How are you doing this week? I hope the fires stayed away, Mark. I hope the rest of you are staying warm. It was 6 degrees here when I got up yesterday morning. Six degrees! That’s way too cold for this warm weather person. I left the house twice this week, and that’s it. Not my kind of weather at all. And, I’ve gone through a lot of hot chocolate.
Before we plunge into talking about this week’s reading, I wanted to remind you that Glen Davis’ list of favorite books of 2024 will be up tomorrow. If you’re looking for variety, and maybe some snappy remarks, you’ll want to check out Glen’s post. Thank you, Glen!
I’m currently reading one of last year’s bestsellers, Ina Garten’s memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, It took me this long to get it from the public library! Quite a waiting list. If you don’t recognize Garten’s name, she is the Barefoot Contessa, first the owner of a food store in the Hamptons, then the author of cookbooks and a TV personality. And, from what she says in the book, none of that would have happened without her husband, Jeffrey. As an outsider reading this, it seems to be an honest account of a childhood growing up in an abusive household, and a woman who found herself with the help of a loving husband who worked with her to explore her dreams. There are a few classic recipes in it, but it’s not a cookbook.
What about you? What are you reading this week? And, stay warm!
I have that same Ina Garten book on hold at the library, Lesa, and I have no idea when I’ll get it. But meanwhile, I have plenty to read. This week I only finished two books, and here they are:
I don’t know if I can sufficiently articulate how much I was impressed by Ariel Lawhon’s THE FROZEN RIVER, which I had recommended to my book club based on the reviews. I usually enjoy historical fiction books, although it is not a genre that I typically seek out. In my opinion, however, this book is everything a superior historical fiction novel should be. It is more than 400 pages long, but I never once felt that the story was dragging. I had to slow my reading speed to savor the beautiful writing. And the protagonist of intrepid but very human midwife Martha Ballard is depicted in such a way that I became so deeply riveted to her story that I didn’t want to put the book down. The setting is Halliwell, Maine in 1789. A woman in her fifties with six living children, whose husband had taught her how to read, Martha has had 30 years of experience delivering babies for the townsfolk and performing other healing activities. But that doesn’t stop an obnoxious young doctor, recently graduated from Harvard, from seeking to take over for her while disparaging her at every turn, despite the fact that his ministrations are often dangerous. This wasn’t unusual for the time–women had few rights and were regularly manipulated by men. Even when they were raped (and several woman were in this story), they were made to look guilty while the men were rarely held accountable. Every character comes out of the page in glorious detail, even those who are despicable, to the point where I longed to see dreams fulfilled and justice accomplished. The bond between Martha and her husband, Ephraim, is a shining example of a strong, mature relationship, and I worried throughout the book whether anything would happen to ruin it. The setting is meticulously described, featuring a river that freezes solid every winter. It is a character in itself, starting the story off with the discovery of a dead man encased in ice and the subsequent revelations of how he came to this disastrous end. I won’t provide any more information that might be a spoiler because you need to read this book yourself. Just know that Martha Ballard was a real-life midwife in the late 18th century, and the author has done her research amazingly well. Convincing, gripping, emotional–and a joy to read. I’ll be looking for Lawhon’s Code Name Helene next–both have an average score of 4.6 on Amazon.
Talk about a dysfunctional family! In Carolyn Huynh’s THE FAMILY RECIPE, patriarch Duc swears he will pass on his fortune to one of his five adult children at the end of one year, but they will have to work for it. The exception is oldest child and only male Jude, who simply has to get married (although that seems like work to him). Each of Duc’s four very different daughters, all in their twenties and thirties, is charged with taking time off from her current life to renovate and reinvigorate one of the Duc’s Sandwiches stores in Philadelphia, Houston, San Jose and New Orleans. The first one of the five siblings to achieve the goal their father has set for them will win. Is that fair to the women? Where is Duc right now anyway? His best friend and the family’s lawyer has been communicating with the family on Duc’s behalf. And how much is his fortune worth? Does any one of these five siblings even stand a chance of winning the challenge? For all of them, living with Duc hasn’t been the childhood they needed. Their mother left the family two decades ago and doesn’t want to be found. Duc’s second wife has also left home and has a score to settle with him. Duc was a lowly fisherman in his native Vietnam, but his banh mi shops had filled a need in the Vietnamese communities throughout his adopted home of the United States. His story takes up a large part of the plot. I found it interesting to read about those Vietnamese communities as they are today, and how the customs and lives of the residents have changed (or not). Unfortunately, the story in general left me flat. I felt that most of the family members were either unlikeable or quite shallow, to the point where I didn’t care whether they succeeded at the challenge.Nor was I particularly interested in the family dynamics and bloodlines However, readers who enjoy dysfunctional family stories and stories of how cultural backgrounds can affect lives in varying degrees may find this book satisfying. (April)
Margie, Yours is not the first rave review I’ve read about The Frozen River. How did your book group like it?
