Six Favorite Books Midway Through 2020

This was Kevin Tipple's idea which he got from Lesa Holstine, I think. But here are my seven favorite books of the year so far. I really should list one of the novels of Nicci French I've read but they have all kind of run together, which happens when you repeat characters and situations from novel to novel. But they were enjoyable.

In no particular order

Between Them, Remembering My Parents, Richard Ford (a memoir)

The Movie Musical, Jeanine Basinger

Lean on Pete, Willie Vlautin

Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith

City of Nets, Otto Friedrich

Dance of the Happy Shades, Alice Munro

Chestnut Man, Soren Svestrup

What about you?

Still Here

Lots of good weather, a little dry though. It feels like summer is ending. I have lost the little interest I had in my garden. It is all about weeds by now. And the Rose of Sharon is all about bees. Hard to get near it.

Finished the second season of MY BRILLIANT FRIEND on HBO, which was gorgeous and decided I wanted to read the next book in the series so I downloaded it. Finished Swanson's THE KIND WORTH KILLING. Very clever but like EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS gets by too much on twists for me. I guess if you like books for the puzzle, you would like it more than I did. Still I finished both these books so that says something about them.

Finished both the Dutch series on Acorn. THE SCHOUWENDAM 12 ended badly for me but I guess seven good episodes is enough. Landing the ending is tough.

Reading THE STAR MACHINE about how Hollywood groomed their stars of the golden age.

A lot of my friends can't read at all, but I find I am reading more than ever. How about you?

Several porch visits. Went up to Josh's on Saturday where we played Boggle, which I was lousy at. Their swim club had to close because they had an employee with Covid. Kevin is playing a lot of tennis and still taking the guitar lessons.

They are watching THE SIMPSONS from the first to the last. I have never watched it so I am going to try and watch it with them.

Friend bringing Chinese food over for dinner and we are going to watch THE FISHER KING or SNOW WHITE. Haven't decided which yet.

What's up in your neck of the woods?

FFB-The Chimney Sweeper's Boy, Barbara Vine

(from the archives) Ruth Rendell but writing as Barbara Vine in this case.

Gerald Candless is a famous British writer who dies suddenly much to the sorrow of his daughters and puzzlement of his wife. Their marriage has always been odd to say the least. She has functioned more as a typist and sometimes muse than a wife. However the girls adore him and the oldest decides to write a biography about him.

This proves to be a difficult task as there are many blind alleys in his life. Is he even Gerald Candless?

And the reader is left with mysteries of her own at the book's end. Why did a man so mistreated by society mistreat his wife. Why did he undermine his daughter's relationship with their mother. Yes, we feel sorry for Gerald, but we also loathe many things about him.

This is a complex, complicated book, which I could not put down. Rendell does a wonderful job of showing what life was like in various time periods. Not one character is a cliche. Truly a terrific book. And she integrates his writing wonderfully into both his life and that of his wife's.

Forgotten Movies

Rewatched all three of these films in the last week and all three were terrific. Hollywood knew how to make movies for large audiences that weren't about superheroes then. This sort of movie would come out of independent film companies nowadays and wouldn't be as lush as these three were. Daniel Day Lewis is amazing in both of the ones he is in, playing such different parts. Winona Ryder is so much better than I remembered her.

I always remember the first 20 minutes or so of Three Days of the Condor, but the whole film is brimming with tension and great scenes. Redford and Van Sydow in an elevator is amazing.

A Room with a View is so much quirkier, with so many unexpected moments than I remembered. And what a cast. I was shocked when I checked IMDB that Denhom Elliott has died thirty years ago. I could swear I saw him more recently than that. Helena Bonham Carter is just twenty in this part and already an accomplished actor.

What movie when you rewatched it held up surprisingly well?

Still Here

Perhaps I am bailing on PERRY MASON too soon and also I"LL BE GONE IN THE DARK, but neither of them speaks to me. Instead I have gone back to MY BRILLIANT FRIEND, which seems far enough removed from current events to be relaxing.

At first, I disliked the ending to THE OLDENHEIM 12, but the more I thought about it the better it seemed. It is on Acorn. Enjoying THE KIND WORTH KILLING, Peter Swanson too.

This week, I had a new fridge installed. Had to have a separate guy turn off and on the water. So lots of visits from unmasked workmen. It really makes me angry but as a single woman I can't get into fights with these people. 

Have you all seen Window Swap? So much fun seeing what people see out their windows all over the world. So I tried to do a video and three kids thought I was filming them and really got worried they were going to be reported for not wearing masks. Again, I had to let it go. They were of no danger to me--too far away--but they were old enough to be wearing a mask. Lots of things you would do it you were not alone, but I am.

