with a dashing young painter.  Morris is good on the gritty details of nursing war injuries and the nightmarish aftermath of surviving in battle while serving up an intriguing stew of family secrets. 

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

This title is this month’s selection for the book group here.  I put off reading it for several weeks because I thought it would be extremely depressing.  But, it’s a moving story of one man’s determination to live long enough to have a life outside the concentration camp.  Lale, a Jew from Slovakia, is smart and knows several languages and thus, he’s given the higher status job of tattooing numbers on the incoming prisoners.  His schedule and his assignments provide him with more opportunity to move around the camp.  He takes risks to confiscate jewels and money left from murdered Jews which he uses in exchange for food for others and himself.  Attracted to a young woman, Gita, he vows that he will one day marry her.  

Based on real people and portraying horrific events, it is yet an inspiring and uplifting novel.  Morris uses Lale’s powers of observation and his quiet determination to keep a distance between the reader and the horror.  It isn’t exactly detachment, but a matter-of-factness that keeps one from drowning in emotion. ~(JWFarrington)

LOCAL TAKEOUT

Thai Palace

Thaipalacebradenton.com

This small restaurant in a strip mall on Cortez Road in Bradenton is one of our favorites for lunch or dinner.  I am especially fond of their curries and had a yen for one, so I ordered online and specified our desired pick-up time.  It wasn’t curbside, I had to go up to the entrance; consequently, I put on my fabric mask for the first time and waited, with two tables between me and the server, while he checked on the order.  It was already bagged and hot.  The curries were in tall plastic containers, the rice in the usual Chinese takeout boxes, and some steamed veggies in a square foam box.  Everything was still hot when we opened the bag at home and, it was so delicious!  

Tidy Tidbits: Online Escape

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VIEWING

My recent screen viewing has run the gamut from social justice to World War II to Hasidic Jews.  None of them light pieces, but all a diversion from reading about COVID-19.

Dark Waters (Amazon Prime)

This film, starring Mark Ruffalo as an earnest, determined corporate lawyer who takes on the DuPont Company, has echoes of Jonathan Harr’s book, A Civil Action, about a water contamination case in Massachusetts.  That book was excellent, and I imagine the film version was good as well.  Although it is well intentioned and a tale where good wins out over corporate greed, Dark Waters is sometimes plodding, and everyone assumes what the outcome will be.  I’d give it a B overall.

World on Fire (Masterpiece, PBS Passport)

Following several families, this series initially focuses on the home front in Britain, Poland, and Berlin in 1939-1940 as the Nazis invade Poland, then Belgium and France.  The younger generation enlists in the Resistance or joins the armed forces.  In Poland, Kasia becomes a killer; Harry, well born and British, in love with two women, is an Army officer; while Lois performs for the troops and brother Tom is a sailor.  Helen Hunt as radio reporter Nancy Campbell in Berlin provides yet another perspective as does German business owner Herr Rossler whose daughter is an epileptic. From different social classes, they are all linked by a desire to survive the terrors of war.  This series is graphic and not for the faint of heart.   

Unorthodox (Netflix)

Deborah Feldman (wikipedia.com)

This short series (just four episodes) traces Esther Shapiro’s escape from life in the restricted Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn to coming alive in Berlin.  Married at just 17, she leaves her husband behind and when she arrives in Germany, she has never been to a concert, never used a computer, and never eaten ham.  Based on Deborah Feldman’s memoir:  Unorthodox:  The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Routes, the series is a moving and sensitive account of one woman’s personal courage.  Highly recommended! 

NOVEL PLEASURE

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

(nytimes.com)

This is the latest novel by King, author of Euphoria, which I loved.  I liked Writers & Lovers, but didn’t love it in the same way as the earlier work.  Perhaps because of the generational divide between me and Casey, a 31-year old aspiring novelist, who definitely doesn’t have her act together.  Her life is falling apart with mountains of credit card debt, a so-so job as a waitress in a Harvard Square restaurant, and overwhelming grief over the recent death of her mother.  Casey is operating in a world dominated by men, be it the successful writers whose success she envies, her landlord who questions what she might have to say in a novel, and the male chefs and waiters who are sometimes harassing.  She is needy and unsettled until two men, one a much older widower with children and the other a laidback academic who is a contemporary, offer solace and the possibility of love.  King’s writing is sprightly, and the depictions of Cambridge environs familiar to me. I enjoyed the book more about halfway through when Casey acquires a sense of purpose. And I love the art on the book jacket !  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is of Helen Hunt in World on Fire (nytimes.com)

Tidy Tidbits: Latest Diversions

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WISHING AND HOPING….

Like the song, I imagine many of us are wishing and hoping that Covid-19 goes away soon.  But we’re probably in for a longer haul and so, it’s more books, more screen time, more curbside takeout, perhaps more cooking and baking, and definitely more walking for exercise.

ON SCREEN

Happy Valley (Netflix)

Set in a small Yorkshire village, this is anything but a happy crime drama.  In fact, the town is gritty and grotty and the crimes gruesome.  That said, I did watch it all and the Chief Penguin is now totally absorbed!  Thanks to Bruce and Pat for the recommendation.  

Former detective and now police sergeant, Catherine Cawood, lives with her sister Clare, a recovering addict, and her young grandson Ryan.  Divorced and still mourning the suicide of her daughter, Catherine becomes obsessed with the whereabouts of convicted rapist Tommy Lee Royce when he’s released from prison.  In a subplot that comes to the fore and involves a caravan park, a young woman is kidnapped, whereabouts unknown.  

James Norton (independent.co.uk)

For those of us who were serious Sydney fans (as in Grantchester), it’s  shocking to see James Norton as a reprehensible bad guy.  Series 1 is six episodes and there is a second series, but it isn’t on Netflix yet.

