I don’t have a lot to talk about today, since you already heard most of my news. We had a wonderful weekend with family, and Mom’s party was a success. The weather decided to turn hot and humid, in the 90s with high humidity here. I like warm weather, but everyone in my family knows I prefer Arizona’s “dry heat” over Florida’s humid weather. If you read yesterday’s blog, you saw that Linda and I went to a lunch event that featured Mary Kay Andrews, author of Road Trip. That’s what I’m reading right now, so you even know that. And, Linda and I went to see the musical “Water for Elephants” last night. In case you’re curious, our reaction was “meh”. Not the best show we saw this season.
This means I caught you up on everything I’ve been doing, the weather, and what I’ve been reading this week. What about you? Now, I’d rather catch up with you and your news. What have you been reading? What did you do this past week?
I have very little that will be of interest to anyone this week.
There is an LL Bean store about a 45-minute drive from where we live, and we made the trek this week to return a couple of items I’d ordered online. While we were there I said to David he should look around while I had a quick look in the women’s section. Not five minutes later, danged if I didn’t hear him chattering away with the sales guy on his way into a fitting room! For the first time in the 51 years we’ve been married, David picked out a shirt completely – and apparently willingly -on his own! He hates shopping, always says he has enough shirts, but lo! He is now the proud owner of a new $99 shirt. ($71 USD). I don’t know what came over him, and I don’t know if I’m more shocked that he picked something to buy on his own, or that he was happy to spend an exorbitant amount of money on a shirt. It was altogether a weird experience for me!
Back to the safety of books! At least I know where I am with them. This week I read:
DOLLY ALL THE TIME by Annabel Monaghan
A quick, easy, entertaining rom-com.
Dolly, kindergarten teacher in Boston and single mother of 13-year-old Gus. Her mother walked out on the family many years ago and Dolly’s been helping out and looking after everyone and everything since then. She and Gus head back to small town Whitfield for the summer to help out after a fire at her father’s house, and to help him at the fish store he owns.
One day she delivers an order of shrimp to Eight Oaks, the palatial home of the Whitfield family. On her way back she comes across Stewart Whitfield, the son in that eminent family. He’s not having a good day; he’s just been publicly dumped by his girlfriend and that isn’t his only problem. Also, he’s in line for the CEO position in the family business, but apparently the lack of a girlfriend is not a good thing and the whole promotion may not happen now.
The next day Stewart turns up at the fish store and has a question for Dolly – will she consent to being his fake girlfriend for a couple of months till after the big Gala? It would be good for his image, and she can name her price. Thinking of how her Dad needs a new roof, she asks for an astronomical figure, he says yes, and the story takes off. Of course we know how it will end but it’s fun watching them get there, and seeing how Dolly manages in the ultra-rich world of the Whitfields and their family, and how Stewart manages with Dolly’s decidedly not rich family.
Despite coming from two distinctly opposite ways of life, Dolly and Stewart have some similarities which is good in some ways yet causes difficulties in others. They both have to learn things about themselves and about life before they can get their happy ending.
There are funny moments, as well as emotional ones. It’s almost a coming-of-age story even though the characters are in their thirties. While I enjoyed it very much, Nora Goes Off Script remains my favourite book by this author.
VILLA COCO by Andrew Sean Greer
This is a somewhat difficult book to review. There were things I liked about it, but also a few that kept it from being great for me, one of which didn’t even have to do with the story – the book is divided into three parts but there are no chapters so there was never a logical place to stop reading.
Throughout college ‘our young man’ has been rather aimless, heavily partaking of the sexual freedoms of the day, but managing to get it together in the end and has earned a degree in Archives and Record Management. He answers an ad calling for someone to catalogue a personal collection of a variety of possessions in their home in the Italian countryside. He gets the job but it’s nothing at all like he’d expected it to be. Far from the orderly, meticulous work he was expecting it is instead completely chaotic as he works for Coco, a 92-year-old Baronessa, at her villa. Indeed, when he arrives, he’s told the rooms he’s to catalogue aren’t ready yet even though he’s to finish the job within three months, and in the meantime he is set to work on all manner of things completely unrelated to the job he was hired to do, none of which are even remotely in his skill set. Septic tanks anyone?
I liked Part 1 the most; very amusing and not what I’d been expecting. I was immediately drawn into this world of the absurd life of the Baronessa and the people in her life. Then Part 2 and 3 bogged down for me when it lost anything like a linear plot and became a series of vignettes and stories and happenings concerning the various characters but they didn’t advance the story, so the momentum stalled. The tale meandered here and there and became philosophical at times, and characters entered the tale, left, and were replaced by others. But eventually we came to know and understand a bit about what made them who they were. The way the author was able to bring the Italian setting and people to life so vividly was one of my favourite parts of the book. But overall, other than the first part, I can’t say I warmed to any of the characters enough to enjoy the rest of it, although I think I’m in the minority as most reviews have been much kinder than mine.