The Best of 2020

Dear friends,

As you most likely know, my book reading and writing was slightly off this year: first, when I was sick with Covid, and then because I just couldn’t read up to speed. I’m pretty much back on track now, with a hopper full of wonderful books and a new-found purpose to tell my story through the books I read.

So, here are my favorites of 2020.

Fiction

The Cold Millions by Jess Walter. Great characters in an historical setting that was unfamiliar to me. This was my favorite book of the year.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. You can’t go wrong with Ann Patchett. The book is a profound look at what makes family.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Although it was embroiled in reviewer controversy, I found it to be an inspiring tale of migrants moving north.

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal. You know how I love books about my home state. This delightful book is more about women’s fortitude than it is about beer.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley. Great psychological thriller set on an island off the coast of Ireland.

The Bitch by Pilar Quintana. A profound study of grief and pain distilled in only 155 pages.

A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet. A prophetic allegory about children, fear, greed, and lousy parenting. Fabulously designed and written.

Nonfiction

Nobody’s Looking at You by Janet Malcolm. A series of essays about and interviews with people whose names are familiar, like Eileen Fisher and Rachel Maddow. Extremely insightful and well-written.

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby. Some of the best inappropriate, introspective writing you are likely to find.

We are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer. A steadfast argument to take climate change seriously. The Kalamazoo Community Read 2020.

The Hope of Glory by Jon Meacham. An insightful, thoughtful look at the last words of Jesus, from one of America’s prolific non-fiction writers.

And now, we move on to 2021. It’s gonna be a good reading year. Already, I have a big pile of great books—Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz, and Eat a Peach by David Chang.

Happy New Year.

 

The Book of Longings

 By Sue Monk Kidd

Viking     2020

418 pages     Historical Fiction

Maybe I shouldn’t be writing about The Book of Longings because I didn’t finish reading it, but we had such a good discussion about it at my spiritual growth book group Zoom meeting that I feel compelled to say a few words about it.

Here is a brief summary of the book from the publisher.

“In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything.

Their marriage evolves with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, and their mother, Mary. Ana’s pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to Rome’s occupation of Israel, partially led by her brother, Judas. She is sustained by her fearless aunt Yaltha, who harbors a compelling secret. When Ana commits a brazen act that puts her in peril, she flees to Alexandria, where startling revelations and greater dangers unfold, and she finds refuge in unexpected surroundings. Ana determines her fate during a stunning convergence of events considered among the most impactful in human history.”

Sue Monk Kidd was inspired to write the a novel about Jesus’ wife after she read an account of an ancient gospel manuscript discovered in 2014 which seemed to have been written by Jesus’ wife. While the manuscript was later debunked as fake, it set off Kidd’s imagination. A lot of research followed, the character of Ana was created, and The Book of Longings emerged. That is one of the things that I greatly admire about Kidd. She has an extraordinary imagination.

Kidd is a very skilled writer, the novel is very readable, and Ana, who became Jesus’ wife, is a wonderful, creative character. One of the reviewers suggests that it is a “richly imagined first-person narrative.” I loved Ana’s independence, her fierceness, and her daring. I am not sure, however, that a teenaged girl would have been so brazen in Nazareth at that time—and survived to tell her tale. The other part that worried me was how Kidd inserted Biblical events into the experience of this young girl—and a very young Jesus. There is the Samaritan story, happening right before her eyes, as well as many other events—seemingly an attempt to promote authenticity. One little thing that bugged me was that Judas was Ana’s brother in the narrative. Why, I don't know. Maybe it felt a little contrived.

What I liked the most was the discussion that emerged in our group about Biblical narrative and the contextual treatment of women. We decided that perhaps Kidd’s  major purpose was to promote the understanding of the role of women through the generations, and how the Biblical narrative has been used to undermine the role of women in the Christian church. Was there a place for feminism in the Biblical narrative? Was this Kidd's intent? The women in my group all  had stories to tell of being relegated to an underlying place in the church, particularly the women who had theological degrees. We learned a lot about each other in the discussion. I am glad that The Book of Longings served that purpose for our group. I wondered how the book would have fared in a less theologically liberal group of women. Or in a Catholic book group, because the fact that Jesus was married might undermine one of the key tenants of Catholicism.

I have enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd’s books in varying degrees. In pre-blogging days, I read The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair and enjoyed them as well as The Invention of Wings, which I reviewed in 2015. I read Traveling with Pomegranates, which I didn’t much like, and now The Book of Longings, which I must admit was difficult for me to get through, as much as I related to Ana’s struggle to find her voice.

You will have to make the decision for yourself as you read. It is beautifully written, but the story-line is a bit problematic.

Sue Monk Kidd’s website.

The Soup and Bread Cookbook

 

By Beatrice Ojakangas

University of Minnesota Press     2020

266 pages     Cookbook

Bea Ojakangas is a living legend in my hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. She had a restaurant for a time in our neighborhood. It was called Somebody’s House and served terrific sandwiches and other comfort foods. Thus, I was thrilled when I was offered an advanced copy of her book, The Soup and Bread Cookbook.

