Blockbusters: Whistler and The Odyssey

Summer is blockbuster season, and I've jumped on the bandwagon with both feet, reading Whistler, like everyone else, and going to see The Odyssey like everyone else!

Just Read Whistler

Whistler, Ann Patchett's latest novel, was such a satisfying read. So well-written that the words just flowed. My husband is currently reading it, and his comment, which I totally resonated with, is that you really like all of the main characters and enjoy spending time with them.

They are kind, intelligent, good people who do their best for those they love. I really loved how Patchett introduced the story of Whistler, the horse, and allowed it to gently and naturally become the theme for the main story arc between Daphne and Eddie and the novel as a whole, which is essentially "no one left behind."

I confess that initially I thought that Daphne and Leda's biological father would be the villain of the story, and I was relieved and happy with how Daphne's relationship with her father matured as she matured. Her understanding and acceptance and care of Buddy was profoundly moving for me.

I also loved how the novel ended. So many authors struggle with endings, and many a good book has been flawed by a clumsy ending. I am happy to remember Daphne and Eddie sitting companionably in the Met, watching the ebb and flow of life as they take a rest.

Virginia Woolf said that George Eliot's Middlemarch is "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people." I would say that Whistler is about grown-up people. Even when Daphne and Leda were children, they showed a maturity that puts so many other characters in other books to shame in which allegedly "grown up people" are perpetually adolescent. Case in point, I am currently reading David Nicholls's One Day and two-thirds of the way into the book, I am still waiting for thirtysomething Dexter to finally grow up. On the same note, Henry, Leda's son, is eighteen and definitely an adult--I found him utterly charming and would love a follow-up novel featuring him.

Just Saw The Odyssey

My son treated me to The Odyssey yesterday, knowing how much I love Greek myths, and we both loved it. I haven't spent any time at all reading the various criticisms of the movie but rather wanted to go into it unbiased. Glad I did. I absolutely loved the visuals, the casting, the special effects, the landscapes, the ancient cities, and especially the script. The theme of Zeus's law (i.e., hospitality to guests) and the consequences of violating that law really resonated with me and made the story make sense and relevant. 

In particular, I loved the way Anne Hathaway portrayed Penelope. I thought Matt Damon was superb as Odysseus, Helen/Clytemnestra was incredible--Helen's bitterness was palpable. She knows the war wasn't really about her--it was economics and trade and she was just the excuse. I wish Circe had been given more time--I loved Madeline Miller's novel Circe, so I wanted more of her, but seeing her transform the men into pigs and then return them to men was awesome. At almost three hours, I know the movie couldn't include everything in Homer's Odyssey, but that's okay. Just seeing Troy was enough for me. Loved how they handled the horse--not wooden but spectacularly and realistically done. 

Final note--as with Troy, the movie with Brad Pitt as Achilles, the gods were invoked, blamed, and worshipped, but they were not actually part of the story. The stormy seas were blamed on Poseidon, but we never saw Poseidon as a character. The only exception was Athena, who only appeared to Odysseus, and she didn't speak or seem to cause anything. I saw her as a manifestation of Odysseus's conscience for the part he played in destroying Troy and slaughtering its inhabitants.

Pro Tip: We did go to an IMAX showing, but not the full 70mm because there wasn't a theater in our area that offered this. My son insisted we use earplugs because he heard it was very loud--it was, and I am glad we both had earplugs in for the movie. The lady sitting next to me said she wished she had done the same after the movie was over.

In Other News

We escaped to Rocky Mt National Park last Friday for a hike--third time this year. RMNP is now the only (I think that's right) national park that has preserved the timed-entry system adopted during COVID. I am so glad they did. From mid-May to mid-October you need a timed-entry slot to get into the park during peak hours. This means that you can actually find a place to park and hike a favorite trail without feeling like you are in a busy downtown street instead of in the mountains. I know people complain, but it just takes a little planning, and it preserves this incredible place for future generations.

