Book List: Books Read in 2020

I keep track of the books I read on LibraryThing. Every January, I post a list of the books I read the prior year. It's usually a few over 100. There have been a couple of years when I didn't get to 100, when work was crazy. There haven't been many years when I got over 110. 

Here's the list of the 109 books I read in 2020, in the order I read them. 2020 was such an insane year, it could have gone either way, reading-wise. I know some people read twice as many books as usual, some people read hardly any. I read the same.

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

BOOKS READ IN 2020

• Circe by Madeline Miller 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged by Roger Scruton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Women's Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Egyptologists by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Live by Night by Denis Lehane (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics By Kevin D. Williamson 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Party Going by Henry Green 🌹🌹🌹

• My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (Costa Book of the Year) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Cheri by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• The Last of Cheri by Colette 🌹🌹🌹 

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Gigi by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• Warlight by Michaele Ondaatje 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Vagabond by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• Calypso by Davis Sedaris 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Shackle by Colette 🌹🌹🌹

• France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child by Alex Prud'homme 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Outlyer and Ghazals by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Overstory by Richard Powers (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹

• The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Women's Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Radical Kindness: The Life-Changing Power of Giving and Receiving by Angela Santomero 🌹🌹🌹

• Patrimony by Philip Roth 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World by Lisa Birnbach 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Charlotte Moss Entertains by Charlotte Moss 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Come Hell or Highball by Maia Chance 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Hidden Falls by Kevin Meyers 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (National Book Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn (Wodehouse Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Never Mind: Book One of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Bad News: Book Two of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (Classics Club) 🌹🌹

• Some Hope: Book Three of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Billy (the Kid) by Peter Meech 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mother's Milk: Book Four of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• At Last: The Final Patrick Melrose Novel by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹

• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (National Book Award) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Book of V by Anna Solomon 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train by Ina Caro 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Unmaking of a Mayor by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley 🌹🌹🌹

• The Likeness by Tana French 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Britain by the Book: A Curious Tour of Our Literary Landscape by Oliver Tearle 🌹🌹🌹

• The Guest List by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹

• Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Letters to Yesenin by Jim Harrison 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹

• Country Girl by Edna O'Brien 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand 🌹🌹🌹

• House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild (Wodehouse Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Style Evolution: How to Create Ageless Personal Style in Your 40s and Beyond by Kendall Farr 🌹🌹🌹

• The Invitation by Lucy Foley 🌹🌹🌹

• The Drowning Season by Alice Hoffman (Erica Jong List) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Classics Club) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Underground Railroad by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Nickel Boys by Coleson Whitehead (Pulitzer Prize) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Airborne: A Sentimental Journey by William F. Buckley, Jr. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Edgar Award) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Quartet in Autumn by Barba Pym 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The White Album by Joan Didion 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Prospero's Cell: A Guide To The Landscape And Manners of The Island Of Corfu by Lawrence Durrell 🌹🌹🌹

• The Stranger by Albert Camus (Classics Club) 🌹🌹1/2

• The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (Classics Club) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Murder Room by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov 🌹🌹🌹

• English House Style from the Archives of Country Life by John Goodall 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Writers & Lovers by Lily King 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby (Booker Prize) 🌹🌹🌹

• For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• Room at the Top by John Braine (Burgess List) 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Just Like You by Nick Hornby 🌹🌹🌹

• They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker 🌹🌹1/2

• The Hanging in the Hotel by Simon Brett 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment) by Donna Leon 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding 🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

• The Stars Look Down by A. J. Cronin 🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Jump the Gun by Zoe Burke🌹🌹🌹1/2

• Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days by James and Kay Salter 🌹🌹🌹🌹

MY RATING SYSTEM

My rating system is my own and evolving. Whatever five stars might mean on amazon, goodreads, or Netflix, a five-star rating probably doesn't mean that here. In fact, I'm going to change this year and use roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My system is a mix of how a book appeals to me and how I would recommend it to other people. 

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Five roses for books I loved, or would recommend to anyone, or I think are worthy of classic "must read" status." Examples would be Lucky Jim (personal favorite), A Gentleman in Moscow (universal recommendation), and Great Expectations (must read). 

🌹🌹🌹🌹 Four roses for books I really enjoyed and/or would recommend to people who enjoy that type of book. Examples would be The Jewel in the Crown and In the Woods. Most mysteries get four roses from me because I like them a lot but would only recommend them to people who like mysteries. (A few really great mysteries get five roses from me.) Similarly, some of my favorite authors get four roses from me because I wouldn't recommend them to a general audience, like funny books by P.G. Wodehouse or food memoirs by M.F.K. Fisher. 

