Summer Fare: Reading & Watching

This week was a good one for reading, and I’ve now checked two more books off my summer list.  I also watched the first season of All Heart on the treadmill, while the Chief Penguin and I learned some significant medical history in the engrossing Charite’ series. 

WEALTH AND HORSE RACING

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Author Diaz (BookPage)

Argentinian author Hernan Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for Trust, a financial family saga.  Set in New York, mostly in the 1920’s and 30’s, it’s primarily the tale of Andrew Bevel and his wife Mildred.  Their story is told by Andrew but also by a novelist, a stenographer, and through a long undiscovered diary.  The novel is in 4 parts, the first being “Bonds,” the 1937 novel within the novel which charts the lineage and rise of Benjamin Rask (the fictional Andrew Bevel) and his wife Helen.  

Andrew Bevel disagrees violently with the fictional depiction of his wife and arranges to write his autobiography.  How he perceives the events of his life, how others see them, and what his wife was really like unfold as the novel progresses.  There are financial details, repeated discussions of the 1929 and other stock market crashes, and descriptions of Andrew’s role in these events.  

The book has been highly and widely praised for being brilliant, charming, ingenious, and a host of other superlatives.  I have to say while I found it engaging and intriguing enough to read to the end, I was never completely captivated, nor did I find it exhilarating.  I did, however, appreciate the clever twist as the truth of events was unveiled.  Mildly recommended.  Perhaps of greater interest to readers interested in the financial world of an earlier time. (~JWFarrington)

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Brooks (Wikipedia)

Born in Australia, but residing in Massachusetts, Geraldine Brooks is a favorite author of mine.  I loved this novel!  It’s rich in historical detail, has complex characters (some based on real people and the others contemporary and fictional), and a sweeping time frame moving back and forth between the 1850’s, 1956, and 2019.  Ms. Brooks obviously knows and cares for horses.  With delicacy and thoroughness, she depicts the close relationship between enslaved Jarret and Darley, aka Lexington, the horse he trains; that itself is a love story.  

In the 1850’s, horse racing in the South was dominated by rich white plantation owners.  With slavery in place, trainers were slaves who could be easily sold to another owner.  Jarrett, a boy then young man, goes from being Warfield’s Jarret to Ten Broeck’s Jarret to Alexander’s Jarret until after the Civil War he is finally himself, Jarret Lewis.  

In the present day, a tossed aside painting sets in motion the examination of a horse skeleton and research on 19th century artist Thomas Scott.  Jess works in a conservation lab and Theo, a Black graduate student in art history, brings in the painting.  Thus begins their tentative, but warm relationship.  

Although one might posit that Brooks’ treatment of racism in 2019 is predictable, it is nonetheless believable.  Jess and Theo are fully realized characters, not cardboard cutouts.  Likewise, the portrayals of artist Scott and donor Martha Jackson add further depth to the story.  Highly recommended, whether you are familiar with or a lover of horses or not!  (~JWFarrington)

MEDICAL DRAMA ON SCREEN

All Heart (PBS Masterpiece)

Alberto, Delia, & Cesare (Just Watch)

This series, Cuori in Italian, from Walter Presents is set in Turin, Italy in the 1960’s.  Swedish doctor Alberto Ferraris is recruited to work with lead physician Cesare Corvara on quietly developing an artificial heart.  Tensions between the doctors on staff and qualms on the part of the Catholic Church about funding such an effort pose roadblocks.  Add in the arrival of an American cardiologist, a female no less, and work relations between colleagues suffer.  