This is what I learned about her from a feature article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

 “The year was 1957, and a young cook, wife and soon-to-be first-time mother living on a military base in England entered her recipe for cheese bread into the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Beatrice Ojakangas didn't win first place that year -- the top prize went to Mrs. Gerda Roderer of Berkeley, Calif., who received $25,000 for her "Accordion Treats," a delicate horn-shaped walnut cookie. But Ojakangas' bread took the second grand prize and helped launched an enduring career that has included 27 cookbooks on a wide range of subjects, from whole grain breads to casseroles to pot pies to her specialty, Scandinavian cooking and baking.  

Ojakangas first appeared in Taste in a 1978 profile, the first of seven such features during the intervening 32 years (she was also a frequent contributor to the section in the 1990s). She may not have won the top prize, but in retrospect, Ojakangas may be the Bake-Off's biggest success story. After all, how many other food careers were launched with a single recipe?” 

The University of Minnesota Press recently reissued one of her popular cookbooks, The Soup and Bread Cookbook, which was first published in 2013. Actually, the University Press has declared that her cookbooks will never go out of print, because in part, she is the only Minnesota cook and cookbook author who is a James Beard  prize winner. I gave this particular cookbook to my sisters for Christmas this year.

 What I like about this particular cookbook is that the recipes are grouped by season. As I have learned from my own cooking, soup is seasonless when seasonal vegetables are used. And that is the point of her grouping by season. We are using the vegetables, etc. that we know are available during that particular season. I recently made her Cream of Tomato soup that was linked with her recipe for grilled cheese sandwiches.  Ah, you say, I know how to make grilled cheese, but have you ever made it with sliced apples and basil? The whole thing was so satisfying and comforting. I am ready to try some other recipes

 

Easy Cream of Tomato Soup

• 2 cups Basic Vegetable Broth (page 6) or low-sodium store-bought
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 cups crushed fresh tomatoes, or 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 3/4 cup heavy (whipping) cream
• Salt and ground black pepper

In a soup pot, whisk together the broth, flour, tomatoes, and tomato paste and bring to a simmer, stirring, until slightly thickened. Using an immersion blender or a standard blender, puree the soup. Stir in the cream and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Old-Fashioned Grilled Cheese, Apple, and Basil Sandwiches 

Slices of crisp fall apples and fresh basil leaves lend a whiff of the season to this classic sandwich.

• ·         8 slices Basic Home-Baked Bread, white or wheat, or good-quality store-bought
• ·         8 thin slices extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
• ·         1 Fuji, Gala, or Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
• ·         4 large fresh basil leaves
• ·         1 to 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Arrange 4 of the bread slices on a work surface and place a slice of cheese on each. Top each evenly with the apple slices and a basil leaf. Top with the remaining cheese and the remaining 4 slices of bread.

Spread both sides of each sandwich with a little butter. Preheat a skillet, griddle, or panini press over medium heat. Toast the sandwiches over medium heat until golden and the cheese is melted, about 1 minute per side. Cut on the diagonal and serve.

In my opinion, Bea Ojakangas’ recipes are essentials for the home cook. The Soup and Bread Cookbook is a must have and is very representative of the entrepreneurial cook who created the recipes. I need to add that Bea is now 86 years old and many of her cookbooks are still in print. Also, You Tube has many wonderful videos of her in action; even a couple with Julia Child.

 Bea Ojakangas is Duluth’s pride and joy!

The Cold Millions

 By Jess Walter

Harper     2020

352 pages     Literary Fiction

Let me just say at the outset that there is no way I can do The Cold Millions justice in a book review. It was my favorite book of the year, but so different from my usual books that I hardly know where to begin.

Spokane Washington in 1909 was the scene of a major labor rebellion. The Dolan brothers, Gig and Rye, have arrived in the rough-and-tumble city looking for work. They have been traveling since their parents died, and at this point Gig is in his early 20s and Rye is just 16. Rye just wants to find a place to sleep and a job to buy some food, while charismatic Gig sees in the union movement a place to make a difference, and he actively seeks out the danger of the moment. Rye follows along primarily to protect Gig from danger. When the rioting begins, Gig and Rye are both arrested and sent to jail. When the police discover that Rye is only 16, they release him, and he finds himself pulled in several directions by forces both good and evil. A remarkable  woman enters the scene and helps get Rye out of jail, promising that she will help get Gig out of jail as well. Her name is Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and she is a Communist labor organizer. She rescues Rye and brings him with her to several places where he serves as her prop in the socialist speeches she makes at every stop. 

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was a real person, and when Rye meets her, she is 19-years-old, has left her husband in Montana to embark on her Industrial Workers of the World union-building campaign. Oh, and did I say that she was pregnant. Believe me, in 1909, no one knew what to do with a 19-year-old pregnant woman union organizer. She is an incredible character in the book as she must have been in real life. In later years, she was the founder of the ACLU.

