Category: Books

Tidy Tidbits: Reading & Viewing

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RECENT READING

Mayes & husband (Walter.com)

Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes

With the publication in 1996 of Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes shone a spotlight on one of the lovely Italian hill towns in Tuscany.  Since then, “her” town of Cortona has become a tourist attraction, and she has milked the area and her life there for several other nonfiction books.   I read Under the Tuscan Sun when it first came out and then, several other books by Mayes.  

Fast forward, and around 2003, I hosted Mayes at Lehigh University for a Friends of the Libraries event.  Last month, the Chief Penguin and I spent several very pleasant days in Cortona sitting in the main square, dining around, and soaking up the architecture and the history.  For all these reasons, I was keen to read Women in Sunlight, Mayes’ new novel.

At heart, I’d say Mayes is much more of an essayist/memoirist and poet than she is a novelist.  This book features a writer, Kit, in her 40’s who lives in Tuscany, and three senior women, who rent an old villa and become her neighbors.  The women are new friends from North Carolina who met while visiting a retirement community in Chapel Hill.  One is an artist, another has a green thumb, and the third is a seasoned traveler and organizer.  Camille, Susan, and Julia are all single, and each is recovering from loss of a spouse through death or desertion.  Over the course of a year, they bond with one another and with Kit, become acquainted with the townspeople, and have their horizons expanded through more travel.

Much of the novel reads like a travelogue.  Mayes deftly paints word pictures of the beautiful surroundings and mouthwatering descriptions of meals and food in general.  Except for Kit, I found the other women somewhat diffuse and not well distinguished one from another.  Also, Kit’s focus or wandering attention to writing her memoir of her friend Margaret was a distraction and didn’t enrich the plot.  

Overall, this was a mixed reading experience.  I liked aspects of the book and was curious enough about how the women evolved to read to the end with a bit of skimming here and there.  (~JWFarrington)

VIEWING

Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+)

Mad & her mother (Entertainment Weekly)

I loved Bonnie Garmus’ novel, Lessons in Chemistry, as did everyone in my book group.  I wondered if it could be translated into a successful series, and I’m pleased to say it has been.

Garmus was involved in this production, and the series is exceedingly well cast.  Brie Larson as chemist and later TV star Elizabeth Zott is spot on, and Lewis Pullman as scientist Calvin Evans has the right combination of indifference, fierce dedication, and hidden charm.  Child actress Alice Halsey plays the delightfully idiosyncratic Madeline, Zott’s daughter.  

Set in 1950 and into the early 1960’s, the series showcases women’s second class status (some might say third) outside the home with pathos and humor.  Elizabeth is smart and determined, but subject to blatant sexism and belittlement.  Nonetheless, she is a force to be reckoned with, and despite many obstacles, she perseveres. 

There are 8 episodes in total with new episodes being released weekly through November 24.  The first two episodes are free.  

All the Light We Cannot See (Netflix)

Marie & her father (Netflix)

The Chief Penguin and I have watched the first two episodes of this four-part mini-series.  Based on Anthony Doerr’s novel with the same title, it’s intense and powerful.  I must admit that it’s been too long since I read the novel to be able to assess how closely the series hews to the book. Whether or not you’re familiar with the book, this story of young blind French broadcaster Marie, and Werner, a misfit Nazi radio operator in occupied coastal France (Saint-Malo, to be precise) is compelling and will quickly draw you in.  It also demonstrates the staying power of a voice on the radio.

As a side note, last year the CP and I visited St. Malo, walked this once walled city, and and climbed up to its ramparts overlooking the mouth of the Rance River.  Recommended!

The Sommerdahl Murders, Season 4 (Acorn)

Dan & the principals including Josefine (Rotten Tomatoes)

The Chief Penguin and I have enjoyed the earlier seasons of this Danish crime series, and this latest one held our interest also.  The triangle of crime solvers and best friends Dan Sommerdahl, Flemming Torp, and Marianne Sommerdahl (Dan’s ex-wife) is complicated by Dan’s new love interest, Josefine Sundby.  The crimes are intriguing, and always lingering in the background is puzzlement about what fishmonger Oscar is hiding.  There are eight episodes, each an hour long, and most crimes are dealt with in 2 parts. Recommended!