Which reminds me if you are a couple or more, please think of your single friends who are going through this alone. I have really noticed that people alone are suffering so much more than people with someone else in their house. I had a friend over the other day who had only seen one  person face-to- face since early March and that was just one time. It this goes on, we are going to have a lot of crazy people to deal with.

I had a little dinner party Saturday night. I ordered all the food from a local restaurant and one of my guests picked it up. I set up a table and chairs in my backyard and it turned out well. One person brought dessert and one brought bread and wine and we sat and talked until dark. I am glad I ordered the table from Costco a couple of weeks ago. My porch is great but only holds a three at most with social distancing.

So what have you guys been up to?

FFB-BEFORE THE POISON, Peter Robinson

This reminded me a bit of DAUGHTER OF TIME. A man who composes music for movies leaves California for the UK after the death of his wife. He learns the house he has rented once belonged to a notorious murderess, who poisoned her husband back in the fifties and was executed for her crime. As Chris reads more and more about the crime in newspapers and books, he is doubtful that Grace Fox, a nurse would have committed this crime, especially as the mother of a seven-year old and a dedicated nurse. His investigation leads him to track down people still alive fifty years on.  Midway through, the journals of Grace Fox are introduced, mostly of her time serving as a nurse during the war. This gives the reader their own impressions of her as well as providing an interesting account of the war from a nurse's perspective.

This was certainly a well-written book. I was so convinced Grace Fox must have existed I went to look for her myself. Robinson, as always, writes memorable characters, locations and plot. I missed Inspector Banks a bit but this was certainly a good read.

Still Here

This is my friend, Rita, who's having a hard time now after the anesthetic for her husband's hip replacement surgery caused horrible issues. He was on a ventilator for ten days, has had septic shock, etc. She is in Savannah by herself, trying to work out the details of what he will need to come out of the Rehab place. I am glad I have been through some of these issues and can be useful to her. And as you might imagine COVID has made it so much harder. She can't visit him for one thing. Rita has a Ph.D in educational technology and is still having trouble navigating what Medicare and various other agencies require of her. What do other people do to get through the many pages of forms? What do people without a good pension do? Because Medicare doesn't provide everything needed. If Medicare had allowed him to stay in the hospital longer, some of this may have been avoided.

On to other things. Watched SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY and GOOD WILL HUNTING on Hoopla this week. SUNDAY was a very strange movie with Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch. Is it just me or did Robin Williama always approach dramatic roles with a sing-songy voice (GOOD WILL). PALM SPRINGS on Hulu is a very cute takeoff on GROUNDHOG DAY. I haven't been so relaxed in weeks.

What a gift Hoopla is. If your library has it, you can get lots of free audiobooks, movies and regular books. Even better than Kanopy.

Watching OLDENHEIM 12 on Acorn. About missing people again. Also watching LONDON KILLS, a more ordinary show on Amazon. Also PERRY MASON and I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK and I MAY DESTROY  YOU.

Books: reading the Nicci French, WAITING FOR WEDNESDAY. One thing I really like about her writing is that she always takes the time to give every character some memorable dialog or traits. Her world really feels lived in. I know it is both a husband and wife writing and perhaps that's a strength.

Had to buy a new fridge. Did it over the phone. Just asked what can you deliver the quickest (4 days) that fits my spot. I have no edible food left except canned soup with two days to go.

Really weird that I have had to do some much of this sort of stuff in the last year. Seems like I am always having windows washed or furnace checked or new pavers installed or new mailbox hung. Is this the adult life I seemed to have escaped or am I making it harder than it should be.

Phil would have let a lot of this go, but I am afraid not to keep things working. I just don't know what can wait and what can't.

How about you? What have you been up to?

BREWSTER, Mark Slouka

Mark Slouka's BREWSTER takes place in the blue-collar town of Brewster, NY in 1968. But as Slouka makes a point of saying in a wonderful interview with Edward Champion on the BAT SEGUNDO podcast, 1968 was very different for blue-collar teenagers in a blue-collar town than for those slightly older at that time and of more means. Only gradually does the outer world work its way into the story of four kids in upstate New York.

Its the inner world that Slouka is concerned with here anyway. It's the past, not the present, that has a enormous affect on these lives.

Jon Mosher has always felt like an outsider in his town because of his parents’ roots as German-Jewish émigrés and the accidental death of his older brother. The death of his brother has destroyed his family and especially his mother, who like the mother in ORDINARY PEOPLE seems to hold him responsible for being the one who survived. Spending your life dodging your mother's disdain for you takes its toll.

