My Reviews of Three Food Memoirs -- WEEKEND COOKING

WEEKEND COOKING

My Reviews of Three Food Memoirs

Food-centric memoirs are a favorite subgenre of mine. I recently read three of them back-to-back, which felt like gluttony even to me. That doesn’t mean I am not looking forward to the next one to pop up on my TBR shelf!

Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten

My sister gave me Be Ready When the Luck Happens for Christmas, knowing I would enjoy it as much as she did. She was spot on. I loved everything about it. Well, I wish it had more recipes – there are only a handful – but that just gives me the excuse to try Ina Garten's cookbooks.

My reaction surprised me a bit. I really didn't know anything about Ina Garten before I read this new memoir. I knew she is famous, had a business called The Barefoot Contessa, and posted a pandemic video of a giant cosmo cocktail that went viral. But I never watched her on tv and don't have any of her cookbooks. I was curious, though and I love reading about food people, so I looked forward to reading it. It didn't disappoint. What an interesting life!

The book starts with Garten’s childhood, which was not all that nice. Her parents were not supportive. In fact, they were psychologically, and sometimes physically, abusive. Now, as a woman in her 70s who’s clearly had plenty of counseling, she has distance from this background and can reflect on the wisdom she gained from it. Most of the book is about her marriage to Jeffrey and her career. Theirs is a long and successful marriage, but it had rough patches early on, even a lengthy separation. The support Jeffrey gave her, and her difficult childhood, are touchstones for Garten and she returns to both throughout the book.

My favorite thing about the book was learning about her career. She was working for the White House Office of Management and Budget, writing nuclear policy, and bored out of her socks, when she up and decided to buy The Barefoot Contessa food shop in the Hamptons. After 18 years, she wanted to do something new, so turned her hand to writing cookbooks. That led to TV shows, magazine columns, and other ventures. As a woman who started and ran my own business for the last 12 years, Garten’s risk taking and entrepreneurial spirit appeal to me enormously. I loved hearing about her professional growth and need for new business challenges. She is inspiring.

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg

Unfortunately, I did not care for the second food memoir I read nearly as much as I loved Ina Garten’s book. A Homemade Life has been sitting on my TBR shelf for a while now, so I included it in my stack of books for the TBR 25 in ’25 Challenge. I’m glad I read it, and even more glad to get it off my shelf. But it wasn’t for me. I might be too old for it.

Molly Wizenberg is a self-taught chef (like Garten) who started a food blog called Orangette back in 2004. The blog led to this book, a 2009 memoir (with recipes) of her life from childhood to her wedding in 2008. That description appealed to me and is what made me buy the book in the first place. But the execution didn’t live up to my expectations.

It's not that the book or the recipes are bad. Wizenberg writes well and generally knows how to tell a good story. It’s just that she didn’t strike me as someone who really likes food or knows much about cooking. For example, she described wanting to make (up) a cake with apricots and honey baked into the top. But she put the apricots filled with honey on top of the cake batter before it went into the oven and was surprised that the apricots sunk! Even my husband knows that if you want fruit on the top of the cake, you put it in the bottom of the pan. Flip over, fruit on top. It’s not a mystery.

As for not really liking food, I’m sure she does – she made it her life. But she had an odd relationship with food and no clear philosophy about food and cooking. Like, does she view cooking as a private pleasure for herself and family? Or does she prefer cooking as a form of hospitality and entertainment? Does she like basic recipes, traditional cooking, festive meals? She never frames her approach to food. The book has bits of all those things, in no particular order. For instance, it sounds like she was a vegetarian for a while, so many (too many in my opinion) of the recipes are for baked goods and salad. But then she’s roasting chickens and making meatballs, with no explanation for why she switched. Her boyfriend/husband was a vegetarian and the master of making dinner out of a few scraps of things. That might have been interesting to experience, but not so much to read about. For example, I really don’t believe that a “salad” made by piling arugula and fresh figs on a chopping board with a hunk of “hard cheese” and – yes – chocolate shavings would be good. And no, I don’t need to try it myself. I’ll pass, like I wish I had passed on the book.

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl

The third of my food memoirs was Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl’s first memoir. I’ve read all her other nonfiction and one of her novels, so I know about how Reichl went from writing restaurant reviews in Los Angeles to be the restaurant reviewer at the New York Times and then Editor of Gourmet magazine until it shut down in 2009. This book is about her life before she became a restaurant reviewer.

Like Garten, Reichl had a difficult childhood. Her parents were loving, but her mother was bipolar. Reichl describes what it was like growing up in the chaotic environment her mother’s illness created, how that experience shaped her, and how (also like Garten) it led in part to her early marriage.

Knowing from her other books how her career took off later, this one was interesting, but not riveting like it was to read about her later life. But Reichl’s origin story is still worth reading, if only for the anecdotes about living in a commune in Berkley and cooking at a cooperatively owned restaurant. I enjoyed it very much, the story and the recipes, but it didn't knock my socks off like her later books did. I am sure I would have reacted differently had I read it first.


NOTES

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.

My sister gave me the book book of Be Ready When the Luck Happens and I love it because it has a ton of photographs. But I decided to read the text with my ears because Garten reads the audiobook herself. I really like it when authors narrate their own nonfiction books. You get a better sense of the tone the author wanted to convey. 

The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel

Domestic thrillers are so much fun! I love the suspense of watching a husband and wife circle around each other, hiding secrets, and working out their own agendas. Just like I am glad I don't actually have to solve murder mysteries, I am happy I don't have to live through the drama these couples inflict on themselves. But I do enjoy imagining their anxiety-producing adventures through a good story. 

The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel is a perfect example. It is the story of Kate and Matt, who are making their unconventional marriage work for them. Kate writes erotic fiction and Matt travels a lot for his work as a PR guru. The only thing is, Kate is no longer interested in sex. So they work out a deal that Matt can have one night stands when he goes for work  trips, as long as he tells Kate about his encounters so she can use them in her books. 

I admit, this premise didn't appeal to me. I don't read erotica, or even racy romance books. But Kusel is a masterful storyteller who pulled me into the tale, despite my reservations. And there was nothing too graphic in the sex bits, which were also blunted by being second hand accounts. There are no actual "sex scenes." Instead, there is only Matt telling Kate what happened and Kate considering what to include in her books.