🌹🌹🌹 Three roses for books I was lukewarm on or maybe liked personally but wouldn't think of recommending. Examples would be Sexing the Cherry (lukewarm) and The Year of the French (liked personally but wouldn't inflict recommend).

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. The Neapolitan Quartet is an example, which proves how subjective my system is because lots of people loved those books. 

🌹 One rose if I really didn't like it. I don't know if I've ever rated a book this low. The Magus might be my only example and I read it before I started keeping my lists. 

I use half roses if a book falls between categories. I can't explain what that half rose might mean, it's just a feeling.

Here is a link to the star rating system I used for years. I include it because the stars I used in years past meant something different than these roses, so if you look at my lists from past years, the ratings won't mean quite the same thing.

Exploring Wine Regions: Bordeaux and Argentina by Michael C. Higgins - BOOK REVIEW

 

Exploring Wine Regions is a new series of wine and travel guides launched by author and photographer Michael C. Higgins. He started the series with a book on Argentina, subtitled A Culinary, Agricultural, and Interesting Journey Through Argentina.  The second book came out last month on Bordeaux, subtitled Discover Wine, Food, Castles, and the French Way of Life.

Both books are meticulously researched, insider accounts of wineries and vineyards in the regions they cover as well as travel guides to the food, special lodging, sights, and history. Higgins did his own research and photography, and his enthusiasm shows on every page.

BORDEAUX

I was drawn to the Bordeaux book first because I have never visited the wineries there and I would like to. As Higgins describes, Bordeaux is "the center of the universe for wine." So much of the wine we recognize, no matter where it is now made, is made from Bordeaux varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Higgins packs a lot of information into these dense books. The Bordeaux book starts with a history of winemaking in the region and an overview of the geography. There follows a concise travel guide to the city of Bordeaux, including sites, restaurants, hotels, and all the information a traveler needs for a visit. Then Higgins lays out each appellation and sub-appellation of Bordeaux in a methodically organized manner, moving outward from the city of Bordeaux.

Each chapter includes information and photos about the wineries, as well as tips for where to eat and stay. Often dining and lodging are part of the winery experience. One of the criteria Higgins used to decide whether to include a winery in his book was if it offered some experience more than only wine tasting. To be in the book, a winery had to be open to the public (makes sense), have excellent wine, and offer something to elevate the visit above the ordinary. He found wineries offering rooms in castles for overnight guests, restaurants, winemaking workshops, cooking classes, and other unique experiences.

Exploring Wine Regions: Bordeaux is chock-o-block with gorgeous photographs, making it a perfect armchair travel book for any Francophile. It is also indispensable for planning a wine tour of the region. I can't imagine visiting Bordeaux without Higgins's book!

ARGENTINA

Having indulged in the Bordeaux book, I wanted to poke around in the Argentina book to learn something about a wine region I know absolutely nothing about. Wow! Now I want to visit Argentina.

Like with the Bordeaux book, Higgins starts with a geographic overview of the wine regions of Argentina. He follows with a travel guide to Mendoza, the large city that is the capital of the Mendoza wine region and a good place from which to stage an exploration of Argentinian wineries. He then moves through each of the four main wine regions.

Only a few of the wineries featured offer much in the way of dining, lodging, or add-on experiences. Higgins provides information on where to eat and stay, as well as sites and recreational activities. Argentina is spectacularly beautiful, so the geography is as much of a draw as the amenities.

THE SERIES

The next book in the series will be a book about Napa Valley. If it is as good as the first two, it is sure to be another winner.

My only quibble with both books is that there is no information about prices – of wine, restaurants, or lodging. I know prices change, so putting actual numbers in makes no sense. And Higgins includes websites for every place mentioned, so it is not arduous learn more. But it would be nice to have a little guidance about whether a restaurant or winery is a once-in-a-lifetime spree or a reasonable stop for an afternoon. Higgins wrote in the Bordeaux introduction that he was "on a quest to find the good at good prices, and the extraordinary wines at better prices." So even knowing whether a winery falls in the good wine/good price or extraordinary wine/better price category would be nice.

Read more about Higgins and learn more about the Exploring Wine Regions series at ExploringWineRegions.com.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Weekend Cooking is a weekly blog event hosted by Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader. Beth Fish Reads started the event in 2009 and bloggers have been sharing book and food related posts ever since.

Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley - BOOK REVIEW

 

Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley (2020, Simon & Schuster)

Christopher Buckley took a break from writing satire to write two historic comic novels, The Relic Master and The Judge Hunter. At the time, he said American politics had become “sufficiently self-satirizing” and did not need his help. The Trump Presidency tempted him back and his latest book, Make Russia Great Again, brings us back to Buckley's favorite formats, the faux White House memoir.

