JWF, Author at JOTS & JAUNTS

2020 in Books: My Favorites

December 6, 2020December 6, 2020 JWF Leave a comment

In general, I average reading at least a book a week. This year, I did the same, but even though I had more available time, it was sometimes hard to settle down. One of the effects of worrying about Covid-19. My reading was heavily novels with a few mysteries, memoirs, and other nonfiction mixed in. Here are some of my favorites for the year. Several of these titles are now showing up on notable and best-of-the-year lists.

NOVELS—CONTEMPORY, HISTORICAL, AND DYSTOPIAN

Monogamy by Sue Miller

Wonderful prose by this noted author in a reflection on marriage after the spouse has died. Finely drawn characters.

Sea Wife by Amity Gaige

Marriage and parenting entries in a log kept by a woman on a momentous sea voyage with her husband. Superb!

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

A poignant coming of age story about Casey, an aspiring novelist, grieving the loss of her mother and confused about the two significant men in her life. Great setting in Cambridge, Mass.

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

From the other end of the spectrum, prickly Mainer Olive Kittredge confronts aging and challenging relationships. For fans of the earlier Olive novel, this is another winner.

Where the Light Enters by Sara Donati

Two female doctors in late 19^th century Manhattan search for missing women. A tome for long winter days and a sequel to her earlier book.

Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Atwood has crafted an excellent story of torture and treachery in Gilead, a most worthy successor to The Handmaid’s Tale. I liked it even better than the earlier book!

MEMOIRS—Political and Personal

Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Power was raised in Ireland and then served in Obama’s administration. A candid and engaging political memoir.

Self-Portrait in Black and White by Thomas Chatterton Williams

This is the lone nonfiction book I read about race in 2020. Williams is a contributor to Harper’s Magazine and a Black man married to a white woman. How it feels to straddle both the Black and white worlds when your daughter is a blue-eyed blonde.

NONFICTION—Illness & Ireland

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

Since an abnormal psych course I took in college, I’ve been fascinated by schizophrenia and autism. Kolker’s account of six siblings out of twelve suffering from schizophrenia in the 1950’s is riveting.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Motivated by a planned June trip to Ireland that didn’t happen, I delved into this account of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. It’s dense and highly detailed, but I learned a great deal and found it worth the investment of time.

MYSTERY—Favorite Author

Hid from Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming

After a hiatus of some years due to deaths in her family, this author returns with a multi-layered mystery about three murders, years apart. Cleric Clare is here, but the focus is on her spouse, police chief Russ, over several decades. Meaty and satisfying!

CURRENT READING

Meanwhile, I’m working my way through Obama’s memoir. Very well written, but better read during the day than before bedtime!

Note: Book jacket images are from Amazon and several other web sources.

November: Celebrations & Politics

November 28, 2020November 28, 2020 JWF 1 Comment

CELEBRATIONS

Covid Thanksgiving

For most everyone I know, Covid-19 put a crimp in their holiday plans. Travel cancelled, gatherings reduced in size, no family present and on it goes. It’s probably the strangest Thanksgiving most of us have experienced. But ours was still a very good one.

We are healthy (priority one, I’d say), and we enjoyed a tasty turkey dinner with one other couple. We shared in the meal prep, toasted one another, hoped for a more normal 2021, and appreciated being together in lovely Florida. Add in a FaceTime call from our son and family. In 2020, you can’t ask for much more!

Age and Anniversaries

When she was around seventy, I remember my grandmother telling me that she aspired to grow old gracefully. She didn’t like the thought of being old and said that she certainly didn’t feel old in her head. Even then, when I was in college, her comment struck me. Not that it was so profound, but that one could attain a certain chronological age and mentally still see oneself as young and unchanged from decades ago.

My grandparents & my parents at the 50th anniversary event

When the Chief Penguin and I had been married for not quite two years, we and my extended family of siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles attended a festive luncheon for my grandparents. They were celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary and were both 75. My, they seemed old! But Grandma and Grandpa weren’t stodgy people, and they were definitely intellectually engaged with the wider world. They ended up enjoying almost 55 years together.

Yesterday, G. and I marked our golden wedding anniversary, and we aren’t old at all—or so we think! New medications and a greater emphasis on exercise and healthy eating make it possible for our generation to stay youthful longer. While Covid upended planned trips for this anniversary year and cancelled a family Christmas in New York, we look forward to more years of globetrotting. We are optimistic about 2021, post vaccine, and will strive to stay fit and healthy as long as possible!

