Tidy Tidbits: Feeding the Mind

LIFELONG LEARNING ONLINE

This season we again subscribed to the two Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning (SILL) series, Music Mondays, and Global Affairs.  We have in person tickets, but also the ability to watch the presentations online after the event.  So far, we have not felt comfortable going physically and sitting in a church sanctuary for an hour and a half midst a large crowd. It takes more discipline to set a time in the daily schedule to watch, but I’m happy to report that we have now viewed two programs. Both were excellent.  

Music Monday showcased two cellists, husband and wife Emilio and Cara Colon, who reside in Indiana, but are the founders of and forces behind the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico.  Emilio is from Puerto Rico. Together, the Colons strive to offer musical experiences and opportunities to students on that island in a variety of ways including an annual chamber music festival.   A charming pair, they played solo pieces as well as a couple duets.  The streaming version of this event was a high-quality production with great sound. 

The Global Issues program, Pandemics from “What If” to “What Now?” featured Dr. John Sinnott, Chairman of Internal Medicine at the University of South Florida.  He presented remotely. It was the best discussion of pandemics through the ages and the particularities of Covid-19 and how it’s transmitted in the body I’ve seen, heard, or read!  A scientifically based, well-articulated lecture with graphs and charts.  Dr. Sinnott has a You Tube channel, and there you will find several different programs including this brief intro.

MAINE ON THE PAGE

The Northern Reach by W. S. Winslow

(wswinslow.com)

The Northern Reach is a very accomplished first novel set in Maine.  Author Winslow spent a career in communications and marketing and has Maine roots.  Like Elizabeth Strout, she mines her deep familiarity with that state and its people in a series of interconnected chapters.  They are almost standalone short stories, but each one features one subset of a generation of one of four different families.  Ranging from 1904 to the 1920’s to the 1940’s and up to 2017, marriages, deaths, divorces, and disagreements mark these lives.  One family, the Baineses, are quite well off; the others fall between middle class and downright poor.  Overall, it’s a society built on tradition and loyalty to family but made messy with greed, envy, and competition.  

The writing is vivid and the details telling.  My only quibble is that with each chapter set in a different timeframe and with a different set of individuals, recalling the interrelationships between various generations can be tricky. 

My favorite chapter, Smoke Signals in the Aftertime, is about Alice Culligan’s death and the aftermath.  She was ready to die and let go.  She does die, but she remains cognizant of the world around her.  She hears her children discussing her, and not always in pleasant terms, and learns that events she thought she’d kept secret were well known to them.  (~JWFarrington)

“The minutes ticked on, and Alice listened as her children shared stories and swapped reminiscences so that, one finger at a time, they let her go, and as they did, the smoky fetters loosened and untangled themselves.  Alice lingered just long enough to gather up all the things she should have known, blended with it, became it, wafting, whisper, wisp, gone.”

COUNTRY VETS ON THE SCREEN

If you’re looking for something to watch to take your mind off Covid or whatever, this series set in a simpler time is mostly feel-good fare.

All Creatures Great and Small (Season 2, PBS)

James, Helen, Tristan (themes.co.uk)

Years ago, I read several of veterinarian James Herriot’s books and then watched the first TV production of All Creatures Great and Small.  It was enjoyable, homey, and low key.  Initially, I thought watching an updated version of it would be just so-so.  To my surprise and delight, I enjoyed the latest iteration a lot and was then thoroughly captivated by Season 2.  

James is charming and unsophisticated, Tristan is devil-may-care, and his older brother Siegfried, whose practice they have joined, is nothing if not definite.  He has strong opinions and tries to micro-manage his colleagues.  In this version, Mrs. Hall, the housekeeper is a key character with a bigger role, while farmer’s daughter Helen, aka James’ squeeze, is a woman of determination and dedication.  Season 2 contains seven episodes and is good escapism.

Note: Header drawing of an open head sprouting flowers is from feedingtampabay.org

Tidy Tidbits: Motherhood on Page & Screen

READING

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

O’Farrell (irishtimes.com)

In Hamnet, O’Farrell has created the world of William Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, at the time of the bubonic plague.  While 11-year-old Hamnet is present in the early chapters, he haunts the remainder of the novel after his death.  In many ways, the novel is a story of motherhood, marriage, and grief with a focus on the mother.  Agnes, Hamnet’s mother, is a creature of the woods, a skilled herbalist, yet unconventional and socially inept.  She chafes under her mother-in-law’s strictures, misses her husband whom she sent to London to get him away from his abusive father, and mightily grieves for her son, seeking and seeing him everywhere.  

