Category: Reading

New Year: Books and Reading

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BOOKS AS GIFTS

Happy New Year!  I hope that you had fun and relaxing holidays and made it to to your intended destination.  We survived two cold weeks in Manhattan and were fortunate not to have any snow.  We gladly welcomed in the new year in Florida with fog and the return of temperatures around 70!

I’m always delighted to receive books as gifts, and this year was no exception.  I vow every year that I will give priority to my Christmas books and read them all before mid-year. Sounds like a simple goal to accomplish, but I admit to getting sidetracked by other books that have been languishing in my stack or by new books that call out loudly to me.  Pictured are the books I received on paper, and here are the titles.

April in Spain by John Banville (crime novel by a noted Irish author)

The Grimkes:  The Legacy of Slavery an American Family by Kerri Greenidge (biography)

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (novel inspired by David Copperfield)

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (novel by a favorite author)

The Orphan of Salt Winds by Elizabeth Brooks (gothic tale set in a mysterious house)

Stack of books

In addition, I have four Kindle gift books.  I’m happy to report that I’ve already read three of them!

KINDLE READING

Works by Claire Keegan

Claire Keegan (The New Yorker)

Claire Keegan is an award-winning Irish writer known for her short stories and novellas.  She has received considerable publicity of late given her nomination for the 2022 Booker Prize.  Her writing is spare and exact and yet presents the quotidian details of life in an understated way.

I received two of her recent works and found them both quick reads, but powerful in the sense of the community she creates and the impressions they left on me as reader.  I highly recommend both!

Small Things Like These

It’s 1985, just before Christmas in a small Irish town.   Coal vendor Bill Furlong is making deliveries to the locals and to the convent.  When he stops at the convent, he sees something that gives him pause, but he continues with his rounds.  What he saw at the convent and his dealings with the sister in charge haunt him and present him with a complex dilemma.  This is a quiet story and a demonstration of one man’s provocative courage. It was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

Foster

In the summer, a father takes his little girl to the country to stay with relatives.  She is one of many children in her family, and no one tells her why or for how long she will be away from home.  She doesn’t know what to expect, but with the Kinsellas, she finds kind attention, respect, and even affection.  But there’s also a mystery in this house.  This is a story of love and loss as perceived by a young girl.  It’s poignant and sad. 

Domestic Suspense

Shari Lapena (The Toronto Star)

The End of Her by Shari Lapena

The End of Her was my first exposure to the works of Shari Lapena.  A Canadian novelist, she writes domestic suspense fiction.  Patrick and Stephanie have been married for several years.  He’s an architect and they have twins.  Stephanie knew that Patrick’s first wife had died in a car accident, but not much more.  Erica, a woman from his past, appears and has all sorts of damaging information to share with Stephanie about how his wife really died.  Patrick proclaims his innocence, but Stephanie, and the reader, are unsure what the truth is and who to believe.  

This was a real change of pace after Keegan’s works.  I found it gripping and I raced to the finish.  Some of the actions or lack of action by Stephanie aren’t quite convincing, but the book is a heart-pounding rollercoaster ride.  

Still awaiting me on my Kindle is:  The Night Singer by Johanna Mo.  It’s the first book in a Scandinavian crime trilogy.  

Tidy Tidbits: TV, Novel, & Meal

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RECENT VIEWING

FLUFF FOR FUN

Love and Gelato (Netflix)

Lina promises her dying mother that she will spend the summer before college in Rome.  In this bonbon to Italy, she falls in love with the city and the people.  Along the way, she has several romantic interests while being under the protective care of Francesca, her mother’s longtime friend.  It is a summer of firsts for Lina as she wonders about her unknown father.  The movie is based on a young adult novel of the same name.   I happened on this when I was looking for some treadmill viewing.  It’s cute and sweet, and less predictable than I expected.  

LASTING TRAUMA OF WAR

Causeway (Apple+)

James and Lynsey in Causeway (Slant Magazine)

I had just read a review of this new movie starring Jennifer Lawrence when the Chief Penguin and I were settling in to watch something else and up popped a link to Causeway.  It’s a slow measured film about returning Afghanistan vet Lynsey who suffered a brain injury from an exploding IED.  

Returning home after rehabilitation, she struggles to put a life back together.  She meets car mechanic James who lost a leg in a car accident, and the two hesitantly gravitate toward spending time together.  They are about as dissimilar as can be, one white, one Black, one straight, one gay, but both broken in some way.  The performances are moving, Brian Tyree Henry’s as much as Lawrence’s.  It’s painful viewing at points, but a meaningful film.  

UNUSUAL HEROINE

The English (Amazon Prime)

Blunt in The English (FilmBook)

Emily Blunt stars and is an executive producer of this western set in 1890 on the plains in Kansas and Oklahoma.  Based on the review I read, I was predisposed to like it, but I’m finding it hard going. 

Blunt is Lady Cornelia Locke, an English woman bent on revenge for the killing of her young son.  On her journey, she encounters and is rescued by Sgt. Eli Whipp, a now retired Pawnee scout, played by Chaske Spencer.  His goal is to file a land claim for an allotment in Nebraska.  They are an unlikely pair, but slowly they begin to accept each other, and a fragile trust is born.  It’s a lawless time out west with every man out for himself.  