Delia Brunello is not only highly accomplished, but she is also Cesare’s wife and knew Alberto in a past life.  Highly entertaining for both the medicine and the heart troubles.  Season 1 has eight episodes.  There is a second season, but I don’t think it is available here yet. (~JWFarrington)

Charite’ Seasons 1 & 2 (PBS Masterpiece; possibly also Netflix)

Nurse Lenze (The Movie Database)

Charite‘ is a historical German drama series set in Berlin in the late 19th century at the famous Charite’ Hospital.  Ida Lenze works as a nurse to pay off a debt, discovers she likes medicine and aspires to become a doctor.   She is curious and strong willed and interacts with several doctors who became famous and were later awarded for their efforts to develop vaccines.  Robert Koch is the only one I knew of beforehand.  His twin focus was on fighting tuberculosis and courting his actress girlfriend.  

Two other doctors research and experiment with injections to prevent diphtheria or at least curb its virulence.  Personal dramas and professional egos occasionally get in the way of reliable results.  It’s an engrossing first season. With its graphic depictions of primitive surgical techniques, one appreciates the many vaccines of today. There are three seasons, each consisting of 6 episodes.

We completed Season 1 and have now watched two episodes of the second one.  It’s set in 1943 and is both chilling and painful at points.  A young couple, both doctors, full subscribe to Hitler’s aims, and that impacts how they practice medicine.  Initially, the war seems faraway in Berlin until returning injured soldiers share what the front is really like.  Set against the Waldhausen couple are professor and doctor Ferdinand Sauerbruch and his wife Margot, also a doctor.  Compassionate and accomplished, they become aware of the insidious undercurrents in medical care at Charite’.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header image is Thomas Scott’s 1857 painting of Lexington, the very famous 19th century race horse, courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine.

Summer Reading: A Book List

I always have ambitious goals for my summer reading and this year is no exception.  I create a list and aim to read as many of the titles as possible.  I usually fall short.  I get sidetracked by other appealing works or find a particular book not engaging (I allow at least 50 pages before I retreat).  Or somehow the premise of a novel or nonfiction work no longer resonates with my summer state of mind.  And, of course, some summer reading should be just for fun—whether it’s a mystery, a romance, or an adventure tale!

Here’s my baker’s dozen to read before Labor Day. Maybe.

FICTION

Careless Love: A DCI Banks Novel by Peter Robinson

I’ve read many, but not all of Robinson’s suspense novels.  This definitely falls into the fun category.  It’s #25 out of 28 in the series.  Several earlier books were adapted for a very good TV series.

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

Walls is the author of the memoir, The Glass Castle, about her nomadic upbringing.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano 

A contemporary take on Little Women

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

One of my all-time favorite writers.  I started this in hardback earlier this year, now I will finish it.

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

Historical novel about a community on a Maine island.  Harding’s first novel, Tinkers, published in 2009 won a Pulitzer Prize.

The Shooting at Chateau Rock by Martin Walker

Having seen Walker give a serious talk, I’m curious to read one of his Chief Bruno mysteries, this one set in the Dordogne.  

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

Journalist, author and former chef, this novel by Kennedy is set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Three by Valerie Perrin

I loved Perrin’s previous novel, Fresh Water for Flowers.  This one is also translated from the French.

Trust by Hernan Diaz

A family saga, a Best Book of the Year (NY Times) and a Pulitzer Prize winner.

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

Another mystery by the Maisie Dobbs author, this one with a new character.

NONFICTION

The Best Minds:  A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen

Memoir about two best friends since childhood.

The Grimkes:  The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family by Kerri K. Greenidge

Anti-slavery sister activists in the 19th century.

The Lobster Coast by Colin Woodard

I spend much of the summer in Maine. This is a chance to learn more about its history.

Note: Header image of woman reading is from readersdigest.co.uk

Summer Reading Recap & Reviews

With Labor Day upon us, it’s time to review and recap the books I’ve read this summer.  Some from my June summer reading list for sure, but many others discovered along the way.  Here’s a list of titles followed by notes on three recent reads, each one featuring strong women who served their countries during wartime.

