Tidy Tidbits: Books & More

This week was devoted to two little girls, one almost five and the other just turned one, and it was a delightful romp of activity.  From sifting sand at the beach to trying out the pool, from mixing blueberry pancakes with Grandma to icing cupcakes with Grandpa, to arts and crafts with Dad, and island walks with Mom, to stacking blocks, playing game after game and visiting with Snooty the Manatee, it was nonstop until bedtime.    Now the house is quiet (almost too quiet), the blocks and dollhouse gone, and the counters clear.  What a week it was!

TERRIFYING AND POWERFUL

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult’s past novels have dealt with conflict and social issues that are not easily resolved and end up in the courtroom.  Most would consider them to be women’s fiction; albeit women’s fiction with a moral underpinning and an examination of what constitutes justice.   This, her latest novel, received positive reviews and a lot of critical acclaim, and, in my opinion, takes her work to a whole new level.

I read it over the course of a day and a half and was totally swept up in this case of black labor and delivery nurse, Ruth Jefferson, who is accused of causing the death of a baby on her ward.  Ruth is a widow with a seventeen year old son.  The father of the deceased infant is a white supremacist and the scenes describing his wilding rampages and his beliefs gave me chills.  Ruth’s chief advocate in court is a white female public defender named Kennedy McQuarrie, and this is her first big case.

What makes this novel so powerful is how Picoult, in shifting the point of view among the principals, lays out the background and life experiences of these three individuals and their families and demonstrates how racism affects and infects us all.  In an unexpectedly candid note to the reader at the end, Picoult details how she came to write this novel, whom she interviewed, and why the process was a game changer for how she viewed herself and her own attitudes towards race.  A very timely, thought-provoking book!

A LA NINETEENTH CENTURY FICTION

Stone’s Fall by Ian Pears.

This tome of a novel (almost 600 pages) ranges back in time and place from London in 1909 to Paris in 1890 to Venice in 1867.  Financier, industrialist and baron, John Stone falls out of a window and dies.  Was it an accident or murder?  His attractive young widow hires a journalist to locate the unknown child who is the inheritor of his estate.  And thus begins a multi-layered, convoluted, and yet fascinating search into the baron’s past, his career and his relationships with a couple of intriguing women.  Not much is what it seems.  This novel cannot be read quickly and, although, I found it sometimes hard to keep straight one for two of the male characters, I was captivated enough to persevere even though it took me several weeks to complete.  

The book was published in 2009, and Pears states in his Author’s Note that he wanted to write a novel about a financier or industrialist in which the man’s professional life and his personal life were intertwined and he was not a monster.  Pears was once a financial journalist and was surprised when the headlines in the news about the 2008 banking crisis closely resembled events he was writing about in a 19th century context.

FAMILY FARE

After several years of reading about Pier 22 in Bradenton, including its latest rating as the most popular restaurant in our area, we finally got there.  It was lunch with our granddaughters and we sat outside on the terrace overlooking the Manatee River with a view of the Green Bridge.  The menu is quite extensive, includes sushi, and the food much better than I expected.  The blackened grouper sandwiches were pronounced delicious and the chicken nuggets from the children’s menu tastier than the norm.  For those of us with smaller appetites, the lunch pairings are just the right size and bargain-priced at $9.00.  You can order a cup of chowder with a small salad or a salad and half a sandwich.  The house salad was good; the tuna salad on a croissant undistinguished.

Credits:  Photo of Ian Pears (By SylviaStanley – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42515709); Pier 22 (Pier22dining.com)

Sarasota Scene: Music & More

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC!

Recently, we’ve gorged on music—-several instrumental treats plus the Sarasota Opera’s lovely production of Madama Butterfly.  Last Music Monday, Sarasota Orchestra principal oboe, Christine Soojin Kim, was the guest along with the world renowned Bertram Lucarelli.  Although Mr. Lucarelli no longer performs (he’s 80 and reported that after the age of 70, the breathing just doesn’t work the same), it’s clear he is still passionate about this instrument.  We, the audience, were party to a coaching session with Ms. Kim.  She played a beautiful Mozart piece for piano and oboe, and he offered suggestions and comments as she played and then re-played certain sections.  It was a learning experience for us (and it seemed so for her).  She was a good sport to have a master class before 800 people!