READING

Momentous Memoir

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

I have missed Barack Obama’s intelligence, eloquence, and grace these past four years. I pre-ordered his memoir, A Promised Land, and it arrived the day it was published. I’ve often thought that political memoirs are informative, but dry, with ultimately mind-numbing detail. That is not this book. Obama is an engaging and agile writer. He captures the feel of a room, notes a telling detail or two about the scene or an individual, and doesn’t stint on his own gaffes and faults.

I am now about 250 pages into this six-hundred-page tome and finding it highly readable and a fascinating review of recent history. Obama is also compassionate and concerned about his family and those with whom he works in the government. It is a refreshing and most welcome change! (~JWFarrington)

VIEWING FOOTNOTE

Politics in Sweden

This week I finished the third and last series of The Restaurant. I found this season especially powerful for its depiction of the radical fringe movement of the 1960’s, the protests against the war in Vietnam, the expanding role of women in government, and the lessening of prejudice against gays and lesbians. Yes, it’s fiction. The three siblings, Gustaf, Peter, and Nina, continue to war with each other and have more than their reasonable share of crises. And perhaps the ending is too neat, but it’s a very good series and a great way to forget about Covid. You’ll even learn a little Swedish along the way, the words for thank you and hello, if nothing else.

Note: Header photo of reflections in a pond ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Escaping the Pandemic: Reading & Eating

November 22, 2020November 22, 2020 JWF Leave a comment

Covid-19 has limited activities for most everyone to some extent. Those of us who are more vulnerable are spending more time at home, not dining out, and not going to concerts or plays. What do we do? If you’re an avid reader like me, then you might tackle several of those tomes you’ve always been meaning to read—or delve into a thriller chiller. This week I did the latter. And if you like to eat, then you may be spending more time cooking for yourself and your spouse. The Chief Penguin and I have trotted out old favorites like Pierre Franey’s emince de veau a la crème (veal in cream sauce with ham), only this time replacing the veal with strips of chicken. And we’ve tried new recipes like a hearty lentil soup and the pizzas described below.

ESCAPING IN A BOOK

Atomic Love by Jennie Fields

This novel about a female scientist set in 1950 is a wonderful change of pace from the corona virus. Rosalind Porter was a lone woman among the many men who worked on the Manhattan Project. Beset by doubts after the dropping of the bomb, she is now working the jewelry counter in Marshall Field’s in Chicago. An FBI agent approaches her and asks her to get back involved with Thomas Weaver, her former lover and a scientist suspected of passing secrets to the Russians.

Agent Charlie is persistent, and Rosalind becomes immersed in a game of tell me, don’t tell me, surveillance, and even danger. Mixed in are loner Roz’s complicated relationship with Louisa, her much older sister, and her devotion to her niece Ava. Roz and Charlie have both been damaged by the war, physically and mentally, and come to recognize each other as kindred spirits. A page-turner of an historical novel!

Fields is also the author of a novel about Edith Wharton entitled The Age of Desire, which I enjoyed several years ago.

IN THE KITCHEN

But, not with Dinah. With the Chief Penguin, who also happens to be an experienced baker. Multi-grain and oatmeal breads, bran muffins, and now—pizza! He’s made pizzas from scratch before, but recently he purchased a bag of Italian 00 flour. It’s the preferred superfine flour for thin crust pizzas. Now he’s in his element. First experiments were traditional margherita pizzas (tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil).

The other evening, first out of the oven was a pizza of chicken on barbecue sauce with red onion. Next was a pizza with the luscious combination of gorgonzola (thank you, Publix!), caramelized onions, and walnuts, topped with arugula leaves. Yum!

After that, who would need dessert? Not a serious question since it’s fall, and apple crisp is perfect. His apple crisp was made with Granny Smith apples and maple syrup instead of brown sugar. Double yum!

THANKFULNESS

Next week brings Thanksgiving Day. In this strange time of staying at a distance, I am especially thankful for continued good health, great friends, and a loving family! May your Thanksgiving holiday be a safe and healthy one however you may spend it.