Lymond Chronicles: The Game of Kings

Constance at Staircase Wit reminded me that I really ought to read The Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett, as part of my Reading Scotland project. The Lymond Chronicles consists of six books that tell the adventures of Francis Crawford of Lymond, younger brother of the Earl of Culter. 

Book one is The Game of Kings, and the setting is the fluid border between England and Scotland in the 1540s (aka smack in the middle of the Tudor dynasty). Henry VIII wanted the Scots to betroth their infant Queen Mary to his son Edward as a way of conquering Scotland, and to this end he invaded Scotland and was rebuffed. After he died in 1547, the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who governed during the minority of his nephew, now Edward VI, continued the policy of "rough wooing"--that is, invading Scotland and trying to batter the Scots into betrothing the now 4-year-old Scottish queen to the now 9-year-old English king.

So what does all this have to do with Lymond (aka Francis to his family)? Plenty. 

Lymond has been branded a traitor to the Scots and a spy for the English, stemming from his capture at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542. He has a price on his head and after escaping captivity where he worked as a galley slave, he has been leading a band of merry men (think Robin Hood) and running circles around the Scottish nobility who are hell-bent on capturing and punishing him for all manner of crimes that he allegedly continues to commit.

He is handsome, witty, sharp, charming--a veritable silver-tongued devil. His literary quotes and references range from Latin to French to German to Spanish. He is a classical scholar as well as an excellent swordsman and archer and rider. Women adore him, some men admire him, some loathe him, including his brother.

I absolutely loved this book. However, it did take a fair amount of work to read. I wasn't up on the history of this particular aspect of the Scottish/English conflict/relationship, and so I had a lot to learn from the outset. There are a lot of characters, many with titles that also serve as names. My book included a map and a cast of characters, and I kept on having to refresh myself on who was who. 

Lymond engages in a lot, and I mean a lot, of double talk. While the author sprinkles clues as to Lymond's real character and the truth behind his apparently nefarious actions, you don't really know what is going on, what to believe, until the very end when all is revealed. 

I ended up listening to the audiobook, which mercifully had the read/listen feature, so I could listen while I read. This helped enormously as the story was entering my brain via two supporting avenues. I also found this incredible website: Now You Have Dunnett: Introduction, which is "A blog devoted to a chapter-by-chapter discussion of the novels of Dorothy Dunnett." During the first half of the book, I read the discussion after each section. By the time I got to the second half of the novel, I didn't need the discussion so much, but they were still fun to read and helped explain nuances that I didn't pick up on.

In addition to the discussions, the blog post on each section includes questions about character and plot to consider, favorite quotes from the novel, and adjectives used to describe Lymond. The blog really enhanced the book for this first-time reader. It is a book that begs to be read again...and again.

Beyond the main character, Lymond, I absolutely loved Sybella, his mother, and Christian Stewart, a blind girl who helps him, and Will Scott, the exuberant young man who desperately wants to be both a hero and just like Lymond. I also really enjoyed Sir Wat Scott (father of Will Scott) and his wife Janet Beaton, as well as Molly, the owner of the Ostrich. And, of course, Johnnie Bullo and Turkey Mat as well as the dynamic English couple, Gideon Somerville and his wife Kate--I really hope we see more of them in future books. 

Despite its complexity, it was enthralling and I came to truly care about the characters. In other words, moved to tears. I loved traveling around the border lands between Scotland and England and visiting Stirling Castle, Inchmahome Priory, Edinburgh, and all the various castles in between.

There are so many wonderful passages in this book, but my favorite comes near the end when Lymond says that his knowledge of leading men in campaigns is based on his knowledge of both geography and chess:

The one shows you where to go, and the other what to do when you get there. 

Dorothy Dunnett was a truly exceptional writer and gifted storyteller. Her books are challenging, dense, and ultimately so rewarding.

Clocking in at 543 pages, this most definitely qualifies for the 2026 Big Book Summer Challenge.

Lawyering Up, Garden Notes, Team Norway

July is for reading, walking first thing in the morning, watering in the evening, making salad and sandwiches for dinner, complaining about the heat...and watching the World Cup.

