Category: Books

End of the Year Tidbits

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As December comes to a close, I’d like to be optimistic that 2018 will be a more civilized year.  This year has been challenging on the national level and reading the daily newspaper an exercise in anger, frustration, and discouragement.  Just perhaps, things will get better in the new year, and we can again be proud of our country and not cringe when we travel abroad.

On a happier note, for us personally, it’s been a year filled with the joy of watching our granddaughters thrive while appreciating our son and daughter-in-law as wonderful parents; of savoring the adventures of international travel; of enjoying the stimulation of the local arts and culture scene; of loving being a part of a warm and caring island community; and of being thankful for continued good health!  Here’s to a healthy, happy 2018 for all!

RECENT READING

SPEAKING OF POLITICS

I read a good review of Nicolas Montemarano’s new novel, The Senator’s Children, so when I saw it in Three Lives & Co., I snapped it up.  And read it immediately and quickly.  It’s inspired by John Edwards’ failed presidential campaign and his trials and tribulations.  But it’s told from the perspective of the children, primarily Senator David Christie’s older daughter Betsy (in her mid-30’s during much of the action) and his younger daughter, Avery, product of an affair, and whom he doesn’t really know and who’s now a college student. There’s a little bit of son Nick who dies in an accident.  It’s heartbreakingly beautiful, and you feel for all the members of this damaged family.

PAEAN TO THE WEST VILLAGE

Manhattan, When I Was Young by Mary Cantwell was published in 1995.  It’s a memoir of her life in the city as a college graduate, then wife and mother, and magazine journalist in the 50’s and 60’s.  The book is divided in sections labeled with her address at each point.  Most of her abodes were in the West Village and, for me, her descriptions of these streets and their noted buildings were remarkably familiar and enjoyable.  This is also a coming of age story.   Cantwell lacked self confidence and spent much time questioning herself and her purpose.  She married young, but was not always willing to share her thoughts or herself with her husband, and she wasn’t even sure initially about her job and whether she liked it or not.  Much of what she reveals is painful and raw, but articulately put forth.

VIEWING

I’m aware that The Crown is not a documentary and there have been quibbles about some of what is presented, but I’m finding the second season fascinating and wonderfully entertaining.  Seeing events that I recall somewhat from my youth (Suez Canal crisis, e.g.) played out in detail is re-visiting the personalities of history.  I’m especially fond of Tommy Lascelles who gets called back in from retirement to deal with tricky crises and found Queen Elizabeth’s interactions with Jackie Kennedy believable, even though I don’t think the actress who plays Mrs. Kennedy is completely convincing.

A Place to Call Home.  I was concerned that this Australian series (on Acorn) was verging on soap opera-ish, but Season 5, while looking that way in the early episodes, redeems itself and presents a cast of complex characters and some high drama in the late 1950’ and early 60’s.  Racial prejudice against the aborigines, silence around homosexuality, and the lingering scars of the Second World War are all here.  One of the best episodes, “The Anatomy of His Passing,” is about Douglas Goddard and is so very sensitively done—and highlights how medical times were and were not changing.

RESTAURANT FIND  

Paola’s is around the corner from where we stayed on the Upper East Side.  It was so good that we had dinner there twice!  Standouts are the pasta dishes.  The agnolotti with veal and spinach in a veal reduction with black truffles was outstanding.  Equally good was the trofie offering we shared on our second visit.  This twisted pasta shape is served with green beans and chunks of potato in pesto.  A classy dining room with white glove service.  Definitely a keeper!

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

Girl surrounded by stacks of books

Favorite Books of 2017

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MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2017

I’ve averaged reading about a book a week this year, mostly novels and a small selection of memoirs and other nonfiction.  Here are my favorites in no particular order.  What were your favorite reads this year?  I’d love to hear from you!

FICTION

Most Inventive Novel:  The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead for treating the railroad as a physical entity in this story of an escaped slave.

Best Thriller:  Before the Fall by Noah Hawley for keeping me on the edge of my chair after the fictional plane crashes.

Female Slants on WWI & WWII

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck for great writing about several widows of Hitler’s resisters whose views range from black and white to shades of gray.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn for gripping linked stories of female spies in both wars.

 

Best Novels on Social Issues

Small Great Things by Jodie Picoult for exposing her own shortcomings on how we deal with race.

Behold the Dreamers by Mbue Imbolo for giving us an in-depth look at the immigrant experience in Queens circa 2008.

 

Best Historical Novel:  News of the World by Paulette Jiles for its writing and the poignant journey of a Native American girl and an old newsman.