He begins to run track on his high-school team and becomes friends with: Frank Krapinski, a Christian, and a talented athlete; volatile Ray Cappiciano, who comes to school bearing the bruises of constant fistfights; and Karen Dorsey, who falls for Ray.

Ray’s alcoholic father, a WWII veteran possessed of a raging temper, takes an interest in Jon. And Jon's damaged mother has a fondness for Ray, confounding both boys.

The four teens bond in their desire to leave their damaged lives and working class town behind. It is only gradually they see that you can never leave the past behind. This book is about the solace, the support, and the gift of friendship and loyalty among teens who feel they are powerless.

This was a hard book to read in many ways and it is certainly more noir than more books touted as such.  But every moment felt real. Highly recommended. 

Ghosts of Bucks County

                                                        New Hope Towpath

                                                        Phil's grandfather's house after massive renovation. It is now a B and B    

                                                                Donkey Barges on the canal

                                                                            Train Station in New Hope

What experience do you have with ghosts outside of reading about them? I am reading a Peter Robinson book where a very specific experience with a ghost reminded me of one I may have had. It was so many years ago I am not sure I didn't talk myself into it. Or perhaps Phil did.

It was the summer I met Phil. He was 20, I was 17 and newly graduated from high school. He was living with his parents in his hometown where they ran a luncheonette and newspaper business. It was a summer job between his junior and senior year at AU in D.C.

I was waitressing in Philadelphia at Vic's Pizza Parlor, but on the weekends, I came up to New Hope to visit my friend, Lynda, and met Phil and began to date him.

New Hope was a special place; lots of writers and artists (Michener, Pearl Buck, Patricia Highsmith) lived there; there was a theater, many boutique shops, restaurants, etc. It was set between the Delaware River and a canal. In fact, Washington crossed the Delaware just down the road. It was a colonial town in many ways, some of those buildings still standing. It was the definition of picturesque.

Anyway, it was a cool place to hang out and the summer before this one (1965) I had lived there with Lynda and waitressed at the Crystal Palace. Lynda was still working there and didn't mind my staying overnight in her tiny apartment over a garage.

But mostly I hung out at Phil's house. His room was off by itself, up a flight of stairs from the rest of the house. We spent a lot of time up there, listening to Barbra Streisand, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and the Beatles and Stones. And, of course, fooling around.

At the bottom of the stairs leading up to that room, was a full length mirror. I am not sure why it was there except a bathroom was next to it. One day, we were late getting started for driving me home to Philly (an hour drive) and we went flying down the stairs. As we neared the bottom, I could just make out a woman in a shawl in the mirror. She has long curly hair and had some sort of silk cloth or bandana on her head. I saw her in profile so didn't have a very clear picture of her.

I, of course, asked Phil if he had seen it and he had not.

There was something about the lights too. Phil loved to light candles and the candlelight seemed to attract her because a few nights later, as we listened to COLOR ME BARBRA, the lights flickering on the walls and down the steps, I saw her again. And behind her in the mirror was a window that wasn't on the wall where the mirror was set. It was like looking through to another place and time, based on her clothes.
This happened several times during the summer. Only at night, only when there was candlelight and music. It was not alcohol or drug enhanced in case you are wondering.

And then it sort of got ruined. Phil told his brother Billy about our apparition and one night as we were gazing down the steps, waiting for our ghost to appear, Billy donned a shawl and sauntered in front of the mirror as if he was exiting it.

I screamed, of course, thinking my ghost was coming into the room. And then I felt foolish, wondering if I had ever really seen the colonial maid at all.

Lynda's mother wrote books about the ghosts of Bucks County and included our colonial miss in her next volume. Phil laughed about it later, dismissing it entirely, but I was never completely convinced it had just been too much imagination, music and candlelight as he told anyone who asked.

I'm Still Here

I MAY DESTROY YOU is very hard to watch because of the sexual violence against women (and men too). And also watching the sexual behavior of this group of people is itself hard. So many risky moments for a likable group of people. However, it is so well done, so in the moment, that you can't look away.  It is hard to find movies that develop an idea as well as television does now.

Enjoyed watching HAMILTON with the family. Miranda is a genius. I can't think of another musical able to impart so much information in that amount of time--and do it to music. Quite a production. Although there is an irony of a black cast presenting US history with so little attention given to slavery. Or even a man of color having reverence for a nation that has treated people of color so badly. I guess BLM really brings that home right now.

