Newagen Harbor

Maine Time: Reading & Granddaughters

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SUMMER READING

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

Anyone who’s read Austen’s Pride and Prejudice may recall Mary, the youngest Bennet girl and the one who gets the least positive attention.  She is smart, but she’s plain and outspoken, and she wears glasses.  In this novel, Hadlow takes up Mary’s cause and projects a life for her after the death of her father and the marriages of her four sisters. Part I mostly sets the stage by recapping the events leading up to sister Jane’s marriage to Bingley, and her sister Elizabeth’s bumpy road to becoming Mr. Darcy’s wife and the lady of Pemberley.   In a little like Goldilocks looking for the perfect resting place, Mary spends time on lengthy visits to Jane, then to family friend Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, and then to her aunt Gardiner.  

This aunt takes Mary under her wing, sees that she has the proper attire for evening affairs and dinners, and oversees her developing friendships with two young men.  In time, Mary comes into her own, blossoming into an assured and self-confident individual who has much to offer and the opportunity for a more fulfilling life. 

I found this novel both successful and satisfying.  Hadlow remains mostly true to the mores of the day, and Mary’s transformation from ugly duckling to poised woman is convincing.  I might quibble that the third and fourth parts are longer than they need to be, but the expedition to the Scottish Lake Country is finely wrought and moves the story forward in the right way.  I found myself rooting for Mary from the get-go. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)

Secrets in Summer by Nancy Thayer

Nancy Thayer is not as popular an author as Elin Hilderbrand, but she too sets her novels in Nantucket and has written a slew of them.  Darcy is a fulltime resident living in the house she grew up in and inherited from her grandmother.  A children’s librarian, she has a dream job which she loves, but is distressed when her ex-husband and family rent the house next to hers for the summer.  The houses are close together, and she becomes entangled in the affairs and secrets of his teenaged stepdaughter, Willow. Add to this, Darcy’s attraction to both carpenter Noah, working on house repairs for her, and musicologist Clive, in town to work on a book, and you have a stew of romance, misunderstandings, and miscommunication.  The Nantucket details are fun, and the story is perfect beach reading—even if you’re reading from home!  

Lone seagull on a rock

GRANDDAUGHTER DIVERSIONS

The Chief Penguin and I are fortunate that we are in Maine (very low Covid-19 numbers and no cases in this county) and lucky that our granddaughters, 4 and 8, are here for a long visit.  Equipped with laptops and borrowed card tables, their parents can work while Grandpa and Grandma are on duty. We have done a lot of the obvious things with the girls.  Exploring the rocks and sandy coast for shells and sea glass, taking walks out and about, reading books together, baking and icing cupcakes, and assembling blueberry pancakes, an annual tradition.  

Besides the drawing and coloring they can do on their own, two purchases I made are providing hours of fun and diversion.  I don’t usually tout brand name products, but the tablecloth map of the United States from Uncommon Goods is simply fabulous!  Every state is labeled with its name and state capital and its state bird, state flower, and state animal are there to be colored in.  The cloth comes with a set of washable markers and can be decorated and then washed and colored all over again.  I printed out a list of state birds and flowers as a reference.  We talked about the states we live in and have visited, the best route to get from one place to another and so on.  That then led to a discussion of other countries and how far away they might be.

The next day we talked about Norway and the other Scandinavian countries and found them on a map on the computer, but how much more fun it would be for them to color all the countries of the world!  The U.S. tablecloth is so popular that I will definitely order the world map version. 

My other smart purchase for their visit was a handy travel case of Classic Legos.  Included are the small Legos in a variety of colors and shapes along with a booklet of ideas to make.  Between the suggestions and their imaginations, the girls have stayed occupied for long stretches.  They also had fun spreading out the U.S. tablecloth on the floor and then inventing scenarios with their Lego creations—car, castle, house, lighthouse—and placing somewhere on the map.

READING IN PROGRESS

When not engaged with my granddaughters, I’ve been poking my way through a quirky biography from 1970 and have just started a memoir about the biographer’s art that was published three years ago.  I expect to have a few thoughts about these two works in my next blog, at which point I will identify them.  Curious, yet?

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

View of Cozy Harbor, Maine

Maine Time: A Slower Pace

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IN A BOOK

I’m a voracious reader, but I have to admit that this summer I’m finding it harder to read serious works. Perhaps it’s the effect of living with the coronavirus or maybe it’s part laziness. In any case, I’m spending more time devouring beach reads and mysteries with the occasional heavier title tossed in. Some of the books I brought to Maine are ones I’ve owned for awhile, but many of them sit in a yet-to-be-read stack while I dive into the latest e-book from the library or some just purchased light fare. That said, here are two intriguing novels and one long memoir that lends itself to skimming. What is your reading like this year?

Historical Fiction

Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin

Books about people and events during World War II are still big sellers. I’m beginning to tire of them, but Mistress of the Ritz was an exception. It’s gripping and thrilling and a fast-paced read. It’s based on or perhaps inspired by, as author Benjamin states in an afterword, Blanche Auzello and her husband, Claude, the manager of the Ritz. It begins in 1940 when the Nazis first occupy Paris–and the hotel. What is amazing and makes for delicate situations, is that the hotel remains open to rich and celebrated guests while simultaneously being Nazi headquarters. Blanche is an American while Claude is French and exceedingly proud of his position. He devotes himself to the Ritz and to a succession of mistresses that leave his wife subject to neglect.

photo of Blanche Auzello
Blanche Auzello (memoiresdeguerre.com)

Early on, the reader experiences Blanche as a bit of a flibbertigibbet, caught up with fashion, hobnobbing with famous guests, and flirting with handsome Nazi officers. One wonders where her story will lead. As ordinary people begin to disappear, life becomes harder for these two gracious hosts, and the roles they furtively play expose them to danger and exposure. It’s a novel of secrets and intrigue, love and trust, mistrust and misunderstanding. Chapters alternate between Claude and Blanche. Recommended!