Kate and Matt's marital workaround goes fine until a free-spirited widow moves into the neighborhood with her daughter, who soon becomes best friends with Kate and Matt's daughter. Annie seems like the breath of fresh air the neighborhood, and Kate, needed. But Annie is hiding a secret that could upset the equilibrium Kate and Matt have established between them. The suspense builds to an exciting and unexpected conclusion. 

All in all, The Widow on Dwyer Court is a clever thriller, packed with entertainment. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

[A] sexy psychological thriller that will leave you breathless.

Thirty-six-year-old stay-at-home soccer mom Kate Burke is happily married to Matt Parsons, although their marriage looks very different behind closed doors. Kate is no longer interested in having sex with her husband, so, while they still love each other madly, they make an arrangement: Matt can have one-night stands with other women on work trips, but when he returns home, he has to tell Kate about them--every juicy detail.

Because Kate has a secret life writing erotic romance novels, and Matt's adulterous affairs are her bread and butter.

The family equilibrium is upset, however, when Annie Meyers, an eccentric young widow, moves to town with her daughter. At first, Kate is smitten with this wild, witty woman, who gives her a much-needed break from the other picture-perfect suburban moms, although she's not sure how much of her secret life she's willing to share with her new friend. But, it turns out Annie has secrets too--big ones that could destroy all their lives.

México: Exploring México’s Quality Wines and Phenomenal Cuisine by Michael C. Higgins -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Exploring Wine Regions -- México: Exploring México’s Quality Wines and Phenomenal Cuisine by Michael C. Higgins, PhD.

Michael Higgins continues his winning streak with México, the fourth book in his Exploring Wine Regions series. México: Exploring México’s Quality Wines and Phenomenal Cuisine, follows his books on Bordeaux, Argentina, and California's Central Coast, matching their high quality and enticing content.

I know that I (and maybe most people) think of tequila and beer, not wine, when considering México’s alcoholic offerings. Higgins is out to change that perception with his insiders’ guide to México’s wineries, vineyards, and wine-related restaurants and accommodations. In a beautiful, coffee-table book format, Higgins provides all the information you need to explore México’s wine regions, enjoying incredible food, specialty lodging, and side adventures along the way.

Higgins concentrates on the three main wine regions in México – Valle de Guadalupe, Guanajuato, and Queretaro – and their sub-regions. He features wineries that are open to the public, make excellent wines, and offer tourism experiences beyond what he calls “step-up-to-the-bar-to-taste.” These experiences are primarily food-related (everyone has to eat and food and wine go together), from restaurants to food and wine parings to cooking classes, but extend to wine-making lessons, horseback riding, water sports, whale watching, shopping, museums, and more. Even teetotalers can appreciate the incredible descriptions of the food and luxury accommodations the book offers.

Like the other books in his series, Higgin’s México book is crammed with gorgeous photographs, tidbits, and asides, making it a perfect armchair travel book for any wine lover as well as an indispensable resource for planning a wine tour of the region. I can't imagine visiting México’s wine country without Higgins's book!


NOTES

You can read my review of Higgins's France and Argentina books here and his California book here. Go to the Exploring Wine Regions website for more information about this book, the series, and Michael Higgins.

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Tourism in México is outstanding, we all know it. And the Méxican wine regions are no exception. Wine regions are always very beautiful places. Here, the mountains and valleys are ever so enchanting. The wineries are engaging, have lots of tourism activities available, and are especially inviting and friendly with their warm Méxican hospitality. Both connoisseurs and novices turn to this book series for insider information and inspiration. It is a must-have book for expanding your knowledge of México and its wines. With 340 full-color pages and over 600 photographic images, this fourth edition explores México's regions of Valle de Guadalupe (including Ensenada), Guanajuato (including San Miguel de Allende) and Querétaro (with its rich history).

The Lady of the Mine by Sergei Lebedev -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

The Lady of the Mine by Sergei Lebedev, translated by Antonina W. Bouis

The Lady of the Mine is not an easy read, but it is a powerful one. Set in 2014 when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine, it is the tragic story of a Ukrainian mining village that suffered invaders throughout the 20th Century. There is an abandoned mine shaft in the village filled with the bodies of war victims dating back to the Russian Revolution. More recently, the Nazis executed thousands of Jews and and threw the bodies down the mine during World War II. As much as the Russians would like to expose the crimes of the Nazis, they keep the mine quiet because exposing the Nazis would also expose crimes committed by the Russians during their civil war and by Soviets later. 

That is the grisly backdrop to the 2014 story. When the Russians return to the village, the current conflict revives past miseries, especially when a passenger plan is shot down over the village. 

The book is told from multiple points of view, including a young soldier in the Russian occupying forces, a young woman with generational ties to the mine and people of the village, the former manager of the mine under prior Soviet occupation, and the original mine engineer, speaking from the grave because he is one of the bodies buried in the mine. Because the story is told by so many people and skips around in time, I had a hard time engaging with the book. I had to remind myself who the different narrators were and what their connection was to the historical events in the village. I also missed some of the many references to people, places, and events that are unfamiliar to non-European readers. 

Although I struggled with these aspects of the book, I ended up admiring it very much. It made me think about how dark times in history repeat themselves and the role of ordinary individuals in tumultuous times. Now that Ukraine is again fighting off the Russians, The Lady of the Mine is a particularly moving and significant story.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The mystical laundress at the center of this novel is obsessed with purity. Her task is formidable as she stands guard over a sealed shaft at a Ukrainian coal mine that hides terrible truths. The bodies of dead Jews lying in its depths seem to attract still more present-day crimes. Acclaimed Russian author Sergei Lebedev portrays a ghostly realm riven by lust and fear just as the Kremlin invades the same part of Ukraine occupied by the Wehrmacht in World War II. Then corpses rain from the sky when a jetliner is shot down overhead, scattering luxury goods along with the mortal remains. Eerie coincidences and gruesome discoveries fill this riveting exploration of an uncanny place where the geography exudes violence, and where the sins of the past are never all that in the past. Lebedev, who has won international praise for his soul-searching prose and unflinching examination of history’s evils, shines light on the fault line where Nazism met Soviet communism, evolving into the new fascism of today’s Russia.

