I set myself a goal of reading 12 books from the summer reading list I created. True to form, I did not read all the books on the list, but I read some other good books in addition. Here’s my reading report.
I did well on the fiction side and read seven of the nine titles. They were as follows:
Fiction
Many Rivers to Cross by Peter Robinson(this instead of the listed mystery I discovered I’d already read)
Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls(excellent!)
Hello Beautifulby Ann Napolitano(4 stars)
HorsebyGeraldine Brooks (5 stars)
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy(3 stars)
Trust by Hernan Diaz(appreciated it after I finished it)
The White Ladyby Jacqueline Winspear(Winspear is back on her game!)
Note that I still plan to read This Other Edenand Three.
Nonfiction
As for nonfiction, I still have The Grimkes and The Lobster Coast on my stack. I read a long Atlantic excerpt of The Best Minds and so decided to skip reading the entire book.
(wired.com)
OTHER NOTEWORTHY READS
Fiction
The Majorityby Elizabeth Silver(Supreme Court justice loosely based on RBG, a fast read)
Tom Lakeby Ann Patchett(coming in a future post)
The English Teacherby Lily King
Think of Horses by Mary Clearman Blew
Nonfiction
Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron (memoir of illness & love, coming in a future post)
Giving Up the Ghostby Hilary Mantel (memoir)
The Codebreakerby Walter Isaacson(biography of Jennifer Doudna & history of gene editing; reading currently)
Note: Header image of row of readers is courtesy of lifeisthisway.com
When Hurricane Idalia came barreling toward the Florida Gulf Coast, we watched, worried, and wondered from Maine. Had we been home, we would have once again landed on the doorstep of our good friend in Venice where we sheltered last year during Ian.
Our little island was a lucky place. Idalia left only storm debris and extra water here and there, but no damage to our building or others. Anna Maria Island and downtown Bradenton, however, had significant flooding. A big sigh of relief here and a cautious hope that Florida escapes further big storms this season.
As summer waned, I dove into several more books, and the Chief Penguin and I found some entertaining and some serious viewing. Next week I’ll share an overview of my summer reading.
JUST BECAUSE FICTION
I call this group “just because” fiction, because they are books that I came across or picked up that I might not otherwise have read. But did read. Summer is a time to do something different, read more widely, read remaindered titles, or just dabble with an unfamiliar author. Did I love all these works? No, I didn’t. Did I finish them? Yes, even if in one case, I skimmed a lot. So, proceed with caution.
The English Teacher by Lily King
I got this on deep discount at Sherman’s in Boothbay Harbor because I’m a fan of King’s more recent novels. Published in 2005, The English Teacher is a story of adolescence and of a new marriage. Peter is a high school sophomore with a new set of stepsiblings whom he desperately wants to like and to have like him. His mother, Vida, never a wife until now, is the English teacher and her class is studying Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Vida is struggling in the marriage and her life. Peter gets assigned to her class and discussions there bring to a head Vida’s unresolved issues. King’s writing acutely portrays the anguish of both son and mother. It’s an emotional book and one I found painful at points.
Margreete’s Harbor by Eleanor Morse (2021)
Appropriately for my summer, this is a novel set on the Maine coast from 1955 to 1967. I did not know Eleanor Morse, but she has written several other novels and lives on Peaks Island.
The character who catalyzes events is Margreete, a 70ish woman who is becoming forgetful and showing signs of early dementia. This character alone may be enough for some of a certain age to set the novel aside.
Liddie, Margreete’s daughter, and her husband Harry and their children Eva and Bernie, move from Michigan to start a new life with Margreete. Liddie is a professional cellist and Harry a high school history teacher who holds strong views about the Vietnam War.
This is a domestic novel in the truest sense capturing the small details of daily life as seen from the individual perspective of each family member. I liked parts of it, but found it overly detailed and wished that it had been shorter.
Think of Horses by Mary Clearman Blew
Author Blew (inland360.com)
As a memento of our June trip to Montana, I purchased this novel in Big Fork. Blew is the author of other books and nonfiction. Think of Horses, published in 2022 by the University of Nebraska Press, is the last book in her Montana quartet and set in the present. The other three take place in 1925, 1975, and 2012.
Tam Bowen, a successful romance novelist, has returned to her home county for the summer. An unwed mother at 17, now age 50, she has had no recent contact with her adult son, Rob. Tam relates easily to horses as her deceased father was a consummate horse-breaker, and he trained her. Through horses, she makes the acquaintance of James, a neighbor, and his half brother teenage Calvin.