Best Mystery in a Series:  Garden of Lamentations by Deborah Crombie for the continuing adventures of British detectives Gemma Jones and Duncan Kincaid.

Best Mystery:  The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz for being a literary puzzle within a puzzle.

Pure Escapism (aka Beach Reads)

Flight Patterns by Karen White for delving into china patterns, bees, and the quirkiness of sisters.

Starlight on Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs for another absorbing story of family relationships about a caregiver for an older woman.

NONFICTION

Most Memorable Memoirs

Guesswork by Martha Cooley for exquisite writing about losing dear friends and life in a small Italian village.

Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance for an eye-opening account of growing up in a dysfunctional family in rural America.

Best Political:  What Happened by Hillary Clinton for its comprehensive and soul-baring candor about the 2016 presidential race.

ALSO NOTEWORTHY  

House among the Trees by Julia Glass (novel)

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien (novel)

Constance Fenimore Woolson by Anne Boyd Rioux (biography)

Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston (nonfiction)

 

Tidy Tidbits: Mostly Video

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SMALL SCREEN

My Mother and Other Strangers (PBS)

If you missed this little gem from last summer, it’s worth seeking out.  Set in the village of Moybeg in Northern Ireland in 1943, it’s the story of a poor town invaded (not literally) by the presence of an American air base.  At the time, Francis Coyne is a rather quiet, but very observant, boy of nine or ten.  In voice-over, the adult Francis reflects on the events of the time and adds in what he only realized later.

His father is a farmer who also runs the local pub.  His mother is both school teacher and shopkeeper.  She deals in ration books and foodstuffs.  Life in the village is simultaneously unsettled or enlivened by the presence of the airmen; which it is  depends upon whether you are a kid who finds it exciting or an old-timer who hates having his life disrupted.  Francis’ mother, Rose, is attracted to Capt. Dreyfuss from the base and he to her.  He seems to offer the romance and poetry lacking in her marriage to Michael.

We’ve seen the first season, and given the way it ended, I feel sure there must be more to come.  Very nicely done!

Alias Grace (Netflix)

I read Margaret Atwood’s historical novel of the same name when it was published and remembered being impressed by it.  Atwood was involved in this TV adaptation and I’m finding it also well done and compelling.  Grace, in prison for committing several murders, has been taken up as a cause by Dr. Jordan, a young doctor of the mind.  She sits with daily interviews with him away from her cell and recounts her life before prison and the events leading up to the murders.  He is a patient, yet persistent, questioner, but also dreams about her.  She is seemingly demure, but with a very active, sharp mind, and attractive to boot.  The pardon committee has taken up her case, and Dr. Jordan is being pressured to finish his evaluation quickly, something he is loath to do.

Broadchurch, Season 3 (Amazon)

Broadchurch remains one of the best crime series I’ve ever seen.    Olivia Coleman and David Tennant as sparring detective partners, Ellie Miller and Alec Hardy, are excellent, but so are the supporting cast who play other members of the community, many we’ve come to know in previous seasons.   I like Broadchurch’s s more deliberate pacing (compared to some American shows), and I’m finding the handling of the rape victim and how she fares realistic and compelling.

LARGE SCREEN

Murder on the Orient Express.  Like most of my generation, I’ve seen the original 1934 film version of this Agatha Christie mystery as well as the more recent television series starring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot.  This movie, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, is good, but not great.  As one of my sisters noted, it’s slow to start out and then picks up a bit.  Branagh has some of the exaggerated mannerisms and fussiness of other Poirots, but there is less humor or fizz in this version.  It  has a stellar cast (Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, Olivia Coleman, Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi, Penelope Cruz et al),  and I had completely forgotten the ending so that was a surprise.

READING UNDERWAY  

I currently have two books going.  One is Richard Holmes’ Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer, and the other is Unfinished Woman, a memoir by Lillian Hellman.  Both are older works; Holmes’ book came out in 1985 and Hellman’s in 1969.  Holmes recounts several journeys he made tracing the paths taken by historic figures whose biographies he will later write.  Unfinished Woman is my pick for the January book group discussion here.  I first read it several years after it was published, and it’s a different experience reading it so many years later.  I am now older than Hellman was when she wrote it!  My opinion of her ramblings keeps varying as I make progress.  More to come on both titles.

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

North Carolina Interlude

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BOOK NOTE

Lest anyone think I haven’t read any books lately, here’s one I wanted to like more than I did.