MRGA is the "memoir" of Herb Nutterman, former White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, now convicted felon serving his term in a federal penitentiary. He got the chief of staff job after working in Trump hotels for 27 years, most recently as the general manager of the Trump Bloody Run Golf Club in Little Hot Pepper, Virginia.

And with that set up, the story is off and running, as only a Christopher Buckley novel can do. There are plenty of funny names for people doing normal jobs in exaggeratedly funny ways: Senator Squigg Lee Biskitt of South Carolina, chief of communications Greta Fibberson, news pundit Chip Holleran, etc. The play on words continues throughout. The jokes hit today's hot buttons: Civil War statues, cable news talking heads, political nominations, Russian elections, and more.

It takes a while to get to the core of the plot, which is a Russian plan to blackmail Trump and alter the outcome of the U.S. 2020 election. As in any good farce, the plan is convoluted and the goal keeps changing, all to maximum comic effect. Nutterman running interference with a Russian oligarch and Vladimir Putin to fend off an election disaster is funny. The book is spot-on parody, slapstick, silly, and funny.

But what is really clever is the satire at the heart of the plot. Satire has to be audacious to work and the satire here really zings. It involves a Pentagon plan called Placid Reflux to use artificial intelligence to combat Russian interference with US elections. The plan goes too far and gets a member of the Communist party elected to lead Russia (thereby triggering the rest of the story).  

Those who dislike Trump will like MRGA more than Trump supporters, although I don't think there's enough red meat in it for those who really can't stand him. It is definitely funny and readers who enjoy Veep will most likely enjoy it, whatever their political leanings.

NOTES

Read an article with Christopher Buckley about Make Russia Great Again in The Atlantic. 

Burn Down This World by Tina Egnoski - BOOK REVIEW

 Burn Down This World by Tina Egnoski (2020, Adelaide Books)

Tina Egnoski's new novel, Burn Down This World, centers on Celeste and Reid Leahy, a brother and sister who come of age in a military family in the South in the late 1960s, at the height unrest about the Vietnam War. Both are active in antiwar demonstrations at the University of Florida in the early 1970s until violence at the protests tears the siblings apart. Reid leaves Florida, not to return until the two reunite in 1998 during the devastating Florida wildfires.

The novel goes back and forth between the story of the campus protests in the 1970s and 1998 when Celeste and Reid reunite during the wildfires. Egnoski handles this braided narrative well. She weaves just enough information into each storyline to keep the reader engaged without revealing too soon the twists and turns of the plot.

The essence of the story is the family drama between Celeste and Reid. The exciting settings of protest and wildfire make that family story all the more compelling. Egnoski also uses the music of the 1960s and 1970s to set the scene and sometimes as a catalyst for the story. For example, Celeste's love of The Doors brings her closer to her brother at an otherwise contentious time in their lives. Both the college protest and the wildfire storylines have action and emotional impact.

All in all, Burn Down This World is an absorbing story, well told.

NOTES

I'd recommend Burn Down This World for readers interested stories about the 1970s or Vietnam War protests, brother/sister stories, or family dramas. Also, readers looking for novels about Florida other than murder mysteries would like it. It would make a great Book Club pick because there is a lot in it to discuss.

Burn Down This World is available in paperback or kindle.

Author Tina Egnoski writes poetry and fiction. She is a native of Florida and now lives in Rhode Island where she works in the Liberal Arts Division at the Rhode Island School of Design. Burn Down This World is her first novel.

Read my review of Tin Egnoski on Rose City Reader here. 

Create Beautiful Food at Home by Adrian Martin - BOOK REVIEW

 Create Beautiful Food at Home by Adrian Martin (MercierPress)

Adrian Martin is a young, popular Irish chef. His new cookbook, Create Beautiful Food at Home, takes reasonably easy to make at home recipes and makes them look very, very fancy. His breezy explanations and the lovely photographs have me convinced it is possible to make food at home that looks like it comes from a swanky restaurant.

Which is not to say I'm convinced I want to. I'm more of a bistro food home cook than a haute cuisine home chef. So I'm probably not the target audience for Martin's new book. But for home chefs looking to learn something different or polish up restaurant-worthy skills, this is a terrific, must-have book.

You will get an idea of whether this is the book for you from a partial list of Martin's suggested "Necessities for the Kitchen," which will "make your life much easier if you are making the recipes in this book":

•  Squeezy bottles (for purées, dressings, etc.)
• Tweezers (for picking herbs and micro salads, and for plating up)
• Blowtorch
• Mandoline
• Fish slice
• Different-sized melon ballers
• Oyster knife
• Ice-cream churner

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against ice cream. I am even willing to make ice cream. I own a mandoline. And I own a single melon baller in one size. But I do not know what a fish slice is. And I cannot imagine using tweezers to plate individual herbs or "micro salad" or a squeezy bottle to decorate a dish with puree. That's just not me.