MYSTERIES

Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Something to Hide by Elizabeth George

HISTORICAL NOVELS

American Duchess by Karen Harper [Consuelo Vanderbilt & NY society]

Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis [Frick family & museum]

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton

OTHER NOVELS

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark. [set in Maine]

Haven Point by Virginia Hume [Maine colony]

The Midcoast by Adam White [Damariscotta, Maine]

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

One Night on the Island by Josie Silver

What Remains of Love by Susan Trauth

RECENT READING:  LAFAYETTE, MITFORDS, & SNIPERS

Women Active in Wartime

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray

Stephanie Dray specializes in long historical novels about fascinating women.  Patsy Jefferson, the president’s daughter was one subject and Eliza Schuyler Hamilton another in a novel called My Dear Hamilton.  I read and really enjoyed the latter one and was prompted by that to read The Women of Chateau Lafayette.

It’s set in three different time periods and focuses on three women, each of whom has a connection to Chateau de Chavaniac, Gilbert Lafayette’s home.  While American schoolchildren learn early on that Lafayette was a key figure in the American Revolution, few, I would wager, have any idea of how active and dedicated his wife Adrienne was both to him and to the cause of liberty.  

Beatrice Chanler (br.pinterest.com)

During WWI, American socialite Beatrice Chanler, trapped in marriage to politically connected wealthy Willie, surpasses him in her efforts for peace and American involvement in the war.  She shuttled between Paris and Chavaniac to assist sick children being housed and cared for there. 

Lastly, Marthe Simone, a French teacher and aspiring artist, becomes deeply involved in protecting and harboring children at Chavaniac during the 1940’s in Nazi-occupied France. 

It’s clear from the author’s end note that she did prodigious amounts of research to re-create the lives of these three courageous women, their spouses, families, and friends.  Adrienne Lafayette and Beatrice Chanler and some supporting characters were real people.   It’s a riveting novel with much about the French Revolution I did not know! (~JWFarrington)

For Book Lovers

The Mayfair Bookshop by Eliza Knight

Interior of Heywood Hill (nytimes.com)

My blog readers know I’m a big fan of bookstores, particularly well curated independent ones.  This novel about Nancy Mitford is set in London around WWII and in the present day.  The bookstore in question, Heywood Hill, still exists today and is charming and inviting.  It’s a place I frequented quite often when the Chief Penguin and I lived in London.  During the war years, Nancy Mitford worked there and was invaluable in Heywood Hill becoming a literary salon and a haven for soldiers home on leave. 

N. Mitford (English-heritage.org.uk)

Based on Mitford and her wildly diverse and even infamous siblings, the novel brings to life Nancy’s layered life as novelist, aristocrat, and war volunteer.  Unhappy and bereft in her marriage to Peter Rood, she enjoys a host of friendships with others of her class, writers including Evelyn Waugh, and an especially close relationship with Sophie Gordon (aka Iris), another war volunteer.  All the while, she seeks someone to love her for herself.

Paired with Nancy’s story, is a contemporary story about young bibliophile Lucy St. Clair, on assignment to Heywood Hill from her job in the U. S.  Lucy is a fan of Mitford’s writing and is determined to identify Mitford’s friend Iris.    

The Nancy chapters are full of reflections on her pursuit of love and the notoriety brought about by her siblings.  This is done partly through letters to a few friends.  For me, they resulted in a portrait of a complex individual.  

The Lucy chapters provide a framework for locating the fictional Iris and, while pleasant, are thin in comparison.  Nonetheless, I found this an engaging and perceptive look at one slice of life in England from 1937 to 1945. (~JWFarrington)

Sharp Shooters

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Mila Pavlichenko (reddit.com)

If you’re looking for a gripping, suspenseful historical novel about WWII, The Diamond Eye could be it!  I’ve read and enjoyed several of Kate Quinn’s earlier novels, but this one really grabbed me.  It’s the story of Mila Pavlichenko a Ukrainian woman who became a crack sniper for the Soviet Red Army.  In battles against the Nazis, she logged more than 300 official kills!  Working with a partner and later training and leading a small band of snipers, she gained a reputation and the nickname Lady Death.  