Diversions: Reading & Viewing

November 15, 2020November 15, 2020 JWF 1 Comment

ETA

This is the hurricane season that just doesn’t want to quit. It was a wild week with tropical storm Eta bearing down on Florida’s southwest coast. In our area, we experienced torrential rain (8 inches total) and wind gusts up to 50 miles an hour. At high tide, the surge brought brought water and debris through our mangrove hedges closer to our homes than anyone had ever seen. Some folks had roof leaks, but other than that, we were very fortunate. Thankfully, we were spared hurricane force winds.

GENDER DYNAMICS AND FAMILY LIFE

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

First a confession, I started this book last year. It didn’t captivate me, and I did a lot of skimming before setting it aside. This year it’s a book group selection so I picked it up with more serious intent. And this time, I became immersed. Oh, it did take a few chapters to become accustomed to what seems like Frankel’s scatter shot or kitchen sink approach to sentences. Put in as many words and related phrases as possible and string it out into a fairly long sentence.

I got past that, and I made the effort to learn the four older children and keep them straight. The bedtime fairy tale that writer/father Penn spins for them featuring Prince Grumwald and Princess Stephanie, plays an important role which I was impatient with previously.

This is a novel of family life. Anyone who’s been a parent, particularly a parent of more than one child, will relate to issues of schedules, schoolyard fights, and the general messiness of kids. More importantly, it’s about a child born Claude who wants to dress like a girl and be called Poppy. How these parents, ER doctor Rosie and author Penn, and his/her siblings keep Poppy’s big secret, and what the ramifications are, make for a poignant, heartwarming, and ultimately life-affirming novel. Recommended!

VIEWING: SWEDEN AFTER THE WAR

***The Restaurant*, or the translated Swedish title, Our Time is Now** (Amazon Prime, Season 1; Seasons 2-4, Sundance for $)

Lowander Family with some of the wait staff (netflix.com)

This Swedish series has been compared to Downton Abbey in its popularity in that country. We too can become immersed in a post-war world seen through the lens of a family-owned restaurant. It opens in 1945 Stockholm at the Djurgardskalleren, a very formal dining room serving traditional fare. The Lowander family: matriarch Helga, sons Gustaf (restaurant manager) and Peter (initially a budding lawyer), and pampered daughter Nina (creator of the DK Club) will soon be celebrating the restaurant’s 50th anniversary. Business is at a low ebb. Chef Backe is a fixture. He both admires and feels threatened by rising chef Calle’s talents.

But times are changing. The wait staff, especially Maggan, seek better working conditions through union membership. Women like Nina feel stifled by dated expectations of a woman’s role. As the 50’s lead into the 60’s, new music emerges, new cuisine is introduced to restaurant patrons, and society loosens up.

The four seasons unfold through the decades into the 1970’s. It’s an absorbing story of loves and longing, failed and successful marriages, and sibling rivalries over who has the most power. All against the backdrop of the social issues of the time. Highly recommended!

CULTURE THIS WEEK

PIANO RECITAL—Jeremy Denk

Thanks to our friend, Patricia, we’ve discovered the rich offerings from the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Their first concert was presented live to a small audience and available online for viewing for 72 hours. Pianist Jeremy Denk gave an exquisite performance of pieces by Robert and Clara Schumann, Bolts of Loving Thunder by contemporary composer Missy Mazzoli, and Brahms’ Four Piano Pieces. The Mazzoli piece was commissioned for Emmanuel Ax in 2013 and inspired by some of Brahms’ early work.

Thanks to my resident tech whiz, we were able to watch on our big screen! Unlike some organizations that set a fixed price for each streamed performance, the PCMS takes a pay-what-you-want approach. This recital was 50 minutes, a perfect length for at-home viewing.

SERENADE FOR STRINGS—Sarasota Orchestra

If you’re local, you’ll be pleased to know that the Sarasota Orchestra has put together its own series of concerts. They are presented live for a small audience in Holley Hall and then later streamed. Live tickets sell out quickly, but the streaming versions are only $10.

The orchestra’s first program, featuring thirteen musicians, consists of works by Tchaikovsky and the 18^thcentury composer, Joseph Bologne. We have yet to watch this concert, but our streaming ticket allows five days from the date the link is sent out.

Covid-19 has forced cultural organizations to adapt and be creative in new ways. I foresee a future where you’ll have multiple subscription options. Like magazines that you can receive in print or online or both, there may well be these kinds of paid combo packages for concerts, opera and dance.

Author: JWF