Category: Books

Tidy Tidbits: Books & More

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RECENT READING

The Stargazer’s Sister  by Carrie Brown

If you are at all interested in astronomy, this is an engaging historical novel about Caroline Herschel, sister of famed German astronomer William Herschel.   Lina, as she was known, was William’s younger sister by 12 years.  Small and slight and scarred by a bout with smallpox, she never married and was mistreated and abused by their mother.  William, who had gone to the UK, returned to their home in Hanover and rescued her by taking her back to England.  

Smart and quick, she became his devoted assistant in studying the night sky and dedicated her life single mindedly to him.  She loved him greatly and gave up any thoughts of marriage and a family for herself.  He received fame and recognition for his discoveries and for the telescopes he built while she labored by his side. Only later were her own solo discoveries acknowledged.  While based on the historical record and the extensive correspondence the Herschels left behind, this is a work of fiction with a happy, although somewhat unbelievable ending. To her credit, Brown details in her notes where she has deviated from real life.  (~JWFarrington)

The Glass Forest by Cynthia Swanson

This suspense novel was my pick for our January book group meeting.  When I first read it, I found it slow to get going and feared I’d picked a dud.  Turns out that almost everyone liked it a lot, and some couldn’t put it down once they started.  In alternating chapters, set mostly in 1960, it’s the story of three women each related in some way to two brothers, Paul and Henry.  Angie’s story is told in the first person while Silja’s and Ruby’s are third person.  Angie is only 23 and married to the much older Paul and mother to baby PJ.  For Silja, we get her life from 1942 to her marriage to Henry, and her successful career, up to her disappearance in 1960.  Ruby is Silja and Henry’s daughter and a sullen and withdrawn teenager who doesn’t talk much.  

The novel opens with a call to Angie from Ruby that Henry has committed suicide, and from there events unfold as Angie and Paul journey from Wisconsin to Stonekill, NY to be with Ruby.  When I reviewed this book for the discussion, I found it more compelling.  The period detail is spot on, and there are clues throughout as to what happened to Henry and Silja.   (~JWFarrington)

ON SCREEN

Beautiful Boy  (Amazon Prime)

Based on two memoirs, one by father David Sheff and the other by his son, Nicolas, this feature film is a depiction of drug addiction and its effect on one family.  Focusing as much or more on the father than the son, it spotlights a loving father’s puzzlement, worry, frustration, and devotion in his determination to help his son.  Nic’s aimlessness, cravings, and manic behavior, followed by sorrow and regret, repeat and repeat until he almost dies.  For any parent, this is a hard film to watch as nothing seems to make the situation better.  Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet are exceptionally good as father and son as is Maura Tierney as Nick’s stepmother, Karen. 

Srugim  (Amazon Prime)

This Israeli TV series ran from 2008 to 2012 and follows the lives of a group of single Orthodox Jewish men and women living in Jerusalem.  Hovering around 30, they are navigating the dating scene while also figuring out their careers.  Most of their contemporaries are already married, many with children. 

The women are Yifat, a graphic artist, Reut, an accountant, and Hodaya, a graduate student who studied the Bible, but tries working as a waitress.  The men are Nati, a medical doctor, Amir, a high school grammar teacher, and Roi, Nati’s younger brother.  All are religious and closely follow the strictures around food, observing the Sabbath, and relationships with the opposite sex.  The exception is Hodaya, daughter of a rabbi, who is questioning her religious beliefs.  

The series focuses on relationships so don’t expect a lot of action.  Nonetheless, I found myself quickly becoming absorbed in the lives of these individuals and am now well into the second season.  The episodes are short, 35 minutes, with subtitles, and the video quality is just fair.  This program was cited for being the first time the lives of Orthodox Jews were portrayed in a realistic production designed for a general audience.  And I owe thanks to Patricia for recommending it! (~JWFarrington)

Tidy Tidbits: Watching & Reading

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MOVIES AT HOME

In this age of online video and fast migration from movie screen to TV screen, it’s possible to view many first run movies at home almost immediately after their release.  Here are two relatively recent films we just watched.  We rented each one for 48 hours for the nominal fee of $5.99, much cheaper than two movie tickets even at the senior or off peak rate!

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Mr. Rogers’ groundbreaking television program was after my time, but still available when our son was growing up.  This account of its history, how it handled issues that concern small children, and the approach taken by Fred Rogers make for a fascinating documentary.  An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rogers was a talented man with a gentle manner, but also a complex individual.  You get hints of his complexity and a bit about his childhood from his wife, Joanne.  I would have liked to have heard more from her in addition to the reflections from his two sons and several members of the cast.  Occasionally, it’s too sentimental, but overall an enjoyable journey down memory lane.

Mamma Mia:  Here We Go Again!

This is a movie that’s just plain fun.  Even if you haven’t seen the original starring Meryl Streep, you will enjoy this sequel.  The plot is thin and mostly an excuse for singing, dancing, and the reunion of Sophie’s three fathers.   The music is lively, the choreography snappy, and, you know that, despite everything, there will be a happy ending.  Starring here are:  Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Christine Baranski, Cher, and Colin Firth among others with a cameo by Meryl Streep.