One of the great gifts of the book is Walter’s introduction to an amazing array of well-developed characters, from corrupt cops, to Ursula the Great, a vaudevillian who performs with a live cougar, to a powerful mining magnate who wants to stop the labor movement in its tracks. Every type of character that one can imagine in this rough and tumble world shows up and becomes fully developed by Walter’s skillful writing. 

The plot itself is a page turner. The reader is filled with dread for Rye and Gig, but especially Rye because of his youth and vulnerability. He is tossed and turned by the upheaval around him, when all he really wants is to find some stability in his life. I knew nothing about the labor movement of the early years of the 20^th century, but Gurley Flynn had rabble-roused all over the upper part of the United States, including the Iron Range of Minnesota, a place I know well. The unrest seems oddly reminiscent of the Civil Rights era of the 1960s and the divisions of the current day. Was this one of the author’s intentions? Perhaps.

In all, The Cold Millions is not an easy read, but it is extremely engaging. Here is a sample paragraph:

“They woke on a ball field—bums, tramps, hobos, stiffs. Two dozen of them spread out on bedrolls and baskets in a narrow floodplain just below the skid, past taverns, tanners, and tents, shotgun shacks hung like hounds tongues over the Spokane River. Seasonal work over, they floated in from mines and farms and log camps, filled every flop and boardinghouse, slept in parks and alleys and the pavilions of traveling preachers, and, on the night just past, this abandoned ball field, its infield littered with itinerants, vagrants, floaters, Americans.”

I don’t know when I have read a novel so skillfully written with such forceful characters. I highly recommend it.

Here is a terrific review in the New York Times.

 

When You're Not OK: A Toolkit for Tough Times

 

By Jill Stark

Scribe     2020

147 pages     Self-Help

This little hardback book of wisdom came while I was reading Get Your Life Back for my church book group. Stark has formulated a series of beautiful meditations to help those of us who are dealing with all kinds of anxieties, both real and existential. I used several of the pages as I led the group. Here is the writeup.

“This is a self-care manual for the days when you feel alone — the days when you worry that you’re too weird or broken or unfixable to be normal. With compassion, humour, and honesty, Jill offers signposts to help you find the path back to yourself. Whether you’re having a bad day, or a run of bad days that seems never-ending, When You’re Not OK is an emotional first-aid kit for your body, mind, and soul, written by someone who’s been there too.”

Some of the writings are a page or two, some a paragraph, some just a sentence. They all cause the reader to pause and regroup. Many of the bits of advice are similar to those of Eldridge in Get Your Life Back, but Stark is very concise. Her meditations could be read during the “one minute pause.”

Here is a lovely page. “Dance. Like no one’s watching. Whenever you can. Wherever you can. It’s good for the body, but more importantly, it’s good for the soul. Dance the way you did when you were a kid. Cut loose. Let your body move whichever way feels comfortable. Just dance.”

The other day, I picked up my grandchildren to bring them to my house for afternoon online school. My 9-year-old granddaughter was frantically trying to gather up her things, plus the things she wanted to play with. My 8-year-old grandson couldn’t get his shoes and socks on. Their mom had to get back online to teach her next class. Everyone huffed and puffed out of the house, with my granddaughter yelling at her brother. When we got in the car, I stopped, calmed myself, and then demonstrated  deep breathing for them, and told them how to pause to get things better. Then I said, “It will take us about 5 minutes to get back to Grandma’s house. We are not going to talk on the car ride, and you are going to practice deep breathing. When we get to the house, everything will be ok." Sure enough, the children bounded out of the car, set up their computers for afternoon school, and everything was calm, peaceful, and happy.

The Library Journal review says that When You’re Not OK is a “handy, feel-good volume of tips and advice for contented living.” It would be a delightful stocking stuffer for a dear friend or family member.

 

Get Your Life Back: Everyday Practices for a World Gone Mad

 

By John Eldredge

Nelson Books     2020

213 pages     Spiritual

Get Your Life Back by John Eldredge was the first book that I read as I contemplated surviving the pandemic. I actually received it from the publisher and then used it with my spiritual growth book group. We found it so meaningful that we discussed it (on Zoom, of course) over the span of two months.

John Eldredge is a pastor, counselor, and author. In this book, he offers everyday spiritual practices “for a world gone mad.” The fascinating thing is that while he wrote the book pre-pandemic, it fits so perfectly to our lives now. He is speaking of the pace of life, the crush of media, and the craziness of the political scene. I read the book from all of those perspectives but primarily of the place the pandemic has brought us to—where we can’t go out, where we can’t see family and friends, and where we can’t celebrate holidays. I wondered if he had written the book a few months later, what would he have added to his everyday practices.

At the outset, Eldredge asks these questions:

·         Are you happy most of the time”

·         How often do you feel lighthearted?