Listening to Peter Robinson.s BEFORE THE POISON. Reading the Frances Wees book, almost done, and trying to sort out my thoughts about it.

It has been in the nineties for a few days and is likely to continue for a week. ugh.

How about you?

FFB: THE ELIZABETH STORIES

The Elizabeth Stories, Isabel Huggan

Eight stories tracing the growth of the child, Elizabeth Kessler, over a ten-year period (ages 7-17) during the 1950s was published as The Elizabeth Stories by Oberon Press in 1984, and in 1987 by Viking Penguin in Great Britain and the United States, where it won the Quality Paperback New Voice Award in 1988 as well as the Best Fiction Prize from the Denver Quarterly. Huggan has won many awards for her writing.

I read the book in 1988 and enjoyed these stories about a girlhood in a small Ontario town very much. Elizabeth has a difficult mother who regards propriety as overly important. She is often misunderstood, often plays a subsidiary role in these stories but never plays a victim. I see this book is now categorized as YA but I don't remember it as anything other than a book of related stories about growing up. Are we not meant to take childhood seriously as adults? Huggan is a lovely writer and this is a model on how to write related stories.

Books read in June

Kerry Smith always posts the books she's read each month as do a few other bloggers. This was the most books I have read in a month in some time. Perhaps it is because I am not writing very much. I am trying to start a memoir although I have no experience in writing one. So far I am mostly writing history rather than my history. Anyway these are the books I read. Reading the NYT takes me an hour most days. I can't remember that in the past.

June

Poet of Tolstoy Park, Sonny Brewer

Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith

These Hills Are Made of Gold, Pam Zhang

Eight Perfect Murders, Peter Swanson

Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson

Born a Crime, Trevor Noah

Between Them, Remembering My Parents, Richard Ford

 Two crime novels, one old, one new; two memoirs; three mainstream novels. I also read some scattered short stories. And I started at least four books I gave up on. I started one last night and gave up after 25 pages. It's usually the voice with me--just can't picture spending time with that person. Or the setting-in this case the Chicago World's Fair-I've been there already with Erik Larson (Devil in the White City). I will try it again in daytime. Sometime that has an affect on my reading.

How often do you put a book aside and then return to it?

Shelfy Selfy

Not sure how much longer I am going to do this because most of the rest of my books probably wouldn't interest you. They are picture books or biographies or literary story collections, journals I have stories in or straight novels. Anyway, I have only read two of these books: STRAIGHT MAN by Russo and ROSEANNA by Sjowal and Wahloo. I love both of those writers but STRAIGHT MAN is Russo's funniest book, especially for those who are college teachers.

I have skimmed THE NOIR THRILLER, which was fun. I have tried to read ADELE by Slimani and found it too dark. I just bought the Pochoda book. Phil always said COME CLOSER by Sara Gran was too scary for me. I loved DOPE by Gran but haven't read any of the Claire DeWitt books.

I still might try it. The Nesbo I picked up in Florida just a few months ago but it seems more like years now. And DEEP WATER by Highsmith has been recommended by Megan and Phil but I don't seem to get to it. DODGERS I picked up free at Bouchercon. Phil liked it but I haven't gotten to it. Let's face it, Phil was the better reader, especially after he retired and before he was too sick. Who is the better reader in your house?

Still here

I had forgotten that back in January I agreed to read and write a short introduction for a Canadian reprint of a book from the fifties entitled I AM NOT GUILTY, Frances Shelley Wees. Last week the book arrived along with a catalog, mentioning my introduction. Had forgotten all about it after so much time had passed.

Wees, a Canadian, was better known for her novel THE KEYS OF MY PRISON, also published by Vehicule Press. This task came my way via Brian Busby. So I am knee deep in that, trying to find something interesting to say beyond a plot summary.

Watching DEAD STILL, about a Victorian photographer who photographs the dead. Sound familiar? So far I haven't really gotten into it. I am kind of in a lull, having finished several viewing projects.

Read THE OTHER MRS. by Mary Kubick. Still working on BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah. Also reading some short stories from Sarah Weinman's first anthology of domestic suspense.
Watched the Spike Lee movie DA FIVE BLOODS which was rather spoiled by the NYT opinion piece by Viet Nguyen who scolded Lee for being attuned to the problems of black soldiers, but oblivious to the ones of the Vietnamese. Nguyen had spent his whole life watching US Vietnam films that use the native Vietnamese as victims or murderers or servants and not real people.

Sad week. This virus has us by the throat! This needed to be handled at a federal level not state by state. Great piece on Michigan gov, Gretchen Whitmer in the NYT magazine.

How about you?

