Happy 4th of July, America! In celebration of Independence Day, I'm going to post a lot of book reviews and not many tidbits. Thankfully, the heat wave has calmed down to acceptable levels (below 85-90 degrees) and everyone's out on their patios or decks grilling and chilling.
I adored Julia Child, so I plan on watching this series, which should be wonderful, with such a great actress playing Julia and DHP playing her husband.
TV: Julia
Judith Light will star as Blanche Knopf, co-founder of the Knopf publishing house and "widely credited with bringing in Julia Child's hugely successful Mastering the Art of French Cooking," in the HBO Max series Julia http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz48976506, Deadline reported.
HBO Max picked up the eight-episode series, which is currently in production, last January after ordering a pilot. Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley) plays Child and David Hyde Pierce her husband, Paul. The pilot was written by Daniel Goldfarb and directed by Charles McDougall.
Here are 5 reviews of books I've been reading lately.
That Summer by Jennifer Weiner is a women's fiction novel (what used to be called Chick Lit, but fortunately authors like Weiner made it clear how sexist BS labels like that weren't going to fly, so it's not used much anymore) about the consequences of rape on the survivors, the perpetrators and their families. It's also about misogyny, societal sexism and patriarchy and privilege, and how white wealthy men have used their power and status to evade the consequences of their abusive actions for centuries. I have to say that I've read several of Weiner's other books, and there's only one that I'd actually recommend, and that's Good in Bed, which was her most popular novel that was made into a movie. Here's the blurb: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Summer comes another deliciously twisty novel of intrigue, secrets, and the transformative power of female friendship.
Daisy
Shoemaker can’t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule
of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she
should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful, her
husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of
acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows she’s got it
good. So why is she up all night?
While Daisy tries to identify
the root of her dissatisfaction, she’s also receiving misdirected emails
meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one
punctuation mark away from her own. While Daisy’s driving carpools,
Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisy’s making dinner, Diana’s making
plans to reorganize corporations. Diana’s glamorous, sophisticated,
single-lady life is miles away from Daisy’s simpler existence. When an
apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends.
But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not
completely accidental. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want
with Daisy?
From the manicured Main Line of Philadelphia to the
wild landscape of the Outer Cape, written with Jennifer Weiner’s
signature wit and sharp observations, That Summer is a story about surviving our pasts, confronting our futures, and the sustaining bonds of friendship.
SPOILER ALERT! I was looking forward to this novel's indictment of the patriarchy and the wealthy white male establishment that keeps allowing men and boys to rape and sexually harass/abuse women and girls without being held accountable for ruining those women's lives. What I got was a novel that had a lot of cliches and then, in the end, totally left two of the three perpetrators of the crime of rape OFF THE HOOK! Daisy's scumbag privileged, controlling sexist husband, who raped a 15 year old girl after rendering her unconscious with alcohol and having a friend hold her down (while another guy, who turns out to be Daisy's gay brother WATCHES AND DOES NOTHING after fumbling on top of the victim for awhile) just gets defensive and when his wife divorces him, he is still allowed in her and their daughter's lives! And they don't bother to tell the daughter that her father raped someone her age! WTF, Jennifer Weiner?? What kind of justice is that? He doesn't lose his job, he doesn't really lose his family, and he NEVER APOLOGIZES to the woman who he so callously raped! Daisy's equally scumbag brother Danny, who apparently gets a pass because he's gay and takes in foster kids with his husband (who also knew what Danny did that summer and also seems to feel that it was perfectly fine to say NOTHING about this to anyone, including his sister in law or his niece....when Danny had the chance to say something to his sister before she married the rapist scumbag, he totally pussy-footed around it and in the end didn't say anything helpful at all! HE LET A RAPIST MARRY HIS SISTER! What an asshat!) also gets no consequences AT ALL, and is forgiven and taken back into the family, and works with his sister like nothing ever happened. WTF JW?! Just because he wasn't out of the closet and he had a crush on Daisy's husband as a teenager, we're supposed to feel sorry for this sh*thead who attempted to rape a 15 year old and then watched while his two other friends did the deed instead? UGH. DISGUSTING. I hate these wishy-washy and pathetic people who don't get justice for Diana, who should have shot the three scumbags when she had the chance. As a rape survivor myself, I can say with certainty that I would NEVER allow the scumbag who raped me anywhere near my family, especially my child. He doesn't deserve forgiveness or any speck of kindness, he deserves the misery of life in prison or death, period. Men who think women are disposable vessels for their need for power, lust and domination don't deserve to be anywhere near females of any age, ever again. Daisy spent 20 years of her life as a slave to her rapist husband, who degraded her, infantilized and controlled her, and that right there is more than enough reasons to see him completely out of her life, preferably in jail. Hence, I'd give this novel, which was well written and engrossing, a C, but I'd only recommend it to those who don't mind crappy, unsatisfying, awful endings.