But I know people who would LOVE this kind of thing, love it down to their toes. I can think of five or six friends who would be tickled to get this for Christmas. And if you are like them, you too will love this book.

The recipes are all beautifully presented – that's the point. They range from simple, like a fresh pea risotto with asparagus and basil purée, to elaborate, like individual chocolate and hazelnut tarts with chocolate tuiles and chocolate hazelnut ice cream (above). Some use the simplest of ingredients, a few rely on extravagant ingredients like fresh oysters, lobster, or foie gras. None are overly difficult, but they require attention to detail and a focus on timing and presentation.

If you have always wanted to make food as pretty as on cooking shows or in posh restaurants, Create Beautiful Food at Home is the perfect book for you. Please invite me over for dinner!

NOTES

Create Beautiful Food at Home would make a perfect gift for the home chef who likes to replicate fancy restaurant meals -- the kind of home chef who already has a mini blowtorch for making the burnt sugar top on creme brulee. 

I'm happy to have a copy of Adrian Martin's book in my Cookbook Library and plan to challenge myself to make some of the simpler recipes for my next dinner party. When we can next have dinner parties. 

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Weekend Cooking is a weekly blog event hosted by Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader. Beth Fish Reads started the event in 2009 and bloggers have been sharing book and food related posts ever since.

Beach House Dinners: Simple, Summer-Inspired Meals for Entertaining Year-Round by Lei Shishak - BOOK REVIEW

 

Beach House Dinners: Simple, Summer-Inspired Meals for Entertaining Year-Round  by Lei Shishak (2020, Skyhorse Publishing)

Beach House Dinners: Simple, Summer-Inspired Meals for Entertaining Year-Round is a pretty cookbook offering 80 recipes for the kind of food everyone loves to eat, focusing on dishes made to share. Whether you are making dinner for family or a dinner party for friends, Lei Shishak's new book is an excellent cookbook for easy, tasty recipes.

Because the theme is dinner, the chapters are divided by type of entrée: Poultry, Seafood, Read Meat, Pork and Ground Meat, Vegetarian, Pasta, Soups and Sandwiches, and Salads. Each recipe for a main dish comes with suggestions and recipes for what to serve with it to make a whole dinner. For example, Lei's recipe for Lemon Garlic Chicken includes instructions to roast quartered red baby potatoes with the chicken thighs and a recipe for a Shredded Brussels Sprouts side dish. Other recipes are a complete meal in themselves, like the scrumptious looking Shrimp and Potato Fiesta.

Lei Shishak is a chef, baker, and cookbook author in Southern California. She is the founder of the Sugar Blossom Bake Shop in San Clemente, California. Beach House Dinners is her fourth cookbook. As with her two earlier "Beach House" cookbooks, Beach House Baking and BeachHouse Brunch, the theme is good food by the beach. The book is filled with beautiful, dreamy pictures of beach life – picnics, seashores, palm trees, sun drenched cottages, and sun-bleached decks. But the book doesn't require summer and a beach house so much as evoke that summer-at-the-beach vibe everyone can enjoy, and enjoy year round.

Because the recipes are mostly for yummy, comfort food that anyone can make at home, Beach House Dinners would make an excellent gift for a new couple or a young person setting up house. Extra features that make it a good pick for a new cook are a list for a well-stocked home pantry, a list of kitchen tools to make all the recipes, a section of helpful tips, and lined spaces for notes after many of the recipes.

I am happy to add Beach House Dinners to my CookbookLibrary.

NOTES

Beach House Dinners is a perfect book for Labor Day weekend, but really does have year-round recipes great for entertaining friends or just cooking for family. 

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Weekend Cooking is a weekly blog event hosted by Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader. Beth Fish Reads started the event in 2009 and bloggers have been sharing book and food related posts ever since.

 

Billy (the Kid) by Peter Meech - Book Review

Billy (the Kid) by Peter Meech (2020)

What if Sheriff Pat Garrett hadn't shot and killed William Bonney in 1881? What if Billy the Kid survived, escaped, and rode off into the sunset? Well, then he might have become a dentist and retired in Pueblo, Colorado in 1932. That's the beguiling premise of Peter Meech's new novel Billy (the Kid). Meech's alternate history finds an older, contemplative Billy living in a boarding house in the sleepy backwater of Pueblo. Sleepy that is until rival bootleggers move in to open a second speakeasy, threatening the livelihood – and lives – of Billy's friends. 