We are now solidly Team Norway and have been practicing rowing with the team after every win! We loved the Tartan Army, and I have indulged in watching reels of international football (aka soccer) fans experiencing American food staples. I personally have never been to a Waffle House, but it seems to be a real winner with our visitors!

When not watching soccer or baseball (the Yankees are slumping but the Rockies are better than last year...not the worst team in both leagues), I've been reading:

Open and Shut (Andy Carpenter #1), by David Rosenfelt - My JASNA friend, Pam, recommended David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter lawyer series since she knows how much I enjoy the Lincoln Lawyer books by Michael Connelly. So, I read the first in the series, Open and Shut, and enjoyed it a lot. Andy is a flippant, self-effacing, sarcastic defense attorney who, like Mickey Haller, takes his job seriously even though that means taking a lot of flak from law enforcement, prosecutors, family, etc. Andy's best friend and confidant is his golden retriever, Tara. Everyone needs a best friend like Tara.

In this first book, Andy's father, a renowned judge, just before he died asked Andy to take on the appeal of a death row inmate that he had passed sentence on years ago. Andy knows that the appeal and resulting new trial will not exonerate the inmate of the murder he was convicted for--it is an open and shut case...or is it? Of course, it turns out not to be and therein lies the basic story, with lots of other juicy tangents such as why did Andy's father accepted a huge check 20+ years ago and that he never used. Why does everyone in a photo from 20 years ago that Andy finds in his father's things deny they were in the photo? Why does Andy's estranged wife Nicole show up out of the blue and insist they try to reconcile?

The book was light on tension, laugh out loud funny at times, with interesting courtroom stuff, and no truly scary (i.e., protagonist is about to die) scenes. I will definitely be reading more in this series.

The Night Fire, by Michael Connelly - This was a perfect Michael Connelly mystery as it was a Venn diagram of his best characters. Renee Ballard is the LAPD detective working the night shift. She loops in Harry Bosch, retired from LAPD but still itching to work, and he loops in Mickey Haller, his half-brother and defense lawyer. I just love this universe and how the various characters interact, with each contributing key elements to the overall story. 

As with Open and Shut, the main story thread of The Night Fire involves a 20-year-old murder, this one unsolved. I love how Renee and Harry focus on the cold cases--which seems to be a story theme these days. That's where the Thursday Murder Club finds their cases to work on as well. We have lots of interesting angles with loads of LA details--someone needs to make a list of all the places Renee, Harry, and Mickey have lunch and/or dinner. Reading these books always makes me hungry for diner food!

Garden Notes

I picked my first tomato and first zucchini, and the onions are doing great. It's been so hot, I'm not sure if we will have many peas but still hopeful. The native garden is being overrun with non-native aggressive weeds, so I've had to do some clearing out so the native flowers have room to thrive.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. 

Mama Finch built another nest in the wreath on the front porch, laid three more eggs, and is convinced her family will be safe this time. We moved the chairs so that the predator that got them last time has to come up with a different plan of attack.

TV Notes

Our daughter is visiting from CA this week (in order to go to Twelfth Night with us tonight at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival) and insisted we watch The Sheep Detectives last night with her on Prime.

What a fun movie. Hugh Jackman as Gary the shepherd was wonderful, as was Emma Thompson as the lawyer. The actors who voiced the sheep were marvelous, with my favorite being Brett Goldstein (of Ted Lasso and Shrinking) who was both Ronnie and Reggie, the head-butting rams ("Are we lambs or rams?"). 

A thoroughly enjoyable movie, especially for those of us who love mysteries as the movie really plays into the all the mystery novel tropes.

Hope you are all enjoying July and finding wonderful books that take you on fantastic journeys.

The Hobbit

I first read JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit in my teens in the 1970s, and I enjoyed it so much that I embarked on The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. However, I did abandon the quest and never finished The Return of the King. 

According to my GoodReads notes, I listened to The Hobbit with my son Noah when he was about 10, which was 21 years ago. I have zero recollection of this, but that is not surprising. I was working full-time, parenting full-time, writing part-time, etc.