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner is a historical fiction novel that was engaging and fascinating. I was surprised at how deftly the author managed to create the scene of the 18th century apothecary and her work, while making the female characters so three dimensional that they seemed more real than the modern day character. The prose was sublime and the plot ran along on fleet foot. Here's the blurb: A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost Apothecary…
Hidden
in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop
caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of
a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use
against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is
jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes
a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through
the centuries.
Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring
historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone,
running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the
unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago,
her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and
not everyone will survive.
With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary
is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and
the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of
time.
I adored Nella,whose history was astonishing and fascinating, and I also enjoyed Eliza's tale, though she seemed way to young and ignorant to be of much help to Nella in her poison workshop. Caroline was less interesting than those women she's researching, but her chapters of the book provided much needed respite from the frantic pace and energy of the historical chapters. The prose was delicate and emotive, which worked well with the twisty and suspenseful plot. I'd give this well written and riveting tale an A, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in "wise women" and apothecaries and healers of the past.
The Italian Villa by Daniela Sacerdoti was an ebook that I picked up for a good price on Amazon Kindle Unlimited. I love historical romance/mystery hybrids, and this one didn't disappoint. The prose was smooth and cool, which helped the hot and fast paced plot move along nicely. Here's the blurb: Callie, a lonely small-town waitress, is still reeling from the
discovery that she’s adopted when she arrives in Montevino, Italy in
search of answers – the keys to the stunning hillside villa she has just inherited clutched tightly in her hand.
Inside the rusted gates, and through a large wooden front door dripping
with sun-kissed flowers, Callie can’t decide if she’s more astonished
by her new home or her first encounter with the mysterious young
groundskeeper, Tommaso.
Wandering the villa barefoot at night, Callie finds a diary belonging to a woman named Elisa,
wrapped in faded blue ribbon and hidden in her birthmother’s antique
wardrobe. Page by page, Callie is swept away by its story of love,
passion, heartbreak and betrayal as she reads how Elisa married her
childhood sweetheart in secret before fleeing to the woods to join the
resistance. They vowed to find each other again when the war was over,
but history had other plans.
Callie is certain that her and Elisa’s lives are somehow connected, and that the truth about her family is hidden somewhere within the diary’s crinkled yellow pages.
It gives her the courage to start asking questions around the
close-knit village until, at long last, she feels her closed-off heart
begin to open. Perhaps even enough to let someone in. But when a
devastating betrayal in the final pages of the diary unlocks a
heart-breaking secret about who Callie’s mother really is, the chance
for a new life shatters in front of her. Can she persuade the locals to
forgive her past and accept the truth about her identity?
SPOILER, I wasn't surprised that the woman who was so rude to Callie when she arrives at the villa, who claims to be her auntie, is actually her mother. Turns out this auntie had an affair with her sister's husband and feels that this betrayal leaves her morally bankrupt and undeserving of love or care. The fact that Callie is able to help her forgive herself and get her life back on track, while Callie herself falls for the handsome Tommaso, is a testament to the strength of this strong protagonist. I'd give this novel a B+ and recommend it to anyone who dreams of making a life in sunny Italy.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a bizarre Japanese fantasy time travel novel that I read in ebook format, because it was cheap and easily accessed. This novel was translated from the Japanese, so the prose was somewhat stiff and proper, and the plot, though not really swift, still moved at a regular pace and didn't have any large holes to derail it. Here's the blurb: If you could go back, who would you want to meet?