Note: Header photo is in town square, Cortona, Italy, ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Home in Florida: Book Notes

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HOME FROM ITALY

View in Perugia

Our trip to Italy (Rome, Tuscany, and Umbria), was a wonderful break from our real world.  Lots of historic art and architecture, charming hill towns, more pasta, pizza, and bruschette than one should consume, dense crowds in Rome and Florence, great traveling companions, and a wealth of new places to discover.  After a week and finally over jet lag, we have time to reflect on and process all that we saw and did.  Travel is an expansive experience.  I always find myself challenged, and my horizons broadened, as I engage with a new locale, a different culture, and new people.  

RECENT READING

While I was away, I did find time to read two books, one highly touted novel and one political memoir. 

RACE AND CRIME IN 1970’S BOSTON

Author Lehane (Variety)

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

This is the first novel by Lehane I’ve read; although I did see and appreciate his craft in the movie, Mystic River.  Small Mercies is a devastating story set in Boston in 1974, just after Judge Garrick ordered forced busing between South Boston and a Black neighborhood. It’s a story about racism played out as hate with strong emotions on both sides.  Rallies are planned by the Southies and tension is high.

When a young Black man dies on the train tracks and four white teenagers appear to be involved, more violence is almost inevitable.  The key characters are Mary Pat, mother of 17-year-old Jules, and Detective Michael Coyne, known as Bobby.  Mary Pat has been raised to hate Blacks and lost two sons to drugs. Early on, she seems to question some of her basic assumptions about these others.  

Bobby is a voice of reason and, when appropriate, empathetic to Mary Pat.  Underneath and underpinning life in poor South Boston is a very active network of bad guys who rule with an iron grip and don’t hesitate to kill.

I found the novel slow to rev up, but when it did, I was caught up in how crime played out.  Bobby Coyne is the most positive character, and I wanted Mary Pat to be better than she was.  I understood, but didn’t approve of, her motives. Losing one’s children in senseless violence is a pain most of us can’t begin to imagine.  An excellent book, but not for the faint hearted! (~JWFarrington)

LIFE IN THE TRUMP WHITE HOUSE

(AP News)

Enough by Cassidy Hutchinson

Cass Hutchinson’s live testimony before the January 6th Select Committee, which many of us watched, was a profile in courage, but not an experience she arrived at lightly, quickly, or without qualms.  She was poised and articulate and revealed many details about life in the Trump White House and the behavior of both the president and her immediate boss, Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, that had not been made public before.

Now, in Enough, she has written her story about her upbringing in a working-class family with an abusive, controlling father, and being the first in her family to go to college.  From a young age, she was drawn to the idea of public service, was moved by her first visit to the Capitol in D.C. and was ambitious and determined enough to apply for and land internships with the Office of Legal Affairs during college summers.  After graduation, she returned to work with the House of Representatives staff and congressmen including Kevin McCarthy, Meadows, and others.

When Meadows became Trump’s chief of staff, he quickly hired Cassidy to be “his person.”  In the beginning, she reminded him that she worked for him in his role as serving the president, not personally.  But she was attracted to Trump and his views and liked Meadows.  

I think she let herself be subtly manipulated.  At the same time, Meadows gave her lots of responsibility, sent her in his place to some meetings, and had her travel with him on Air Force One and the like.

From the outside, it appeared to be a heady life with lots of access to senior staff and the president, coupled with hard work and exceedingly long hours.  She accepted a lot of what was going on in the White House as just part of the normal work environment and as part of being loyal to Mark.  For a long time, she felt she was still being true to her oath to serve the constitution.

While others in Trump World continued to circle the wagons, so to speak, she wrestled with her conscience, sought a pro bono lawyer without success, and then agreed to work with a Trump-sponsored lawyer.  She did her first committee interviews with this lawyer’s direction and instructions.  Finally, and ultimately, she chose to tell the complete truth to the committee.