NOTES

The Lady of the Mine was one of my TBR 25 in '25 books and counts as my Ukraine book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. I got my copy in a LibraryThing Early Reviewer giveaway. 

 

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien

The Little Red Chairs has been sitting on my TBR shelf for a while now because I planned to read Edna O’Brien’s more famous Country Girls Trilogy first. But I was daunted by tackling a trilogy, so decided to start with this shorter, more recent book. I’m still recovering!

O’Brien published The Little Red Chairs in 2015, when she was 85 years old. I’ve read her autobiography, but this is the first novel of hers I read. I didn’t have any expectations about the book, but I sure wasn’t expecting such a gut punch.

The Little Red Chairs is the story of a charismatic stranger who moves to an Irish village. He sets up shop as a “healer” and becomes immediately popular, offering herbs, tinctures, poetry, hot stone massages, nutrition advice, and smoldering good looks. So far, the story is charming and even a little funny, giving almost Maeve Binchy vibes. Things get a bit racy when he has an affair with the local beauty.

Then, WHAM-O! Things get really dark, really fast. It turns out the charming stranger is an evil war criminal, responsible for the death and rape of hundreds during the Bosnian war. O’Brien vividly depicts the war and its violence. But it is when that violence follows “Dr. Vlad” to Ireland that the story is almost too horrible to read. 

I have struggled with my reaction, wondering if the story was more effective for me because it involved one Irish woman instead of hundreds of nameless Bosnian women. I know it is human nature to respond with greater empathy to one, specific person we know (even if only as a character in a book) than to a generalized horror happening to a large number of unknown people. O'Brien, like all good storytellers, understands this and uses it to great advantage. But she could have told the story of a particular Bosnian woman and she chose not to. Instead, the victim was in Ireland, which made me think about how I responded viscerally to an attack on an English-speaking, middle class, Irish woman much more than I did to the descriptions of violence against the "foreign" Bosnians in whom I did not recognize myself. That made me think and I'm still mulling it over.

There is more to the book. Much more. The story moves on to London and its immigrant community, then to a war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Much of it was a tough read, but excellently executed. And it has a hopeful, if not happy ending. This one will stick with me for a long, long time. I consider it a Must Read. 

Have you read The Little Red Chairs? What did you think?

NOTES

If you have reviewed The Little Red Chairs and would like me to share your review, please send me a link in a comment and I will list it here. 

This was my first book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. I am counting it as my Bosnia books (technically Bosnia and Herzegovina), although I could count it as my Ireland book. But I know I will read other Ireland books but doubt I will find another Bosnia book this year. 

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware

Do you ever read some random book and end up mesmerized by it? I found a vintage hardback hiding on my shelf and decided to give it a read. It was excellent! Come Fill the Cup is a 1952 novel by journalist-turned-fiction-writer Harlan Ware about journalism and alcoholism, with a little romance and gangsters thrown in.

The story follows Lew Marsh, a hard-bitten newspaperman and recovering alcoholic, on a side assignment from his publisher to dry out the drunken son of the publisher’s best friend. Boyd Copeland is a charming playboy with mommy issues that drive him to drink. Two women complicate the matter. One is Boyd’s wife Paula, who was a cub reporter working for Lew before she married Boyd. Lew is in love with Paula and wants her to divorce Boyd and marry him. The other is Maria de Diego, a lounge singer Boyd ran around with when he was on a bender. Maria is the girlfriend of gangland boss Lenni Garr. When Garr and his thugs go after Boyd, Lew has more trouble on his hands than trying to keep Boyd sober.

It’s a rollicking, hard-boiled tale, well told. A crowd of big characters jostle each other for attention. Chicago, with its energy, wind, tall buildings, sweltering summer, and snow-covered winter is a character in itself. For all its richness, the story simmers along slowly before coming to a rolling boil with an exciting ending.

Two things fascinated me about the book. The first was how Ware made the newsroom come alive. I worked for a newspaper for a year before law school, back when “copy aids” like me were employed to move paper copies of draft stories from reporters to editors to photographers to lay-out people. My first husband was a reporter, then editor at the same paper. I’ve never worked anywhere with such a bustling environment and tight-knit group of colleagues. Those newspaper folks spent all day together, then hung out in the evenings, ate at each other’s houses, partied, and even vacationed together – talking about news, politics, and current events all the while. Ware captured that energy and feeling of intense interaction.

The second thing was how Ware wrote about alcoholism. Boyd is an affable, but fundamentally destructive alcoholic, heading to divorce and an early death. Lew has been off the bottle for seven years and helped many of his fellow recovered drinkers by hiring them at the newspaper. But Lew is never free from the desire to drink. Every day, he fights the battle with the bottle. He’s antsy and has a very short fuse. Having worked with a dry drunk for many years, I thought it was a spot-on portrait of an ex-drinker. My former law partner, the recovering alcoholic, always told me, “You can take the alcohol out of the fruitcake, but you still have a fruitcake.” Reading this book helped me understand my law partner better than I ever did, even after working with him for seven years.

I know I bought this one for its campy, vintage cover. What a delight that it ended up being a terrific yarn.

NOTES  

Come Fill the Cup was the basis for a movie starring James Cagney as Lew and Gig Young as Boyd. Young was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. Confusingly, the movie came out in 1951, and the book the following year. I can’t find an explanation for the timing.

I was also charmed by the memories this book brought back. There is a price sticker on the back of my copy reminding me that I bought it off the $1 shelves at Powell’s City of Books here in Portland. Prior to the most recent glamorizing remodel, Powell’s had a run of shelves under the windows in the main fiction room stuffed with a haphazard collection of books for $1 each. I used to walk over there on my lunch hour to hunt for treasures. 

This was one of the books I picked for the TBR 24 in '24 challenge, which I personally use to help me clear book off my shelf that have lingered the longest. 

Pocketful of Poseys by Thomas Reed -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Pocketful of Poseys by Thomas Reed (Beaufort Books, 2023)

Pocketful of Poseys is a warmhearted family story about a brother and sister charged with scattering their mother Cinny's ashes. The catch is that Cinny wanted her ashes mixed with the ashes of her husband, their father, and scattered in five different places around the world. She also left the money to finance the trip.

