Category: Books

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.

Tidy Tidbits: Viewing & Reading

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CULTURE NOTES

This month, the Sarasota cultural scene re-awakens with orchestra, opera, theater and choral performances.  Not as many as in the new year, but what I’d call a mini-season.  Earlier this week, we had the treat of a session on the costumes for the musical, Evita, being presented by our favorite Asolo Repertory Theater.  This costume brunch featured a Skye conversation with the show’s costume designer along with commentary from the head of the costume design shop and a key member of his team.  Not only are Eva’s gowns and dresses lovely, they are  flawlessly constructed so that quick costume changes can be carried off on stage by other members of the cast!  Very ingenious use of clips and magnets and the like!  Now, I doubly can’t wait to see it all.

We also went to see and hear the Sarasota Opera’s production of La Traviata.  The local maestro is a big fan of Verdi’s works, having presented all of them over the past 28 years, and this was a lovely evening.  The sets were gorgeous and the singing most enjoyable.  We thought that this Violetta was very good and the Alfredo, exceptionally so.  I like this opera because it has fewer characters than some and  one main plot line.  And we saw a performance by the San Francisco Opera a few years ago which meant I was familiar with it.

RECENT READING

Female Spies  

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.  Novels about young women during the two World Wars are plentiful these days and practically a genre in themselves.  This new novel, like so many others, has parallel story lines, but takes up the topic of female spies during WWI.  It’s 1947 and Charlie St. Clair, English, is unmarried and pregnant and under the influence of her mother who has her own plans for this unplanned pregnancy.  Charlie, with ideas of her own, is on a quest to find her cousin Rose who has not been heard from in three years.  A cryptic note takes her to London where she meets Eve, a ravaged and emotionally damaged former spy.

Charlie ends up traveling with Eve and Finn, Eve’s aide-de camp and general factotum, in her search for Rose.  The Alice Network of the title refers to a group of real female spies who worked for Britain under the direction of a young Scotsman.  The novel unfolds in alternating chapters between Charlie in 1947 and Eve in 1915.

It becomes a somewhat harrowing tale of danger and torture as Eve shares her experiences during both world wars, and you, the reader, come to understand why she drinks to oblivion and what she has suffered.  While Charlie yearns to find her cousin, Eve is out for revenge, and over time, the two quests become intertwined in ways neither could have imagined.

Eve is a brilliantly drawn character with her stammer and her insignificant appearance.  I enjoyed this novel, but, in some ways, found it more of a vehicle for relating the history of the Alice Network.  The characters Alice,  Violette, and Uncle Edward are based on real spies while the other three, Charlie, Eve, and Finn are the author’s creation.  To me, the pairing of Charlie and Finn was not a convincing one for the long haul.  (~JW Farrington)

Re-entry & Recent Reading

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RE-ENTRY

I’ve been back home just a week.  My head is still lingering over some distant ocean, and the time in New Zealand becoming a memory.  The four weeks seemed longer, and now I’m trying to process all that we saw and did.  Probably two things stand out from everything else:  1) it’s an incredibly beautiful country with a range of topography from beautiful seacoast to stunning snow-capped mountains to undulating fields and hills in multiple shades of green; and 2) the people are some of the friendliest and most welcoming I’ve met anywhere.

Beach at Kaka Point

I came to expect that when we arrived at our accommodations, we would be warmly received, but that we’d also get something of the history of the place along with the personal back story of the general manager or host.  Making it from the reception area to our room took at least 15 minutes. Upon leaving Arrowtown, Kathy, the hotel owner, insisted in the nicest way, of bestowing hugs on both of us!

Other tidbits:

  • We frequently saw the exclamation symbol, !, by itself on road signs, where there was road work,  but sometimes just as a warning of an upcoming change in the roadway.
  • With one exception of the last few kilometers into Wellington, all the roads were two lane ones with lots of twists, turns and curves.  Often very winding and narrow.  No interstates to speak of.
  • New Zealand is very environmentally conscious.  There are strict regulations about not bringing in food or pests from other countries (lots of bins in the airports for tossing out food items with strongly worded signs about the large fines for not doing so.)  Recycling and other green practices are a standard part of the culture.
  • Smaller towns were a step back in time to the 1950’s.  No fast food chains, but cafeterias and order-at-the-counter places like the Ten o’ Clock Cookie (love the name!)
  • Wineries all seemed to have their own bistro restaurants and were classy destinations for lunch or dinner—and some of the best meals we ate.

    War Memorial in Oamaru
  • New Zealand lost many men in the world wars, numbers out of proportion to its small population.  Every small town had some sort of WWI monument to fallen soldiers, and sometimes also recognition of those who fought in WWII and later wars.
  • Boarding internal flights in NZ was remarkably egalitarian.  There would be quick mention of premium status folks first, but then everyone just got in line to file out to the tarmac onto the plane.  Not the six levels of priority we see here.
  • I visited bookstores in Auckland, Wellington, and Oamaru, and discovered that most of the fiction on the shelves was from the United States or the U.K. with the U.S. predominating. I  browsed the few short shelves of fiction by New Zealand authors and bought one novel which I started, but didn’t finish and left behind.  It occurred to me that with such a small population, it’s probably not unreasonable that there is not a huge literary output.