·         Are you excited about your future?

·         Do you feel deeply loved?

·         When was the last time you felt carefree?

If you are like me, you can’t answer those questions positively. To that end, Eldredge offers spiritual suggestions and practices that can bring you into focus, calmness, and spiritual awareness. The first suggestion that I tried and found beneficial is to insert the practice of the One Minute Pause into my day. That means to stop, breathe deeply, and calm myself down before I moved forward. Another practice I have really found beneficial is to enjoy the nature that is around me. That practice, for me, means to celebrate something that I see outside every day. It could be a new bird at the birdfeeder, or the mother and baby deer in the yard. I have been writing that moment down with a brief explanation of why it was meaningful to me.

 The most beneficial practice for me has been to offer myself some kindness. I tend to be a person who is constantly putting the needs of others ahead of my own. I had to work hard to take some Miriam breaks. One of my friends found the practice of cutting out technology and the news to be the most helpful for her.

Eldredge offers examples from his own life, which makes the book very personal and healing. I found myself relating on a very real level with his experiences and adding his stories to my own. I connected his stories and my stories, moving  to a higher level of spiritual growth, longing for the peace of God in my life.

And herein became a small problem with the book. Eldredge speaks of God as “he.” I found that to be an annoyance, and I had to work to get around it. I appreciated so much what I was learning and I was growing as I read the book, but I could not get around the pronoun. Additionally, there is a chapter that speaks of evil and the devil. My belief system has little room for this, so I chose not to read it. Others in my book club felt the same way. But we all felt that we had gained so much that we could read around that chapter.

We used Get Your Life Back as a discussion book, but Eldredge does have a study guide and videos to go with the book, so it could be a course over several sessions.

Get Your Life Back came to me at an appropriate time in my life, and I continue to benefit from what I gained from reading it. The Publisher’s Weekly review says, “this restorative guide will appeal to faithful readers wishing to slow down their lives to live out God’s plan.”

Eight Reasons to Return

 

I

1. I've started reading again.

          2. I like to write about books.

           3. I understand that blogging may be a thing of the past.

            4. I also know that Blogger is a simple platform for my purposes.

            5. I am using Blogger as an online diary.

            6. I'm an old woman and I have to write things down.

            7. I keep asking myself, "Did I read that one?"

            8. I have hundreds of books on my Kindle to be read, as well as many hardbound new releases.

Finally, my revelation today is that I am going to release myself from the pressure of feeling that I need to get books read before publication day, and just read what I want, when I want.

SO THERE!

Taking a Rest

 Dear Friends,

I have decided to take a vacation from blogging for the rest of 2020. It's 2020 after all! What else needs to be said.

Right now, I am reading a great book, The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter, preparing to begin The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd, and rereading Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby--the last two for book clubs. I will continue to post a few words on Goodreads.

I am not the only one who has expressed concentration problems with their recreational reading. Perhaps you are also having problems. Anyway, if I am not pressured to produce a book review, perhaps I can enjoy my reading more.

I am hoping to return to my blog in 2021. Until then, stay safe and sane.

Miriam

Family in Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, an American Daughter

 

By Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao

Viking     2020

352 pages     Memoir

An introduction to the book: “In alternating narrative chapters between mother and daughter, two women write about their past and families in this literary memoir. Lan, the mother, came to the U.S. as a 13-year-old refugee. Harlan, her daughter, struggles to make friends and come into her own. The two women narrate their intense struggles as they each form their own identities.”

Family in Six Tones is a striking memoir, for the most part because Lan Cao is an excellent author. She was born in Vietnam and fled the war when she was 13 in 1975. Her daughter Harlan was born in Virginia in 2002, so Harlan is in her teenage years as the mother-daughter duo write this book. After Harlan is born, Lan Cao faces the challenge of not just surviving and succeeding on her own, but now she is responsible for helping this young American-born child survive and thrive.

I kept underlining passages that I found particularly appealing. Passages particularly in Lan Cao’s portion of the narrative. She has the ability to put thoughts into words that are both heart-rending and relatable. Harlan’s story, while very different from her mother’s, is also appealing in a bratty-daughter kind of way. I kept thinking, “Gosh, I’ve already been through this several times with my daughter and my young adult granddaughters. I don’t need to go through this again.” This thought is echoed by the Publisher’s Weekly reviewer who mentions that Harlan’s experiences are “thin.” On the other hand, not very many teenaged girls are able to express their issues with their mothers quite so eloquently. The Kirkus reviewer says, “What makes this memoir especially compelling is the way these two separate but linked perspectives illuminate silences or gaps in the stories that each woman tells.”

Lan Cao’s memoir tells a refugee story that is totally relatable, and it meant a great deal to me because of my trip to Vietnam a year ago, when we experienced the aftermath of a war that continues to reverberate in that country. Harlan relates how she sees the war resonating in her mother all these years later. Their trip to Saigon together helps to heal both of their wounds and find some common ground. Whatever the weaknesses of the joint narration, there are moments of profound meaning for the reader.

