Category: Reading

Tidy Potpourri

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DINING FIND

Thanks to our friend Sue, we finally tried Bridge Street Bistro in Bradenton Beach.  If you just walk by, you’ll see and probably hear a noisy set of diners on the ground floor.  But, if like us, you prefer quiet and a more elegant dining room, then head up to the 3rd floor.  Here is a windowed dining room, one side with a view toward the gulf, and an attractive bar set apart from the tables.  Linen napkins, a menu of seafood and Italian fare, and attentive, helpful service.

We shared a Caesar salad and then enjoyed very tasty veal saltimbocca and the grilled salmon topped with spinach and a lemony sauce over saffron risotto.  Both excellent dishes and generous enough that we left with some for the next day’s lunch.  No need for a reservation this time of year, but I make one anyway just to be safe.

SARASOTA MUSIC FESTIVAL

This week’s Thursday concert of performances by several of the festival faculty was another musical treat!  Current festival music director Jeffrey Kahane and former director Bob Levin teamed up on two Schubert piano pieces for four hands, while Leone Buyse on flute and Michael Adcock on piano played the marvelous Sonatine by Walter Gieseking, a work previously unknown to me.  Ms. Buyse was sitting behind me after the intermission, so I got to thank her and particularly compliment her on the lively Vivace movement.

The concert ended with Beethoven’s Piano Trio No.5 with violin and cello which brought down the house.  We’ve vowed to go to more of these concerts next year—some of the best music in Sarasota!

 

SMALL SCREEN

Loch Ness (Acorn).  This Scottish series is quite dark, but once I got past the first episode I was hooked.  Two women are the lead inspectors trying to locate what appears to be a serial killer while the brooding lake of the title is a character in itself.  There is just one season and it’s one continuous story over the six episodes.  Complex characters, small town anxieties and tensions, and lots of twists and turns in the plot.

Lives in Squares (Amazon Prime).  This three-part series from the BBC captures the messy, passionate lives of the Bloomsbury Group, with Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf, being the focal point.   This set of talented writers and painters spent a lot of time together and several lived in each other’s pockets.  If you aren’t already familiar with some of the relationships between the sisters and their coterie, you might be puzzled.   Adding to the viewer’s potential confusion is the fact that the actors playing the principals change as they age.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed the series and would recommend it if you’re a fan of this period. Thanks to Patricia for suggesting it.

SUMMER READING—TRACKING TWENTY

#5  Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

This long novel was named one of 2017’s ten best books by the New York Times Book Review.  In it, Lee traces the lives of four generations of a Korean family who move to Japan and yet are never considered full members of the society.  The novel opens in 1910 and ends in 1989, during which time Korea is annexed by Japan, fought over in a war, split in two, and later closed to many Korean Japanese residents who wish to return.  When Sunja, a young boardinghouse owner’s daughter, becomes pregnant by Hansu, her older married Japanese lover, she is offered marriage by Isak, a sickly young minister.  He takes her to Osaka where they raise two sons.

How these sons and the succeeding generations deal with poverty, limited career options, and the need to hide their true ethnic heritage makes for a moving saga about immigration and living as an outsider.  A pachinko is a Japanese slot machine and several characters run pachinko parlors and become wealthy.  I found the novel overly long, but more absorbing in the second half.  Not sure it would have made my list of 10 best.

Note: Photos and coloring by JWFarrington.

Tidy Tidbits: Books & Culture

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CULTURE NOTES

Over its three-week run, the Sarasota Music Festival brings rising young musicians to town and pairs them with faculty from the orchestra and various conservatories for a series of chamber and full orchestra concerts.  Friday night’s concert included an exquisite performance of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.  This is a piece we know very well, and both the Chief Penguin and I thought it was the best rendition we’d heard.  Thank you, festival director and pianist, Jeffrey Kahane, and thank you, musicians!

 

HISTORIC BETHLEHEM MUSEUMS & SITES

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was founded in 1741 by Moravian settlers and was a very successful community with the first industrial quarter anywhere in America and its own farm called Burnside Plantation.  Visitors to Bethlehem can tour the historic buildings and explore the exhibits in the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts and the Moravian Museum.  In 2014, Bethlehem’s 18th century colonial Germanic architecture was formally recognized as a National Historic Landmark District and designated as Historic Moravian Bethlehem.  But the story doesn’t end there.