Grace and Brian, 40-something twins, head off with spouses and children on a round-the-world adventure, only opening their mother's instruction letters as they go. Through the letters and the travel they inspire, brother and sister learn the secrets of their parents' marriage, explore their own pasts, and forge stronger bonds with their own families.

I found the story easy to engage with and I cared for the characters. I enjoy stories abut families learning to accept and forgive, especially when livened up with a little humor, like this one is.

I though the pacing was a little uneven. There ae two big digressions early on, one providing Cinny's backstory, the other Brian's. I found both distracting because they abruptly pulled me out of the narrative. Then I anticipated the same sort of digression for Grace and the other characters, and I got distracted waiting for those to pop up, which they never did. This lack of similar treatment for the other characters made the first backstory digressions stand out as clunky info-dumps. I particularly missed more information about their father. There are a couple of hints that his death might have been more sinister than a winter car crash, but we get no answers. Again, compared to the almost exhaustive detail we learn about Cinny's past, this disparate treatment stood out.

Still, I really liked the book. Thomas Reed's writing style is smooth and lively, a real pleasure to read. Highly recommended.


FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Grace Tingley and Brian Posey are forty-something twins whose lives have gone in very different directions. Grace, now a private school teacher in coastal Connecticut, was a PhD candidate at Yale when an unexpected pregnancy threw her plans into a tailspin. Brian, an adventure travel executive in Seattle, barely scraped through an obscure New England college and recently married Ella, after three years in an intimate relationship with a charismatic man from Jamaica.

When their widowed mother Cinny, a charter member of Woodstock Nation, is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Grace and Brian are there for her last days in hospice care. This is where Cinny reveals her staggering plan for the siblings: They’re to sprinkle her ashes, mixed with their father’s, at a series of exotic locations around the globe—some remote, some challengingly public, all known and loved by the Poseys.

NOTE

I got a review copy of Pocketful of Poseys through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. My copy was free, in exchange for my honest review. 

 

Dr. Wong by Don Engebretson -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Dr. Wong by Don Engebretson (2023)

Billed as Volume 1 in what will be a series of Cole Ember spy thrillers, Dr. Wong is an irreverent romp through the world of international espionage. The adventure follows special operative Cole Ember and Canadian Intelligence Officer Olivia Laidlaw as they race to stop archvillain Dr. Wing Duck Wong from executing his destructive plans.

Engebretson is a seasoned magazine and short story writer. His debut novel, Welcome to Kamini, followed a man in a failed marriage and professional tailspin to the Canadian woods of northern Ontario. Dr. Wong has the same strong plotting, memorable characters, and captivating writing, but with non-stop action and laughs on every page.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Cole Ember is an operative for CASPER, a black ops force so black it’s rumored only in CIA bathroom stalls. Unbeatable in a fistfight, deadly with a gun, and dense as a paving stone, Ember’s laughable IQ test score was grossly inflated by a bitter, underpaid CIA behavioral scientist as a “screw you” to his employer before retiring. Crossing paths with famed genetic scientist Dr. Wing Duk Wong, Ember slowly—very slowly—discovers that Wong has created a ruthless army of genetically modified humans to aid in his heinous plot to acquire vast wealth via the boldest, and most peculiar, terrorism attack in history.

Also on Wong’s tail is Canadian Intelligence Officer Olivia Laidlaw. She’s skilled, clever, beautiful, and deadly, albeit armed only with a combat knife and bear spray, per restrictions imposed by the Canadian government. Can this hapless pair find and defeat Wong before the world’s financial centers collapse, and thousands of innocent people die? Are you kidding?

FROM THE AUTHOR

My new novel is Dr. Wong—A Cole Ember Spy Thriller. First in a series. We had all the great Ian Fleming James Bond novels at the cabin, and I devoured them in my teens. Regurgitated decades later, naturally it was spewed across the page as a spy spoof. Too many people have told me that it’s spit-your-coffee funny for me not to tell you that it’s spit-your-coffee funny.

 

A Round-Up of Reviews -- 7 New-ish and Noteworthy Books

BOOK REVIEWS

A round-up of reviews of seven new-ish and noteworthy books. 

Crybaby: Infertility, Illness, and other Things That Were Not the End of the World by Cheryl E. Klein (2022, Brown Paper Press)

Cheryl E. Klein is a "failed perfectionist and successful hypochondriac" who had a hard time accepting that the world would not end when she was unable to have a baby. She writes with humor about things that would leave most people a sobbing puddle. But her self-deprecating, raw honesty is the beauty of the book. If all we saw were her tears, the book would be too impossibly maudlin to struggle through. As a reader, I felt like I understood what she went through as she navigated a series of disasters that brought her to consider the adventure of open adoption.

Plums for Months: Memories of a Wonder-Filled, Neurodivergent Childhood by Zaji Cox (2023, Forest Avenue Press)

Zaji Cox's new memoir is a collection of impressionistic essays about her childhood, living in a 100-year-old house with her single mother and sister. It is intimate, beautiful, and moving.

The Promise of a Normal Life by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson (2023, Arcade Publishing)

This debut novel finds a young Jewish-American woman trying to find her way in 1960s America and Israel. It is a quiet story and the author’s skill as a poet are clear in the lyrical writing. The unnamed narrator describes her slow awakening through a series of vignettes that bounce around in time. From a mismatch of a marriage and other romantic relationship problems, through her struggles with an emotionally distant but domineering mother, the narrator finally comes into her own in the end.

A Story Interrupted by Connie Soper (2022, Airlie Press)

This is Soper's first book of poetry. It is a collection of poems about actual places and experiences, not abstract ideas. Soper writes about Oregon, where she lives, her travels in far flung places, and the feelings and memories these locations inspire.

These are exactly the kind of poems I am drawn to. I like something I can latch onto and relate to when I read poetry, I don't like to feel like the whole thing is going over my head. Soper’s poems hit me just right.