The book has the loping pace and recognizable icons of a classic western – saloons, dusty streets, good guys and bad guys, guns, and horseback riding. And of course there's a pretty lady that Billy has his eye on. But 1932 is the twilight of the Wild West. The New West has arrived. Instead of outlaws on horses robbing banks, young gangsters drive cars and run rum. Billy is a part of but out of place in this New West, so a feeling of nostalgia hovers over the story. 

This feeling plays out through Billy's interactions with the other characters. There is a lot of reminiscing with former Rough Riders, delivering life lessons to a young protégé, and jawboning with buddies at the Spit 'n' Argue club. Some of these scenes move the plot, others are set pieces. All of them make the story a delight. The main relationship that develops is Billy's with Grace O'Bannion, the widow of the former sheriff. Her character and the bond that grows between them adds dimension to the story and gives it a satisfying arc. 

The story is told in the third person, from Billy's point of view, augmented by lots of dialog. Even in the third person, Billy is an unreliable narrator. It is never clear whether he is Billy the Kid, writing his memoirs and avoiding trouble, or a fantasist and historian, writing a biography of the famous gunslinger and collecting memorabilia. The ambiguity enhances the charm of the story. 

Billy (the Kid) was my favorite summer read of 2020. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an imaginative story to get lost in.

NOTES

Read my Rose City Reader interview of author Peter Meech here. 

Arzak + Arzak by Juan Mari Arzak and Elena Arzak - BOOK REVIEW

Arzak + Arzak by Juan Mari Arzak and Elena Arzak (2020, Grub Street Cookery)

Restaurante Arzak in San Sebastian is legendary. The family eatery started in the same building over 120 years ago and the restaurant has had three Michelin stars since 1989.

I’ve never been to Spain, San Sebastian, or Arzak. But I am fascinated by San Sebastian and Restaurante Arzak since I watched an episode of Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain when he visits Arzak and tours San Sebastian with Juan Mari. Juan Mari is the third generation of chefs at his family's eponymous restaurant. His daughter Elena joined him 20 years ago and is poised to take over.

Arzak + Arzak is a gorgeous new book celebrating New Basque Cuisine, the Arzak family, and Restaurante Arzak. It tells the story of Juan Mari, who earned his first Michelin star in 1972. Juan Mari has been a cutting-edge chef since then, focusing on fresh, local ingredients in innovative, even avant garde presentations. He put San Sebastian on the map and inspired generations of young chefs. The book also follows Elena Arzak's career from her training in other famous kitchens to co-chef with her father as Restaurante Arzak looks to the future.

The first half of the book is narrative, broken into five chapters, set off by striking, behind-the-scenes, black and white photographs, most of them full page. The first chapter, "Arzak-Enea: A father, a daughter and a Basque restaurant," describes the building that has housed the restaurant since 1897 and describes a day in the life of Restaurante Arzak.

Chapter two, "The Dining Room: Juan Mari and the history or Arzak," describes Juan Mari's typical day at the restaurant and gives a biography of his fascinating career. Juan Mari was one of the founders of the New Basque Cuisine movement, which took root in the 1970s, around the same time Alice Waters pioneered a new "California cuisine" and Nouvelle Cuisine was taking off in France. He has always held onto the familiar flavors of Basque cooking, but with inventive twists.

The third chapter is called "The Laboratory: A recipe for creativity" and takes the readers inside El Laboratorio, the creative center of Arzak.  Part test kitchen, part science lab, it is here where Arzak comes up with more than 50 new dishes every year, to keep its cuisine evolving.

Chapter four, "The Chef's Table: The Extended Family," is my favorite chapter because it describes the beating heart of the restaurant – the big table nearest the open kitchen:

The long marble chef's table is, in effect, the control centre where the daily business of the restaurant is orchestrated and played out.

The staff eats breakfast at this table; family members like Elena's husband and two kids stop by for lunch; old friends, journalists, and visiting chefs linger here in the afternoon. It is also where Elena and Juan Mari hold meetings with purveyors, their sommelier, and staff. But in the evening, the Chef's Table is set for guests because it is the most requested table in the house.

The last of the narrative chapters is "The Kitchen: Elena Arzak and the future." Elena has gradually taken over from her father as she worked with him over the past 20 years. Not yet 50, the future of Arzak is in her talented hands. This chapter gives her culinary biography and vision for the restaurant.

The recipe section is gorgeous and certainly beguiling, even if daunting to all but the most ambitious of home chefs. Each of the 64 recipes is accompanied by a dramatic color photo, most of them full page. While extraordinarily complicated, reading the recipes drives home what Arzak is all about. The laborious effort that goes into each dish is extraordinary, which is why Restaurante Arzak exists and keeps its three stars year in and year out.    