RECENT READING

Nonfiction

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston.  Preston’s nonfiction account of the search for what was often referred to as the White City or the City of the Monkey God is an archaeological adventure story.  Except it’s true.  Over a period of more than five years, some determined adventurers who had deep pockets, along with friends with deep pockets, attempted to locate this ancient city in the Honduran rain forest.  With the help of some very sophisticated new technology, they were able to map a potential site hidden beneath thick vegetation.  Once mapped, the plan was to go and spend a couple weeks clearing the rain forest to see what was there.  The challenges included lethal fer de lance snakes, sand flies, mud, the possibility of looting (making it crucial to keeping the exact location secret) and political wrangling of various sorts.  Against great odds, Preston, hired to write about the expedition, and the team of archaeologists, photographers, and others were successful, but not without serious risks to their health and well-being.  (~JW Farrington)

Mystery  

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz.  This is the first book by Anthony Horowitz that I’ve read, but I’m a longtime fan of Foyle’s War, which he created, and have also enjoyed the quirky Midsomer Murders (he was one of the screenwriters).  Although it’s a murder mystery, Magpie Murders, is unlike most others.  You have the umbrella story of Susan Ryeland, author Alan Conway’s editor for the mystery series he writes about detective Atticus Pund.  Then you get all of Conway’s latest book, appropriately titled “Magpie Murders,” except it ends without the last chapter and without resolution.  Our fearless editor, Susan, then goes on a tear to find the missing pages while real life deaths occur and mystery fiction and fiction fiction become intertwined.  Throughout, Horowitz has fun with puns, inside jokes about his own series, and allusions to famous mystery writers like Agatha Christie.  If you’re looking for something different in the mystery line, then this might be it. I found it clever and fun.   (~JW Farrington)

 

Note:  Photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved).  Book jacket from the web. Header photo taken at Amisfield Winery near Queenstown.

 

Tidy Tidbits: Mostly TV

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SMALL SCREEN

The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick  (PBS)

With all the advance publicity, it’s hard to imagine any viewer is unaware of Burns and Novick’s monumental documentary about the Vietnam War.  The range of viewpoints and interviews from all parties (Viet Cong, North Vietnamese Army, South Vietnamese Army plus civilians, American soldiers, generals, diplomats, and anti-war activists) is impressive while the visuals are graphic and mind-numbing.

For me, this is an especially meaningful viewing experience as I came of age during that era.   Also I visited Vietnam only two years ago.  Having been to Hanoi, Saigon, Danang, Hue, and Hoi An and having met several under-40 adults, I came to better understand that war’s destruction and devastation.  I greatly admire the Crockers, mother Jean and sister Carol, from Saratoga Springs who so movingly shared the story of their son and brother, Denton, “Mogie” Crocker, an early casualty.

There is a lot of information to absorb and I find that having closed captioning turned on helps me better focus on the narration.  I also like the use of 1960’s popular songs (think Dylan, Bryds, Simon & Garfunkel and others) as added color and texture to the action.  Definitely worth the investment of time!

The Dr. Blake Mysteries  (Netflix)

I find that Australian television has produced some very fine programs.  Lately, I’ve become immersed in the Dr. Blake series.  Set in the late 1950’s in a small town in Australia, the main character returns home after a long time away to take over his father’s medical practice and to function as the local police surgeon.  In this latter role, he puts himself center stage in trying to solve suspicious deaths that are often murder.  Lucien Blake is arrogant, sure of himself, and very outspoken, so much so that he makes life difficult for Police Superintendent Lawson.

Add in young, still green, constable Danny, district nurse Mattie who is smart and attractive, and Jean, Blake’s inherited housekeeper cum receptionist (she worked for his father), and you have a set of engaging and well-developed characters.  What makes this series more than just the usual mystery-solving, though, is the depth and complexity of Lucien Blake himself.  He was a prisoner of war in Singapore, lost his wife and child there, and is something of a solitary sort who yet can be compassionate.  The relationship between him and Jean is a complicated one, and you can feel an undercurrent of intriguing tension in their interactions.   I highly recommend it!

 

DINING OUT  

One of our favorite local eateries on Cortez Road, Village Idiot Pizzeria (or VIP), is back in business making very good pizza. They took a timeout and focused on smoked sausage and smoked fish and no pizza so their return is most welcome!  And they’ve added some new tacos (beef brisket with kimchi) and a very spicy red curry coconut kingfish soup to the menu.  They offered us a sample of the soup and it was excellent.  I know we’ll become regulars again. Either eat in or take out.

BOOK REVIEWS

Inside section one, the New York Times has added some new features.  Some people think using up space here is a waste of valuable real estate, but I disagree.  I like doing the fast, and usually easy, Mini Crossword, and I glance at the list of most read, discussed and shared articles.   But what I enjoy most is “Inside The Times,” a short interview with a Times reporter about the back story behind an article or review in that day’s paper.  This one, “How a Critic Opens a Book,” provided some intriguing insights into how new daily book reviewer, Parul Sehgal, approaches her job.  I particularly liked this quote:

“I don’t like when book reviews feel hermetic.  I always want to open things up—to say that this is a book, but it’s also just a stage for certain ideas.  So, what else is happening in the culture that’s related to it?  What other books does it speak to from the past?  What other debates does it recall?  I want to prove that books aren’t enclosed, immured objects.”

 HOMEGOING: ANOTHER VIEWPOINT

Some months ago, I commented on this first novel set in Africa and shared that I found it an exceptionally moving and important novel.  Here’s a longer, thoughtful review by a fellow blogger who also found it noteworthy.

Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)