In 2015 when Family in Six Tones was just an idea, the two did a Story Corps interview which is especially interesting. You can listen to it here.

 

Next Year in Havana

 By Chanel Cleeton

Berkeley     2018

356 pages     Literary

If you like serious history lessons mixed in with your romance fiction, you are going to love Next Year in Havana. It is the story of a grandmother and granddaughter in two distinct generations and their love affair in Cuba. Grandma Elisa Perez, was the daughter of a Cuban sugar baron—one of four sisters—forced to leave Cuba and everything they loved because their father was a proponent of the old way of life, pre-Castro. Elisa is a young adult in love with Pablo, a revolutionary, and is totally bereft when it appears that he has been killed in the revolution. Years later, her granddaughter, Marisol, has promised to bury her ashes in Havana, and because of her journalism credentials, she is able to travel in 2017 to visit the city, meet the people close to her grandmother, and fall in love with Luis, the grandson of her grandmother’s best friend.

It's all very heavy, with long passages of history interspersed with the sights and sounds of Havana and bits and pieces of romance and family life. The Kirkus review says “Somber and humor-free, the novel feels uncomfortably strung between its twin missions to entertain and to teach detailed, repetitive factual lessons.” That’s exactly how I felt. It was very heavy, and if I hadn’t been reading it for my book club, I would not have finished it.

However, at book club this week, we had a guest speaker—a Kalamazoo woman who had been part of the diaspora from Cuba. As a 12-year-old, she had been sent to an orphanage in Miami to wait for her parents to be able to leave Cuba. We were thrilled to hear her story, because the history lesson was so much more vibrant than that of Chanel Cleeton’s. She told about how her family were reunited and ended up in Kalamazoo, when religious family services got her father a job at a pharmaceutical company. She has returned to Cuba several times since 2010, and she was able to give us detailed information about how the country is faring now.  

To its credit, Next Year in Havana introduced me to some history that I knew little about. Of course I remembered Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs, other aspects of the revolution, and especially the antique cars, but there was much I didn't know. Cleeton has a sequel that has come out recently, When We Left Cuba, the story of Elisa’s sister, Beatriz. Finally, The Last Train to Key West, which arrived in June, tells the story of two more women and their involvement with Cuba. Some of her earlier books also deal with Cuba and romance.

Chanel Cleeton’s website.

Addis Ababa Noir

 Edited by Maaza Mengiste

Akashic     2020

256 pages    Noir

We have always rented our small basement apartment to graduate students, and it was our great good fortune to have Samson and his wife Nofkote as renters for two years. Samson had come to Western Michigan University from Addis Ababa to pursue a Master’s Degree. During the civil war, Nofkote had fled to the United States from Ethiopia with her family while Samson’s family had retreated to a rural area of Ethiopia.  Both were members of the same tribe—a tribe that had fallen out of favor during the civil war. Both fathers had been government officials. Samson’s father became a carpenter and Nofkote’s father drove a taxi in Washington DC.

 I learned so much from them. After graduation, they moved back to the DC area, where there is a very large Ethiopian community. Four years ago we were invited to Samson’s sister’s wedding in Detroit. We met Ethiopian doctors, lawyers, and professors, all of whom had come to the United States from Addis Ababa during the diaspora. It was an extraordinary experience to meet them and to hear their harrowing stories.

So, it was with this background, I absorbed the stories in Addis Ababa Noir. The stories are beautifully written and express the highs and lows of this incredible city—a city that has suffered greatly and a people that have suffered along with their city. Some of the authors have moved to other parts of the world and write about the Addis Ababa of their memory, either before or during the Red Terror. Some of the authors live there today. All have so much to tell us.

Like most of the Akashic Noir series, the fourteen stories in the collection run the gamut of the genre. Few can be called pure Noir, but all are haunting and describe a longing for better days and more peaceful times. I was particularly taken by the story of a young woman who returns to the city to bury a beloved aunt, only to find her previously unknown father and some startling details about her mother’s death. Another remarkable story concerns a small child who daily watches the ostriches as they wander the palace yard, but then one day she is sure she sees a dead body on the sidewalk in front of the palace, right by the bump in the road. In another, an old man tells a stranger a story about a woman he saw on the street. He was sure she was the girl he had known in school and fallen in love with. And then, tragedy strikes.  

Knowing what I already knew about the Ethiopian diaspora, the stories held a unique fascination for me. Maaza Mengiste, the editor, says in the introduction, “What marks life in Addis Ababa are the starkly different realities coexisting in one place. It's a growing city taking shape beneath the fraught weight of history, myth, and memory. It is a heady mix. It can also be disorienting, and it is in this space that the stories of Addis Ababa Noir reside.”

These are the stories of a people, who have faced disaster head on and have arisen tough and  resilient. Adddis Ababa Noir is as remarkable a collection as the people who populate it.