For those diners lucky enough to enjoy Arzak in person, the Arzak + Arzak book would be a perfect keepsake. Even for readers like me who have never been there, the story of Arzak and its father/daughter chefs is absorbing. It is exciting to learn about running a famous restaurant with a history tied so deeply to a particular region.

NOTES

Arzak + Arzak now has pride of place in my Cookbook Library, even if I will never cook any of the recipes from it. I'll probably display it as a coffee table book instead - it's beautiful enough.

Hidden Falls by Kevin Myers - BOOK REVIEW

Hidden Falls by Kevin Myers (2020, Beaufort Books)

Kevin Myers' new novel, Hidden Falls, follows protagonist Michael Quinn back to Massachusetts following the unexpected death of his father. Middle-aged, single, in a strained relationship with his own kid, and at the peak of a dead-end job in print journalism, Michael is on the brink of a classic mid-life crisis. What he gets instead is a real-life crisis when he discovers his father was involved with organized crime and Michael lands in the middle of a criminal conspiracy.

Although it starts with a bang, literally, the first chapter is just a teaser, before the story starts for real "a few weeks before." Then the first quarter of the book is about Michael's workaday life in Portland. He's a columnist for the Portland Daily newspaper, waiting to be downsized out of a job in the next round of layoffs. He's divorced, with a son just starting college, and is trying to navigate the stormy waters of middle-aged dating. One amusing subplot has Michael following the "Missed Connections" listings on Craigslist, convinced a younger co-worker is flirting with him.

Michael carries his everyday concerns with him to New Bedford when he returns for his father's funeral. These concerns don't go away – especially when his ex-wife, son, and potential girlfriend show up for the funeral – but Michael's perception changes as he falls deeper into the realities of his family's life in New Bedford. Those realities are exciting enough, with gamblers, gangsters, and crooked cops to spare. Tensions are high, tempers run hot, and Michael is right in the middle of it. It's a good yarn.

Meyers chose his setting well. New Bedford, with its whaling history, is the archetype of a certain kind of New England town, once great centers of now dead American industries. Meyers explores what is like to grow up in a town like New Bedford, with the pride shown for a heritage long past, a fierce connection to professional and amateur sports, and a hometown bond that is not easy to explain. He has an ear for the accent and an eye for the mores that bring New Bedford to life for the reader.

Meyers tells Michael's story with subtle humor and a big heart. Don't expect an edge of your seat, blood and guts thriller. But if you like a good story, well told, Hidden Falls is the book for you. It's got humor, romance, family drama, and enough crime to make it exciting.



NOTES

I'd recommend Hidden Falls for fans of Richard Russo, Jim Harrison, and Dennis Lehane, and anyone who likes a good midlife crisis story, father/son story, stories set in New England, or just something new.

Read my interview of Kevin Meyers here on Rose City Reader.

Listening at Lookout Creek: Nature in Spiritual Practice by Gretel Van Wieren - BOOK REVIEW

Gretel Van Wieren went on a retreat to the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon’s western Cascade Mountains to reconnect with the natural world. She grew up on west Michigan’s lakeshore and her favorite childhood memories were of fishing with her dad, hunting for morels, digging in the garden, boiling maple sap, identifying birds, and generally spending time outdoors.

She decided to treat her writing residency in Oregon as a "spiritual experiment" to try to recapture that sense of deep connection with nature she had when growing up. Living a busy life of a college professor with a husband and three teenagers had her feeling over-scheduled, over-screened, and over-stressed. The question was whether ten days in the woods would be enough to spiritually reconnect with the natural world. She wrote about her experience and what she learned in Listening at Lookout Creek: Nature in Spiritual Practice (OSU Press).

The book describes Gretel's time at the Andrews Forest, what she did and saw and what she thought about while she was there. She looks back at her childhood and experiences with her husband and children. The unifying theme of the book is her spiritual practice and how it connects her to the natural world. Gretel first realized that her childhood experiences of nature influenced her spiritual outlook when she was at Divinity School. Later, when working as a pastor in rural upstate New York, she began to explore the world of nature mysticism, which inspired and informs much of Listening at Lookout Creek.

While this book has more trees and moss – and fewer bugs (thank goodness) – it reminded me a bit of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which I loved despite the bugs. Reader's who enjoyed Dillard's classic will enjoy Listening at Lookout Creek, as would parents thinking about getting their kids outdoors more and on screens less, the fishing and hunting community, and spiritual seekers. It's a book that made me want to slow down and spend time in a forest.

NOTES

Read my Q&A interview with Gretel Van Wieren here, where Gretel talks about getting kids outdoors, a spiritual connection with the natural world, and her new book, Listening at Lookout Creek.