FFB-City of Nets, Otto Friedrich

Not quite finished this history, but it is long. And really great. If you are interested in Hollywood in the forties, this is the one to read. It begins with the influx of talent (composers, directors, actors) flooding into the country following Hitler's aggression in Europe in '39 and follows the story up to the Cold War, the McCarthy Hearings, etc.

It is not a celebrity gossip book although there are lots of juicy stories in it. It details the union struggles, the writers who came seeking a paycheck they could count on (Faulkner, Dreiser, Hemingway, etc) the composers whose talent was extremely misunderstood by the studios, how the war affected both the content and cast of Hollywood, the goofiness of many of the studio chiefs in handling and mishandling talent.

City of Nets is the work of a gifted historian and writer. Highly recommended

Another Shelfy

A PRAYER FOR THE DYING is a terrific account of another plague if you have the guts for it. A doctor returns from duties during the Civil War and finds his entire small town is dying from a disease. He has to decide who to treat and how. Great book. Told in poetic language. O'Nan has said he alternates short books with long ones and this like Last Night at the Lobster is a shorty. I have most of Woodrell's books but this is one (Tomato Red) I haven't read. Winter's Bone is my favorite. Two books from Hard Case Crime, both with Jason Starr.

I don't hear much from HCC anymore. Are they still publishing? The Awakening, read it for a course. And, of course, it is a classic. Memento Mori, now I know I read this on a Muriel Spark binge, but I have little memory of it. It seems like it's about a person who makes unpleasant phone calls to a group of friends. Seems like it's worth reading again. Name of the Game is Death, Dan Marlowe. A terrific noir. Pretty terrifying if I remember it. Woman on the Roof, Helen Nielsen, never took it out of the plastic cover. I bought it when I was supposed to be on a panel about forgotten female writers. I think I ended up not going to that conference so I never read it.

Have you read any of these?

Also: DNR can mean a range of things, which I didn't realize. For instance, if you come off of a ventilator, putting you back on one constitutes resuscitation. This may differ from state to state or even hospital to hospital, but check it out before putting that bracelet on a wrist.

I'm Still Here

A kind friend took me to a nursery where I bought some coral bells, astilbe (?) and begonias for immediate color. I didn't overdo it. It is too late in the season to do much.

Had two sets of friends over for early dinners (all takeout) and this is enough to buoy me for a day or two. And my son and his family came over yesterday. I ordered middle eastern food, which they picked up. A very nice day. Kevin is almost as tall as his father. He's quiet but not in an angry way. He does get tired of hearing about the President and Covid-19, I am sure. We are a very political family. It seems hard to talk about anything else. Hoping this will not be the defining time of his life the way Viet Nam is for me.  Does each generation have that moment: a war, a depression, a crisis of some sort.

Reading Richard Ford's book about his parents (Between Them). Finished Eight Perfect Murders (Swanson), which I liked, but he did lean awfully heavily on other writers' work. I know that was the point of it, but still. Reading Born a Crime (Trevor Noah) for my book group. Still working on City of Nets at lunch every day.

Rewatched The Last of Sheila, which I don't think held up that well. Finished Srugim, which I am very sorry to be done with. Watching the documentary on Lennox Hill Hospital and the one about Babies (both Netflix) Was disappointed in the first episode of Grantchester, but the second was better. Looking forward to Perry Mason although the reviews are so-so.

Sometimes as I type this I see that I need an awful lot of stimulation. I don't even list the podcasts I listen to. Am I a greedy consumer of stimuli? Not sure. There are very few minutes in my day when something is not going in my ear or eye. How about you? And there is always the fact that I don't drive and am alone. I wonder how others in my situation fill their days?

Happy Father's Day!

FFB: THE POET OF TOLSTOY PARK, Sonny Brewer

Henry Stuart is a sixty-seven year retired professor living in Idaho when he is diagnosed with tuberculosis, a disease the doctor tells him will kill him within a year. A widower with two adult sons, he decides to go live in a more temperate climate and chooses Alabama. The novel is set in the 1920s and his only means of travel is a long train trip. He arrives in Fairhope, AL four days later. He has purchased ten acres sight unseen and lives in the barn while he decides what to do about a permanent home.

Much of this book describes how Henry builds his house. And how he gives up things like reading to make  himself tougher. There is a lot of Thoreau in Henry Stuart. The reader also gets a lot of philosophizing and very exacting accounts of how he fixes things and how he builds that house. We meet his neighbors although not enough to feel we really know them. Our time with them too often reminds of stock scenes from Little House on the Prairie or The Waltons.

