Tidy Tidbits: Mothers & Meals

NOVEL PAIRING

The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee

I really enjoyed Lee’s first novel, The Piano Teacher, and so approached her new one with enthusiasm.  It too is wonderful, but in a different way.  Set in the present rather than the past, it details the daily lives over the course of a year of three expatriate women living in Hong Kong.  Like Anne Beattie, whose own stories delineate the fine structure of daily life, Lee knows this turf and her novel is rich with references to specific shops, clubs, and neighborhoods.  Two of these women are acquainted at the start (Mercy had worked for Margaret), but by the end all three, Mercy, Margaret, and Hilary, have intersected.

It is a novel mostly about motherhood—the angst of wanting a child, the tentativeness of trying out a child on loan, and the pain of losing a child coupled with, in Margaret’s case, the joys of cuddling and cosseting one’s existing children.  But it’s also a depiction of being an outsider in a culture, even if, like Mercy, you are half Asian.  I felt that Lee kept the reader at a distance from her characters; you knew their lives and habits, but you didn’t inhabit them.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Like Lee, Celeste Ng is a mother as well as a writer.  This first novel, winner of several awards, is a poignant story about a mixed race family in Ohio in the late 1970’s.  Husband James is Chinese American and wife Marilyn, a Caucasian from Virginia.  James and their three children stick out in small town Middlewood and each must deal with being singled out and looking different.  Sixteen year old Lydia bears the heavy weight of unrealistic parental expectations and when she goes missing, the family implodes.  It’s a book that makes one reflect on the sometimes unspoken demands we place on our children to their detriment.  Sobering and yet believable.  Marilyn is something of a Tiger mother.

SARASOTA SAMPLER

Expanding our local dining forays, but, we hope, not our waistlines, we tried two new restaurants this past week.

Yume in downtown Sarasota is a perfect choice for a Japanese lunch.  Among the four of us, we enjoyed several lunch specials:   chicken teriyaki and the eel, accompanied by rice and stir fried vegetables plus a small green salad or miso soup, and the spicy tuna roll with a side of seaweed salad.  Prices are very reasonable and the restaurant was not crowded.  Their longer menu also includes some Thai dishes.

Mozaic.  This is one of Sarasota’s fine dining restaurants (read a bit more expensive) and we ate here before the opera.  The menu is more creative than some other places, and we were pleased with what we ordered.  I thought the sautéed shrimp over lemon risotto was very tasty, and my spouse loved the crab cake salad and his side of lamb merguez sausage.

SMALL SCREEN SCRIBBLES

Mercy Street.  So far, I’d give this series a B, maybe a B+, but not an A.  It’s PBS’s first attempt at this kind of historical series and they just haven’t done it like the Brits do.  I’ve now watched the first three episodes.

Downton Abbey.  I’m mourning the end of Downton Abbey and the finale is still 24 hours away! I thought last week’s episode was one of the best and was particularly struck by the scene between Mary and her grandmother.  The dowager duchess opines about love and its importance in one’s life and then gives her granddaughter a hug.  Hugs are seldom seen between these folks, and I found this one touching and somehow very right.

Tidy Tidbits: Tides & Titles

WORDS ON WEATHER

Hunkering Down

Last weekend our friends and family cocooned in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New York during winter storm Jonas.  We watched from afar, thanks to the Weather Channel and the Web, almost gleeful that we were here in Florida.  But, like men’s sympathetic pregnancies, we hunkered down too—staying indoors, feasting on forbidden foods (a luscious strip steak!), and savoring hot soup.  After all, outside was only 50 degrees with a cold stiff wind and white caps on the bay!

Minus Tides

Living on the edge of said bay, we get to observe the daily and seasonal variation of the tides.  The changes over the course of a typical day are not usually extreme, but the other morning I noticed that it was low tide and we were getting a “mud flats” effect.  This is unusual for us and it got me to wondering about the tide levels.  I checked the newspaper and the low tide that morning for just before 8:00 am was a negative .6 feet.  Getting even more curious, I did a bit of research (thank you, Google!) and learned that there is a mean low tide number for each area that is considered zero; high and low tides are measured up or down against this.   So my minus six meant that this tide was half a foot lower than the mean low tide!  Hence the mud, hence more birds at the water’s edge.

And since the tides are governed partly by the moon, this week’s very low tide was associated with a gorgeous buttery-colored full moon.  My citizen science colleagues in California were always keen to be observing life in the tidal areas during minus low tides and scheduled outings with our volunteers for those dates, even if it meant being on the water at 5:00 or 6:00 am.

TITLES STACKED UP

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As usual, I have too many books waiting to be read, but that only means that I’ll never lack for reading material!  Here is a small selection of those waiting in the wings.

Expatriate Lives by Janice Y.K.  Lee.  (A much touted new novel by the author of The Piano Teacher.)

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff.  (I’ve put off long enough reading this highly praised novel from the author of The Monsters of Templeton.)

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout.  (The latest novel from the author of Olive Kittredge, one of my favorite books.)

West with the Night by Beryl Markham.  (A memoir by an early aviator, this will be a re-read for me for the local book group.  I first read it many years ago with the Penn book group.)

The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr.  (From the author of several raw, lay-it-bare memoirs, this book supposedly informs the reader how to create a memoir.)

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.  (A pass along from my sister and an important contribution to the national discussion about race in America.)

POSTSCRIPT

I also want to report that I finished A Master Plan for Rescue and it was wonderful!  There’s a parallel story about a passenger on the ill-fated and unwelcome ship, St. Louis, and this man intersects with the boy Jack in ways that are initially amusing and touching and ultimately, life-changing.