This past week, we were introduced to a young French cellist, Edgar Moreau, and the pianist, Jessica Xylina Osborne who often plays with him.  They were a delightful pair and we learned about how she views playing with a wide variety of soloists and whether he approaches orchestral work differently than solo events.  Note that she calls herself a pianist, not an accompanist, as they are partners in the musical enterprise.  They shared works by Bach and others.

Finally, we got to hear again Sarasota’s own Betsy Traba, principal flutist in the Sarasota Orchestra, along with pianist Joe Holt and soprano Jenny Kim-Godfrey. They performed works by Poulenc, Saint-Saens, Mouquet and Mozart.  This was a Lunch Look, Listen recital at Michael’s on East and part of the Festival of French Music being offered this month and next.  All of these young (and established) musicians are worth watching!

DINING FIND–SARASOTA

Although we might not be the hip demographic Coolinary is looking to entice upstairs on Main Street, the Chief Penguin and I very much enjoyed our first meal here.  We were early birds at 5:15 for dinner before the opera and were soon joined by some other couples with the same intent.  It’s a surprisingly large space with a long bar and a mix of normal tables and those trendy high ones (my feet always dangle miles above the floor).

Between us we sampled the Caesar salad (the addition of some apple was unusual, but good); cauliflower fritters (three large battered slices) with a blue cheesy dipping sauce; house smoked salmon; sizzling shrimp on a skillet (love the concept, but they were under seasoned which the chef could easily remedy); and the baby back ribs from the bar food section of the menu.  All the portions were decent to large size and the ribs were especially good.  

Entree choices include grouper, salmon, red snapper, beef, lamb and chicken, and at least one vegetarian dish.  Posters on the wall highlight a number of late night events with live music.  Service was attentive and efficient and we plan to return.

BOOK OF THE WEEK

I’ve had Colson Whitehead’s new novel, The Underground Railroad, on my stack for several months and just finished it.  I found it a powerful evocation of slavery and one woman’s journey toward freedom.  The cruelty, violence, brutality and denigration of slavery are all here along with the courage and risk-taking of those people who are conductors on the railroad.  When Cora makes her escape from the Randall plantation in Georgia she has limited knowledge of the fortitude and resilience that will be required of her.  

Whitehead’s choice to make the stations on the railroad real tunnels and stations is inspired, while his creation of varying sets of rules and expectations for the different states, particularly horrifying in North Carolina and on the surface more civilized in South Carolina, grounds the novel in an unexpected way.  Cora’s travels through these and other states, plus her encounters with slave catcher Ridgeway, graphically highlight how many ways there are to stifle, humiliate and even kill a person.  This book was named to 11 best books-of-the-year lists and won the National Book Award for Fiction—lots of attention and definitely deserved! I recommend it without reservation.

 

Note:  Photo of Ms. Kim from the orchestra’s web site; restaurant photo from Trip Advisor; Mr. Whitehead’s photo from literary-arts.org

Tidy Tidbits: Matters of the Heart (Mostly)

With Valentine’s Day almost here, it seems appropriate to focus on love and romance and lighter fare.  Here are some notes on TV viewing, recent reading and a restaurant (new to us) that would fill the bill for a delicious meal.

ON THE SMALL SCREEN:  Love and Lust

Everyone learns early on that Henry VIII had six wives and that they all came to unpleasant or untimely ends.  Historian Lucy Worsley, both author and TV presenter, is our guide and expert host for a look at his queens, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr, from the women’s perspective.  Animated and knowledgeable, Worsley is ever present in this dramatization.  Her showing up as a lady-in-waiting with a wink to the at-home audience is a dramatic device I found more annoying than enlightening.  Nonetheless, this is an almost saucy take on the king’s roving eye and his desperate drive for a male heir.  Entitled, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, this three part series is on PBS.

ON THE PAGE:  Hearts & Flowers

Sometimes one craves chocolate or a bonbon.  And sometimes I need a break from more literary fiction to read a novel that is engaging, has a complement of romance, and requires no mental strain.  Novels like this present problems—tangled family relationships, secrets that are hurtful, failed marriages—but in the end, things slot into place for a happy ending.  Not a messy or twisted resolution like real life, but satisfying in a way that lets you, the reader, forget politics or the petty annoyances of your own life.

Susan Wiggs writes this kind of women’s fiction and her ongoing series, Lakeshore Chronicles, set in the Catskills, follows the trials and tribulations and loves of the various members of the extended Bellamy Family.  The most recent novel, Starlight on Willow Lake, deals with a widowed caregiver who, struggling to make a life for her two daughters, takes on the care of a prickly demanding quadriplegic whose son has been both physically and emotionally distant.  It’s a good read.  