I found this a compelling memoir. It was mesmerizing.  Of course, I knew the ending, but all the political machinations and how that administration worked behind the scenes, I found fascinating.  Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down! (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header image of cypresses in Val d’Orcia and Perugia photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Book of the Week

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FAMILY TIME

Last week, the Chief Penguin and I spent several days in North Carolina.  The primary reason was to attend my niece’s wedding in Durham.  This was also a rare opportunity for a family gathering. Two young nieces participated as flower girls and loved their flower wands!  My three siblings and spouses were there as well as many of the next generation.  We don’t all get together often so it was special.  

Four siblings & a great niece

The only disappointment was the lack of our son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters. Their flight from New York was cancelled, one of the casualties of Ophelia’s torrential rains and flooding.  They were sorely missed!

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Author Williams (Sydney Morning Herald)

The Bookbinder by Pip Williams

Novelist Pip Williams, a Londoner by birth, lives in Australia, but her two historical novels are set in and around Oxford, England.  I loved The Dictionary of Lost Words, a novel about the creation of definitions for a comprehensive English dictionary.  Esme helps her father in the shed sorting and organizing slips of paper with words and suggested definitions.  On the sly, she begins collecting and creating word slips that refer to women, their bodies, slang terms for females, and the like.  

In The Bookbinder, twins Peggy and Maude, work at Oxford University Press in the bindery department.  Devoid of means, they live on a narrowboat and spend their days gathering and folding the parts of a book and then stitching them together.  It’s a repetitive job and Peggy seeks more.  Their deceased mother had also worked there. She and Peggy amassed a collection of assorted foldings on their boat.  When she can, Peggy reads parts of the pages at work and at home.

It’s 1914 and with the men going off to war and then returning home injured, there are new opportunities for women.  Peggy volunteers to visit and read or write letters to these soldiers. On the ward, she meets Bastian, a Belgian who has been disfigured in the fighting.  Her association with Bastian is both fulfilling and stimulating, but her real dream would be to attend Somerville College.  How the lives of Peggy, Maude, Bastian, and their friends Gwen, Jack, and Tilda, unfold through the war years, is in part a leisurely stroll through the world of books and letters.  

Williams’ novels are well researched. This one about women’s work in the bindery came about because of a small, discovered-by-chance reference to a bindery girl in an archive.  The numerous details about the specifics of creating a book might cause some readers to get bogged down, but I found the whole process fascinating as well as the particulars of the tomes they were binding.  

Williams dedicates herself to rendering women’s daily experiences, in this case during WWI.  But the novel is also Peggy’s story of aspirations and dreams set against her growing love for Bastian.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header image of twirling flower girls by JWFarrington.

Tidy Tidbits: Reading & Watching

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FAMILY DYNAMICS IN FICTION

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Author Patchett (NEH)

Ann Patchett’s latest book is just out and it’s a good one.  Part of it is built around Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, long a staple of high school English classes.  When I was that age and we read Wilder’s play, I thought it tedious and mostly boring.  Later in life, I saw several stage productions and liked it somewhat more.  Recently, the Asolo Repertory Theater in Sarasota presented it and, it was wonderful!  Whether it was age (mine) or the quality of the performance, I felt like I appreciated the play fully for the first time.

In Tom Lake, Lara, in a dreamlike way, slowly unwinds for her three adult daughters, the long-ago story of her brief career in summer stock and her love for now famous actor Peter Duke.  She played the role of Emily in Our Town and another part in Fool for Love.  Duke, older than Lara, is magnetic, attractive, and enamored of her, but perhaps not all he seems.  With his steady reliable brother Sebastian and Lara’s dancer colleague Pallace, they make a foursome for swimming and tennis.  Throughout, Lara tells her daughters more than she ever has about that summer, unspooling the events slowly, keeping them in suspense, but also holding back some memories too painful to divulge.  

Set against the pandemic and the family’s cherry orchard in northern Michigan, Emily, Maisie, and Nell eagerly gobble up the details of their mother’s experiences interspersed with bouts of cherry picking.  It’s a novel of young love, friendships made and ruptured, the lure of the stage, and the quiet joy of a stable marriage.  

Lara played the role of Emily in Our Town in high school and then was sought out for Tom Lake.  it’s helpful, but not essential, to be familiar with the play.  Knowing it enriched the reading for me. With three sisters and a cherry orchard that soaks up hours and dollars, there are faint echoes of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.  