In
a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving
carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend
says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to
travel back in time.
Over the course of one summer, four
customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time
travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most
important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to
get cold.
Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious and delightfully
quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores
the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in
time?
The last line of the blurb is misleading, as one of the many rules of time traveling in the cafe is that you can't change anything in the past, you can only talk to whomever you want to talk to for a few moments until your coffee gets cold, at which point you have to drink it and travel to your current time. Of the four people whose stories are told here, the final one was the most interesting, I felt. A woman who knows that she will die in childbirth would like to meet the daughter she will not live to raise. Because I am a mother myself, this story left me weeping and I believe will resonate with many moms out there who know the fears you face in giving birth to a child. The addition of the "ghost woman" who will curse you (physically, not vocally) if you try to remove her from the time-traveling chair (you have to wait until she makes her daily trip to the bathroom) seemed weird, but having read a number of Japanese folk tales in college, it made sense that they'd add this extra element of the supernatural to make the story that much more intricate and detailed. While I felt many of the characters were either too passive and weak (while one was too loud and aggressive), I understand that there were certain cultural norms that came into play here that wouldn't make as much sense to me because I'm not Japanese and haven't lived within that culture. So I'd give this novel a B, and recommend it to anyone who likes odd time travel tales.
Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao is a succulent YA novel that has romance and coming of age threads throughout the narrative. I got this book in ebook format for my Kindle Paperwhite for a very low price, and I was surprised by the quality prose and the compelling plot, as many of the cheap ebooks that I get aren't very well written. This novel, however, was riveting, full of great characters in interesting circumstances, so that it rose above the usual "fish out of water" first generation immigrant story. Here's the blurb: A teen outcast is simultaneously swept up in a whirlwind romance and
down a rabbit hole of dark family secrets when another Taiwanese family
moves to her small, predominantly white midwestern town in this
remarkable novel from the critically acclaimed author of American Panda.
Seventeen-year-old
Ali Chu knows that as the only Asian person at her school in
middle-of-nowhere Indiana, she must be bland as white toast to survive.
This means swapping her congee lunch for PB&Js, ignoring the
clueless racism from her classmates and teachers, and keeping her mouth
shut when people wrongly call her Allie instead of her actual name,
pronounced Āh-lěe, after the mountain in Taiwan.
Her
autopilot existence is disrupted when she finds out that Chase Yu, the
new kid in school, is also Taiwanese. Despite some initial resistance
due to the “they belong together” whispers, Ali and Chase soon spark a
chemistry rooted in competitive martial arts, joking in two languages,
and, most importantly, pushing back against the discrimination they
face.
But when Ali’s mom finds out about the relationship, she forces Ali to end it. As Ali covertly digs into the why
behind her mother’s disapproval, she uncovers secrets about her family
and Chase that force her to question everything she thought she knew
about life, love, and her unknowable future.
Snippets of a love story from 19th-century China (a retelling of the Chinese folktale The Butterfly Lovers) are interspersed with Ali’s narrative and intertwined with her fate.
I loved that Ali (and Chase) fight against the rampant racism at their school, despite the consequences to their GPA and their family's disapproval. Ali's strength in martial arts and her refusal to allow convention (and her parents) to force her into an arranged marriage left me feeling like Rocky at the top of the steps in Philly, punching the air in triumph. She turns a terrible arranged marriage park into a place of acceptance of all kinds of love (LGBTQ fans will enjoy that part of the final chapter) and still manages to keep her own relationship going, despite her nasty and relentlessly disapproving mother in what can only be viewed as a satisfying ending. I'd give this ebook an A,and recommend it to anyone who likes YA stories that are unique and have a strong female protagonist.
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