ON THE PLATE:  Tampa Table

We went up to Tampa the other night for an alumni event at a local restaurant and were pleased to be introduced to Grille One Sixteen.  An attractive open space done in dark wood with white chair seats and a very long, white bar, this dining room delivered on the food.  The Chief Penguin sampled the shrimp and grits and I enjoyed the glazed salmon served on a bed of succotash.  The Caesar salad to start was a generous portion and nicely, but not overwhelmingly, garlicky.  Pre-dinner nibbles at the table included dumpling bites and long strips of Nueske bacon (my favorite!) in a tall glass.  Dessert was little glazed doughnuts, a house specialty.  The full menu also includes a range of steaks, baby back ribs, meatloaf, and burgers.  Based on this meal, I’d happily return!

Header photo:  Painting by Carmen Herrera photographed at the Whitney Museum.  Hearts are free clip art from the web.

 

Tidy Tidbits: Music, Books, Food

MUSICAL NOTES

Did you ever realize that many of Richard Rodgers’ wonderful songs are waltzes?  At Music Monday, we were treated to conversation with Edward Alley (conductor) and Marcus DeLoach (baritone) along with DeLoach’s warm and luscious renditions of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” and other songs from Showboat and South Pacific.  Kudos to June LeBell for the consistently high caliber of programming she presents!

I like that music director Anu Tali is expanding the Sarasota Orchestra’s repertoire beyond the usual standards and pushing the audience to listen outside its comfort zone.  This past week’s concert was nicely balanced between two Tchaikovsky works and Symphony No. 6 (Strata) by contemporary Estonian composer, Erkki-Sven Tuur.  Mr. Tuur was present and addressed the audience before the concert.  His advice to not try and understand the work, but rather to just immerse oneself in the music was helpful, and I found myself enjoying the wall of sound in the opening section (lots of vibrant percussion) and then appreciating the lighter, higher notes that followed.  It was not discordant and hard to listen to like some contemporary music.

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is a very familiar piece and one I’ve heard many times, but never quite like this performance.  Pianist Simon Trpceski’s rendition was robust, almost fierce at times, and watching his hands and feet, hands as they sped over the keys and feet as they stomped on the pedals and then retreated, added to the enjoyment.  He and the orchestra were well matched in the intensity of the playing and the audience responded with vigorous applause.

READING

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald.  This slender novel by the late Fitzgerald was first published in 1978 and recently recommended to me by Elsie at Bookstore 1.  Widow Florence Green decides her small town should have a bookstore and that she should create one.  She opens her small shop, adds a lending library as well, and assumes that all will be well.  With economical sentences that pack much into a few words, Fitzgerald captures the personalities and often small-mindedness of a town set in its ways.  Short on action, this is a slice of life in England in the late 1950’s.

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien.  O’Brien is a noted Irish author of novels, short stories, plays, and poetry and has been much praised.  This is her most recent novel and I’m reading it for my book group.  The main character, Dr. Vlad, is a charismatic healer and teacher who comes from away to take up residence in a small village.  Some of the chapters seem to stand alone and the characters don’t yet seem to have jelled.  I’m not sure what to make of it, but will definitely finish it.

LOCAL DINING—CASUAL & ELEGANT

Cedar Reef Fish Camp.  This casual restaurant off Route 70 in Bradenton near I-75 is a good choice for lunch.  We met Pennsylvania friends traveling south (a repeat of last year) and again found it tasty and reasonably priced.  Their cedar planked salmon is excellent, the French fries too temptingly good, and the regular fish and chips good also.  The special Alaskan Pollock fried fish was skimpy, but then it was one of the cheapest items on offer.  For non-seafood lovers, there are burgers and chicken.  Seating is at booths or tables and the dining room staff were all most welcoming.  They also have two locations in Venice and do take reservations.

Bijou Café.  With white tablecloths, this softly lit dining room always feels and looks elegant, the service is gracious, and the food delicious.  We connected with quasi-local friends here for lunch and appreciated the wide range of menu choices.  The Chief Penguin tucked into the short rib sandwich, the chicken paillard was excellent as always (a larger portion for those hungry at noon), and the crab salad special a hit.  For a leisurely, relaxed meal in downtown Sarasota, this is the place. Reservations recommended as it is popular at all times.

Photos copyright JWFarrington (some rights reserved)