Lately, I've been waxing nostalgic and decided to revisit The Hobbit this year. I listened to the marvelous Andy Serkis read the novel--he voices Gollum in The Lord of the Rings movies--and he was absolutely fantastic bringing nuance and character to each voice, from mild-mannered Bilbo, to Yorkshire-accented dwarves, to stately Gandalf, to chipper elves, and so on.

It had been so long since I read (and/or paid attention) to the story that most of the adventures beyond Gollum and Smaug were as fresh as the first time I left the Shire and headed to the Misty Mountains. I'm not really much of a fantasy reader, but I do love a good adventure story, and this had adventure to spare. 

I particularly loved how Bilbo grew in confidence and cunning, rising to each occasion, and mustering the courage needed to do what needed to be done. In addition to adventure, The Hobbit delivers a strong message--greed and avarice can consume even the most fair-minded creatures. It takes strength of character like that of Bilbo and Bard (the bowman who slew Smaug--I had completely forgotten that part of the story) to walk away from the lure of riches and do what is right and just and fair.

The book and the way Serkis read it is quite funny--Bilbo's internal monologues in particular are very entertaining. 

Tolkien is a terrific writer and paints vivid images. However, I really wanted illustrations, so I checked out a graphic YA version from the library after I finished the audio version just to get a good look at trolls, dwarves, Gollum, Smaug the dragon, giants, elves, goblins, and the men of Lake Town. 

I'm toying with the idea of watching the movies--Jackson decided to expand Tolkien's book and present The Hobbit in a trilogy of movies. My LOTR-savvy daughter Sarah recommends that I just watch the first movie, where Gandalf and the dwarves visit Bilbo in the Shire and recruit him for the quest. We'll see. I would like to find a quality hardback version with first-rate illustrations. This wonderful book deserves a place on my shelves.

Here's the movie trailer. I have to admit. It does like good!

Big Book Summer Challenge 2026

Isn't this a fantastic cover?

 The Big Book Summer Challenge, hosted by Sue at Book by Book, is one of the few challenges I do each year. It's really a no-brainer as I tend to always have a big book or two (+400 pages) on the go. The challenge is Memorial Day to Labor Day.

I started Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett, a week ago. It's the first in her Lymond Chronicles series and is part of my Reading Scotland project.

I also plan to read another historical Scottish book, The Crucible of Secrets, by Shona Maclean.

I have a hankering to reread some of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books since I've been rewatching the TV show.

And, I am almost done with a reread of Tolkien's The Hobbit and am considering a reread of The Fellowship of the Ring. It's been well over 50 years since I read any Tolkien, so it is definitely time for a reread.

In the nonfiction category, I am now committed fully to reading How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman. I opened it in May but didn't actually start reading it until about two weeks ago.

I certainly cannot fathom reading 20 books this summer as many other bloggers are setting out to do, but I know I can handle a few biggies!

Happy Solstice! And happy reading!

Reading Scotland, Garden Notes, TV Notes

Happy June! Blogging has taken a backseat to removing all the furniture, etc from the living room for the hardwood floor installation, which happened last week. The animals are stressed, but who isn't when all your routines go flying out the window? I tell them it will all be worth it in just another week or so, but they don't listen.

At least I can read to calm myself down...here's what I've been reading.

Devil Water, by Anya Seton - recommended by Constance of Staircase Wit, I really enjoyed this 527-page book about the Earls of Derwentwater and their participation in the Scottish risings of 1715 and 1745. The main characters are Charles Radcliffe, youngest of three brothers, handsome, charismatic, initially hopelessly naive but ultimately idealistic and a steadfast Jacobite and Catholic, and his daughter Jenny, beautiful (of course!), loyal, but a steadfast Protestant who never truly embraces the Jacobite cause (which is to replace the Hanoverian George II with James VIII, the Pretender exiled to France and Italy). 

The title refers to the colloquial name of Derwentwater and the burn (small river) that flows through the estate.