The scenery is stunning, the violence gruesome and gory, and the pace is deliberate and slow.  I’ve watched almost three episodes of the six while on the treadmill, but it’s so slow, that I may return to it when I am not moving. 

NEW FICTION

FAMILY SAGA

French Braid by Anne Tyler

Tyler at 80 (Sydney Morning Herald)

Tyler’s most recent novel, French Braid, was my book group’s pick for November.  While I didn’t love this book, most of the group didn’t care for it at all.  We grappled with whether Mercy, the mother, was the focal point and if she was a typical woman of the 1950’s and 60’s, frustrated in middle age in her attempts to have a career. 

Over 60 years, the book follows the Garrett family of Mercy, her husband Robin, and their three children, Lily, Alice, and David. It begins with their first family vacation in 1959 through the children’s marriages, Robin and Mercy’s 50th wedding anniversary, and the arrival of several grandchildren.  They are a diffuse collective who are often detached and aloof from one another.  

Mercy, an aspiring artist and unfulfilled mother, effectively leaves her husband for her art, but neither she nor the other family members publicly acknowledge that fact.  David, the youngest child, seldom communicates with his parents or sisters and quietly marries a work colleague.  In later years, a grandson doesn’t socialize with relatives believing they are unaware that he is gay and has a partner.  

Tyler’s writing is always engaging even if you don’t care for the characters.  You can appreciate what she is doing and how she demonstrates that common personality traits or actual gestures persist through the generations. They connect these seemingly disparate individuals like the kinked strands of hair in a French braid.  (~JWFarrington)

DINING OUT

Scuderia Italian Cuisine, Bradenton

Located next to the Oakmont Theater on Cortez Road West, Scuderia is a new addition to Bradenton’s dining scene.  It specializes in pizzas and pasta in an open space with an industrial feel to it.

We dined here recently with friends and found the service friendly and welcoming and the food very good.  The portions are generous, and several of us had some to take home for the next day’s lunch.  Among us, we sampled the penne pasta with meatballs, clams with linguini, and several of the chicken dishes.  I thought the chicken franchaise with spinach was particularly good.  Side salads came with a wide choice of dressings.  Good for casual dining.  Next time, we should try a pizza.

Note: Header photo is a scene from the film, Love and Gelato (Netflix Life).

Tidy Tidbits: Reading & Watching

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Although it is still warm and summery in Florida, November ushers in a season for looking inward and spending time inside. With that in mind, here are thoughts on some of my recent reading and viewing.

RECENT READING

SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

If you’ve read other novels by Mainer Elizabeth Strout, you may be acquainted with Lucy Barton.  She was introduced in My Name is Lucy Barton, and readers learned about her marriage to first husband William in the most recent work, Oh, William.  I’m a big fan of Strout’s work and have read almost all her novels.

Illustration from The New Yorker

This one, I found especially poignant and meaningful.  Lucy by the Sea takes place from the beginning of the pandemic until the vaccines become available.  The first part is hard to read; it brings back so many memories of the uncertainty and then fear, many of us felt about this deadly new virus.

Lucy’s second husband David has died, and William comes to New York to take Lucy to Maine—initially she thinks for just a few weeks.  They are in a rented house by the water and the changing weather, and the roll of the seasons, play a role in the story.  Lucy is a novelist but also a fearful person, whose deprived and neglected childhood has made her feel inferior and not special.  

The novel is told primarily through Lucy’s voice.  It’s a strong voice on the page as she muses about William’s quirks and lacks, reflects on past events in her two marriages, and worries about her grown daughters, Chrissy and Becka.  Given that she and William are in lockdown away from all but a few new friends, it’s a time for contemplation and assessing one’s life.  

For me, this book was a meditation on love of all sorts: marital, maternal, friendship—and on grief.  Grief over the losses of spouse and friends and grief over the troubles and trials of her daughters’ marriages.  It’s a beautiful novel, and I highly recommend it! (~JWFarrington)

RELIGION IN AN ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE

Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer

Lauren Belfer came onto the scene in 1999 with her wonderful historical novel, City of Light.  Subsequent books include A Fierce Radiance about the invention of penicillin and After the Fire, a quest to learn about a long-hidden music manuscript.  I thoroughly enjoyed all three novels. Her latest novel, Ashton Hall, is set in the present, but in an old English country house with secrets in its attic.  

As usual, Belfer’s latest work is thoroughly researched, so much so that at times I felt the history she wanted to share slowed down the narrative.  One of the contemporary characters is a boy who suffers from autism.  His behavior is challenging and yet, he is the one who uncovers the initial secret.  Creating this character and making him a focus were obviously important to Belfer.  I read the novel through to the end, but overall was disappointed.  There was too much going on and too many disparate strands for it to be a satisfying whole.  