The descriptions of the environs are so graphic one can easily picture town life in Stratford and life on the farm where Agnes grew up.  O’Farrell lists, annotates, categorizes, and catalogs the implements of home life and the branches, leaves and blossoms in the wood; at times, the writing is staccato-like.  It’s a beautifully written book about a horrible pandemic—timely and richly deserving of its several literary awards.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

WATCHING

The Lost Daughter (Netflix)

Colman as Leda (polygon.com)

I am not familiar with the novel by Elena Ferrante that inspired The Lost Daughter, but I’m a big admirer of Oliva Colman and would see her in almost anything.  Here, she is a comparative literature professor on a beach vacation in Greece.  Leda is alone and prepared to work, but she becomes fixated on watching a young mother, Nina, and Elena, her little girl, romp and play on the shore.  Leda exchanges brief pleasantries with Nina and her aunt and interacts with Lyle, the apartment caretaker, and Will, an engaging college student.  In flashbacks, she begins reflecting on her own experiences decades ago as an ambitious academic with two young daughters and a busy husband.  As she said to Nina earlier, “motherhood is a crushing responsibility.”

When Nina’s daughter goes missing, the extended family and friends fan out to search for her.  Leda finds Elena with her doll.  What happens afterward is puzzling and strange with an even stranger, more mystifying ending.  I wondered whether Leda was truly unbalanced and what state we find her in in the last scene.  

It’s a slowly paced film with sparse dialogue, yet the camera lingers on the physical:  limbs, breasts, and bodies. Colman is superb as 48-year old Leda while Jessie Buckley is marvelous as Leda, the young mother. The depiction of motherhood is both joyous and wrenching with greater emphasis on the demands of being a mother.  Painful to watch at points, this may be film fare for a more selective audience. (~JWFarrington)

DINING 

Whitney’s

Located on the northern end of Longboat Key, Whitney’s is a former gas station turned into a casual restaurant.  Seating includes tables on the gravel outside as well as booths and tables inside.  Open for lunch and dinner on a first come, first-served basis, it’s a welcome addition to the LBK dining options. 

A friend and I ate at a small round table outside.  Our waitress was friendly in the nicest way, and we enjoyed shrimp Louie and the mixed greens salad with tiny cubes of manchego and a choice of dressing and protein.  I opted for the salad with champagne vinaigrette and grilled shrimp.  Both dishes were excellent.  Whitney’s also serves burgers, fish tacos, crab cakes, tuna tartare, and other fish entrees.  Wine and beer are also available.  Several days a week there is live music, so you might want to plan accordingly.  

Note: Header drawing of a harried mother is from Time Magazine (time.com).

Reading Now & for 2022

RECENT READING

Oh William! By Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout (howtoread.me)

Elizabeth Strout’s new novel, Oh William!, is a winner.  Those who have read the earlier novel, My Name is Lucy Barton, will be acquainted with the main character.  Lucy is a successful writer and William is her ex-husband.  She left him some years ago after he had a string of affairs, and she then married David, who recently died.  Despite their divorce, she and William have remained in touch, partly because they are the parents of two grown daughters.  The novel is all in Lucy’s voice as she reflects on events in their marriage and the people they have both known.  

Lucy often feels she is invisible and doesn’t find it easy to relate socially.  When William invites her to travel from their homes in New York City to Maine to visit an unknown relative, she accepts.  

Lucy is a somewhat strange person, and William is not always accessible to her as she ponders and dissects both their present and their past interactions.  It’s a novel about marriage and what we might not know about our spouse or him about her, written with a delicacy and truth that shimmers on the page.   Highly recommended!

My Broken Language by Quiara Alegria Hudes

Author Hudes (imdb.com)

Quiara Alegria Hudes is a playwright (In the Heights) who grew up in the Puerto Rican barrio in North Philadelphia.  When asked what her first language was as a child, she might reply that her family communicated physically by touching, dancing, and hugging more than by words.  If with words, then Spanish was dominant and English secondary.  

It was a close-knit family with numerous cousins to play with and various aunts freely offering advice.  When her parents split up, Quiara visits her father on a farm on the Main Line and then later in his home in a more upscale Philadelphia neighborhood. She frequently moves between her Puerto Rican home and a whiter richer world.  Supported by her mother, she has the chance to go to a magnet high school and then on to Yale.  Leaving her cousins behind, she again confronts cultural differences and a divide between her ethnic upbringing and that of her more affluent classmates.  But she is persistent and successfully completes a major in music.  Some years later, she is accepted into Brown University’s creative writing program.  The head of the program is a marvelous mentor and provides Quiara a personalized list of books tailored to fill in gaps in her reading. 