Here is a sample from the introduction of the book.

Act of Revenge: A Doc Brady Mystery

 By John Bishop MD

Mantid Press 2020

247 pages     Thriller

Doc Brady, the alter-ego for John Bishop, the author, is an appealing character—an orthopedist, loving husband to a delightful wife, and an intensely curious person who solves crimes. Act of Revenge is the third book in the series, but it does very well as  a stand-alone novel. The first novel, Act of Murder discusses genetics;  in Act of Deception, Doc. Brady is sued for malpractice. And now in Act of Revenge, malpractice insurance rises to the fore.

Here is a brief introduction to the book:

“Plastic surgeon Lou Edwards's life is complicated by two major issues. One, his wife has lupus, possibly due to leaking silicone from breast implants Edwards himself inserted. And two, his malpractice insurance has been canceled, as it has been for many other plastic surgeons, due to the burgeoning breast implant problem.
But it gets worse. Shortly after Edwards threatens an insurance company president on national TV, the president is found murdered in his penthouse. Dr. Jim Bob Brady once again finds himself doing a bit of investigating, this time on behalf of a colleague. But how well does he know this colleague? Is the investigation worth the threat to Jim Bob's own life? Will he discover that it was a burglary gone bad? A lover's quarrel? Or is this an act of revenge?“

The first couple of chapters are a delight. Bishop does a great job of sucking you into the settings and the characters. Mary Louise, the doctor’s wife, is a delightful person you might want to know, and J.J., the doctor’s son, has opened a detective agency, following in his father’s crime-solving footsteps. Additionally, we learn a lot about medical issues, like lupus and breast implants, but we also enjoy getting acquainted with Tip, the family dog. Of course there are nefarious characters and an interesting setting. The book takes place in the mid-1990s, which I found intriguing. I looked up breast implant lawsuits and there were many in the mid-to-late 1990s. Apparently that is why this is the time-frame.

The plot moves rapidly. I read it yesterday afternoon sitting on a lawn chair on a beautiful September day. The next time I looked up, three hours had passed and I sighed and closed the book. A holiday afternoon well spent.

 You can find John Bishop's biography on his website

Hieroglyphics

 By Jill McCorkle

Algonquin     2020

320 pages     Literary

Hieroglyphics are ancient Egyptian writings composed of pictures. One reads through the pictures to try to understand the message. The hieroglyphics in the book by the same name by Jill McCorkle are the attempts to piece together the message of the lives of four people, Lil and  Frank, an elderly couple, Shelly, a single mother working as a court stenographer, and her young son Harvey, who is sure there is a ghost in their house.

Each chapter continues the story of one of the characters, each of whom have suffered from great loss in their lives. Each is in a constant struggle to create a life for himself/herself despite that loss. Lil  and Frank have moved from Boston to the North Carolina community where their daughter lives, and where Frank grew up. Lil is trying to put together a journal for her children as a way of explaining how her life happened, how she and Frank forged a life together, and how she wants to find peace before she dies. Frank, on the other hand, becomes obsessed with the house where he grew up and the root cellar where he stored his treasures. Shelly and Harvey now live in that house; Shelly refuses to let Frank come into the house, and Harvey worries that Frank may be one of the ghosts that has been haunting him.

The review in the New York Journal of Books has an stunning conclusion to its analysis of the book: “McCorkle is an insightful, skillful writer and these characters have led complex lives. She takes her time and lets them unpack their baggage slowly, a piece at a time. So when McCorkle suddenly speeds to and through the finish, with Jason—our least known character—making and revealing a major discovery, along with Lil’s revelations and what some may consider the quick end of the novel, is McCorkle suggesting that this is what happens with our lives? We think we’ll have time to make decisions, to work something out, but then, surprise! it’s over and we’re gone. We can go back and reread McCorkle’s ending, of course. No such privilege with our own.”

I am shocked that I had such a difficult time getting through Hieroglyphics. I identified completely with Lil and Frank, in part because of their age, and also because of the grief they carried. The concluding thought tore me through to the quick. “We think we’ll have time to make decisions, to work something out, but then, surprise! It’s over and we’re gone.” I think that I identified too closely with the theme. I found myself underlining passage after passage—brilliantly conceived and written by McCorkle. Her insights into the aging couple, the secretive and flawed Shelly, and scared little Harvey enmesh the reader completely into the lives of these characters. Here are a couple of passages that I found particularly moving.

“And now Frank does see. He understands how memories of what was good can be so painful you might choose not to look.”

Lil: “Sometimes I feel like my life is all laid out before me; dots connecting, patterns shaped and designed, words naming and classifying me.”

I grew nostalgic as I read Hieroglyphics. I realized that I have always been an extremely forward looking person, always trying to move ahead. Even when my husband died leaving me with 3 children, I moved us forward. I never dwelt on my grief—and perhaps unfortunately, never dwelt on my children’s grief. I said to my 40-something son yesterday that perhaps we should revisit Daddy, and share some memories of that time in our lives. The incredible thing about Hieroglyphics is that it put me in touch with my own pain and longing.

