Tidy Tidbits: Reading & Film

TIMELY NOVEL

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Author Lefteri is the child of refugees from Cyprus and once volunteered at a refugee center in Athens.  Her life experiences obviously informed this novel about a refugee couple who flee from war ravaged Syria.  Nuri was a beekeeper, but the war and the death of their young child force them to leave.  England is their desired destination.  Afra is an artist, but since the trauma of Sami’s death, she is blind and speaks little.  The novel is delicate and poignant as you relive their travails through Nuri’s dreams and reflections.  Despite cramped and crowded living conditions, dangerous travel, and a lack of material goods, these two are survivors, always hopeful for a better life with Nuri’s cousin Mustafa in Yorkshire.  There’s a lightness to the writing, it’s never ponderous; a novel of perseverance and patience midst turmoil. I recommend it!

FILM

The Irishman (Netflix and theaters)

Sherran and Hoffa in The Irishman (thedailybeast.com)

This film about the Mafia and Jimmy Hoffa is long, more than 3 hours.  We decided to watch it at home, and by so doing, were able to pause it twice and view it over several nights.  Robert DeNiro is excellent as Frank Sherran, the Irishman of the title, a corrupt labor union official looking back on his long career. Also excellent is Al Pacino as Teamster Union boss Hoffa.  

I found the first third a bit slow and keeping the characters straight somewhat difficult; after that it became more engaging as Hoffa’s story unfolded.  I remember reading about Hoffa’s “disappearance” in real life and was primed for how it was going to play out here.  Not an action film, but there are a number of efficiently executed murders.  There has been quite a bit of press discussion, even controversy about its effectiveness, about the computer-rendered youthfulness of DeNiro (76), Pacino, and others in the early scenes when they are in their 30’s and 40’s. The Chief Penguin liked this film more than I did.

NEW NONFICTION

Following up on my last blog, here’s a list of nonfiction titles, one of which I’ve read, and others which are waiting to be attacked. Two of them are memoirs. First, though, I’m re-reading the novel, The Maze at Windermere, which I selected for my local book group.

Nonfiction

All the Lives We Ever Lived by Kathryn Smyth

American Fire by Monica Hesse

The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power

The Last Ocean:  A Journey Through Memory and Forgetting by Nicole Gerard

This is a book about Alzheimer’s which includes chapters on current research, information on memory facilities, and the role and care needed for caregivers. It’s based around the author’s account of her father’s decline and eventual death from it. I expected there to be more about Gerard’s own experiences, but it turned out to be more nonfiction than memoir. She resides in Britain so there is a natural focus on resources in the U.K. Sobering and dense, but thought provoking, particularly if you are just learning about Alzheimer’s.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Madera and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

Books, Books, Books: 2019 & 2020

I love books. It’s that simple and consequently, most of my recent Christmas gifts and other purchases were books. Here’s a line-up of books recently  acquired that I’ve added to my ever growing and seldom diminishing book stack. Two of them I have already read.

Here, I’ve listed just the fiction titles along with my favorite titles of 2019. A future blog will include new nonfiction titles.

FICTION TO READ IN 2020

Akin by Emma Donogue 

I actually finished Akin, by the author of Room, on the last day of 2019. It’s the story of a 79-year old man, readying himself for a journey to Nice, France, his birthplace, when he gets a call from social services that a great nephew he has never met needs a place to stay. The 11-year old’s mother is in prison, father deceased several years, and grandmother with whom he has been living has just herself died.

Widower and retired chemistry professor Noah takes Michael in and together they journey to France. The journey and their time together is culture shock for both of them, but you can guess how it will end. Donogue is good at capturing the set-in-his routineness of Noah’s life as well as the haphazard nature of Michael’s upbringing and his lack of manners. Their dialogue is mostly believable, and I only questioned one reference Noah made to Michael about his late wife. Very good overall!

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beach Keane 

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan 

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri 

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett 

The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout 

Some people I know found Strout’s earlier work, Olive Kittredge too depressing. I thought it was very well done. And I think this new book about Olive is even better, excellent, in fact! I know why it was nominated for awards and on the year’s best lists.

In it, Olive ages from 73 to 86, acquires a second husband named Jack, although she still reminisces about Henry, her first; interacts with a variety of younger people in the town of Crosby, and generally speaks her mind. She can be both cantankerous and kind. There’s a touching chapter called “Light” about Olive’s visits with former pupil Cindy Coombs, a young woman fighting cancer, in which they each reveal insecurities and worries. What Strout does so wonderfully well is capture the awkwardness and indignities of aging along with the vulnerabilities of both young and old. Olive’s relations with her son have been strained, and after he and his wife and children visit her, she’s forced to reflect on how her own behavior has had an impact on the relationship. Highly recommended!

The Sacrament by Olaf Olafsson 

Testaments by Margaret Atwood

FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2019 (3 novels & 2 nonfiction titles)

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Upstate by James Woods

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gotlieb

No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder

A Reader

Note: Text and photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Summer Reading Recap: 2019

SUMMER READING 

Here is a list of the titles I read this summer. Of these twenty-two titles, seven were on my intended summer reading list.  I started and abandoned American Spy and The Power of the Dog, read one story in Lauren Groff’s Florida, and am more than a quarter of the way into Middlemarch.  It’s a long book and I’m taking it slowly.