No God Like the Mother by Kesha Ajọsẹ-Fisher (2023, Forest Avenue Press)

The nine stories collected in No God Like the Mother follow the characters from Legos to Paris to the Pacific Northwest. Ajọsẹ-Fisher's emotionally rich stories deal with people in transition, facing hardships and joys. The theme of motherhood -- mothering and being mothered -- runs throughout and pulls the stories together into a beautiful and emotionally satisfying whole.

No God Like the Mother won the Ken Kesey Award For Best Fiction at the Oregon Book Awards.



Prisons Have a Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon's Oldest Prison, edited by Tracy D. Schlapp and Daniel J. Wilson (2022, Bridgeworks Oregon)

Prisons Have a Long Memory is a collection of essays, poems, and memoir written by prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Editors Schlapp and Wilson started and led a "storytelling" group inside the prison and then worked with an editorial board of adults in custody to compile this collection. The writings were prompted by questions from middle school and high school students affected by the incarceration of their family members. They reflect the difficult internal struggle to atone, find peace, and create community.



Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire, 1871-1918 by Katja Hoyer, new from Pegasus Books.

Prior to 1871, Germany was not a unified nation but 39 separate states, including Prussia, Bavaria, and the Rhineland. In her new book, Blood and Iron, German-British historian Katja Hoyer tells the story of how a German Empire, united under Otto von Bismarck, rose to power only to face crippling defeat in the First World War. It is a thoroughly researched, lively written account of five decades that changed the course of modern history.

Painting Through the Dark by Gemma Whelan -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Painting Through the Dark by Gemma Whelan (2022, Shangana Press)

Painting Through the Dark is the story of a young woman, Ashling O'Leary, who is determined to leave Ireland and her demons behind and make a life for herself as an artist in San Francisco. In writing this engaging novel, Irish-born author Gemma Whelan drew on her own experiences from when she arrived in the U.S. several decades ago at the age of 21, with no contacts and little money.

Whelan describes San Francisco in such detail the city is like a character in the story. The bay, the hills, the cable cars, the architecture, and the neighborhoods all create a living background to Ashling’s coming-of-age story. Set in the 1980s, the city represents the freedom and artistic outlook Ashling seeks.

Although her living situation is difficult and exploitive, Ashling is tough. Rebelling against the secrecy and silence of her upbringing in Ireland, Ashling uses art to express herself emotionally through color and texture. And Whelan uses Ashling’s story to explore themes of resilience, independence, and creativity.

The book is a page-turner, filled with vividly visual scenes and dialog that make the story speed along. I read it straight through to find out what happened to Ashling!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Fleeing from the emotional shackles of her family in Ireland and the convent where she was training to be a nun, the feisty 21-year-old Ashling O’Leary arrives in San Francisco in 1982 with a backpack, a judo outfit, her artist’s portfolio, a three-month visa, and a determination to find a way to speak up about the abuse of girls and women in Catholic Ireland. As she becomes embroiled in a whirlwind of love, art, and deception, Ashling learns that her success as an artist and a human being depends on dealing with the ghosts of her past and speaking out on behalf of others.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gemma Whelan is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and educator. As an Irish immigrant to the U.S., her perspective crosses the boundaries between cultures, and as an artist, she gives expression to stories that have been suppressed. Gemma was the founding Artistic Director of Wilde Irish Productions in the San Francisco Bay Area and of Corrib Theatre in Portland, Oregon. She has been directing and teaching at universities and conservatories in the U.S, Ireland, and Asia for over 35 years. Her novels are Fiona: Stolen Child and Painting Through the Dark. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Read my interview of Gemma here. 

 

Unsettled by Patricia Reis -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Unsettled by Patricia Reis (2023 by Sibylline Press)

Unsettled is Patricia Reis's debut novel of historical fiction. She uses a braided narrative to take the reader back and forth between present day and the 1870s world of German immigrants in Iowa.

Like other stories involving a modern and historic timeline, something has to trigger the modern-day protagonist to delve into the past. Here, Van Reinhardt is sent off on her historic quest when she finds message for her in her dead father’s desk. She sets out to fulfill her father's dying wish by tracking their ancestors' history. She searches through official records but only finds the key to her family’s secret when she discovers her Tante Kate’s diary.

While the framework may be familiar, Reis handles the story well. We feel like we are right there with Van, in a hot, humid Iowa summer, going through dusty archives. And Kate’s life as a new immigrant keep us glued to the page, especially when we begin to understand how her choices carried over to later generations.

A well-executed and highly readable debut.    

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

As Van Reinhardt clears out her father’s belongings, she comes across a request penned by her father prior to his death. Examining the family portrait of her German immigrant ancestors that he has left her, Van’s curiosity grows about one of the children portrayed there.

Meanwhile in the 1870s, Kate is a German immigrant newly arrived in America with only her brother as family. When she and her brother split, she eventually finds her way back to him, but with a secret.

Van revisits the town and the farm of her ancestors to discover calamitous events in probate records, farm auction lists, asylum records and lurid obituaries, hinting at a history far more complex and tumultuous than she had expected. But the mystery remains, until she chances upon a small book—sized for a pocket—that holds Tante Kate’s secret and provides the missing piece.

Exploring Wine Regions - California Central Coast: Discovering Great Wines, Phenomenal Foods and Amazing Tourism by Michael Higgins -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Exploring Wine Regions - California Central Coast: Discovering Great Wines, Phenomenal Foods and Amazing Tourism by Michael Higgins (2023)

This book about the wines of California's Central Coast is the third book in Michael Higgins's Exploring Wine Regions series. The first two books covered Bordeaux country in France and the wines of Argentina. Like the first two, this California book is a meticulously researched, insider account of wineries and vineyards, as well as a travel guide to the food, special lodging, sights, and history you will find.

This book focusses on the Central Coast of California, specifically Monterey, San Louis Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties. This coastal area stretches from south of San Francisco to Santa Barbara, just north of Los Angeles. Higgins is familiar with all the wine regions of California. He focused on the Central Coast region because, as he says:

Every type of wine is made here. Terroir is incredibly diverse, allowing for the optimum growing of just about any wine grape. Central Coast wine makers tend to be less rigid, more creative, and inventive. The tourism is better than you can imagine. Restaurants and accommodations at wineries are becoming common here.

