Friday 5ive- June 24, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly-ish post featuring five things that caught my eye this week.

1)  We visited our home near Sarasota this week with friends and after a wonderful dinner at Casa Antica Ristorante where we had some truly delicious wines, we popped up to the rooftop bar at the ArtOvation Hotel.   They had a watermelon cocktail that was quite refreshing, a fantastic view of Sarasota, and no one fell into the pool.

The view from the rooftop bar 

2) My dear friend Kelly brought me a special gift- a vintage Tommy Hilfiger dress with a bookcase pattern and a matching belt. Could there be anything more appropriate for me? It's darling.

3) File this under "You Never Know What You'll Find On An NYC Street". I was walking to the bodega across the street from our apartment to pick up a forgotten dinner ingredient and I found this set of 15lb dumbells. If I could have carried them back to our apartment, I would have, but would I have been able to use them on Peloton strength workouts? Probably not.

4) When I returned from our trip to Florida, I had two book boxes waiting for me. The first was titled "Stories & Suspects- A Bantam Mystery Box" from Bantam publishers. It had five mystery/thriller books, a cookie from Carnegie Deli and a silk sleep mask from Brooklinen inside. This was a great surprise, I had no idea it was coming from Random House. I think I'll read Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride  by Lorenzo Carcarterra first. I'm in an Italy state of mind now.

The other box was from Book Club Girl to celebrate their podcast's second anniversary. I really enjoy listening to the podcast, hosted by Tavia Kowalchuk and Bianca Flores, where they interview authors and we get to hear an audio clip from the book. This season they had Lucy Foley discussing her bestselling The Paris Apartment, Vanessa Riley discussing Island Queen, and one of my favorites Jenny Colgan talking about The Bookshop on the Corner. This box had some terrific summmer swag including four fabulous books, a lightweight tote, a travel tumbler, and an outdoor blanket perfect for taking to the beach or park to lay out and read on. I'm going to read Piper Huguley's By Her Own Design first. It's a novel about a Black designer, the granddaughter of slaves, who designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress. I've had my eye on this one for awhile now. 

  5) I read one great book this week. Seamas O'Reilly's Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, a memoir recounting his early childhood in Derry, Northern Island. Seamas was just seven years old when his mother tragically died of cancer, leaving her husband to raise their eleven children. You might think this is a sad story, and it is at times, but Seamas recounts some hilarous stories from his childhood that had me laughing out loud, and people asking me "What is so funny?" It really is a love letter to his strong, loving, funny, compassionate father whose abiding Catholic faith sustained him throught his life. If you liked the Netflix series Derry Girls, you will love Did Ye Hear Mammy Died. I loved it so much I sent a copy to my Mom for her birthday. (Shout-out to the river's end bookstore in Oswego, New York for getting the book to her in just a day and a half. They have the best customer service!) 

Stay safe and strong my friends.

Book Club Girl's A Night Out

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Book Club Girl's A Night Out, featuring authors Kate Quinn (The Alice Network) and Jennifer Robson (Goodnight From London), along with Saskia Marrleveld, who narrated both audiobooks.

Kate Quinn and Jennifer Robson

The event was held at the HarperCollins offices in downtown New York City, and it was my first visit to the beautiful building. The main office area is very open and spacious, and there are the usual display of Harper books along the walls that one would expect, along with some special displays, like a cool antique letterpress, and a display dedicated to Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman. (I was particularly interested in the Harper Lee display as she lived a few blocks from where I live in New York City.)

Two of my all-time favorites were on display

The walls have some beautiful graphics

An antique letterpress

The Harper Lee display

They had a huge spread of snacks and beverages to welcome the many book club members in attendance. After we all settled into a large conference room, the discussion began.

It was an evening dedicated to historical fiction, so there were more than a few questions about research. Both authors do a great deal of research for their books. Kate Quinn had previously written book set in ancient Rome, so her foray into WWI and WWII was new to her.

There was a real life Alice Network of spies in WWI, and the women who made up the network were the most successful spies at that time because women were generally not noticed. Men would feel free to speak about sensitive topics in front of them because they would never suspect that a woman could possibly be capable enough to be a spy. (That elicited groans of recognition from the mostly female audience). Quinn also got a laugh when she mentioned that espionage was one of the world's oldest professions.