For the most part, I really enjoyed the novel and characters and learning more about the history of the border region between Scotland and England and the divided loyalties, complicated politics, life in the turbulent 18th century, and the rugged, beautiful landscape. Jenny does emigrate to the Virigina colony (in the 1720s) and marries. She and her husband head to the wilderness where they acquire land and develop a farm that could become prosperous.

SPOILERS*****I had a real problem with how Seton ended the novel. Jenny's father Charles, who had been living in Europe after escaping from Newgate prison before being executed for his role in the 1715 Jacobite uprising, returns to England to join the 1745 Jacobite uprising and is captured and sentenced to death, again. Jenny learns of his fate and decides to return to England to see him again, and her husband Rob is so furious with her decision that he rapes her. Once in England, she discovers she is pregnant and is actually making it on her own, working as a barmaid and singing in the bar. Rob follows her to England, and after they witness Charles's execution, he convinces her to return to Viriginia with him, and she forgives him and goes back to the wilderness farm with this violent man!  For me, this was truly hard to swallow and I ended up giving it my usual four stars on GoodReads instead of the five that I had been planning to award it

A Game of Sorrows, by Shona (MG) Mclean - book 2 in the Alexander Seaton series, this story takes place mostly in Ireland as Alexander is summoned by his dead mother's family to help lift a curse that has been placed on the family. At first, I was disappointed to be leaving Scotland for Ireland, but the story helped me understand the relationship between the Scots and northern Ireland in particular. And the story itself was chock full of great stuff--bandits, castles, banquets, journeys, and the requisite conflicts over religion. Alexander is becoming a true hero and I am ready for his next adventure, this time back in Scotland.

The Coffin Trail, by Martin Edwards - technically not a Scottish novel, the first in the author's Lake District mystery series, it takes place in, you guessed it, the Lake District. I just finished this one last night and am still mulling it over. I gave it four stars, but I wasn't completely in love with the main characters, so not sure if I will continue with the series. Daniel Kind is an Oxford don who leaves his job and together with his new girlfriend buys a rundown cottage in the Lake District and throws himself into solving a decade-old murder. Despite living with his girlfriend, he becomes close to Lauren, his dead detective father's former partner, and together they solve the mystery. Actually, he does, but she scolds him for not including her more. It takes a real leap of faith to go along with a lot of the dynamics of the story, but I am assuming that Daniel and Lauren work out the weirdnesses of the premise and become solid partners.

I loved the setting and now want to take a walking vacation in the Lake District!

However, I have to say that the title is a real downer and the cover is atrocious. I would have preferred a nice watercolor rather than B&W photos.

Garden Notes

Our mama dove sat on her eggs until they hatched, then cared for her chicks until they fledged, and we now have use of our back door once again!

I have chives all over my garden--in the rose bed to ward off Japanese beetles, in the veg beds to add color in the spring, and deck planter for the same reason. At our local coffeehouse, a barista told me about a lovely chive vinegar that he makes, so I made some. Simply harvest chive blossoms, rinse them, and crush with mortar and pestle (about 1 cup), cut up 1/4 cup of chives, heat white wine vinegar to just ready to boil. and then pour over chive blossoms and diced chives in mason jar. Seal and put in dark cupboard for three days. Strain into pretty bottle and enjoy a nice chivey pink vinegar!

Fiona is guarding the evening primrose and penstemon.

Honeysuckle in profusion.

TV Notes

I've been getting the Outlander DVDs from the library and season 2 was checked out, so we watched Decameron on Netflix instead. I'm still not sure if I can say that I liked it. It was definitely a dark comedy, and wild and crazy. I felt a profound sense of relief when it was over, but it was a good distraction from the remodel. 

My favorite character by far was Misia, played by Saoirse-Monica Jackson of Derry Girls fame. Has anyone else watched this story of the plague in Italy in the 15th century?