Read Gretel's 10 Tips for Getting Your Kids Outdoors.

Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World by Kathryn Aalto: REVIEW

Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World by Kathryn Aalto (from Timber Press; available June 23, 2020)

I was lucky to grow up in a time and place that allowed little kids to roam. From the time I was five and "old enough" to walk to Kindergarten by myself, my parents considered me old enough to wander my neighborhood by myself. And I did. My memories of childhood summers in Nebraska are a series of explorations, alone or with a best friend, of back yards, the enormous neighborhood park, and, once we got bikes, nearby farms, woods, and creeks. I could spend a whole day alone with a book in the woods. Or spend several days in a row with a friend playing on the Platte River. We were ten.

Despite my early adventures, I didn't grow up to be a rugged outdoor enthusiast. These days, my idea of camping is a cabin at a National Park. But those childhood wanderings taught me a love for the natural world and instilled a yearning for exploration, often solitary. Kathryn Aalto's new book, Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World, appeals to both parts of my character.

Aalto set out to rebalance the perception that nature writing is entirely the realm of white male authors. Writing Wild honors women writers whose work has helped readers connect to the natural world from the Romantic poets to today. The book is a collection of Aalto's biographical sketches of 25 influential women writers, drawing on excerpts of their work; select bibliographies; notes on other women poets and prose authors; and ancillary material, all beautifully illustrated by Gisela Goppel.

The book is not an anthology of nature writing; it is an introduction to women nature writers. A few are probably familiar, like Annie Dillard or poet Mary Oliver. Others are new to me and likely new to most readers. The book, of course, does not include every woman who has written about nature. As Aalto described:

Think of these pages as a glance backwards and a look forward, as well as a celebration of women who bring a different dimension to nature writing, rather than a compendium of every woman who ever wrote about the natural world.

Following each five- to seven-page biography, Aalto inserts either the featured author's bibliography or information about three related authors. For example, after the opening essay on Dorothy Wordsworth, Aalto includes a paragraph each on three other women writers under "More About Mountains": Dorothy Pilley, Helen Mort, and Cheryl Strayed. After the essay on Amy Liptrot, she offers three suggestions for "More Recovery Narratives": Sue Hubbell, Olivia Laing, and Jessica Lee.

You can see from these examples that Aalto broadly defines "nature writing." She includes writers of natural history, environmental philosophy, country life, scientific writing, gardening, poetry, memoir, fiction, and meditation. The writing of the women featured spans more than 200 years and many genres, not all easily categorized.

Read and be inspired. I was.


NOTES

The 25 women featured in Katheryn Aalto's Writing Wild are:

Dorothy Wordsworth

Susan Fenimore Cooper

Gene Stratton-Porter

Mary Austin

Vita Sackville-West

Nan Sheppard

Rachel Carson

Mary Oliver

Carolyn Merchant

Annie Dillard

Gretel Ehrlich

Leslie Marmon Silko

Diane Ackerman

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Lauret Savoy

Rebecca Solnit

Kathleen Jamie

Carolyn Finney

Helen MacDonald

Saci Lloyd

Andrea Wulf

Camille T. Dungy

Elena Passarello

Amy Liptrot

Elizabeth Rush

Cape Mediterranean: The Way We Love to Eat by Ilse van der Merwe -- Book Review

Cape Mediterranean: The Way We Love to Eat by Ilse van der Merwe (Penguin Random House South Africa, 2020)

The Western Cape is a province of South Africa on the southwest coast, probably best known to Americans for Cape Town, its largest city. Because of its Mediterranean climate and abundance of Mediterranean-style local produce, including wine and olive oil, the Western Cape has developed a  style of food and cooking known as Cape Mediterranean. Cape Mediterranean food mixes the flavors of Southwestern Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa with ingredients and tastes of South Africa.

Ilse van der Merwe is a self-taught cook, culinary enthusiast, blogger, and food writer. She has been blogging about cooking, food, and entertaining on her blog, The Food Fox, since 2011. She wanted to write a book about Cape Mediterranean food and cooking to document the contemporary style of cooking popular in the Western Cape. She describes Cape Mediterranean food as "a hybrid cuisine strongly influenced by the broader Mediterranean basin," although with more meat and dairy.

Her new cookbook, Cape Mediterranean: The Way We Love to Eat includes more than 75 tasty recipes, well-illustrated with beautiful photographs, that cover everything from bread and appetizers to fish and roasts, vegetable dishes and pastas, and several lovely desserts. It is a "Pan-Mediterranean" collection, with recipes as diverse as a classic chicken liver pate with brandy to harissa paste, arancini with smoked mozzarella to split pea soup with smoked pork, Greek-style youvetsi (a lamb casserole) to preserved lemons.