The Night Manager (Amazon Prime)

This John LeCarre novel makes for suspenseful viewing!  Night hotel porter, Jonathan Pine, is recruited to get on the inside circle of international businessman, Richard Roper, who is involved in suspect arms deals.  The settings are numerous and some gorgeous, while the cast is superb.  Tom Hiddlestone as Pine, a man of many identities, is perfect and great to look at, while Hugh Laurie as Roper is effortlessly the main man, and Olivia Colman as Angela Burr of MI6 is like a terrier in her pursuit of Roper.  Great escapism!

RECENT READING

The Sacrament by Olaf Olafsson

Olafsson was born in Iceland and has an unusual background for a novelist.  A corporate executive for much of his career, he worked first for SONY and then later on for Time Warner in New York.  Nominally an investigation of an incident of child abuse at a school twenty years ago, it is also a story about a nun whose life has been shaped by her own closeted sexual desires and by the power of the Catholic clergy.  Based in France and enjoying tending her rose garden, Sister Johnna is called upon to return to Iceland and to meet with the young man who was the child victim.  But there was another death at that time.  

(nytimes.com)

The novel brings together Sister Johanna’s reflections on her studies in Paris and her friendship with Halla, her reckoning with the role she played at the school, and her recognition of her own and others’ shortcomings.  Ranging back and forth in time and in Sister Johnna’s memory, the novel can be hard to follow and is sometimes so oblique as to be puzzling.  I liked it better the farther into I got, but I never felt I couldn’t put it down, even though the ending had a twist. (~JWFarrington)

CURBSIDE CUISINE

A few words about local restaurants and curbside pick-up.  The Chief Penguin and I have made it a goal to order takeout from smaller restaurants at least once, if not twice, a week.  Thus far, we have enjoyed dinners from Alice’s Ristorante Italiano (a mom and pop operation), Bonefish Grill, and Swordfish Grill in Cortez.  In all cases, the meals have been well packaged for transit, and, generally delivered right to the car and put in the backseat.  Mostly, you can both order and pay over the phone or online.  For Alice’s, you pay when you do the pickup.  We have found the portions generous and usually enough for the next day’s lunch.  

We also did a second curbside pick-up of an online order from Artisan Cheese in Sarasota.  Besides cheese, they have been offering soups, mac and cheese and wine by the bottle.  Sadly, they can no longer continue and so, after this week, they will close for the time being. Thank you, Cheese Louise! May it be a short closure.

Note: Header image of Hope is from 123rf.com

Tidy Tidbits: Sheltering at Home

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CONNECTING WITH ZOOM

This week I went from never having used Zoom for meetings to having three encounters.  I now consider myself semi-experienced!  Once you have the Zoom app on your phone, iPad or computer, it’s easy to be invited to participate.  The most novel interaction was the birthday party on Monday afternoon that our daughter-in-law organized for our granddaughter who was turning 4.  They are staying north of Manhattan, the other grandparents are in Connecticut, F’s aunt is in Manhattan, and the Chief Penguin and I are hunkering down at home in Florida.  We could all see each other in our respective online boxes. 

Our son had baked a cake with pink frosting and sprinkles; we sang to F., she excitedly blew out the candles, and they ate cake while we all watched.  Then she had presents to open.  Conversation flowed, and topics ranged from the availability of toilet paper to what each of us was planning for dinner!  A successful event and a great way to feel a part of F’s away-from-home celebration.

Later in the week, we had a virtual dinner party with good Philadelphia friends.  We had each done curbside pick-up of our dinners and then enjoyed wine and conversation while showing off our various entrees.  On Friday, I conducted a condo board meeting which had 33 people online.  For this, I practiced, received helpful tutelage from a savvy neighbor, and took a webinar on Zoom basics.  

In these strange and unusual times, there will be more Zooming on my calendar—meet-ups with siblings, for starters.  Hope you too are finding ways to stay connected with friends and family, whether it be by phone, e-mail, Facetime, Zoom or whatever!

BURIED IN A GOOD BOOK

Savannah by Eugenia Price

When I was in Savannah in February (which seems oh, so long ago now), I purchased this historical novel first published in 1977.  I’m sure I read some other novels by Ms. Price years ago, but this one intrigued me, obviously because of its focus on what is sometimes called the “Hostess City.”

The man character, Mark Browning, a young man of 20 who comes to Savannah from Philadelphia in 1812, is fictitious.  But Robert McKay, owner of a shipping company who becomes his mentor and good friend, was a real person as was his wife, Eliza, and their children.  McKay was a leading citizen of the time and actively involved in civic affairs and in a local auxiliary militia.  Mark is attracted to Eliza and to Caroline Cameron, a young lady of his generation, who has been raised mostly by her grandfather in a family with a complicated and contentious history.  The novel is as much about the growth and development of the city of Savannah (its churches, municipal buildings, agriculture and industry, and its beautiful squares) as it is Mark’s coming-of-age story.

Wright Square (youtube.com)

Eugenia Price was born on St. Simon’s Island and died in 1996.  In addition to her fourteen historical novels, she was well known as a Christian writer and speaker.  She penned a number of non-fiction works related to the Bible and Christian living.  Given the time (early 19th century) and place (the South) it’s probably not surprising that religion plays an important role in these characters’ lives.  Even with that, however, some contemporary readers may find the references to God’s wishes and God’s knowledge a bit much.  

It’s long (more than five hundred pages) and slowly unfolds; possibly making it perfect for this strange time when we are so much at home.  I enjoyed it and could picture some of the buildings and squares from my recent visit.  Now, I need to decide if I want to delve into the next book in Price’s Savannah Quartet.   (~JWFarrington)