ENGROSSING NOVEL

The Great Believers  by Rebecca Makkai

Rebecca Makkai is an author new to me, but because this novel was so well reviewed, a finalist for the National Book Award, and on several best-of-the-year lists, it caught my attention. I found it rewarding on many levels. Set in Chicago from 1985 to 1992 and also in Paris in 2015, it is a warm, detailed and intimate story of the lives of several gay men at the height of the AIDS crisis, when testing first became available, and mostly before there were any drugs to combat it.  

The main characters are Yale Tishman and his partner Charlie, and Fiona, sister of Nico, one of their first friends to die.  Yale works in development for an art gallery and there is the unfolding courtship of Fiona and Nico’s great aunt who desires to donate her art collection.  A long drawn out process, its theme of art links the past to the present (2015) when Fiona stays with their much older photographer friend, Richard, as he prepares for a major exhibit of his work at the Pompidou Centre.  Fiona is the focus in 2015 and she is on a mission to locate and re-connect with her adult daughter, Claire.  She stays with Richard and his partner while trying to sort out her own life and the events of 30 years earlier. 

I worked in Philadelphia in the 80’s and 90’s and had several colleagues, one a friend, who ultimately died of AIDS.  It was not openly acknowledged at first, but most of us began to realize that this disease was the cause of their suffering.  

The novel is alternately tender, graphic, grim and painful, but very believable with its inclusion of real events in Chicago.  It is also re-affirming of the goodness and caring of some.  I did find the Paris sections less convincing since I don’t think Fiona’s character at middle age is as well developed as it could be. (~JWFarrington)

ON MY BOOKSHELF

I got mostly books for Christmas.  Here are a few titles stacked up and ready to go.  The first three are nonfiction and the others are novels.

American Eden  by Victoria Johnson

Family Life   by Elisabeth Luard

Kitchen Yarns  by Ann Hood

Clock Dance  by Anne Tyler

Love is Blind  by William Boyd

Washington Black  by Esi Edugyan

Coloring of drawing in World of Flowers by Basford

Tidy Tidbits: Mostly Books

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CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

This year, for perhaps the first time ever, we stayed home for Christmas and purchased and put up a live tree.  In more recent years, we’ve gone to Manhattan for about ten days to see family.  This time, our son and family and our daughter-in-law’s parents all came to Florida.  With lively granddaughters ages 6 ½ and 2 ½, it was a boisterous and fun occasion!

Growing up, my grandparents and my aunts, uncles and cousins all lived hundreds of miles away and, thus, my family virtually always stayed home.  There were four kids plus my mom and dad, and we had our own well-established rituals and treats.  Stockings upon awakening before the parents were downstairs and then presents opened in rotation from youngest to oldest.  Most people would think this an unusual approach, not the bedlam of everyone tearing open gifts at once, but it slowed down the process, spread out the enjoyment and enabled us to see and comment on each other’s gifts.  We did it this up to the last Christmas we spent with my mother! She was a very organized individual and probably is the one who started it.

I also have good memories of my father bursting in through the front door, either just home from work or having completed an essential errand with something special to show us.  He always had a ready smile and brought with him warmth and palpable affection.

This year we created some new memories, especially for the little girls:  festive Christmas Eve dinner here with all the grandparents, walks along our quiet road, and swimming in the pool.   Plus, we reprised favorite activities; saucing the pizzas with Grandpa and providing Grandma an assist with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  

I hope you enjoyed some equally special times this season.

HOLIDAY BRASS

Seraph is an all-female brass ensemble, five women playing trumpets (2 of them), trombone, tuba, and French horn.  Two weeks ago, they performed in Sarasota and their Sunday afternoon concert was a treat! A work by Grieg, selections from The Nutcracker Suite, along with a medley of favorite carols were among the highlights.  Their performance was enhanced by the fact that each member got to introduce one of the pieces and told us where she was from.

READERS’ FAVORITES

A few of my readers sent their choices for the best book or their favorite for 2018.  Here they are:

Barb:   Educatedby Tara Westover.  Her second choice would be:  The Language of Baklava, by Diana Abu-Jaber.

Cathie:  Mudboundby Hillary Jordan.  “Most thought provoking. It is set in 1950s rural Tennessee and focuses on the interactions between two families–one White and the other Black.” 

Claudia:  Overstoryby Richard Powers.  “I thought it should have won the Mann Booker prize. To me it was an ecological epic.”

RECENT READING

LOCAL HISTORY

The Ringmaster’s Wife by Kristy Cambron

Mable Burton, born Armilda, grew up on a farm and was keen to escape to a different life.  Heading for the big city of Chicago at the time of the world’s fair, she became a waitress and met a man named John.  Little did she realize initially that he was the already successful circus owner, John Ringling.  They eventually married and made a life for themselves, wintering in Sarasota, Florida. Mable Ringling loved roses and planted a rose garden that still exists on the Ringling Museum grounds. She also oversaw the design of their luxurious Italianate home, Ca d’Zan, House of John, which visitors today can tour.