Benjamin is also the author of The Aviator’s Wife, a very well received novel about the marriage of Anne and Charles Lindbergh. (~JWFarringon)

Contemporary Thriller

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

I have my friend Marnie to thank for putting me on to this novel. The Last Flight is about two women anxious to exit their present lives. Claire Cook is married to a wealthy man, scion of a wealthy family, who is also abusive. She is desperate to escape his censure and physical abuse and plots to assume a new identity on a business trip to Detroit.

Claire gets re-assigned to fly to Puerto Rico instead and in the airport meets Eva who is leaving a checkered past behind. Eva has fewer options for the future, so she offers to exchange boarding passes and IDs with Claire. What happens when Claire and Eva assume each other’s identities and struggle to function in new environments makes for a gripping story. There may be a few too many coincidences, but it’s a great gallop of a book! (~JWFarrington)

Memoir–Serious But Not Too

Barbarian Days:  A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (2015)

William Finnegan is a staff writer for the New Yorker and author of a number of books.  I am the last person my friends would expect to read a book about surfing, but his memoir won the Pulitzer Price and got such great reviews, it’s been on my radar.  A hefty 400 plus pages, it’s chock full of detail about surfing spots around the world. 

William Finnegan, surfer, approaching waves
(kcrw.com)

Finnegan is almost mesmerizing as he describes waves, water, and the thrill of surfing.  And he’s candid about his occasional fear of drowning.  For me, the appeal was more his account of his childhood years in California and Hawaii, his parents’ laissez-faire approach to any oversight of his doings, and the regular bullying he quietly endured into his teens.  

Finnegan took a long time to settle down. He roamed the globe to experience great surfing venues (Samoa, Australia, Madeira), dropped in and out of college, reported from war zones, and worked on a novel.  Finnegan claims that surfing was not his primary passion in the way that it is for others, but he was regularly enticed to yet another locale. It’s clear that surfing remains important to him and is an escape from the mundane even into his 60’s. (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo of Cozy Harbor ©JWFarrington

Hendrick Head Trail

Maine Moments: Outside & Inside

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HIKING TRAILS

This is a different Maine for us.  No restaurant meals.  Limited social activities and more time at home.  But if we want a change of scene, then there are local trails to explore.  The Boothbay Region Land Trust maintains preserves in Boothbay, Southport, Edgecomb, and the surrounding area.  A variety of trails are open to the public, some good for hiking, others suitable for easy walking. 

Several years ago, we hiked the wooded one-mile trail at Porter Preserve on Barter’s Island.  It has some gradual elevation and several great vistas of the Sheepscot River and one overlook with a welcoming bench.

Large toadstool

This week we went to the nearby Hendrick Head Trail.  This is a short trail, just a half mile one way that then loops back to the main road.  It’s wooded and quiet and the path was dotted with tiny pinecones and one giant toadstool.

The trail entrance is located just down from a little beach and from the beach, there’s a view of the Hendricks Head Light. This lighthouse was established in 1829, with the present structures dating from 1875.  It’s a squarish lighthouse with a keeper’s house that has a bright red roof.

Hendricks Head Light (lighthousefriends.com)

HODGE PODGE OF READING

I mailed a box of books to Maine and between them and e-books from the library, I have a motley assortment.  Here are just two of them.

Tough Love by Susan Rice

Susan Rice (nytimes.com)

Susan Rice is one of the contenders to be Joe Biden’s vice-presidential candidate which makes her memoir timely.  A Black woman who grew up in a contentious household (her parents ultimately divorced), she served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Obama and then as his national security advisor.  She was slated to become his secretary of state but was pilloried in the press and on social media for comments she made after the Benghazi incident.  Smart, extremely knowledgeable about a range of international issues, Rice is straightforward and occasionally blunt.

The book is long and covers some of the same crises that Samantha Power dealt with in her book, The Education of an Idealist.  I confess to doing a fair bit of skimming and, at points, being more interested in the personal details of how she juggled having young children with her very demanding schedule.  Nonetheless, I recommend it. I think you will come away impressed with her accomplishments and her talents. (~JWFarrington)

Kiss and Kin by Angela Lambert (1997)

I bought this novel in paperback some years ago (the paper is yellowed) and never had read it, so added it to my Maine stash.  It’s a story of love and loyalty in two upper class British families.  Harriet is a recent widow in London to celebrate her grandson Hugo’s birthday. He’s the child of her son, Roderick, and daughter-in-law, Jennifer. They are going through a rough patch with talk of divorce.  

The other grandparents, Oliver and Clarissa, are slated to attend, but Oliver arrives alone and is immediately transfixed by Harriet.  As Oliver and Harriet embark on a passionate affair, they agonize over what they perceive as their duty to their adult children.  Harriet particularly is concerned about the impact of their relationship, once proclaimed, on their mutual grandchildren.  I enjoyed this novel, but found it dated, an opinion shared in other online reviews.  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Toadstool and header photo on Hendrick Head Trail ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).