We finished watching season 3 of Shrinking, which I thought was the best season and I am eagerly waiting for season 4. I really liked the way the characters are growing and developing and learning and bonding and coping. I thought it was absolutely brilliant casting to have Jeff Daniels play Jimmy's father. Also great to see Michael J. Fox and Candace Bergen, and then I had to laugh to see Cobi Smulders (Robin on How I Met Your Mother) as Jimmy's new love interest Sofi. Seems like the casting director is definitely raiding How I Met Your Mother :)

But, all that said, we were at loose ends as to what 30-minute comedy to watch after an hour of drama and landed on Ghosts, which thankfully my library has since I cannot stand the commercials on Paramount Plus.

I hadn't wanted to watch it before because it looked pretty silly, which it is, but it is also funny and sweet with pretty good writing that makes me laugh. 

I am always on the lookout for good 30-minute comedies, so let me know what you like! 

Eighteen Years and Counting, Plus Sandwich and Wreck

It was my blogoversary on Wednesday, May 27 (aka yesterday). Babies born when I started blogging in 2008 are graduating from high school. Platforms for blogging have come and gone, but hating change, I have stuck with Blogger and have no regrets. I would like to figure out how to download and archive my posts since I know that Blogger will not last forever. Does anyone know how to do this?

I mostly blog about the books I've read, occasionally blog about the travels I've taken, the plants I've grown or tried to grow, and just random stuff.

I love my blog--often I won't know what I want to say about a book until I start typing. Without this outlet, my thoughts would remain the muddled mess that is their comfort zone.

Mostly though, I love the blog because it connects me with other readers whose recommendations and reviews I have come to rely on to enhance my reading life. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to be part of the book-blogging community. You are treasured!

Stats: 1065 posts, with about half about Jane Austen it seems; 7160 comments; >2.2 million views, but who's counting!

I updated my Popular Posts widget to show which posts over time have garnered the most views. I honestly think the Adam Bede one was linked somewhere because why else would it be #1?

Books Read Recently

Sandwich and Wreck, by Catherine Newman - a friend of my daughter's lent me both books, and since so many people blogged about Sandwich last year, I took the plunge. 

Both were wonderful, although I'll give the edge to Sandwich. It takes place over the course of a week in a holiday cottage on Cape Cod. Rocky and Nick and their two adult children as well as their son's fiancé and Rocky's parents vacation together, and in the course of the week we learn about the dynamics of the family, their backstories (aka secrets), and traditions.

I really enjoyed spending time with this family, and I particularly loved daughter Willa, a sweet, sensitive, funny, young woman. I loved reading about vacationing on Cape Cod, which is still on my bucket list.

Wreck continues the story of the family the following year The wreck is a train accident that kills a young man from the town where Rocky and Nick live, and the accident becomes a pivot point for developing family relationships and, for me, a metaphor for Rocky's health issues.

In looking at Newman's author profile on GoodReads, Sandwich wans't her first novel but feels like it is her breakout novel. Has anyone read any other of her novels? I do like her writing style. Easy to read, interesting but not too angsty. Good comfort reading when escape seems the best option.

Spring Notes

Hope everyone has a good end of May, beginning of June! It's been cool and rainy in Colorado, which I love. The garden is in--all I have left to do is throw some zinnia seeds in their flower bed and hope they sprout and bloom before the frost hits us in September!

Bird nest update - something attacked the nest of baby birds on the front porch and there were no survivors--the entire wreath with nest was upside down on the porch floor. Mama bird is bereft and keeps on asking to come inside to mourn her loss. We thought she picked a great location, but Nature can be cruel.  Mama EC Dove is still sitting on her nest by the back door, so hopefully those chicks will survive. Stay tuned for more of Wild America.

Living Room Refresh

We are finally replacing the carpet in the living room with hardwood floors. This is our 32nd year in the house and 22 since our last living room refresh. 

The wood will be delivered tomorrow and then it ages for two weeks before installation. Then we paint, and by then my husband should maybe be done building the new TV table with towers he has been working on (while the boat project languishes). We found a very cool end table at our local antique store that the owner is refinishing, and new couches and chairs are on order. I still need to order area rugs, but we've picked out what we want. 