Tam’s early life story made her the subject of gossip and in some quarters, hatred. Returning to the area, she raises the ire and the violent tendencies of some of her neighbors. These four individuals, Tam, Calvin, James, and even Rob, are all fragile with heartbreak in their histories.
How they deal with each other, and both come together and disconnect, makes for a poignant story set midst the roughness and the beauty of the west. (~JWFarrington)
After all the crime shows, we’d been watching, we needed something lighter and humorous. Red, White & Royal Blue was just the thing, a political rom-com. I hadn’t laughed so much in a long time.
Alex Claremont-Diaz is the son of the U. S. President while Prince Henry of the U.K. is the spare. The two don’t hit if off initially and cause an embarrassing display at a wedding. When they do become involved romantically, they must keep it a secret. With a female president, a Hispanic first son, and a gay couple, this is contemporary comedy. It’s great fun. Highly recommended for relief from everything serious!
Charly, Greta, Wilhelm & Friedhelm (The Telegraph)
Generation War is a German series aired in 2013 that follows five young Berliners as they serve and suffer in the Second World War from 1941 to 1945. When first aired in Germany, it was watched by millions, but also the focus of much public debate.
Greta is a bartender who aspires to become a popular singer; Viktor, a Jew, is her tailor boyfriend; Charlotte (Charly) is enthused about the prospect of nursing at the front, while brothers Wilhelm and Friedhelm are an army officer and an enlisted soldier respectively.
As presented on American TV, the production is in three parts, each about 90 minutes long. Narrated by Wilhelm and told from the German perspective, it contains some of the most brutal and almost physically punishing scenes of war I’ve ever seen.
These 20-year-olds are initially full of idealism for a quick victory and, except for Viktor, accepting of the goals set out by Hitler. They compromise their values, they see and do things that are horrible, and they are rendered emotionally numb by the machinery of war.
This is strong stuff. It’s an excellent series, but one that requires fortitude on the part of the viewer. Highly recommended! For another perspective, here is a review from NPR that appeared in 2014.
This week was a good one for reading, and I’ve now checked two more books off my summer list. I also watched the first season of All Heart on the treadmill, while the Chief Penguin and I learned some significant medical history in the engrossing Charite’ series.
WEALTH AND HORSE RACING
Trust by Hernan Diaz
Author Diaz (BookPage)
Argentinian author Hernan Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for Trust, a financial family saga. Set in New York, mostly in the 1920’s and 30’s, it’s primarily the tale of Andrew Bevel and his wife Mildred. Their story is told by Andrew but also by a novelist, a stenographer, and through a long undiscovered diary. The novel is in 4 parts, the first being “Bonds,” the 1937 novel within the novel which charts the lineage and rise of Benjamin Rask (the fictional Andrew Bevel) and his wife Helen.
Andrew Bevel disagrees violently with the fictional depiction of his wife and arranges to write his autobiography. How he perceives the events of his life, how others see them, and what his wife was really like unfold as the novel progresses. There are financial details, repeated discussions of the 1929 and other stock market crashes, and descriptions of Andrew’s role in these events.
The book has been highly and widely praised for being brilliant, charming, ingenious, and a host of other superlatives. I have to say while I found it engaging and intriguing enough to read to the end, I was never completely captivated, nor did I find it exhilarating. I did, however, appreciate the clever twist as the truth of events was unveiled. Mildly recommended. Perhaps of greater interest to readers interested in the financial world of an earlier time. (~JWFarrington)
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Brooks (Wikipedia)
Born in Australia, but residing in Massachusetts, Geraldine Brooks is a favorite author of mine. I loved this novel! It’s rich in historical detail, has complex characters (some based on real people and the others contemporary and fictional), and a sweeping time frame moving back and forth between the 1850’s, 1956, and 2019. Ms. Brooks obviously knows and cares for horses. With delicacy and thoroughness, she depicts the close relationship between enslaved Jarret and Darley, aka Lexington, the horse he trains; that itself is a love story.
In the 1850’s, horse racing in the South was dominated by rich white plantation owners. With slavery in place, trainers were slaves who could be easily sold to another owner. Jarrett, a boy then young man, goes from being Warfield’s Jarret to Ten Broeck’s Jarret to Alexander’s Jarret until after the Civil War he is finally himself, Jarret Lewis.
In the present day, a tossed aside painting sets in motion the examination of a horse skeleton and research on 19th century artist Thomas Scott. Jess works in a conservation lab and Theo, a Black graduate student in art history, brings in the painting. Thus begins their tentative, but warm relationship.