Like the other books in his series, Higgins has packed his California book with detailed information about the geography, wines, wine makers, and wineries of each appellation and sub-appellation of the region. He also includes all the information you need to travel to and through the Central Coast's wine country. The book is also gorgeous, filled with amazing photographs. It is a beautiful coffee table book for armchair travel as well as an indispensable guide to a fascinating wine region. 

NOTES

I'm familiar with some of the wineries of the Central Coast, mostly those around Paso Robles, from when I lived in San Francisco. But we never did a deep dive into wines of this area. California is close to me here in Oregon and we have family in the Bay Area and Central Coast, so I plan to use this book to plan several wine-centered road trips.

You can read my review of Higgins's France and Argentina books here. Go to the Exploring Wine Regions website for more information about this book, the series, and Michael Higgins.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Most everyone knows of Napa Valley and Sonoma County; however, the Central Coast Wine Regions are producing top-level, high-quality wines, and the tourism is extraordinary.

Twenty million years ago, the Pacific Plate arose from the Pacific Ocean hitting the North American Plate (Canada, United States and Mexico) leaving a sliver of land above the water along California’s coast south of San Francisco. This sliver of land has its own very special terroir highly conducive to making high-quality wines. This book takes you on a journey to discover these amazing wines.
Also, the tourism along the central coast of California is unmatched. The beaches, mountains and valleys are ever so enchanting. The wineries are engaging, have lots of tourism activities available, and are especially inviting and friendly, unlike other wine regions. It’s not uncommon to find the vintner or winemaker at the tasting room wanting to share their stories and their love of wine with you.

Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Meyers -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Meyers (2023, Beaufort Books)

Need Blind Ambition is the second novel from Kevin Meyers, a former journalist turned college administrator. I love the play on words in the title, the moody cover, and the whole college noir atmosphere of the book.

As with his first novel, Hidden Falls, this story deftly balances action, ideas, tension, and humor. The protagonist Peter Cook, having landed a public relations job at a prestigious private college, finds himself torn between protecting the college and exposing its illegal activity. Peter is a sympathetic hero who also wrestles with his own past trauma. Woven into the story are reflections on the state of college education, its cost, admission policies, and the fallout from the pressure created by our higher education system.

I love campus novels and I love mysteries, so a novel of suspense set on a college campus is my cup of tea on any day. That this one is set in my town of Portland, Oregon, made it even more tantalizing. With a complex plot, realistic characters, and exploration of relevant issues, Need Blind Ambition is an excellent read.


FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The desire for relevance—and to save his marriage—is ultimately what pushed Peter Cook to leave his beloved Alaska for the prestigious Parker College. Lured by the chance to work with his childhood political idol turned college president, Peter moves his family to Portland, Oregon to help promote his hero’s fundraising initiative that would eliminate financial status from the college’s admissions process.

Peter arrives on campus as the Great Recession looms, the stock market is trending toward disaster, and the opioid crisis has breached the walls of the privileged college. He quickly learns the reality of Parker College strays far from its professed idealistic mission after discovering a plot to cover-up felonious drug activity in return for a seven-figure payday to the Need Blind Campaign.

While plumbing the depths of his conscience for the conviction to do the right thing, Peter’s untreated childhood trauma resurfaces, threatening to cloud his perception when it needs to be at its sharpest. Peter must stabilize his mental health while also trying to parse competing versions of “the truth” as law enforcement investigates the criminal conspiracy.

Three Fires by Denise Mina -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Three Fires by Denise Mina (2023, Pegasus Books)

With Three Fires, Denise Mina returns to the novella form she used so masterfully in Rizzio, her earlier book of historical fiction. Three Fires is the story of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican frier in 15th Century Florence. Savonarola rose as a puritanical leader of Florence after his preaching against the greed and vice of the ruling Medici family led to their loss of power.

Savonarola’s hellfire preaching inspired a series of fires around Florence lit to publicly burn books, fancy clothes, art, playing cards, musical instruments, and other symbols of immorality. These fires became known as the Bonfire of the Vanities.

While Three Fires is a quick and entertaining read, Mina packs a lot of information and ideas into this short book of 138 pages. She, as the omniscient narrator, uses modern language and modern similes to describe the historical details in a way that makes them immediately understandable. For example, when she describes a civil war between rival aristocratic families in the wealthy city of Ferrara, she says, “It’s the Vietnam War taking place in Monte Carlo.” These historical anomalies could feel like stylistic gimmicks, but in Mina’s hands, they work to convey complex ideas in an efficient and engaging way.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

From the award-winning master of crime fiction, Denise Mina re-imagines the "Bonfire of the Vanities,” a series of fires lit throughout Florence at the end of the fifteenth century—inspired by the fanatical Girolamo Savonarola.

* * *

Railing against the vice and avarice of the ruling Medici family, [Savonarola] was instrumental in their removal from power—and for a short time became the puritanical leader of the city. After turning his attention to corruption within the Catholic Church, he was first excommunicated and then executed by a combination of hanging and being burned at the stake.

Just as in Rizzio—her latest novel with Pegasus Crime—Denise Mina brings a modern take to this fascinating historical story, drawing parallels between the febrile atmosphere of medieval Florence and the culture wars of the present day. In dramatizing the life and last days of Savonarola, she explores the downfall of the original architect of cancel culture and, in the process, explores the never-ending tensions between wealth, inequality, and freedom of speech that so dominate our modern world.

Blood From a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam McHugh -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Blood From a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam McHugh (2022, InterVarsity Press)

Blood From a Stone is an excellent memoir by a regular guy struggling with finding his true calling. McHugh was a hospice chaplain, burnt out at work and going through a rough patch in his marriage, when a trip to France taught him to appreciate wine in a new way. Eventually, he takes the big step of giving up his calling to work in the wine industry. It wasn't a smooth transition, and his story takes several detours before McHugh finds his place and peace.

McHugh has a self-deprecating tone and lively sense of humor, which makes the book a joy to read. Like all engaging memoirs, it is thoroughly entertaining and also makes you think. I plan to give this one to several people I know will love it as much as I do.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

"This is the story of how wine brought me back from the dead."

Thus begins Adam McHugh's transition through the ending of one career—as a hospice chaplain and grief counselor—into the discovery of a new life in wine among the grapevines of the Santa Ynez Valley of California.