This is what we're doing instead of going to Scotland in the fall as originally planned.

Catching Up and Feeling a Bit of Deja Vu

 Since my last post, we took a wonderful trip to Cortez, CO for the annual Ute Mt Birding Festival, came home to two birds' nests in very inconvenient locations (of course), suffered through a bad cold, relistened to a couple of great audio books on the road trip, and read a couple of new books.

What to cover first?

Travelogue: Cortez 

Let's go with the trip to Cortez. It was our 5th time going to the festival, and as usual it was great. Most memorable was the tour of the Yucca House National Monument, led by a Mesa Verde park ranger and expert birder. Until this trip, I had never heard of this site, and believe me, I spent a lot of time in this part of the country as a kid. It was established early, 1919, but never developed as a destination, simply preserved, which is a good thing.

The site, which is contemporaneous to Mesa Verde, is mostly unexcavated, but the ranger was able to make the lives of the people who inhabited this huge village come alive. We also saw a lot of cool birds, including a shrike, but no roadrunner, which he had sort of promised us we would see!

Brownheaded Cowbird

Northern Shrike

Cortez is a cute little town, near the Four Corners (i.e., where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona come together), and I especially love the street art. Below is a mural on one of the outside walls of the Cortez Cultural Center. 

Another mural

And yet another mural

Nests with Eggs

Once home, we discovered that an enterprising House Finch had set up housekeeping on our front porch, taking advagtage of the twigs in my spring wreath to create a safe, dry place for her family.

My husband thoughtfully put up caution tape around the front porch so that Mama Finch isn't startled too often. 

The other nest is that of a Eurasian Collared Dove and is situated so that we cannot go from the garage to the backyard without disturbing Mama EC Dove.  

Feels like we are running a maternity ward but proud to have created a congenial habitat.

Books

Finally, we get to the books read and reread.

For the road trip, we listened to You Are Here, but David Nicholls, which I loved and knew my husband would enjoy. He did. Since we finished that on the drive home, we started Murder Takes a Vacation, by Laura Lippman, which again I had really enjoyed and knew would be a good, light book to listen to. 

I've also recently read the following:

A Case of Mice and Murder, by Sally Smith - recommended by both Constance of Staircase Wit and I think also Lark of Lark Reads. It took me a little while to fall in love but now I am smitten and intend to read more in the series (The Trials of Gabriel Ward). Gabriel is an unlikely detective, but I like the way his mind works and he definitely became someone I liked spending time with. I had the whodunnit part figured out early on, but so what? A very fun read. And, I think I now have a better grasp on the Inns of Court in London, which means whenh I reread Bleak House I won't feel so lost...maybe.

 The Impossible Fortune, by Richard Osman - #5 in the immensely popular (and rightly so) Thursday Murder Club series. It was as good as all its predecessors. These books are genuinely funny and always make me laugh out loud, but the plots are complicated, relevant, timely, and often techie (so, like Joyce, I learn something!).

I also just finished another Scottish-history novel, but I will save that for another Reading Scotland post.

The Cold

I know, I know. Everyone gets a cold. But I haven't had one in a long time, and I am a big baby. I actually took a Covid test because I felt so crummy. Negative, which is good. I am finally feeling better today, with the proverbial lingering cough

We started rewatching Outlander last night and just watching Claire and Jamie and the other Highlanders riding for days and nights in the rain was almost more than I could take!

Wild for Austen - by Devoney Looser

So why did I give Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, by Devoney Looser, five stars? I already knew Austen to be a brilliant satirist who skewered those she disdained; I've read the madcap, irreverent stuff she wrote as a teen; and I've dissected her major novels, uncovering all sorts of salacious undercurrents that belie the prim and proper Miss Jane that early biographies promoted.

Despite feeling that the author was trying a bit too hard to make her "wild" point, I just really loved diving in Austen's work and life and times...again! It was a fun book to read--comforting in its familiarity, scholarly but accessible. Looser is a professor who has a knack of expressing her points elegantly. And, there was a lot of new info about Austen that I hadn't heard.