Without a lot of fuss, Patchett captures what it was like during the pandemic when time was suspended.  These three young women, a farmer, a vet in training, and an aspiring actress, are “trapped” on the farm helping out their parents since their workers have left.  I liked this novel the more I got into it with its slight twists and ended up loving it.  Recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

A MEMOIR OF LOVE MIDST ILLNESS

Left on Tenth:  A Second Chance at Life by Delia Ephron

Delia & Peter (NYPost)

More people probably know about Nora Ephron, Delia’s more famous novelist sister who died of acute leukemia in 2012.  Delia Ephron is also a novelist and playwright.  When Delia’s first husband died of cancer several years after her sister’s death, she never expected to find love again and so soon.  She and Peter Rutter got together quickly; he a psychiatrist, she a writer who had forgotten about dating him in a much earlier stage of life.  

There is joy in this memoir and pain and fear when Delia develops leukemia, her sister’s disease.  Hers is a variation. The medical sections of this memoir are not for the fainthearted, but Delia’s path was smoothed and made more bearable by the legions of friends from all stages of her life and the unending encouraging support of new husband Peter.  It’s a bracing, fast-paced, involving story, and if you have the courage for it, it’s well worth it.  I read it in a day!  (~JWFarrington)

RECENT VIEWING

The Empress (Netflix)

Franz & Elisabeth (ComingSoon.net)

A historical German drama, The Empress is about the making of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. In 1863, Elisabeth and her mother and sister Helene travel to meet the young Emperor Franz Joseph. Helene is expected to become the emperor’s bride. Instead Franz Joseph selects the unruly and rebellious Elisabeth.

Thus begins a battle of wills. Battles between Elisabeth and her mother-in-law Sophie who is accustomed to wielding all the power, between Elisabeth and Maximillian, Franz’s disruptive, but seductive younger brother, and between Elisabeth and Franz as she chafes against filling the mold of perfect empress.

The acting draws one in, the costumes are sumptuous, and it’s an engaging series. One might feel some comparisons with the Queen Charlotte season of Bridgerton; one review even praised the costumes here above those. Season 1 has eight episodes and a second season is planned. (~JWFarrington)

Manhattan (Amazon Prime–modest cost for ad free screening)

Abby & Charlie & Frank (Decider)

With the Oppenheimer movie attracting crowds, the availability of the 1981 documentary The Day After Trinity for streaming, it is probably not surprising that this 2014 series about the Manhattan Project popped up for viewing on Amazon. I don’t recall reading anything about it when it was first released.

In any case, Manhattan offers a different perspective on life in Los Alamos. It has fictional characters, but their activities are based on historic events. There are two competing groups of scientists working on the atomic bomb, one under the loose direction of the determined, almost maniacal Frank Winter and the other guided by Reed Akley and the arrogant and ambitious Charlie Issacs. But Los Alamos is run by the Army, so there are soldiers and numerous rules and regulations to ensure the secrecy of the mission.

And there are the wives and families of the scientists, many reluctantly and grudgingly trying to create a life midst dust and dirt with few amenities. Liza Winter is a PhD botanist frustrated at having had to give up her career, a character I find especially appealing. Abby Isaacs, high-toned mother of a 3-year old, becomes a switchboard operator.

Passion, both scientific and sexual, drives this compelling drama, and the Chief Penguin and I are completely hooked on it. Season 1 has thirteen episodes and Season 2, ten episodes, each about 45 minutes long. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

DAILY BREAD

Bread Bandits

Sarasota has a brand new bakery on Osprey Avenue. Two guys from Canada are using European methods to create some wonderful breads and pastries. The Chief Penguin and I, he the very particular baker in our household, visited their shop the other morning and joined a line of six people at the counter. We went home with a loaf of sourdough for me and a loaf of multigrain for him plus several kinds of croissants, plain, almond, and chocolate almond. The breads make delicious toothsome toast. The lovely croissants have a crisp outer layer and are the best ones I’ve eaten in some years. So, if you’re up for a new treat, gander down and meet the Bread Bandits!

Note: Header image of fall foliage ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)