"This is the corkscrewing tale of how I got to Santa Ynez, eventually, and the questions that came up along the way," he continues. "You and I are going to take a long wine tour together on our way there, and we will make plenty of stops for a glass and some local wine history. As you will see, I reached into the old, old story of wine in order to find my new story, which begins, as so many wine love stories do, in the French countryside."

With warmth and wit, Adam tells the story of what happens when things fall apart and when where you live no longer feels like home. From the south of France to Champagne to the California central coast, the trail winds toward new life and healing through the good gifts of wine, friendship, and a sense of place. Pour a glass and join the adventure.

Trailing and Five Flights Up by Kristin Louise Duncombe -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Trailing and Five Flights Up by Kristin Louise Duncombe

I love what I think of as "random memoirs," meaning memoirs written by ordinary people who can make an interesting story out of their lives. Sometimes these people tell interesting stories because out of the ordinary things happened to them. In the case of "expat" memoirs, a subgenre of the random memoir, the stories are interesting because the author moved to someplace out of the ordinary to most readers. We read them because we like the idea of living there too, or at least visiting.

Whatever the basis for why a random memoir may appeal in the first place, it still has to be well told to make it enjoyable. These books are good (when they are good) only when the memoirist shares more than the Big Facts of the story. We want to see the day to day conflicts the author had to deal with while going through a major event or relocating to a different country; learn universal lessons that resonate in our own lives; and, if we are lucky, enjoy humorous observations that make the story entertaining.

Knowing what I like in a memoir, Kristin Louise Duncombe's two books about life as "trailing" spouse of a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor captured my fancy immediately.

In the first, Trailing, Kristin follows her new husband from New Orleans, where they met, to Africa, before leading him, eventually, to Paris. Kirstin’s story in this book covers both out of the ordinary experiences and ex patriot life. She writes of the difficulties of adjusting to life in Africa when her husband was understandably consumed with his work, the trauma of violent crime and the daily dangers of where they lived, her own struggle with depression, having her first child, marital strife and infidelity, and the personal growth she needed to find her own identity amidst all the commotion around her.

The second book, Five Flights Up, catches up with Kristin and her family eight years later when they are living in Paris. Now with two children, Kristin is also working as a therapist in her own office. But the roots she feels she has finally put down get a hard tug when her husband is offered a new position 250 miles away in Lyon. Although moving to a different city in France may not seem as disruptive as moving to a different continent, like her move to Africa, this move involved uprooting two school-aged children and reestablishing her own career.

In both books, Kristin’s warmth and open personality show on every page. She writes in a straightforward style that does not get in the way of the stories she tells. As with listening to any friend talk about her life, there are moments when you want to shake her and tell her to get a grip or start taking responsibility. And every time, those passages are followed by her writing about how she needed to calm down and stop blaming others (usually her husband) for her situation.

Reading Trailing and Five Flights Up felt like chatting with a friend about the interesting life she made for herself. The pages flew.

I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne

Fran Hawthorne's new novel, I Meant to Tell You, starts with the disclosure of a little secret and follows the ripple effects of that disclosure back through years and relationships.

Miranda and Russ are engaged to be married and Russ is ready to start a new job in the U.S. Attorney's office. As part of a routine FBI background check, both must disclose any criminal history. Miranda had never told Russ that years earlier, she tried to help a friend and her child leave the US for Israel during her friend's nasty divorce. Although Miranda did not know this trip was illegal, is was, and she and her friend were arrested at the airport. Miranda was sentenced for a misdemeanor, which was later expunged. Because the conviction was not on her record, she didn't mention it to Russ or the FBI. Big mistake.

The story unspools from there. Other family and marital secrets come to light. The characters wrestle with the ethical dilemmas created by balancing secrecy and honesty. Hawthorne narrates the book through the multiple voices of those involved. The story remains upbeat and it is a fairly quick read, but provides food for thought. It would be a terrific book club pick.

I Meant to Tell You launched this month, in time for holiday gift giving. It is Fran Hawthorne's second novel after her 2018 debut, The Heirs.

Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History's Masterpieces by Ruth Millington -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History's Masterpieces by Ruth Millington (2022, Pegasus Books)

Ruth Millington is an art historian and author, specializing in modern and contemporary art. In Muse, she explores the stories of the people depicted in 30 famous portraits and the relationships they had with the artists who painted them. Millington challenges the idea that muses are young women who pose for old male artists. The muses in her book are women and men, young and old, and all play a more active role in inspiring and influencing the art they are a part of.

Millington writes in a breezy, journalistic style that makes her book approachable to readers who might be interested in but unfamiliar with the artists she examines. The only drawback to the book is that she describes a lot of works of art and there are no pictures or illustrations of them, other than one black and white sketch at the beginning of each chapter. This is understandable because the book would be enormous if it included pictures of all the art described. But be prepared to spend some time on google looking up the artwork as curiosity dictates, which it will.

The artists and the muses who inspired them featured in Millington's book are:

Diego Velázquez and Juan de Pareja

Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar

Gustav Klimpt and Emilie Flöge

David Hockney and Peter Schlesinger

Artemisia Gentileschi (herself)

Frida Kahlo (herself)

Sunil Gupta (himself)

Nilupa Yasmin (herself)

Marlene Dumas and Helena Dumas

Awol Erizki and Beyoncé

Fukase Masahisa and Fukase Sukezo

Alex Katz and Ada Katz

Francis Bacon and George Dyer

Sylvia Sleigh and Lawrence Alloway

Salvador Dalí and Gala Dalí

Pixy Liao and Moro

Marina Abramović and Ulay

Keith Haring and Grace Jones

Tim Walker and Tilda Swinton

Paula Rego and Lila Nunes

Sir John Everett Millais and Elizabeth Siddall

Sir Sidney Nolan and Sunday Reed

Augustus john and Lady Ottoline Morrell

Gabriele D'Annuzio and Marchesa Luisa Casati

Andrew Wyeth and Anna Christina Olson

Chris Ofili and Doreen Lawrence

Lucian Freud and Sue Tilley

Kim Leutwyler and Ollie Henderson

Kehinde Wiley and Souleo

Muse is a fascinating look at the stories behind some of art history's most significant and recognizable master works. Artists and art lovers will be enlightened and entertained by Millington's new book. 