Thank you Jill McCorkle with giving a moment with myself that caused me to reflect on my life’s path.

Hieroglyphics was released in July to a great deal of acclaim. Here is the author’s website.

American Advertising Cookbooks: How Corporations Taught Us to Love Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O

 By Christina Ward

Process Media     2019

239 pages           Food and Eating

“For those 75 or so years we remember as the golden age of advertising, corporations drove the American diet to the deleterious effect we see today.”

With that, Christina Ward begins her study of how the rise of American advertising influenced the diet of Americans, from Bananas to Jell-O to Spam. She connects the relationship between the foods that families ate with the purveyors of food who were part scientists and part con artists. American Advertising Cookbooks is a fascinating look at the history of America’s diet through its cookbooks and its recipes.

Sprinkled throughout the book are recipes and advertisements touting the food of the day. There is a large section on Jell-O. I don’t believe that I have made Jell-O in any form since I became a cook. The holidays of my childhood, however, were never complete without a Jell-O salad. My husband remembers the Jell-O of his childhood with affection, but I will not make it for him. Perfection salad! Yuck! To say nothing of Spam.

There are so many pictures of advertisements and recipes, that the book is as compelling visually as it is historically. We are constantly impressed with the influence of corporations on our food trends. And my mother was an avid follower of food trends. As I looked at the pictures, I could vividly remember many of the foods in the book, the recipes that my mother tried, but also those recipes we continue to cook from memory, like Green Bean Casserole with Durkee Real French Fried Onions, and Toll House cookies.

Several years ago, my sister and I made a cookbook of family favorite recipes, and as I looked over our cookbook, I saw very few recipes for processed food—with the exception of Jell-O salads, particularly my Grandma’s cranberry salad for Thanksgiving, and Chow Mein made with canned Chinese vegetables. Our favorite recipes were primarily made from scratch recipes.

Two stories from my childhood. We had some of my father’s relatives coming for a picnic lunch. They had never been to our house, and my mother was very busy trying to create the perfect picnic. One item on the menu was cake. Mother used a package cake mix and swore we children to secrecy. Cake mixes were new, and Mother didn’t want anyone to think that she wasn’t a good cook.

The other story involves Swanson Chicken Pot Pie. We took a Sunday trip to visit some college friends of our parents—about two hours away. We arrived for Sunday dinner and we were served  Swanson Chicken Pot Pies with mashed potatoes and Jell-O salad. On the way home, my mother went on a rant about the chicken pot pies. Apparently that wasn’t something that out-of-town guests should be served.

Oh—one more! Because Minnesota was an agricultural state, butter was the only spread that was sold; margarine was not available, and margarine was cheaper than butter. My grandma would get margarine by the case from her Iowa relatives, which she would distribute among family members. But that margarine wasn’t colored. There was a little button on the top that you pressed down and then squeezed the color throughout the pound of margarine. It fell to the children to color the margarine. Frankly, I have never used margarine in my adult life!

My favorite chapters in American Advertising Cookbooks concern the rise of Home Economics as the way that food and eating became more scientific. This included the discussion of calories as well as the creation of the nutritionally balanced meal. The other chapter discusses the use and abuse of calories to make women understand that too many calories can make a woman fat. My childhood and teen years exactly! This book was a trip down memory lane for me, and if you were raised in the 50s, 60s, or 70s, you will find much to identify with.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go make supper—chicken and rice casserole made with three different varieties of Campbell’s cream soups.

Christina Ward is a food writer and food expert. Here is her website.

 

 

 

The Bitch

 By Pilar Quintana

Translated by Lisa Dillman

World Editions     2017/2020

155 pages     Literary

The Bitch is a profound novel of grief and pain. Here is a summary of the book:

“Damaris lives on a bluff overlooking Colombia's Pacific coast. Her inability to become pregnant, which has rocked her marriage to an emotionally unavailable fisherman, continues to gut her. She spends most days alone, cleaning for the rich Reyes family, whose son she saw carried away by the sea when they were seven. Her uncle whipped her until the body surfaced, and still she feels the blame, just as she still cries for the mother she lost at 14. Damaris adopts a puppy that seems to remedy the "stabbing pain... in her soul," until it disappears for a month. Damaris rejoices at the dog's return, nursing her back to health, only for her pet to run away again. When the pattern continues, Damaris pushes cold and hard against her pain, turning violent.”

Damaris’ pain is so palpable that the reader is completely haunted by the deep down despair that is causing it.