In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende

This might be the first novel by Allende I’ve read or possibly the second.  It brings together an unlikely trio to deal with an out-of-the-ordinary surprise.  Fussy, academic Richard Bowmaster rents his basement apartment to Lucia Maraz, a professor from Chile who also teaches at NYU.  He is intrigued by her and attracted to her, but has done nothing about it.  She is lonely and would like to further her acquaintance with him beyond their professional relationship.  None of this is likely to happen until, undocumented nanny, Evelyn Ortega, shows up on his Brooklyn doorstep on a bitterly cold winter night after a snowstorm.

Evelyn’s car, her employer’s, was hit by Richard in an accident and she seeks his help.  But the help goes beyond just the damage to the car as there is a body in the trunk.  How this ill prepared threesome handles this fact and journeys upstate to deal with the dead person makes up the crux of the novel.  We learn how Richard and Lucia’s relationship develops and we get the back story of each of these individuals before they came together and, in the process, learn about recent history in Chile and Argentina.

I liked the premise of this novel and the way that Richard, and especially Lucia, rise to the challenge of helping Evelyn, but much of the action takes place as straight narrative with almost no dialogue.  It is a static novel which tells more than shows.  Interesting, but not as engaging as I expected.  (~JW Farrington)

 

NORTH CAROLINA WITH FAMILY

The Chief Penguin and I spent an activity-filled week in North Carolina over Thanksgiving visiting my sisters and their families.  We sampled the delights of Greensboro (shops, parks and a favorite restaurant), ventured to Asheboro for lunch and wildlife, explored downtown Raleigh and the Ravenscroft School campus with my niece, and then decamped for Thanksgiving Day in Chapel Hill and several brisk chilly walks, a new restaurant, and a long bookstore browse.  Here are some of the specifics:

GREENSBORO

Scuppernong Books

This cozy bookstore cum café in downtown Greensboro has a nicely chosen selection of both new and used books.  Scuppernong is a type of muscadine grape native to the area, a word that might be hard to spell, but is certainly memorable!  I was especially pleased with their children’s section and had an informative chat with the woman who buys their children’s books.

Bog Garden

On this visit, I was impressed with the work of the Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department.  My sister and I walked in the Bog Garden, close to their home which we’ve visited many times, and also checked out the Tanger Family Bicentennial Garden and the David Caldwell Historic Park.  The bog garden has a raised boardwalk and is wilder and less manicured than one might expect of a garden.  In partnership with several Audubon members, the park is engaged in removing invasive plants and putting in native plants in their place.

Print Works Bistro

Adjacent to the Proximity Hotel, this restaurant is always good, be it for breakfast or dinner.  The dining room is large with high ceilings, but is sectioned off with floor-to-ceiling billowing fabric drapes and upholstery-covered chairs which provide overall softening.  I would call the menu sophisticated comfort food, and it ranges from items such as local trout and mussels to a shrimp risotto, meatloaf or chicken schnitzel.  Breakfast fare includes the standard eggs and bacon, but also duck confit hash and a bacon and Brussels sprouts quiche.

ASHEBORO 

After a good lunch of salads and sandwiches at The Table , we continued down the road to the North Carolina Zoo.  Some folks are not enamored of zoos in general, but this one is exceptional.  It’s located in the center of the state and has many hundreds of acres with lots of room for the animals in each habitat to roam.  You get around to key points by tram and within the North American and African Habitats there are meandering paved paths that take you to the various animal sites. 

Signage is good and, being in a woodsy environment as you wander, makes it a most pleasant experience.  I especially liked seeing all the tropical birds in The Aviary and having an almost nose-to-nose encounter with a chimp.

RALEIGH

Garland

Lunch at this Indian/Asian restaurant in downtown Raleigh was perfect for our group of seven.  We liked the beef and noodle salad, tofu salad, and the vegetarian daily special.  Portions were a generous size and fortified us for several hours of shopping and walking.

CHAPEL HILL AREA

McIntyre’s Books

Friends who know me well know that I seldom pass up an opportunity to visit a bookstore, particularly an independent one.  I’ve patronized McIntyre’s at Fearrington Village for many years and it’s always a pleasure to spend an hour here.  With the holidays soon upon us, the shelves and tables were overflowing with stock and notes of staff recommendations. It was very easy to find gifts for family as well as a paperback for myself!

Venable Rotisserie Bistro

A new restaurant in Carrboro recommended by my sister and brother-in-law who’d dined there once before, Venable was a great place for the day after Thanksgiving.  Casual with wood flooring and bare wood tables, family groups and couples were scattered around the dining room.  Two of us tucked into the chipotle glazed salmon on a bed of spinach with sinfully rich whipped potatoes while the men enjoyed fried chicken (really a breaded chicken paillard with arugula) and North Carolina trout topped with bok choy.  Very good “elevated comfort food” as the restaurant calls it!

Photos by JWFarrington.