Part I is a walkthrough of Austen's works, starting with the Juvenilia and ending with the unfinished fragments. I particularly liked Chapter 3, "The Controversial Case of Sophia Sentiment," in which Looser lays out the case that Austen's first published work was a letter she wrote to The Loiterer, an Oxford weekly for which her brothers James and Henry wrote the bulk of the copy, under the pseudonym Sophia Sentiment. Looser convinced me that teenager Jane was in fact the author of this wonderful satirical letter. in which she argues for more romantic content and fewer stuffy essays.

Part II, "Fierce Family Ties," contained a lot of new information for me. Looser discusses Jane's relationship to the Burdett family--some of her letters indicate socializing with Frances Burdett and Sophia Burdett, respectively the sister and daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, a political radical who championed universal male suffrage and endured a stint in the Tower of London. 

I also learned a lot from the chapter on Eliza, Comtesse de Feuillide, Jane's cousin and Henry's first wife. Jane spent a fair amount of time visiting Henry and Eliza, and Looser makes a compelling case about Jane's exposure to the international social set that Eliza enabled, including the Count and Countess d'Antraigueses--she was an opera singer and he was a spy--and they were brutually murdered in 1812. 

And here you thought you knew everything there was to know about Jane's life!

Part III, "Shambolic Afterlives," was particularly fun to read, from early literary conversations with Jane's ghost, to imaginary lovers, to erotica. The penultimate chapter, "Loving (and Hating) Jane Austen," was my favorite and probably the reason I gave the book 5 stars--here's a particularly good passage that resonated with me:

On balance, I've found and still find Austen's novels to be not only a profound personal pleasure to read and reread but also a shared vehicle to explore with others what it might be to try to live a meaningful life in a world that's deeply unfair.     

Author and Austen scholar, Devoney Looser

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

The Correspondent

It seems everyone was reading The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans, last year, and with good reason. I thoroughly enjoyed this epistolary novel. It made me cry, and I haven't cried over a book in a very long time. Swept away by emotion, I happily bestowed five GoodReads stars on this gem.

Because the novel is entirely letters, it was a pretty quick read with many pages less than half filled with text. I did read a printed copy rather than an audio, which I often opt for when reading contemporary fiction, and I'm glad I did. I would have found it irritating to listen to the same addresses repeatedly.

I found I could relate to Sybil--not so much with regards to the specifics of her life (I am not divorced, I have good relationships with my adult children, and I love to travel, especially outside the US, and I have never had to suffer the grief of a child of mine dying), but I am of her general age (a bit younger actually, but that will change!) and disposition (to a degree). I enjoy writing letters to friends, although I would never presume to write to an author.

I did love the fact that she corresponds with Joan Didion and reached out to Stephen King, Larry McMurtry, and Diana Gabaldon, among others, providing her take on their books and what their stories have meant to her. As a reader, I did enjoy hearing about what she was reading and why.

I liked the story arc--how she became friends with her neighbor, how she fought with and then reconciled with both her daughter and her best friend. How she was finally able to acknowledge the mistakes she made in her professional life, as clerk and confident to a judge. How she finally was able to confront the truth about how her son died. I think in the end Sybil's story is about accountability...and the courage to be accountable.

I heard that Jane Fonda will be playing Sybil Van Antwerp in a movie version, which I think is terrific. I don't think it will be difficult to shift media on the story. There is so much good stuff there to work with.

I tried to find Evans's earlier book, Within the Walled City, but it appears to be out of print, and my usual sources are coming up dry. I have to stop in at the library this afternoon, so I may ask if they can find it anywhere. I cannot imagine that it will stay out of print long--with the success of The Correspondent, I'm sure her publisher wants to ride those coattails with anything else she has written.

Happy Belated Earth Day 

I meant to spend yesterday in the garden, but life had other plans in store for me. I still need to plant spinach, lettuce, and peas as well as finish cleaning the flower beds and prepping the veg beds. 

The native garden is flourishing--I'm hoping for early flowers!