AN EXPLANATION
Some of my readers may wonder why I refer to my spouse as the Chief Penguin or C. P. After he was a university president, Greg became the head (CEO) of a museum, the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco. In an early interview with a reporter from the Chronicle, he stated that previously, he worried what the fraternity guys got up to at night. He was relieved to forego that concern; now he just had the museum’s colony of South African penguins. “I know where they are at night,” he quipped. “I guess I’m the Chief Penguin.” That was quoted, and it was adopted by many of the Academy staff as an affectionate moniker. As they say, it stuck! Now, in our home, you will find an assortment of plush penguins and even a penguin sculpture.
RECENT READING
The Magician by Colm Toibin
I’m a big fan of Toibin’s novels and especially enjoyed The Master about Henry James and Brooklyn. His latest novel, The Magician, is equally wonderful. Thomas Mann, the greatest German writer of his time and a Nobel Prize winner, is the subject along with his large family. As a noted author, his countrymen looked to him for his views on politics, especially about the two world wars. When Hitler came to power, Mann was slow to recognize Hitler for the danger he represented, and only belatedly, escaped from Germany to Sweden and then to the U.S.
The father of six, Mann occasionally bore the brunt of publicity due to the activities of his relatives. The writings of his outspoken brother Heinrich and the anti-Fascist activities of his two oldest children, Klaus and Erika, reflected negatively on him. His public responses to the strife were more measured as he desperately wanted to hold on to his German audience and keep his books in print.
This is rich portrait of several generations of the Mann family with a focus on Thomas Mann’s creative process: how he approached his writing, what he tried to convey in his works, and how his secret homosexual desires, detailed in his diaries, crept into his novels. For the most part, Toibin neither applauds nor condemns Mann, but presents an immersive, fascinating take on the man and the writer. (~JWFarrington)
A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe
I just read a review of Lost Daughter, the new film starring Olivia Colman, that posited that being a mother takes something significant away from a woman. In A Woman of Intelligence, set in 1954, a smart married woman, who previously worked as a translator for the United Nations, finds herself tied down, constrained, and frustrated by the demands of her family. A rising star, pediatric surgeon Tom wants Rina to be the perfect wife—solely devoted to her husband, a gracious hostess, and doting on her children. When she is approached by the FBI to gather information on a suspect, she leaps at the chance to escape her humdrum daily life and exercise her mind. This is a compelling novel, albeit a grim view of motherhood, that moves quickly. Recommended light reading! (~JWFarrington)
MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021
These fifteen titles represent the books I enjoyed the most or thought were the best written of the more than fifty books I read this past year. It’s always hard to narrow down the list, but here it is. What books did you enjoy the most? One friend already sent me her 2021 list.
NOVELS, CONTEMPORARY & HISTORICAL
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Honor by Thrity Unrigar (advance copy; 2022)
Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Murray
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
MYSTERY
Survivors by Jane Harper
BIOGRAPHIES
Eleanor by David Michaelis
The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura
AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIRS
All In by Billie Jean King
Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad
Both/And: A Life in Two Worlds by Huma Abedin
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
NONFICTION
The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights by Dorothy Wickenden
The Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
Note: The header photo of kids in book boats is a bit of whimsy. Alas, I don’t remember the source of this photo.