My favorite books were The Guest Book, Exposure, and The Lost Man of the novels and Salt Path and Maybe You Should Talk to Someone in nonfiction.  But, I have to say, Into the Raging Sea is an amazing piece of reporting.

FICTION

Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

Evie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Exposure by Helen Dunmore

Force of Nature by Jane Harper (mystery)

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry

The Huntress by Kate Quinn

Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Hazel Gaynor

Lost Man by Jane Harper (mystery)

Mapping Murder by William D. Andrews (mystery)

The Oysterville Sewing Circle by Susan Wiggs

A Question of Trust by Penny Vincenzi

Shadows on the Lake by Giovanni Cocco & Anneris Magella (mystery)

When We Left Cuba by Chantal Cleeton

Winter Cottage by Mary Ellen Taylor

NONFICTION

America’s Reluctant Prince:  Life of JFK Jr. by Steven Gillon

Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb (memoir)

No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder

Salt Path by Raynor Winn (memoir)

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl (memoir)

I also skimmed portions of Adventures in Nanaville by Anna Quindlen and The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates.

Tidy Tidbits: Reading & Eating

CONCERT NOTE

Kudos to the Ladies

Hensel, 1842 by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (Wikipedia)

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was a talented and precocious composer and pianist.  But, she was female, and as sister to her talented brother Felix, she was relegated to the back of the room.  Their father declared that Felix would have the musical career and she would not.  In her day, some of her more than four hundred compositions were attributed to Felix. It is only recently that her work has been rediscovered.

We had the great pleasure recently of hearing a performance of Fanny Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor by three very talented women, Carmit Zori, violin, Natalie Helm, cello, and Jean Schneider, piano.  Pianist Schneider got the biggest workout on this demanding piece.  It concluded the concert and was a fitting end to our set of Sarasota Music Festival concerts!

RECENT READING

When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

This is Cleeton’s second novel related to Cuba, this time featuring Beatriz, one of the sisters in the sugar rich Perez family who fled Havana for Palm Beach after Castro took over their government.  Beatriz is determined to avenge her activist brother’s death in that revolution and very much wants to return to their Havana homestead.  On the periphery of Palm Beach society, restless and bored by the endless round of parties, Beatriz is easily importuned to get involved in espionage. 

Discouraged by what she sees as feeble efforts by the Americans on Cuba’s behalf and quickly becoming involved with highly regarded U.S. senator, Nick Preston, she never knows for sure whom she can trust and to what degree.  This novel about the Cold War and the Cuban crises of the early 60’s is absorbing, suspenseful and romantic.  The perfect beach read! (~JWFarrington)

Exposure by Helen Dunmore

Helen Dunmore was a British poet, novelist and author of children’s books.  A prolific writer, she died of cancer in 2017 at only 64. This novel is one of her last works.  Exposure is a look into London in 1960 during the Cold War when there were still secrets and spies. But it is not a conventional spy novel; rather Dunmore focuses on the details and minutiae of life for three individuals all impacted by the misplacement of a top-secret file.  

Giles Galloway, middle-aged, works for the Admiralty, as does Simon Callington, a younger married father of two children.  Simon’s wife Lily, who emigrated from Germany as a child, is a part-time schoolteacher. When Giles falls in his flat and calls Simon to retrieve the file and return it, but Simon doesn’t, life unravels for all of them.  Giles ends up in the hospital, Simon is arrested, and Lily leaves her job. What secrets they hold close, how they cope with dire straits, and how each puzzles out what should be exposed and what not, make for a multi-faceted novel—part love story, part human drama, part thriller.  (~JWFarrington)

CASUAL DINING

Metro Diner

A friend introduced me to Bradenton’s Metro Diner, one of several local locations for this chain.  The restaurant is airy and attractive with a mix of booths along the walls and tables in the middle of the space.  A large American flag (made of tile?) graces much of one side wall.  Specials of the day are on a blackboard at the rear and included a green tomato BLT, beef pot pie, and two soups of the day (loaded potato and their version of Manhattan clam chowder).  The menu is a mix of traditional diner fare (meatloaf, hot turkey sandwich) as well as fried chicken and waffles, salads, and variations on eggs Benedict for breakfast.   We sampled the beef pot pie and the white meat chicken salad sandwich with cole slaw (one of several choices of sides).  Both were very good.  Portions are generous to very large so go with an appetite.  Our waitress was friendly and helpful and took good care of us. 

Blue Marlin Seafood

Steamed clams

This deep blue cottage is cute inside with nautical notes that would be as right in Maine as they are here in Bradenton Beach.  Our dining partner knew the ropes and had requested a table in the front room—and we got the best one.  This room is quieter and a bit more open than the back room and bar.  For a livelier crowd and a more boisterous experience, there are also outdoor tables and live music.  

Thai snapper nugz

Everything we ordered was fresh and delicious and exceeded my modest expectations.  The house salad had a tasty Caesar-like dressing, and my steamed clams were luscious in a broth that included nubs of bacon and a dash of hot pepper along with the requisite garlic.  My companions ordered fish nuggets prepared Thai style, exquisite scallops on roasted Brussels sprouts, and the black grouper (fish of the day).  We ordered mostly small plates and small salads which are very reasonably priced; the fish entrees tend toward the mid-30’s. This was a great discovery and we’ll put it on our regular list!

Note: Text and photos ©JWFarrington except as noted.