In this historical novel, the fictional Rosamunde Easling, although a titled lady and wealthy, also seeks a more exciting life.  She loves riding her prized horse, and when the horse is sold, she agrees to see it to America where it will become part of the circus.  She too joins the circus.

Cambron is a Christian novelist, but this book is a good story, wholesome in some ways, but not overtly religious.  I selected the book because of its Sarasota setting and the chance to learn more about Mable Ringling, albeit in a fictionalized context.  

THE SOLACE OF BOOKS

Morningstar:   Growing Up with Books by Ann Hood

Novelist and essayist Hood has written a charming and engaging memoir about the books of her childhood beginning when she was a new reader all the way through her adolescence. Each chapter is pretty much devoted to one work, and I found that I had read almost all of her picks, as I too was an avid and voracious reader.  It’s a brief book, but one that will set you thinking about the books that made an impact on you.  

HISTORICAL NOVEL:  MORE WAR

The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason

I’ve read Mason’s other two novels and consider him an excellent stylist.  This recent novel is a grim one about Lucius, a young, inexperienced and mostly untrained physician, who is posted to a field hospital in the Carpathian Mountains during the First World War.  Conditions are primitive, supplies limited, and the risk of attack by enemy soldiers is high.  The senior doctor has left, and it is just Lucius, two orderlies, and the nurse Sister Margarete.  She teaches him how to amputate limbs and what the routine is.  Lucius is initially fascinated by her and gradually becomes attracted to her, but is unaware if his feelings are returned.  How the ongoing slog of the war wears them down and how the arrival of one severely injured soldier changes everything is the stuff of war, mystery, and even romance.  Mason is himself a physician and it is clearly evident in the plethora of gruesome details about wounds and battle scars.  Despite this, it’s a rewarding read!

SMALL SCREEN

I just finished the last episode of Season 3 of Silk, and I’m in mourning.  It was simply excellent!  I got so immersed in these characters, Martha, Clive, Billy, and the others, that I could hear their voices.  And the way the season ended, there could have been a next season, but apparently not in the cards.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is my last blog post for 2018.  May 2019 be a healthy, happy year for everyone!

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The Season of Lists

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Some of us make lists all year long:  to-do lists, grocery lists, shopping lists, and the like.  I am an inveterate list maker, always have been.  As was my mother so I suppose I inherited this tendency as did at least one of my sisters.  It’s satisfying to create a list and then check off items as they are completed.  And if one is debating an important decision, such as a job offer, making a list of pros and cons can be helpful in weighing the options.  

But the month of December represents the epitome of lists.  ‘Tis the season.  Ten best-of-the-year lists of movies, books, and music CDs populate newspapers and social media.  Daily book critics write columns about their favorite books, while the Wall St. Journal solicits short statements about the books they liked from celebrities, politicians, actors, and authors. And that behemoth Amazon supplements its best books of the month in various categories with its own best books of 2018.  While these lists reflect the tenor of the times, they are also a retail tool, designed to generate sales.  As an avid reader and in a spirit of competition with myself, I pore over several book lists—looking in part for any overlap between them, but even more to see which of the year’s best titles, I might have already read!

Lisa Halliday’s novel, Asymmetry,which I read and blogged about, is on both the New York Times Book Review’sand the Wall St. Journal’s lists as is David Blight’s biography, Frederick Douglass.  The novel, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, appears on both the WSJ list and the Washington Post’s, perhaps an indication that I should add it to my personal to-be-read list.  I was  pleased to see that Westover’s bracing memoir, Educated, made it onto the NYT list and was also Amazon’s #1 pick of its top twenty books of 2018.    On the WSJ list, the other title I’ve recently read is biographer Claire Tomalin’s memoir, A Life of My Own.  

And just in case, you don’t end up with enough new reading material, there are the notable book lists; the New York Times named 100 notable books. while the Washington Post published its 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2018 along with a companion list of notable nonfiction.  

I also checked to see if my favorite west coast newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, had a 2018 list, but it appears that it won’t be published for another week or so.  Likewise, the Los Angeles Times.

As December winds down, I’ll be thinking about my favorite or best book of the year and looking ahead to what I’ll be reading in 2019.  What was your best book of 2018?  I’d love to include your choices in my first blog of the new year.

Here are several of the 10 Best Books of the Year lists for 2018.  I included the WSJ titles since they have a very robust paywall.

New York Times Book Review

Washington Post

Wall Street Journal

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday 

Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts 

Cloudbursts by Thomas McGuane 

The Consciousness Instinct by Michael Gazzaniga 

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight 

Godsend by John Wray 

Lamentfrom Epirus by Christopher C. King 

A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin 

Patriot Number One by Lauren Hilgers 

Season of the Shadow by Léonora Miano