The early chapters of this memoir are intense and dense with Spanish phrases and references to Puerto Rican religious and spiritual practices.  And yet, Hudes’ use of language and her colorful analogies reward the patient reader.  I found the later chapters more accessible and reveled in one on the treasures of Yale’s Sterling Library.  This is a challenging read, but worth the effort!

I received this book as part of my subscription to BookBrowse with the understanding that I would contribute questions and comments to the online discussion. It was the first time I’ve done this and meant that I read a work I might not otherwise pick up.

READING LIST FOR 2022

Here are some of the books I intend to read in the next several months.  All are novels except for King’s book of short stories and the Lady Bird Johnson biography.  

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (reading now for my book group)

The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier (bestselling French novel)

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (book group title)

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Lady Bird Johnson:  Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig

Leaving Coy’s Hill by Katherine A. Sherbrooke

The Northern Reach by W. S. Winslow

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright (book group title)

Reading: Books & More Books

AN EXPLANATION

Some of my readers may wonder why I refer to my spouse as the Chief Penguin or C. P.  After he was a university president, Greg became the head (CEO) of a museum, the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco.  In an early interview with a reporter from the Chronicle, he stated that previously, he worried what the fraternity guys got up to at night.  He was relieved to forego that concern; now he just had the museum’s colony of South African penguins.  “I know where they are at night,” he quipped.  “I guess I’m the Chief Penguin.”  That was quoted, and it was adopted by many of the Academy staff as an affectionate moniker. As they say, it stuck! Now, in our home, you will find an assortment of plush penguins and even a penguin sculpture.

RECENT READING

The Magician by Colm Toibin

Author Toibin (independent.ie)

I’m a big fan of Toibin’s novels and especially enjoyed The Master about Henry James and Brooklyn.  His latest novel, The Magician, is equally wonderful.  Thomas Mann, the greatest German writer of his time and a Nobel Prize winner, is the subject along with his large family.  As a noted author, his countrymen looked to him for his views on politics, especially about the two world wars.  When Hitler came to power, Mann was slow to recognize Hitler for the danger he represented, and only belatedly, escaped from Germany to Sweden and then to the U.S.  

The father of six, Mann occasionally bore the brunt of publicity due to the activities of his relatives.  The writings of his outspoken brother Heinrich and the anti-Fascist activities of his two oldest children, Klaus and Erika, reflected negatively on him.  His public responses to the strife were more measured as he desperately wanted to hold on to his German audience and keep his books in print.

This is rich portrait of several generations of the Mann family with a focus on Thomas Mann’s creative process:   how he approached his writing, what he tried to convey in his works, and how his secret homosexual desires, detailed in his diaries, crept into his novels.   For the most part, Toibin neither applauds nor condemns Mann, but presents an immersive, fascinating take on the man and the writer. (~JWFarrington)

A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe

Karin Tanabe (goodreads.com)

I just read a review of Lost Daughter, the new film starring Olivia Colman, that posited that being a mother takes something significant away from a woman.  In A Woman of Intelligence, set in 1954, a smart married woman, who previously worked as a translator for the United Nations, finds herself tied down, constrained, and frustrated by the demands of her family.  A rising star, pediatric surgeon Tom wants Rina to be the perfect wife—solely devoted to her husband, a gracious hostess, and doting on her children.   When she is approached by the FBI to gather information on a suspect, she leaps at the chance to escape her humdrum daily life and exercise her mind.  This is a compelling novel, albeit a grim view of motherhood, that moves quickly.  Recommended light reading! (~JWFarrington)

MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021

These fifteen titles represent the books I enjoyed the most or thought were the best written of the more than fifty books I read this past year. It’s always hard to narrow down the list, but here it is. What books did you enjoy the most? One friend already sent me her 2021 list.

NOVELS, CONTEMPORARY & HISTORICAL

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Honor by Thrity Unrigar (advance copy; 2022)

Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Murray

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

MYSTERY

Survivors by Jane Harper

BIOGRAPHIES

Eleanor by David Michaelis

The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura

AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIRS

All In by Billie Jean King

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

Both/And: A Life in Two Worlds by Huma Abedin

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

NONFICTION

The Agitators:  Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights by Dorothy Wickenden

The Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Note: The header photo of kids in book boats is a bit of whimsy. Alas, I don’t remember the source of this photo.