Jennifer Robson was writing a book, and her main character wasn't working. Her editor suggested that she write a book about her grandmother, a woman who worked in a newsroom in Canada. She began by running errands, filling scotch bottles for the male reporters, and eventually worked her way up the editorial ladder when many of the men went off to war.

From that, Robson's character of Ruby, a female journalist who finds herself in the middle of London in WWII, was born.

The authors discussed their own book clubs, how much they enjoy speaking and Skyping with book clubs, how much of their research doesn't make it into their books, the embarrassing questions that readers ask romance writers about their own sex lives, the possibilities of sequels, and what comes first- a great story or a great idea?

They spoke about their writing process, and the importance of just "putting your bum in the chair" and writing for five minutes everyday in a notebook to get started.

Quinn previewed her upcoming book, The Huntress, which has a triple timeline. It's partially set during WWII, and features a teen girl photographer, and a female Russian fighter pilot who joins forces with an English journalist to find a Nazi hiding in the United States. It's also based on a true story, and one of The Alice Network characters has a cameo appearance.

Robson's new book, The Gown, is particularly timely. It's about the women who made Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth's wedding gown. With so much interest in the recent royal wedding, and the Netflix series The Crown, this one is sure to have a lot of readers.

Saskia Maarleveld spoke of how she got involved in narrating audiobooks (she went to NYU for acting and decided it wasn't for her), her process, the luxury of being able to work in yoga pants from home, and her expertise in doing the many accents required for some books. She narrates 60-70 books a year, which impressed the audience.

The audience was gifted with early galleys of the upcoming books, The Huntress and The Gown, as well as The Alice Network and Goodnight From London, and had the opportunity to get their books signed. It was a fantastic event, and we all look forward to more of these in the future.

Thanks to Jennifer Hart (the Book Club Girl) and her wonderful William Morrow team, they made the evening memorable.

The Beach Club Book Club Reads Three Story House

Three Story House by Courtney Miller Santos
Published by William Morrow ISBN 978-0-06-213054-9
Trade paperback, $14.99, 376 pages

The Beach Club Book Club, as part of the Book Club Girl's book club, read Courtney Miller Santo's newest novel, Three Story House.  The novel tells the story of three cousins, Lizzie, Isobel and Elyse, who spent a lot of time together as young girls.

As adults, they come together to restore a nearly condemned three story house in Memphis that belonged to Lizzie's grandmother. Lizzie' mom and stepdad own the house now, but they are in Africa doing missionary work with their young children. Lizzie has always felt like an outsider in her family, and she never knew who her real father was.

Isobel was a child star who starred in a long-running TV series when she was growing up. Now that she is an adult, she has found that TV roles have dried up, and she works on buying and restoring houses to sell them at a profit.

Elyse is a lost soul. She has never found her calling in life, flitting from one thing to another. She never seems to plan ahead and every action she takes is a reaction to something else, not something she instigates. Elyse is devastated when her younger sister announces her engagement to a man Elyse has loved since she was a teenager.

Lizzie is a soccer player, good enough to make the US Olympic team until a knee injury derails her dream. Isobel has been helping her on the mend when the chance to return to Memphis and Lizzie's grandma's home comes up. They decide to stay at the house, and using Isobel's knowledge, they attempt to renovate the home.

Elyse shows up with her broken heart, and the three cousins are reunited with a mission. The women face an uphill battle to fix the broken-down home. The contractor they hire, who knew Lizzie's grandmother, seems to be hiding something. Permits and inspections are daunting. There are also the requisite unattached males who attract the cousins' attention.

There seem to be a lot of mother issues in this story. Elyse's mom is a bridezilla's stereotypical control freak, unsympathetic to her daughter's feelings. Lizzie's mother refuses to tell her anything about her father, and appears more concerned with her religion than her daughter.

Miller's previous book, The Roots of the Olive Tree, has similar mother issues, and the lead character in that book, 117-year-old Anna, has a cameo appearance in this story. Readers of the first book will enjoy seeing Anna again, and they will like Three Story House as well.

While The Beach Club Book Club enjoyed Three Story House and the cousin angle was interesting (two of us are cousins in the book club!), we felt that maybe more could have been done with the story. We did like the home renovation storyline. As with many books who have multiple protagonists, one character seems to get a little lost in the shuffle, and we felt that way about Isobel. We also felt that the ending was somewhat abrupt.