The collection skews Italian, and maybe a little more northern Italian than what some would think of as typically Mediterranean, with plenty of cheese and cream. But there are, overall, more than enough vegetable dishes and lashings of olive oil to round out the compilation. None of the recipes are terribly difficult and van der Merwe gives clear instructions. The one tricky bit is that temperatures have not been converted from Celsius to Fahrenheit.

All in all, Cape Mediterranean is an enticing cookbook for American home cooks curious about how people cook and eat in Cape Town, or looking for a new, one-stop collection of popular, tasty dishes.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Weekend Cooking is a weekly blog event where book bloggers have been sharing food-related posts on the weekends since 2009, when Beth Fish Reads started the event. Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader took over hosting duties from Beth this weekend.

Thank you Beth for hosting for so long! And thank you Marg for taking over! Ever since I started my own law firm, I haven't had the time I would like for book blogging, including this fun event that I always enjoyed. One upside of sheltering in place is I have a little more time to blog.

The Sweeney Sisters by Lian Dolan -- Book Review

Lian Dolan's new novel, The Sweeney Sisters, met me right where I want to be. It was exactly the book I wanted to read to take my mind off current events. Some people are reading thrillers or romance books for distraction these days, others like dense classics or self-improvement. This family drama with a literary theme and a comic touch was just what I needed.

The story starts with the death of Bill Sweeny, author, literary icon, and father of three grown daughters, Liza, Maggie, and Tricia. Only, it turns out he has a fourth daughter, Serena Tucker, who only learned of her connection to the Sweeney family when she did a DNA test. Apparently Bill Sweeny and his Southport, Connecticut neighbor Birdie Tucker were closer than anyone knew.

The plot unfolds from there. In the tradition of all good Aga Sagas, there's lots of domestic conflict, with ex-boyfriends, bad husbands, skeletons in closets, secret relationships, misunderstandings galore, hurt feelings, blow ups, make ups, and lots and lots of shared meals. Eventually, every problem gets sorted and couple gets paired, and everyone sits down to a big Thanksgiving dinner. There's nothing wrong with following a tried and true recipe to make something good. The key is in the details, and Lian Dolan gets all the details right with The Sweeney Sisters; the setting, characters, and tone are spot on.

Much of the story takes place at the family home, called Willow Lane, a well-worn, five-bedroom house from the 1930s on three acres of Southport waterfront, with a dock and a boathouse Bill Sweeney used for his writer's retreat. The sisters' mother Maeve, who died of cancer 15 years before the story starts, described the house as "Shabby and chic before Shabby Chic was chic." The house is itself a character in the story, and Willow Lane's relationship with toney, buttoned-down Southport is a metaphor for the Sweeney family.

Bill Sweeney appears in the book only in retrospect but is the catalyst for all of it. He was a writer of the old school, the last of his generation. I imagined him as a cross between John Updike and Norman Mailer. Nolan describes him like this:

He was a throwback, to the time when being a vaunted American writer meant being male, white, and heterosexual, with a drinking problem, a healthy ego, and a dark childhood. That model of the testosterone-driven man of letters was dying off, fading away like the curriculum it spawned with reading lists of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Styron, Roth, Vonnegut, Cheever, Irving. The academic world was opening up to a diversity of voices and life experiences. William Sweeney, the tail end of the manliest (so they thought) generation, managed to hold on longer than most.

His death, at age 76, and the surprise revelation that he had an unacknowledged daughter, forces the three Sweeney sisters to evaluate their relationships with their father and each other, and his relationship with their mother. They also have to decide how the fourth Sweeney sister fits into the mix, something Serena has a say in as well.

The four sisters have their own stories that Nolan blends together well. Liza is the eldest of the three, most rocked by learning she has an older sister. She runs and art gallery in Southport, is married, has twins, and manages everything perfectly, until she doesn't. Maggie is the middle of the three, an artist with a family reputation for not living up to her potential. Tricia is the youngest by six years, perhaps the most affected by their mother's death when she was still a teen. She is a hard-driven attorney, "always thinking strategically before emotionally," which causes much of the conflict in the story. Serena is a journalist, curious about, and envious of, the connection between the three sisters she grew up next door to without knowing. Dolan, who hosts the popular and long-running Satellite Sisters talk show with her own sisters, knows how to write authentic sister relationships.

The Sweeney Sisters is my favorite book of 2020. If you like Elinor Lipman, Anne Tyler, Joanne Trollope, or any good story about adult families, The Sweeney Sisters is the book for you.


NOTES

The Sweeney Sisters comes out April 28, 2020.

If you wrote a review of this book and want to me to list it here with a link, please leave a comment below.