Moravian Museum (mapio.net)

While in Bethlehem recently, I met with friends and former board colleagues, Charlene Donchez-Mowers, president, and LoriAnn Wukitsch, vice president and managing director, of Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites.  Through their diligence and persistence, Historic Moravian Bethlehem is now on the U.S. Tentative List for eventual nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List.  This can be a long process as the U.S. Secretary of State and Secretary of Interior can recommend only one site at a time to UNESCO.

Currently, there are four other U.S. sites on the list.  Bethlehem’s chances, however, are likely strengthened by the naming in 2015 of Christiansfeld, Denmark, an historic Moravian community, to the World Heritage List.  Moravian sites in Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, and South Africa are either on pending lists or waiting for nominations to those lists to re-open.  Exciting times for Bethlehem as Moravian heritage gets greater recognition!

 

RECENT READING

 Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Grann’s detailed and thoroughly researched account of the systematic murder of various members of the Osage Indian tribe in the 1920’s is a chilling story of judicial corruption and indifference.  When rich deposits of oil were discovered on the Osage land in Oklahoma, white men quickly developed a great interest in purchasing or acquiring by devious or other means the headrights owned by tribe members.  The deaths of Mollie Burkright and her relatives from illness were later discovered to be the result of poisoning.  Others connected to her were shot or died in an explosion.  Little was done in the way of investigation until J. Edgar Hoover, head of the newly formed FBI, sent agent Tom White there to organize a team and find the criminals.  It’s grim history, but a fascinating and impressive piece of nonfiction.  Thanks to my sister Sal and to the Wall St Journal and other publications for recommending this! (~JWFarrington)  

 

 

 

 

 

SUMMER READING—TRACKING TWENTY

As you may recall, I’m trying to emulate another blogger in reading twenty books between June 1st and September 1st.  Here are my first 4 books.  What are you reading this summer?  I’d like to know.

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter.  This novel is a quasi-documentary about the experiences of the Kurc family, both parents and their five adult children, Jews who lived in small Radom, Poland beginning in 1939.  The chapters alternate between the various family members at different locales from Radom, both before and after it was taken over by the Nazis and then when the country was divided between the Germans and the Russians, to Paris, Italy, and Rio de Janeiro.  It covers the years from 1939 to 1947.  What is incredible is the risks these individuals took, the ghettos, prison and dangers they individually surmounted, and the fact that they all survived the war.

Hunter is the granddaughter of Addy, one of the chief characters, and she undertook extensive research and numerous interviews to uncover and delve into this amazing family’s history.  Unlike many novels about the war, this one has an uplifting ending.  (~JWFarrington)

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. Published in 2007 and told from the perspective of Joan Castleman, wife of very successful husband/author Joe, now a big prize winner, this novel is angry and biting in tone.  On the plane to Oslo for the award ceremony, Joan reflects on their marriage, Joe’s affairs with other women, his early praise for her own writing, and her now firm decision to divorce him.  I didn’t love the book and felt that the twist at the end was a long time coming.  I  look forward, though, to the movie treatment coming out this summer starring Glenn Close.  (~JWFarrington)

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout. This is a book of linked stories including protagonist Lucy Barton from Strout’s earlier novel, My Name is Lucy Barton.  The prose is spare and direct and appears to be just that, but as you contemplate it, it packs a punch.  For the most part, the characters in these stories are not happy, fulfilled individuals.  Rather they harbor secrets and hurts and have had damaged or abusive childhoods.  Their circumstances are reduced, many live in poverty, and acts of kindness and tenderness are the exception not the norm.  God is often invoked, but seldom with piety.