This novel is somewhat based on a true story although the real Henry was called the Philosopher of Tolstoy Park rather than the Poet. There is much discussion about Tolstoy.

I feel pretty ambivalent about this book. I like the idea of trying to live simply, but don't understand why Henry insists on being a hermit for much of the book. Is it just to emulate Thoreau? Why does he give up reading and writing and focus solely on his tasks and nature. I think you need to be an especially gifted writer to make this sort of book work. And I am not sure Sonny Brewer is so blessed. But I am not sorry to have read it. There was enough here to make it worth my while.

Gardeners

I would like to plant some new perennials here. Something with some color. It is mostly shady from a big red maple and oak but gets some sun late in the day. Any ideas in case I still get to the nursery this year. BTW there is more room than this photo shows although I don't want something that spreads too much.

Shelfy Selfy

This is my worst bunch yet. I have only read two of these: POISONWOOD BIBLE and HOUSEKEEPING. Both of which I love. I tried to get Phil to read POISONWOOD for years. But once I told him it was about a missionary and his family in Africa, I lost him every time. It is truly a brilliant book and Kingsolver, a brilliant writer. I think it is one of my book group's favorites too. Also HOUSEKEEPING, about a semi-deranged by well-meaning women taking care of her two nieces. Another great writer. When we were in Paris she was speaking at Shakespeare and Company and so many people wanted to hear her that they put a speaker out on the street.

I have started BRIGHTON several times but something always gets in the way. Same with the rest of these. I would not still have them if I didn't know they were well worth reading.

Now I bought CALL ME BY YOUR NAME after admiring the movie. And I have yet to open it up. Same for PNIN by Nabokov which was recommended by more than one person.

I still haven't learned how to schedule so this may go right up.

What percentage of the books on your shelves have you read? Ballpark. What makes up read some right away and others-never?

I'm Still Here

On my walk, I find all kinds of signs and call-outs to what's going on. The sidewalks are filled with chalked messages, windows hold signs offering thanks, there are fairy gardens at the base of so many trees.

This rock, which is really tiny, says Doctors Rock. And they do. I would like to watch LENNOX, which is about doctors on Netflix but I am too scared because you know they will have patients with cancer.

Things are sort of the same every day, every week. I often feel like I am marching in place and will it ever end. A really good friend went to have a hip replacement last Tuesday and is now on a ventilator and has an embolism. This was in Georgia. They send you home the next day with nobody checking in on you. Do they assume his wife (and his wife has a Ph.D so she's a smart woman) will know that his oxygen level is too low (80) without giving her a way to check it. Don't get me started. Who said that all the time on TV?

I found out I have the downloading service Hoopla through my library and downloaded an audio book. (EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS) The choice was not great but it's free. They also have movies and print books. Between that and Kanopy you would think I had enough to watch. I am insatiable. Really looking forward to the dark version of Perry Mason coming soon.

Also finished listening to NOTHING TO SEE HERE by Kevin Wilson and finished reading the very strange POET OF TOLSTOY PARK (Sonny Brewer).

Working my way through SRIGUM and now I understand what Ultra-Orthodox Jews are. It took them two and half seasons to explain it to me. Also spreading out RAMY, which I love. Muslims, maybe I will study them. The acting on this show along with the writing is terrific.

But if they have an online course on Judaism, I would like to take it. Because I grew up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood, and a lot of my friends have always been Jewish, I think I would really find it interesting. More about Jewish culture than the actual Torah though. Although I would like to understand what the men, especially, are always studying. I think it is more commentary from famous rabbis over the centuries than the actual Bible. I read the entire Bible in high school so I have some grounding there.

About to start another Maigret. I can always find one to download for $1.99 on amazon.

Beautiful weather here. So much trimming and weeding though. And I pulled out a lot of stuff that I hope is weeds. None of my friends are gardeners except the woman in Georgia. Usually she is back here by now.

Thanks to the friends who do not forget me. I am blessed.

I am babbling. I can't figure out how to not publish this right away. Sorry.

And what's up with you?

FFB: DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT, Anne Tyler

Patti Abbott, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. (from the archives)
 

I first read DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT when it came out more than 30 years ago and my reading of it then and now are quite different. I found the family quirky then. I find them sad now. As we grow older, things seem more set in stone and a dysfunctional family seems unlikely to change.

It is the most critically acclaimed and beloved of Tyler's books and is often compared to AS I LAY DYING.

All the members of the Tull family are dysfunctional. Beck, the father, deserts his family and for most of the book, we believe he is the primary cause of all their troubles. We don't understand why until the very end and share the frustrations and puzzlement of his wife, Pearl with his actions.