At the end, Miller shares some of the history of so-called 'spite houses', which was fascinating stuff, that inspired her novel.

rating 3.5 of 5 stars

The Summer of Agatha Christie #1- And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Published by William Morrow ISBN 978-0-06-232554-9
Trade paperback, $16.99, 247 pages

I've never read any of Agatha Christie (I know, I'm so ashamed), so when BookClubGirl decided to host The Summer of Christie to introduce their new thriller in September, The Monogram Murders, featuring Christie's favorite protagonist Hercule Poirot, I jumped in.

We begin with perhaps her most famous novel, And Then There Were None, about ten people summoned to a secluded island where they are murdered one by one until there are none left. The reader has to puzzle out who the killer is and why and this is a doozy of novel.

The book starts with the Frank Green poem detailing how ten little soldiers each end of dead, foreshadowing for our story. Then we meet each of the island visitors and get a bit of their backstory. They each receive a letter inviting them to Soldier Island, which is the subject of much public interest.

No one knows exactly who owns the island; a wealthy American was the last known owner, but he reportedly sold it. Was it to a Hollywood film star or a wealthy newlywed for his bride? Did the government buy it to carry out secret experiments? If TMZ were around then, this would have been a mainstay topic for them.

The guests are greeted by two housekeepers, a married couple who hadn't met the owners. A young school teacher had been hired to be a secretary to the owner. A captain in the armed forces was hired to be there, as was a doctor and a police officer, all hired by a solicitor. A respected judge, a spinster, a retired general, and a wealthy playboy received strange invitations, all from supposed acquaintances.

One by one, the ten end up dead. There are ten figurines on the dining table, and following each death, a figurine disappears. The island is searched top to bottom, and there is no one else there. Whoever is murdering them is one of the ten.

But why? We discover that each of the ten have been responsible for another person's death, but not held accountable by law. They are each being punished for their deeds, but who is doing the killing?
How each of them handled their feeling, or lack of feeling, for the guilt in causing another person's death is an intriguing concept here.

The manner of murders follow the poem, and the tension ratchets after each murder. Trying to figure out who is doing it will test your deductive powers and then when you think maybe you have the right answer, the clever epilogue will either confirm your suspicion or give you the answer you seek.

I really enjoyed And Then There Were None, it may just be the perfect mystery. It made me think and parse every page carefully for clues. I also loved the slang, like saying "That's a rum go!", which means a strange turn of events. I will be using that one in the future.

I'm looking forward to the next book, Dead Man's Folly, where we meet Mr. Hercule Poirot. If you want to join us in the Summer of Agatha Christie, the link is here. 

rating 5 of 5

It's An Agatha Christie Read-Along

I can't believe I have never read any Agatha Christie novels. But I am going to rectify that by joining in the Agatha Christie Read-Along, hosted by bookclubgirl this summer.

We will be reading three Agatha Christie novels featuring Hercule Poirot, And Then There Was None, Dead Man's Folly, and After The Funeral, leading up to the new Hercule Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders, written by Sophie Hannah and publishing in October.

There will be discussions of each book on bookclubgirl.com and you can find more information here.

So join the fun of the summer of Agatha Christie!

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
Published by William Morrow ISBN 978-0-06-227849-4
Hardcover, $26.99, 320 pages

The strength of Joshilyn Jackson's latest novel, Someone Else's Love Story lies in the terrific characters she creates. Right away, from the first sentence, "I fell in love with William Ashe at gunpoint, in a Circle K.", you know you are in for a fantastic ride.

Shandi is a single mom of a extraordinarily intelligent four-year-old boy Natty. They are headed to Atlanta with her best friend Walcott, when they stop at the Circle K to get Natty a ginger ale to settle his upset stomach.

Shandi notices the ruggedly handsome William Ashe in the store and when the store is held up by a young gunman and William moves to protect Natty, she is completely smitten. A hostage situation occurs and William does his best to try and keep everyone safe.

When the standoff ends in an injury to William, Shandi makes it her mission to care for him. She also discovers that he is a research geneticist, and she hopes to get William to help her discover the father of her son, whom she does not know.

As Shandi and William and Natty grow closer, William's best friend Paula becomes angry. She is openly hostile to Shandi, and tells her that William will never love her. He loves his wife Bridget, whom he lost in a car accident, along with their two-year-old daughter, two years ago.

Walcott also discourages Shandi from beginning a relationship with William. Shandi doesn't understand why Walcott, her best friend since childhood, has become so distant since the robbery. He has always been there for her, through her high school pregnancy, and he loves Natty, but recently he has been AWOL.