Publisher’s Weekly gave the book a star rating and says, “The brutal scenes unfold quickly, with lean, stinging prose. Quintana’s vivid novel about love, betrayal, and abandonment hits hard.” The book caused me to ponder a woman’s necessity to parent. (Not sure if necessity is the best word.) Damaris continually grieves her inability to get pregnant, and now in her 40s, she feels useless and dried up. Quintana forcefully reminds us that companionship can help overcome poverty, violence, and loneliness. That was the role that Chirii, the puppy, plays in Damaris’ life. For a while, the puppy even makes her loveless, problematic marriage tolerable. But then, when she feels rejected by Chirii, the loss is more than she can bare.

I have a nine-year-old granddaughter, and we were talking about the importance of pets in our lives. I told her the basic story line of The Bitch. She said, “I can help you write your review, Grandma.” I responded, “Well, what would you say?” “Don’t read this book if you love your pets. Don’t read this book if you are sad. It will make you sadder. But read this book if you want to read about someone who’s life is sadder than yours.”

I believe that she is right, but there is more to the book than sadness. The setting is unique and interesting. I had never read a book set in Colombia. The prose is unique, pointed, and memorable. Additionally, The Bitch is only 155 pages, so the reader’s pain is short term, thank goodness. Quintana is one of Colombia’s best authors, and we learn a great deal about life in this remote part of the world as we read a beautifully written, beautifully translated, novel.

A Children's Bible

 

By Lydia Millet

W.W. Norton     2020

240 pages     Literary

I have been thinking about A Children’s Bible for a couple of days in anticipation of our book club meeting later this week. This allegory “got” to me in ways that I had not anticipated. I knew from the outset that it was going to be a retelling of the Noah’s Ark story, but I did not know that it would be such a prophetic page turner. Then I heard Michelle Obama speak at the Democratic Convention Monday night, and one paragraph of her speech really spoke to me as it related to the children in A Children’s Bible.

“Right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good, and winning is everything.”

This is the first of the major themes of the book—lousy parenting. The kids in A Children’s Bible understand their parents in ways their parents do not expect—or understand. They know that their parents have gathered at a lakeside rental mansion for a summer retreat, but they also know that their parents only want to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol as a way to avoid facing the worsening world around them. The children are left to fend for themselves. Eve, the narrator, is part protagonist and part observer. Her primary task seems to be to take care of her little brother, Jack, and to help the others manage the world they are facing.

Someone gave Jack  an illustrated children’s Bible, which has fascinated him, and he and Eve use the Bible to help discern what is happening when a hurricane hits. The parents don’t know what to do, and the children leave to find higher ground. Although the book is full of Biblical illusions, Millet is not heavy-handed in her allegorical leanings. The reader says, “Oh, yeah!” and then quickly turns the page to see what is going to happen next. There are many ensuing themes, including, of course, the climate, greed, corruption, and rampant lawlessness.

The Wall Street Journal reviewer says, “Ms. Millet does not sermonize. Even at its gloomiest, her fiction is a pleasure ... It is a good thing Ms. Millet is so prolific, as her amusing portraits of human error seem terribly attuned to this disconcerting moment ... This book’s timeliness is almost eerie.” I loved that the Boston Globe compared the children in the book to Greta Thunberg. That was spot on. I have included the illustration from the New York Times review. Loved the ark-styled house.

Frankly, I just kept reading on and on, marking down particularly funny or poignant passages, and appreciated every moment of the experience. One of my favorites for the year.

 

Berkeley Noir

 

Edited by Jerry Thompson & Owen Hill

Akashic     2020

242 pages     Noir

Isn’t Berkeley a nice city, full of wonderful, young, progressive college students? I always thought so, but not so fast. Berkeley Noir exposes the underbelly of this idealized city. As the editors’ say, “Where’s the noir in that perfect view of the Golden Gate, cutting-edge lettuces served in a ghetto dubbed ‘gourmet,’ the parking lot with reserved spaces for Nobel Laureates?” “Grifters? Dames? Cops? In Berkeley?”

There are sixteen stories in Berkeley Noir, but very few of them follow classic “Noir” patterns. One that does is The Law of Local Karma by Susan Dunlap. It is a cop drama with a body, a perp, some cops, and an unsolvable case. Lucky Day by Thomas Burchfield is a neo noir story about a worker at the Berkeley Public Library.

A favorite story is The Tangy Brine of Dark Night by Lucy Jane Bledsoe. In it, a young woman goes out into San Francisco Bay to bury her grandma. She is stopped by the police on the way, with a kayak sticking out of trunk and a dead grandma strapped into the front seat. Another brief but great story is Barroom Butterfly by Barry Gifford in which Roy’s grandfather introduces him to noir fiction. The review in Publisher’s Weekly notes that “Readers will be glad that many of these tales are fun in a way that traditional noir isn’t.” The editor of the book, Jerry Thompson says, “There are no happy endings in noir.”

As you know, I enjoy Akashic’s Noir series. I am currently reading Addis Ababa Noir and Tampa Bay Noir, and will report on them later this week. Join me in some great short stories.

A video interview with Jerry Thompson and Owen Hill.