Late Summer and Early Fall Potpourri

Here's what I've been reading this season.

Mysteries, of course, it's the R.I.P. season

Death and Judgement, #4 in my reread of Donna Leon's fabulous Guido Brunetti series set in Venice. Oh, Guido, how I love spending time with you and your family!

Track of the Cat, #1 in my reread of Nevada Barr's fabulous Anna Pigeon series set in National Parks. I first read this about 30 years ago, so it was great to start over with Anna. Always makes me want to go for a hike.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by the queen of the genre, Agatha Christie. When I heard that this first of Christie's mysteries was published 100 years ago this year, I knew I had to read it. It introduces the world to the incomparable Hercule Poirot, and was a classic locked room, country house mystery. Very enjoyable.

The Dry, by Jane Harper - #1 in her Aaron Falk series set in Australia. Absolutely great - I intend to read the rest in the series. I don't read too much set in Australia, but I should as I love the setting. This was an intricate small town mystery--love those small town mysteries. Well written with interesting characters.

Broken Harbor, by Tana French - it is #4 in the Dublin Squad series, but I am reading them slightly out of order, so it was #3 for me. I'm not sure why I skipped Faithful Place, but that's the next one for me. I am blown away by French's writing. This was a really powerful story and the ambience is so gritty.

And now for something completely different...

The Most Fun We Ever Had, by Claire Lombardo - I learned about this book from JoAnn at Gulfside Musing, and listened to it. Middle-class family drama based in the Chicago suburbs. I can't really even call them a dysfunctional family--their issues weren't horrific, but I was swept along by the great writing and interesting characters. I really wanted to find out what happened next.

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion, by Fannie Flagg - I love reading Fannie Flagg novels and it was such a pleasure to listen to Flagg read her latest novel herself. The premise is simple--a very nice Southern lady discovers she was adopted. It's a gentle story about self-confidence, love, loyalty, and family. It's also a wonderful history lesson about the WASPs, the female aviators who were contracted by the Army during WWII to ferry planes from the manufacturing plants to the bases where they were deployed for use in the war. Again, great writing, great characters, and a feel-good story during a time when I really needed to feel good.

Hope you are all healthy and finding the solace, joy, connection, and comfort that books provide.

 

Redbird Christmas

I have really come to enjoy reading a set of holiday books in December to get me in the Christmas spirit and provide a nice change of pace.

After rereading Fannie Flagg's marvelous Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe this summer, I searched for other books she had written and discovered A Redbird Christmas, which I promptly put on my December must-read list.

I ended up listening to the author read her work and found it to be an utterly delightful experience. Flagg has a lovely soft southern drawl that is perfect for the small town Alabama setting. The story itself was sweet, touching, and unexpected. I felt a few times that Flagg had written herself into a corner and was impressed with how she wriggled out and salvaged her plot.

Here's the Amazon synopsis:

Oswald T. Campbell, aged fifty-two, down-and-out in a Chicago winter, is given only months to live unless he moves South. He finds himself in the small town of Lost River, Alabama, where the residents are friendly if feud-prone and eccentric to a fault. One of them, Roy, keeps a red cardinal, a once wounded bird called Jack. Patsy, a sad, sweet little kid with a crippled leg, from the trailer park up in the woods, takes to dropping by the store - and falls in love with Jack. Flagg takes us on an emotional roller-coaster ride through the lives and hearts of an engaging crew of misfits, fixers and ordinary good-hearted folk, set against the vivid natural backdrop of a mellow Alabama winter, along the riverside where birds and fish abound. Her enchanting story culminates at Christmastide with surprises and a magical 'redbird' moment.

I loved the characters--especially sisters Frances and Mildred, but also Betty Kitchen, Oswald's landlady in Lost River, and lovely, sad Roy, who owns the local store. As a bird-watcher, I especially liked the cardinal (aka redbird) Jack, whose plight is central to the plot and theme of friendships that defy all odds. And, of course, I loved that Oswald was able to find purpose in his life once he started learning about the world around him, including all those birds of Alabama.

Definitely a life-affirming, warm, wonderful story for the holidays.

July reading

Despite my traveling for most of July, I did manage to finish three books.  That's what long flights and layovers in airports can do for your reading life!

I reread Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome, with the Victorians! group at GoodReads.  It's been decades since I read this book, and it was light, bright, mostly funny, and a good book to travel with. It was also fun to read a travel book while traveling.

I learned that JKJ actually did the Thames boating trip on his honeymoon, but decided to substitute two male friends for his bride in his story of the journey. I think this was wise as Harris and George were the butt of many jokes, snide comments, and general foil for JKJ, a position that might not have been well-received by a spouse. I also learned that Montmorency, the pugnacious dog, was also not along on the actual trip, and I think he also was a great addition to the narrative.

There are a lot of great illustrations out there for this book, and a particularly appealing graphic book. This book just cries out to be a graphic novel, so I may have to get my hands on it for the next reread.

If you're like me and love maps, then here's a map showing the journey related in the book.

The second book I read on my trip was Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg. Again it was a reread, and again I was reading it along with a GoodReads group, this time the TuesBookTalk Read-Alongs Group. Another again...I last read this decades ago as well.  I fell in love with all over again.

After months of focusing on Roman Britain, Northumberland, and ancient/medieval history, it was an absolute treat to return to Americana. Fried Green Tomatoes has one of my favorite narrative formats - an integration of "real" news reports plus multiple narrators from various time periods with past/present story threads. That's a very common format currently, but in the mid-1980s when Flagg first published Fried Green Tomatoes, it was much less common.

The novel takes place in a small town, a whistle stop town, in Alabama during the Depression and then in the mid-80s.  Mrs. Cleo Threadgoode is an elderly woman living in a nursing home telling a younger visitor about life in her town 50 years earlier and the friends and family, white and black, that peopled the town. There's a mystery, a villain, plenty of heroines and heroes, and a deep, rich vein of love and loyalty, acceptance, tolerance, forgiveness, and joy of life that makes this a wonderful book to read...and reread. The book ends with a set of recipes that I vowed I would make when I got home, but haven't yet. I do have a garden full of green tomatoes, just waiting to be fried.

There's a very good movie version of the novel, though I haven't watched it in years, but my fellow GoodReads Tuesday groupons say that the ending is somewhat different, so we'll have to take their word on this.

The last book I read in July was Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin. This book has been recommended many times by many book soulmates and I was wanting to dive into something completely different. It's short, it's a collection of essays about food, the writing is marvelous and Colwin's voice is amazing.  She is funny, self-effacing, and enthusiastic about the taste and texture of food, the endless opportunities for feeding yourself, family, and friends. I did drop everything and made a loaf of bread following her recipe and it was divine. I have her More Home Cooking on order, and am toying with the idea of reading some of her novels. I really do love her writing. Sadly, she died of an aortic aneurysm at age 48 in 1992.

You know a book is good when you are thinking of all the people you want to share the book with when you've finished it. I choose my daughter, Sarah, who loves to cook and appreciates good writing, and mailed the book to her this morning.