Pearl is run into the ground supporting her family and is seldom up to coping with them. Only a brave writer would give a woman so beset by financial problems such unlikable traits. She resorts to various verbal abuses that scar the children. Cody, the eldest, develops such severe hangups over his father's desertion and his mother's display of favoritism he becomes emotionally estranged from the family. His resentment of his younger brother and the action he takes to ameliorate his pain is painful to read. Jenny grows up scattered and remote despite her profession. Ezra, the most sympathetic character of the book and owner of the "Homesick Restaurant" shares this beaten down quality.

There are few acts of heroism in this book and, in fact, few big scenes. Its success can be pinned to the small accretion of details and words that give the Tull family life. You may not either like or dislike any character in this book, but you will believe they exist. And although you may not want to eat dinner with them, you can
 picture them in Baltimore even now.

This is one of my favorite Anne Tyler novels. I haven't read one in a long time though. Maybe it's time now. 

Shelfie Selfie

BOB THE GAMBLER: The story of the Barthelme brothers, Stephen and Frederick not Donald, who inherited a sizable amount of money and went down to a river boat and lost it in an afternoon has always fascinated me. This is not the memoir of that stunt but Frederick's tale of a gambler, which I also found interesting. Do you have a favorite tale of a gambler?

Of course, THE LAST GOOD KISS is a classic, but I have not read it. It has the most quoted first line in crime fiction though. "When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a spring afternoon." I thought "bulldog" was a colorful term for a guy on the next stool, but the next line clears that up "The dog slumped on the stool beside him like a tired little buddy, only raising his head occasionally for a taste of beer from a dirty ashtray set on the bar." Talk about a colorful image.

1984-we read this in my book group, I think. It's an awfully glum book and too much of it came true. It was the play my high school did my senior year and I played what is a man in the book.  It was a Christian high school and the lead actress, Rosemary Camilleri was not allowed to kiss boys so they had to cut that from a scene. See, they should have cast me in the part. I would have been able to fulfill my role's requirements.

EARLY ORGANIZED CRIME IN DETROIT, James Buccellato. Jimmy was a Ph.d student of Phil's and this is a real interest of his. This was not his dissertation though.

THE PIANO LESSON, another book we read in my book group and I saw this play of August Wilson's as well as FENCES, and one or two others. There is a good documentary on August Wilson on Prime right now. Wilson wrote a play about black folks for every decade of the 20th century. THE PIANO LESSON won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

AN UNQUIET MIND: Kay Redfield Jamison, a book on mental illness I read for CONCRETE ANGEL. It was books on mental illness for CONCRETE ANGEL and books on photography for SHOT IN DETROIT.

WONDER VALLEY, Ivy Pochoda -Phil enjoyed this and although I just bought her new book I have not gotten to this or VISITATION STREET, which also sits on the shelf.

DEAR LOS ANGELES, ed by David Kipen-can't remember who gave this to me but I haven't even opened it. Some day.

TRANSCRIPTION, Kate Atkinson, I have read all of Atkinson's books except this one. It's about spies and that is just not my favorite genre. Maybe some day.

Read any of them? 

Still Here

These beauty bushes are not long for the world. Although the robins who have "sheltered" in them are also fleeing. We had an uneasy relationship so I am glad for that. I need to clear all the weeds out of the cracks now. I sprayed them with vinegar and salt but still have to excise what's left.

I was invited out to dinner last night, which was oh so nice. So tired of cooking every night and ordering out for one just never seemed worth it. I am managing to get to see people several days a week on my porch which is nice. We have had great weather lately. Really hope this is resolved before we head back into indoor weather.

Watched the movie, VAST OF NIGHT on Prime and it was terrific. Science fiction like was made in the 1950s. Still enjoying RAMY on Hulu and SRIGUM on PRIME. Reading THE POET OF TOLSTOY PARK for my book group. Also listening to MY MAN JEEVES on fm.libro. Still working on CITY OF NETS, which is lots of fun if you like movie history.

My brother called to say that Ancestry.com reconfigured something and that the man we thought was my father is not. Glad I didn't contact those supposed half-siblings. Jeff (my brother) has a new candidate, but this guy never had kids and died long ago. I guess I will never be certain of any of this. I am waiting for my brother to give me an address from the 1940 census and see where that leads.

FFB-Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith was 29 when this, her first novel, was published. It's hard to believe it's a first novel because  not only is it polished it also has the misanthropic outlook of a older, more jaundiced, writer. I listened to this book through fm libro where the profits go to a local bookstore of your choosing. It was read by Bronson  Pinchot who did a great job.