I think my favorite chapter is “Sister,” in which Lucy returns after seventeen years and visits both her brother Pete, mostly a hermit, and her sister Vicky, to whom she sends money.  There are long silences, good and painful reminiscences about their upbringing, recriminations, and then the brother and sister are left behind when Lucy departs.  (~JWFarrington)

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. This is an extraordinary book.  Westover’s life story from childhood to late 20’s is amazing, appalling, wrenching, and powerful.  That she, coming out of such a deprived poverty-stricken, dysfunctional Mormon family, could achieve the success she has is astonishing.  Her survivalist bipolar father distrusts the medical establishment and any form of government including schools.  His children stay at home and work for him in his scrap yard and they have no birth certificates.  It is only at seventeen that Tara first goes to school at Brigham Young University.  One of her brothers regularly physically abuses and taunts her, but her parents both then and later refuse to acknowledge it.

She loves their mountain setting below Buck’s Peak, Idaho, and that peak is a character in its own right.  So strong is the pull of family and the tug of that familiar landscape, that escaping is a long drawn out process as she acquires bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and eventually a PhD.  Her courage and candor and fine writing make this one of the best memoirs I’ve read.   (~JWFarrington)

 

Note:  Peony header photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

 

Around Manhattan: Sculpture & Food

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HUMAN BODY SCULPTED

Like Life: Sculpture, Color and the Body. 

This exhibit at Met Breuer of people from about 1300 to the present takes up two floors of the museum. Classical sculpture of human figures was done in marble, almost always white.  This exhibit explores examples of white sculpture, but also instances of tinted figures and some contemporary works such as the black house painter by American sculptor Duane Hanson.  The second half of the exhibit on the 3rdfloor is more challenging, and I would add, “viewer discretion advised.” It includes bodies in coffins, several crucifixion works, and other works that are bizarre or macabre. It’s both fascinating and occasionally creepy.

DINING FINDS

We are staying in another neighborhood new to us near the Queensboro Bridge and are exploring dining options in the surrounding blocks.  

Tiella—This Italian eatery is small and cozy with a pleasing choice of dishes.  A standout entree was the orata served under layers of wafer thin slices of potato and sautéed spinach flavored with lemon and thyme.

Under the Bridge—A tiny Greek place that quickly becomes loud and boisterous.  We were warmly welcomed with a smile and a big hello and then proceeded to order a range of small plates instead of entrees.  The shrimps in an ouzo laced thick tomato sauce were exceptional, and the grilled halloumi satisfying, while the special zucchini fritters and lemon potatoes rounded out the plate.  Tables are close together so you can easily check out your neighbor’s fare!

Rosa Mexicano—This is part of a chain, but the food seems to be genuine Mexican fare—nothing gloppy or sloppy!  The guacamole is made tableside to your degree of heat and the margaritas are large and potent.   We sampled a quesadilla and some chicken flautas.

Bistro Vendome.  Charming French restaurant with an upper level terrace that was perfect for a spring evening.  We loved the food—duck confit and broiled branzino with fennel and red peppers, preceded by an artichoke salad and a special “cocktail’ of avocado mousse topped with crab meat and mini tomato bits.  Service could have been more attentive than it was.  

READING AND VIEWING

Howards End by E. M. Forster. 

Prompted by my friend Patricia some months ago, I finally got around to re-reading Forster’s novel. I procrastinated until I read that a new version was to be shown on the Starz network.  Despite Forster’s many authorial comments and frequent philosophizing, I enjoyed it.  It questions to what extent we are individually or collectively responsible for the wellbeing and fate of those less fortunate than we.

A novel about social class, it brings into conflict, or at least tension, the arty Schlegel sisters and brother with lower class clerk Leonard Bast.  Add in business tycoon, Henry Wilcox and his family, and you have another set of views based on profit, rationality, and indifference to others.  Margaret Schlegel is the focal point.  She is smart and educated, and has provided a home and stability for her flighty sister and much younger brother after the death of their remaining parent.  Both she and Helen interact with the Wilcoxes, but Margaret’s relations will have a lasting impact.  The novel was original published in 1910.

The BBC production on Starz is in four parts and is very faithful to the book.  Unlike the wonderful film with Emma Thompson, the pacing is more measured and there is more time for small details and character development.

RECENT BOOKS

Every Note Played by Lisa Genova.