VIEWING

CRIME OFF SCOTLAND

Shetland Season 7 (Amazon Prime)

Jimmy (Henshall) & Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) (The Sun)

This is Douglas Henshall’s last season as detective Jimmy Perez, and it’s an excellent season.  A young man, a graphic novelist, is reported missing.  His mother is distraught and his father, an ex-policeman, has skeletons in his past.  When there seem to be possible links to eco-terrorism, the search for Connor becomes more complex, and there are more bodies.  

Perez is dedicated to his job, but the strain of it is beginning to tell.  He is both burying and fighting his feelings for Meg, a nurse.  Meanwhile, his team of Tosh, Sandy, and Billy, are as engaging and effective as ever, making for some great ensemble acting.  There are seven episodes encompassing one overarching storyline.  Highly recommended for fans of complex crime series! Season 8 with a new, yet-to-be-named lead will be filmed and released in 2023.

CROSS CULTURAL LOVE STORY

From Scratch (Netflix)

Lino & Amy (BuzzFeed)

From Scratch, a Netflix original series, is the story of what happens when a young Black artist from Texas goes to Florence and meets an aspiring chef from Sicily.  Against her parents’, particularly her father’s, wishes, Amy leaves home to take a painting course in Italy.  Lino, estranged from his farmer father, is working as a cook in a Florentine restaurant.  They both have dreams of greater success, and they resolve to make a life together.  Initially, it seems that bringing their respective families to acceptance of their relationship will be the greatest challenge.  But not so.

I thought the first few episodes were overwritten and overplayed in terms of racial and cultural stereotypes.  Amy’s father was particularly egregious.  Later episodes are tamer, and I’ve stuck with the series (eight episodes), having become fully immersed in Amy and Lino’s story.  It’s a passionate, at times heartrending, drama, based on Tempi Locke’s memoir of the same name published in 2019.  

Note: Cover photo of a November sunset ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Book Notes

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FEEDBACK FROM MY READERS

Here are several titles my readers especially enjoyed this summer. Plus two mystery series they recommended that I didn’t know about. Fun!

SUMMER FAVORITES

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark (Kathy & Alice)

Leaving Coy’s Hill by Katherine A. Sherbrooke (Sally)

Mercury Pictures Present by Anthony Marra (Claudia)

RECOMMENDED MYSTERY SERIES

Elly Griffiths (author interviews.co.uk)

English archaeology professor Ruth Galloway, whose expertise is bones, works with the police in a series by Elly Griffiths.  First book is: The Crossing Places which I’ve now read and enjoyed.  Set in a salt marsh, it’s atmospheric with myth and legends too. Now I’m into #2 in the series.  (Thanks to Claudia for this suggestion.)

Fred Vargas (fantastic fiction.com)

Commissaire Adamsberg is the detective in a French series by historian and archaeologist Fred Vargas.  Her books were recommended to me by Ed, and I have the first one, The Chalk Circle Man, waiting on my Kindle.  It was published in 1991, but only recently became available in English.

Both of these are long-running series with 9 titles in this series and fourteen in the Galloway one.

RECENT READING—LIBRARIANS & MORE MAINE

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

(madelinemartin.com)

In the continuing spate of books about bookstores, libraries, and librarians, Madeline Martin’s entry, The Librarian Spy, is a gripping story that may haunt your dreams.  Based on actual events with fictional characters inspired by real people, this novel of WWII is set simultaneously in Lisbon and Lyon.  Although Portugal was neutral, refugees and spies were numerous and the Portuguese secret police to be feared.

Ava Harper, a rare book librarian at the Library of Congress is sent to Lisbon to work for the government collecting newspapers and magazines to be microfilmed and sent back to Washington.  Her daily work is important, but seemingly routine until she becomes involved in trying to get refugees safe passage out of Europe to the States.  Over in France, housewife Elaine, volunteers for a Resistance group printing and distributing anti-Nazi newspapers.  These clandestine activities put her and her colleagues at frequent risk of arrest and imprisonment or worse.  Unknown to each other, she and Ava exchange coded messages while working to assist those in danger.  

Many of the characters are based on historical figures.  And the IDC (Interdepartmental Committee for the Acquisition of Foreign Publications) for which Ava worked, was a real organization, but did not have any female operatives.  Martin’s novel is a compelling addition to the literature about WWII.  (~JWFarrington)

Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore

Meg Moore (rjjulia.com)

Consider this domestic novel a last gasp of summer.  Louisa, a professor, is spending the summer with her three children at her parent’s house on the coast of Maine.  She loves this place, and it has a strong hold on her emotions.  While struggling to write a book on deadline, she must deal with her children’s various issues, her father’s declining health, and the fact that her husband seems content to stay back in Brooklyn working on his start-up. 

Enter Kristie, a young woman with a sad past, lots of baggage, and a secret she wants to explore.  Her interactions with Louisa and her family disrupt summer’s idyll.  Both Kristie and Louisa must face the consequences of their own and others’ actions. 

I thought this novel was excellent in its depiction of daily life with three active children, but, for me, Louisa was undisciplined and too whiny.  I also enjoyed the setting near Camden and references to places I know. (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is interior of Scuppernong Books in Greensboro.