I'm sure you know the plot from the Hitchcock movie if not the novel. Two men meet on a train. One is the spoiled son of rich parents, the other is an up and coming architect (in the movie he's a tennis player). The spoiled son, Bruno, gradually gets the architect, Guy, to confess he's in a loveless marriage and eager to be rid of the woman who is recently pregnant by another man. Bruno introduces the idea that they should each murder the person standing in the way of other man's path to happiness. (Bruno has a father he can't abide and who sees through his son's profligate ways).

Guy basically forgets the man and his idea until his wife is murdered at an amusement park. Then the game is on and he must either shake off Bruno, eager to have his part of the bargain met somehow or murder his father.

After finishing the book, I watched the movie. Each had certain strengths. This was one of Hitchcock's best films. It's much more fast- paced than the book and he uses so many interesting techniques to fill you with dread. Making Guy a tennis player provides for one of the best scenes too. However the book looks into each man's psychological makeup more fully. Both mediums are very good and worth investigating. Robert Walker, in particular, makes a perfect Bruno. He died not long after this film from a bad reaction to a drug. He was 31.

First Wednesday Book Review: Hidden Valley Road

Robert Kolker follows up his investigation of disappearances on Long Island (Lost Girls) with another riveting story.  Hidden Valley Road examines the Galvin family of Colorado. Mimi Galvin gave birth to twelve children over a twenty-year period. Ten boys were followed by two girls. They were a family that seemed to flourish and shine in their community until the boys hit their teen years and, over time, six of the ten boys exhibited signs of mental illness.

When the boys first showed signs of schizophrenia, (1960) it was in an era when a cold mother was blamed for the condition. Donald, the oldest, would spend the rest of his life in and out of mental hospitals. This would also be the fate of five of his brothers, two of whom died of related issues.

Kolker has done a terrific job of incorporating the research and treatment of this mental illness over the last half century with the story of the Galvin family. Although it's clear the parents made mistakes in their handling of the boys, it was genetics that really explained the ailment. Brain studies of the afflicted compared to the more normal children showed stark differences.

And the information culled from this family is being used (much as what happened with Henrietta Lacks) to fuel further research into the illness. When I heard Kolker interviewed by a bookstore via zoom, many of the family members called in, supporting his attempt to tell their story and to give it value. It has to be of some comfort to them.

For more reviews, visit Barrie Summy

Selvie Shelfy

Sorry these are hard to read and the top three were actually Phil's but I am finishing off a shelf. The Armchair Detective is lots of fun Probably some of you have it. It has very varied list like Edgar Award Winners, and Julian Symons 100 best crime stories. It was published in 1989. Julian Symons wrote many mysteries but I cannot recall one showing up on FFB. I remember reading them with pleasure too. Remember Robin Winks, he's got a list in here too.

Funniest thing: they ask mystery writers to list their favorites and here's what Patricia Highsmith said. "Since I do not enjoy reading mystery books (therefore almost never do) I'm not the person to ask for a favorite list. ...a list would be 100% phony on my part. Sorry I can't be more of help toward your book."

The next book is Susan Sontag's ON PHOTOGRAPHY, which I read for SHOT IN DETROIT.
Next is a book given to me by James Reasoner. Horace McCoy's I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME. I haven't read it. It looks too fragile for my style of reading. But I love having it.
Two Jean Shepherd books which I reread when I need a good laugh. I had a third one with Fig Newton in the title, which I can't find.
Always meaning to read Gene Kerrigan's THE MIDNIGHT CHOIR, an Irish crime novel which is always mentioned in reviews of Irish crime novels.
Another Flannery O'Connor book. Read probably forty years ago.
And finally Chandler's THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER which is an essay and some short stories.

Still Here

Usually unrest tends to help law and order candidates, I think. This is how we got Nixon. Still one can hardly blame the protestors. Except how many in the crowd are coming from various groups eager to cause trouble. Lots, I think. Just when you thought things couldn't get worse...

Anyway this one of our six beauty bushes, which are very pretty although right now they are home to robin nests and the robins are determined to save their babies from the marauding home owner. Some similarities here.

Enjoying HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD and CITY OF NETS, about Hollywood in the forties. Two California books. Also listening to STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, read by Bronson Pinchot and he is very good. Anyone remember him from PEFECT STRANGERS.

Enjoying RAMY, about an Egyptian-American and SRUGIM about young Jewish people In Jerusalem. Amazing how we can get these shows from everywhere now.

So what is new in your part of the woods?