Neuroscientist turned author, Genova writes novels that focus on how an individual or a family deals with some tragic illness.  Still Alice, her best-known novel, was about an accomplished professor who was afflicted with early onset Alzheimer’s. It was made into a popular movie of the same title.  Genova then wrote about Huntington’s disease and this latest novel takes up the cause of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease as it’s commonly called.  Stephen Hawking lived more than 30 years with ALS, but he was an exceptional case.

Richard, a world-renowned concert pianist, develops ALS when he’s 45.  He is divorced from Karina, also a talented pianist who put her career aside for him, and father to a college-age daughter named Grace.  As his ALS progresses and it becomes clear that he can no longer stay in his own apartment, Karina takes him in.  The novel reads at times like a documentary or a medical treatise on the ravages of this horrible disease, with the fictional story of Richard and Karina’s tumultuous and bitter relationship an afterthought. I wouldn’t call it a totally successful novel, but as a guide to learning about ALS, it is comprehensive.

The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy.

A staff writer for The New Yorker for the past decade, Levy gives us a memoir of her atypical upbringing and her rough ride through her 20’s and 30’s.  She seeks adventure, travels to exotic locales for work, and, after a mad party-fueled period, marries Lucy, her lover and mentor who turns out to be an alcoholic.  Levy’s account is bold, brash, and very frank.

I have to admit I didn’t particularly like the book.  At times it was too raw, too emotional, and, to me, too self-indulgent.  But it was named a best book of the year by a number of publications including Vogue, Time, The Guardian, and Library Journal, so I guess I’m in the minority.  I also learned after finishing it (I did read it to the end) that my son had worked with her and likes her.

 Notes:  Header photo is Donatello’s Nicollo da Uzzano. All photos by JWFarrington.

Reading Round-up: Books & More Books

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READING ROUND-UP JAN.-MARCH 2018

 In the first quarter, I read all novels except for one memoir  As it happens, the novels were all written by women with the exception of Wells’ 1909 novel.  And that book is about a modern woman.  To read my review of any of these titles, just key in the title in the search box on this page and you will retrieve the blog that contains the review.  Happy browsing!

NOVELS

Albanese, Laurie Lico.  Stolen Beauty

Anderson, Alison.  The Summer Guest

 Kadish, Rachel.  The Weight of Ink

 Meissner, Susan.  The Shape of Mercy

 Perry, Sarah.  The Essex Serpent

 Rieger, Susan.  The Heirs

 Smith, Dinitia.  The Honeymoon

 Wells, H. G.  Ann Veronica

MEMOIR

Cahalan, Susannah.  My Month of Madness

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

AUTHOR NOTE

I was saddened to learn last week of the death of author Anita Shreve.  Not that long ago, I read and blogged about her most recent novel, The Stars Are Fire.  My journey through her work began with The Pilot’s Wife, the Oprah pick that brought her fame and recognition, and continued from there.  She was always a good storyteller, Maine was often the setting, and she was adept at using an historical event as a jumping off point.

 

HISTORICAL MYSTERY

Sarah Maine (www.bricklanestudiosyork.co.uk)

Beyond the Wild River by Sarah Maine.   

Although born in the U.K., author Maine spent part of her growing up years in Canada.  It’s clear that her own experiences in the wild informed the writing of this novel.  Set in 1888 and 1893, mostly in remote Ontario, it’s as much an adventure story as it is a mystery.  In that day, the Nipigon River attracted men from far and away to fish its waters for trout.  It was a rustic camping and canoeing experience even with guides, requiring stamina and skill.  Charles Ballantyre, a very wealthy man, takes his daughter Evelyn to Chicago to the world’s fair and then they go on a fishing expedition on this river.  Five years earlier, two men were murdered on Ballantyre’s Scottish estate.  The man thought by many to be responsible fled, but no one has been brought to justice.  Evelyn has questions about her father’s role in the deaths as well as wondering about the fate of her friend James Douglas.  In the woods, tensions between guides and traveling companions simmer and eventually erupt.  The pace is slow and while you suspect that “the good guys” will triumph in the end, getting there is a detailed interplay of personalities and poses.

Note:  Header photo at Selby Gardens featuring Warhol in the Garden by JW Farrington.