The novel opens with her visit to Washington, DC to meet Eleanor Roosevelt and the president.  She’s part of a delegation whose goal is to push the U.S. to enter the war.  In flashbacks, the reader sees her in battle and learns about the precise calculations required to be successful in taking another human life. 

But Mila was much more than her expertise and her heroics with a rifle.  She was a book-loving woman and a mother who was studying to become a historian when she joined the army.  

Quinn’s author’s note at the end explains her research, provides more detail about the principals, and shares where she has created fictional characters and situations.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

Note: The header photo of children reading books in little boats is a whimsical touch, source unknown.

Exploring Maine: Brunswick

ART AND EATING IN BRUNSWICK

Crosswalk in downtown Brunswick

For years, we’ve driven Route 1 on the outskirts of Brunswick past strip malls, fast food restaurants, and auto repair shops.  We had never ventured any farther into downtown Brunswick.  This week we did and discovered that Maine Street (it’s really named that) is quite charming with several blocks of shops, a wide variety of restaurants and cafes, and even a couple of bookstores.  Just beyond a lovely park is the beginning of the Bowdoin College campus.  

On the Bowdoin campus

Bowdoin is an old liberal arts institution, chartered in 1794, and has produced an illustrious group of alumni.  Among them are generals, statesmen, explorers, and the writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The campus stretches along one side of the street opposite attractive old style frame houses.  It has an extensive expanse of green and a mix of a few contemporary buildings interspersed among more classic red brick architecture.  

The Chief Penguin and I walked the half mile from where we parked the car to our destination, the Bowdoin Museum of Art. The art department has a grand old building listed on the National Historic Register. Next to it is a glass cube, the entrance to the museum itself.

Entrance to Walker Art Building

Among the featured exhibitions, we paid the most attention to At First Light: Two Centuries of Artists in Maine.  This is a marvelous exhibit filling several small galleries with paintings, a quilt, and a Wabanaki basket.  Artists include George Bellows, Alex Katz, Lois Dodd, N. C. and Jamie Wyeth, along with others I hadn’t previously encountered.  Here are a couple of my favorite works.

Pastoral painting by N. C. Wyeth
Detail from The Mainland by Jamie Wyeth, 1992. (I love the luminosity of the buoys.)
The Mantle by Will Barnet, 1992. (I like the layering of window and door frame and the soft tones in this contemplative work.)

After the museum, we met my Scarborough cousin and his wife for lunch at one of the two Indian restaurants on the main drag. Shere Punjab, a small colorfully painted family-run business, offered up delicious curries and naan.  Collectively, we sampled the chicken and lamb curries and the fish curry.  Fluffy basmati rice was served with them.  It was so good we all vowed to eat there again!

MAINE BOOK FOR THE WEEK—A SUMMER COLONY

Haven Point by Virginia Hume

Haven Point is a first novel by a former political writer and editor.  It’s the kind of book you curl up with, and before you know it, the whole afternoon has whizzed by!  The families with summer homes at Haven Point believe in its traditions, one being the annual singalong.  It’s a colony established by upper-class sorts, all with the right educational and professional pedigrees.   

Maren marries into the world of Haven Point when Dr. Oliver Larsen becomes her husband.  She grew up on a farm in Minnesota and was a nurse with Oliver at Walter Reed Hospital in DC near the end of WWII.  She feels like an outsider during much of her life in Maine.  

Their daughter Annie is a talented artist, but battles alcoholism for many years.  Annie’s daughter, Maren’s granddaughter Skye, is secretive and ashamed of her mother’s relapses. She also feels that Haven Point, with its Waspy whiteness is too insular a society. Love, tragedy, betrayal, and addiction run through this novel set between 1944 and 2008 told in multiple voices.  I quickly became enmeshed in these characters’ lives and the hours disappeared.  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is Summer by Frank Weston Benson, 1909. Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)