I’m almost finished with the Ina Garten book. It’s a quick read once you get a copy!
I’ve been struggling a bit this week because of the very irregular heartbeats I’ve been experiencing. I naively went through my years up till now barely giving my heart a thought; it gave me zero problems and I regret to say I just took it all for granted. Am now discovering that when it doesn’t beat properly it makes one feel quite unwell! So far, other than the time last month, it seems to go back into regular rhythm by itself but this can sometimes take an hour and a half, all of which is spent debating whether to go to the hospital and/or just being horribly anxious. Cardiologist appointment next week, so we’ll see what he says.
Two books this week:
A VERY ENGLISH MURDER by Verity Bright
Such a fun book, written by a husband/wife duo. This one is the first in the series and I believe there are at least twenty more.
It’s 1920 and Eleanor hasn’t quite figured out what to do with her life. She’s just been putting in time by travelling the world. Orphaned at a young age, she was sent to boarding school but summers were spent at Henley Hall, her uncle’s estate in England; although he was largely absent because of his work and she never really got to know him. Word has come to her in South Africa that her uncle has died and left his estate to her, so she sets off for England, wondering if this is exactly what she might need right now.
She gets a chilly reception from the butler, Clifford, even though she feels sure he must remember her even though it’s been sixteen years since she was last here. Feeling overwhelmed with feelings of being lost and not having a true friend in the world, that very first evening she takes Gladstone the elderly resident bulldog, out for a walk.
The night quickly becomes dark and very stormy. It’s hard to make out, but she sees what she’s certain is a murder being committed in a building across the way. When she checks it out the next day, there’s no body and no sign of a murder. The police won’t believe that she actually witnessed a murder so of course the sets out to prove it herself.
A little scattered in the beginning while we get to know all the characters (this won’t be a problem in subsequent books), and some dialogue I don’t think would have been used in 1920, but it doesn’t matter at all. I warmed to the main characters in no time, and laughed out loud several times during this entertaining, sometimes madcap story and look forward to reading more books in the series.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT by Sarah Adams (Book 2 of the ‘When in Rome’ series)
Annie runs the flower shop in Rome, Kentucky and is a sweet, kind, introverted young woman. She longs to find someone to happily share her comfortable, safe life with, but there are few prospects on the horizon. Enter Will – the bodyguard introduced in Book 1 (When in Rome), temporarily back in town to provide security detail for Amelia, a famous singer. Will and Annie have met before and he is determined to keep away from Annie and indeed anyone who might tie him down to this small town where nothing exciting ever happens. Somehow though, he gets saddled with acting as Annie’s dating coach so that she will learn how to attract ‘the love of her life’. We all know how it will end of course, as we do in most rom-coms – but that’s not the point of the story; it’s how the characters get there that makes for the fun.
Although I absolutely loved When in Rome, this one didn’t quite live up to my expectations for it. Yes there was lots of delightful conversation between Annie and Will, and some very funny situations, and several great characters – but I felt the story dragged a bit in the middle third because it all became a bit repetitive and it didn’t feel like it was moving along. Still worth reading if you’re a fan of rom-coms.
Thanks for asking. I’m currently fine. The big fires have stayed far away from me, and the only fire that started near me this week was small and put out before I was even aware of it. (Although I did freak out a little when I learned about it when I woke up the next morning.)
We are supposed to get calm winds and less dry air over the weekend. Hopefully, that comes true. I’ve got to say, the winds weren’t as bad the last couple of days as I expected. We still had winds, but not as bad as they could have been.
Reading wise, I am working on Fatal Reunion, book 11 in Annette Dashofy’s Zoe Chambers series. We’ve got the potential return on a serial killer from 20 years ago just in time for Zoe’s 20th high school reunion. As always, I am loving it. If you aren’t reading Annette’s books, you are really missing out. They are darker than my typical cozies, but please don’t let that stop you.