The Reservoir by David Duchovny -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

The Reservoir by David Duchovny (2022, Akashic Books)

David Duchovny's new books, The Reservoir, is a novella about Ridley, a man living through the lockdown phase of the pandemic in an Upper West Side apartment overlooking the Central Park Reservoir in Manhattan. He retired early from a job on Wall Street, so the lockdown leaves him with time on his hands to contemplate art, solitude, New York, his relationship with his daughter, what it means to be a grandfather, and life itself.

Ridley's reverie is disturbed by a light flashing in the window of an apartment across the park. He believes a woman is communicating to him, trying to make a connection. It may be enough to get him outside of his apartment for the first time in months. His adventure starts there.

I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. What a story! The humor might not appeal to everyone – it reminded me of Philip Roth, masculine, self-deprecating, and subtly sarcastic. But that’s the kind of humor I like. 

The Reservoir is funny, audacious, imaginative, and clever, full of literary allusions and quirky humor. In the end, though, it is a classic tragedy for contemporary times. It’s a story that will stick with me.

NOTES

Yes, we're talking about that David Duchovny, from The X-Files. He writes books. He also has a band. 

Maybe everyone knows these things except me, because I know less than nothing about celebrity news. But I learned about his writing career (and his singing/songwriting) when I watched The Chair, a low-key hilarious tv show in which Sandra Oh plays the chair of the English Department at a Northeast liberal arts college. Duchovny gets foisted on her as the big ticket speaker for the annual literary lecture and she’s peeved. This clip is my favorite scene. Bear with the little ten-second teaser at the beginning. Duchovny plays himself and steals the show. 

When I saw on the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program that he had a new book, I was willing to give it a try. 

Have you read any Duchovny books? Would you read this one?

A Roundup of Reviews -- Six Book Reviews to Spring Clean My Blog

A ROUNDUP OF REVIEWS

I’ve gotten behind on my book reviews here on Rose City Reader. So in a bout of spring cleaning, here is a roundup of a half a dozen reviews to make a dent my backlog and my To Do list:



📘Coco at the Ritz: A Novel by Gioia Diliberto (2021, Pegasus Books)

Coco Chanel is remembered today as a fashion icon and strong businesswoman, who redefined feminine chic and built a world-famous design brand. But Chanel was a complex character with a darker side.

Gioia Diliberto’s new novel is based on the true story of Chanel's war-time romance with a German spy and how that affair led to her arrest for treason following the Liberation of Paris. The story is fascinating in how it neither glorifies nor demonizes Chanel, but portrays her honestly, as a 60-year-old woman desperate to preserve a semblance of her pre-war life even if it meant deceiving herself and lying to her friends – and her interrogators.

Coco at the Ritz is historical fiction at its page-turning best. It went straight onto my list of French Connections books.



📘Under The Orange Blossoms: An Inspirational Story of Bravery and Strength by Cindy Benezra (2021, Cindytalks)

Cindy Benezra was abused as a child by her father. She struggled with the ongoing trauma of her abuse, especially the shame and self-blame she carried with her. After much work brought her own healing and peace, Benezra wanted to write her memoir to share her story. In her book, she also grapples with her mother’s death, her own divorce, and her son’s ongoing health problems.

Benezra’s strength and bravery are an inspiration particularly for abuse survivors. But the story she tells in Under the Orange Blossoms can be a comfort to anyone who has faced trauma and helpful for anyone supporting trauma survivors.



📘One Night, New York by Lara Thompson (2021, Pegasus Books)

One Night, New York is Lara Thompson’s terrific debut novel. The story takes place on one December night in 1932, when two young women plot to get revenge on a man who has wronged them by pushing him off the top of the Empire State Building.

Frances ran away from her life in Depression-wracked Kansas for the fast life of the big city. There, she fell in love with Agnes, a photographer’s apprentice, and they both fell in with a bad crowd. It is a story of romance, corruption, art, Greenwich Village bohemians, nightclubs, and skyscrapers. This fast-paced historical fiction glimmers with the edgy glamor of old New York, right up to the nail-biting culmination.



📘The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization by Paul Strathern (2021, Pegasus Books)

Paul Strathern offers a masterful history of 400 years of Florentine culture. He argues that the ideas that flourished between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 -- ideas expressed in the art and architecture of Florence -- led to the emergence of humanism as the driving philosophy of the Western world.

By providing a cross-section of Renaissance society, Strathern shows how science, art, architecture, literature, finance, business, and economics all connected in Florence. Readers see how the Florentine leaders’ interactions – public and private – fomented the ideas that lead Florence, and eventually Europe, out of the Dark Ages and into the modern Renaissance.



📘Princes of the Renaissance: The Hidden Power Behind an Artistic Revolution by Mary Hollingsworth (2021, Pegasus Books)

Mary Hollingsworth's latest book tells the history of the patrons of the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance, during the tumultuous period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is an excellent introduction for readers looking to learn about the famous Renaissance families of Italy whose names ring bells but details are sketchy, like Medici, Borgia, d’Este, Farnese, Visconti, Sforza, and Gritti.

Princes of the Renaissance is the kind of well-written “popular” history backed by substantive research that is a delight to read. It is also a beautiful book, filled with photographs and color prints of the of the places and art described. 

(Princes of the Renaissance and The Florentines make a perfect companion set. Good idea for Father's Day if your dad is a history buff!)



📘A Few Words about Words: A Common-Sense Look at Writing and Grammar by Joseph J. Diorio (2021, Beaufort Books)

I love any and all grammar books and A Few Words About Words is a first-rate addition to my collection. Joe Diorio is the author of a popular newsletter of the same name that has been around for 30 years. He built this book around those columns, organized by subject and theme, trimmed or expanded as needed, and connected by personal anecdotes for continuity. The end result is a lighthearted and engaging guide to English grammar and a wholehearted apologia for using it correctly.

NOTES

Have you read any of these? What do you think? Do any of them look good to you?

My thanks to the publishers, authors, and publicists who gave me review copies! With apologies for my tardy reviews.