Although one might posit that Brooks’ treatment of racism in 2019 is predictable, it is nonetheless believable. Jess and Theo are fully realized characters, not cardboard cutouts. Likewise, the portrayals of artist Scott and donor Martha Jackson add further depth to the story. Highly recommended, whether you are familiar with or a lover of horses or not! (~JWFarrington)
This series, Cuori in Italian, from Walter Presents is set in Turin, Italy in the 1960’s. Swedish doctor Alberto Ferraris is recruited to work with lead physician Cesare Corvara on quietly developing an artificial heart. Tensions between the doctors on staff and qualms on the part of the Catholic Church about funding such an effort pose roadblocks. Add in the arrival of an American cardiologist, a female no less, and work relations between colleagues suffer.
Delia Brunello is not only highly accomplished, but she is also Cesare’s wife and knew Alberto in a past life. Highly entertaining for both the medicine and the heart troubles. Season 1 has eight episodes. There is a second season, but I don’t think it is available here yet. (~JWFarrington)
Charite’ Seasons 1 & 2 (PBS Masterpiece; possibly also Netflix)
Nurse Lenze (The Movie Database)
Charite‘ is a historical German drama series set in Berlin in the late 19th century at the famous Charite’ Hospital. Ida Lenze works as a nurse to pay off a debt, discovers she likes medicine and aspires to become a doctor. She is curious and strong willed and interacts with several doctors who became famous and were later awarded for their efforts to develop vaccines. Robert Koch is the only one I knew of beforehand. His twin focus was on fighting tuberculosis and courting his actress girlfriend.
Two other doctors research and experiment with injections to prevent diphtheria or at least curb its virulence. Personal dramas and professional egos occasionally get in the way of reliable results. It’s an engrossing first season. With its graphic depictions of primitive surgical techniques, one appreciates the many vaccines of today. There are three seasons, each consisting of 6 episodes.
We completed Season 1 and have now watched two episodes of the second one. It’s set in 1943 and is both chilling and painful at points. A young couple, both doctors, full subscribe to Hitler’s aims, and that impacts how they practice medicine. Initially, the war seems faraway in Berlin until returning injured soldiers share what the front is really like. Set against the Waldhausen couple are professor and doctor Ferdinand Sauerbruch and his wife Margot, also a doctor. Compassionate and accomplished, they become aware of the insidious undercurrents in medical care at Charite’. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
Note: Header image is Thomas Scott’s 1857 painting of Lexington, the very famous 19th century race horse, courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine.
I always have ambitious goals for my summer reading and this year is no exception. I create a list and aim to read as many of the titles as possible. I usually fall short. I get sidetracked by other appealing works or find a particular book not engaging (I allow at least 50 pages before I retreat). Or somehow the premise of a novel or nonfiction work no longer resonates with my summer state of mind. And, of course, some summer reading should be just for fun—whether it’s a mystery, a romance, or an adventure tale!
Here’s my baker’s dozen to read before Labor Day. Maybe.
FICTION
Careless Love: A DCI Banks Novel by Peter Robinson
I’ve read many, but not all of Robinson’s suspense novels. This definitely falls into the fun category. It’s #25 out of 28 in the series. Several earlier books were adapted for a very good TV series.
Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls
Walls is the author of the memoir, The Glass Castle, about her nomadic upbringing.
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
A contemporary take on Little Women
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
One of my all-time favorite writers. I started this in hardback earlier this year, now I will finish it.
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Historical novel about a community on a Maine island. Harding’s first novel, Tinkers, published in 2009 won a Pulitzer Prize.
The Shooting at Chateau Rock by Martin Walker
Having seen Walker give a serious talk, I’m curious to read one of his Chief Bruno mysteries, this one set in the Dordogne.
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Journalist, author and former chef, this novel by Kennedy is set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Three by Valerie Perrin
I loved Perrin’s previous novel, Fresh Water for Flowers. This one is also translated from the French.
Trust by Hernan Diaz
A family saga, a Best Book of the Year (NY Times) and a Pulitzer Prize winner.
The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear
Another mystery by the Maisie Dobbs author, this one with a new character.
NONFICTION
The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen
Memoir about two best friends since childhood.
The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family by Kerri K. Greenidge
Anti-slavery sister activists in the 19th century.
The Lobster Coastby Colin Woodard
I spend much of the summer in Maine. This is a chance to learn more about its history.
Note: Header image of woman reading is from readersdigest.co.uk