William is very intelligent, but socially he is very awkward. As his story unfolds, we find that he is probably somewhere on the autism spectrum, perhaps closer to Aspergers Syndrome. He struggled socially as a child, and only connected with people when he was a high school football star. Paula and Bridget were the only two people who understood him.

Jackson has said that this is William's story, and in a story filled with so many interesting characters, he stands out. His wooing of Bridget, with help from Paula, is so moving and sweet. The someone else in this love story is Bridget and William.

I loved Shandi's fearlessness, her willingness to put herself out there and work to find love. She is a wonderful mom too, and her love for Natty is stronger than iron. She would do anything for her son, who is so different from other kids his age. Part of her attraction to William is that she thinks Natty might be like him- a brilliant mind, but maybe socially different.

There is big twist at the end, one that totally took me by surprise. It changes everything in the story and kudos to Jackson for not tipping her hand.

I loved this book, and felt like these characters were real people, people I would love to know. I adored the friendships, the romance, the family, the whole package. Jackson took me on a ride that I won't soon forget.

Joshilyn Jackson appeared on Book Club Girl On Air and discussed her book and you can listen to that here.

She also wrote a short story featuring Shandi, Natty and Walcott titled My Own Miraculous and you can find that here.

rating 5 of 5

A Future Arrived by Phillip Rock

A Future Arrived by Phillip Rock
Published by William Morrow ISBN 978-0-06-222935-9
Trade paperback, $14.99, 450 pages

I'm still going through Downton Abbey withdrawal, but the trilogy of novels set in Abingdon Pryory by Phillip Rock have helped me get through it. But now that has ended too. Sigh.

I just finished the third and final novel, A Future Arrived, which takes us from one generation to another just before WWII. Having already seen these characters through the horror of WWI in The Passing Bells, I was glad to see that Rock didn't repeat himself in this last novel.

A Future Arrived deals mostly with the next generation- Ivy's brother Albert, who follows in his brother-in-law Martin's footsteps as a foreign and war correspondent, Colin, Alex's son who leaves America to become a pilot for Britain,  and Colin's friend Derek, who attended Charles' private school and joins Colin as a pilot in the war.

The women are represented by Fenton and Winnie's girls- twins Jennifer and Victoria and youngest daughter Kate, some of whom become romantically entangled with the above mentioned fellows, and involved with the war and anti-war efforts.

I liked seeing how these children grew into adults, but I did miss my old friends- Alex and Charles in particular. They do not play much of a role here, but the book would have been easily 1000 pages if Rock were to give all of his previous characters a bigger role.

The girls learned well from their mother Winnie who, although she wished her husband hadn't devoted his career to the military, understood that she fell in love with a soldier, and if she wanted to remain married to him she would have to accept all that comes with that.

Colin and Derek's war experiences are much different from Charles and Fenton's during WWI. WWI was fought in the trenches, up close and personal. As pilots, Colin and Derek saw war from farther away, although Rock writes a few harrowing scenes as the men come into combat contact with the Germans in the air that had me white-knuckled as I read them.

The British were more reluctant to go to war again after their WWI experiences; we see how Chamberlain and Parliament appeased Hitler, willing to ignore Germany's movements into other sovereign nations. It wasn't until Hitler began bombing England that Britain faced facts and fought back.

One thing I liked in particular about this book was the fact that it brought me back to history class; there were so many references to things I had learned- the problems between China and Japan, Mussolini's rise, Haile Selassie, Francisco Franco- it sent me to Google to refresh my memories.

I also liked that Rock showed us how Martin's live radio reports changed how people thought. Once they could hear the sounds of war for themselves, what was happening could no longer be ignored. A similar thing happened when TV reporters showed us the Vietnam War as it was happening; people could see for themselves and no longer believed only what the government told them was going on.

Just like Downton Abbey, we have a large estate, many characters from different classes, romance and sprawling storylines. It also reminded me of John Jakes' North & South books, using war as a backdrop to tell an epic story with fascinating characters. If you miss Downton, Abingdon Pryory is the next best place to be.

rating 4 of 5

My review of book one- The Passing Bells
My review of book two- Circles of Time
BookClubGirl's Read-Along of the trilogy is here

News from Heaven by Jennifer Haigh

News From Heaven: The Bakerton Stories by Jennifer Haigh
Published by Harper ISBN 978-0-06-088964-7
Hardcover, $25.99, 256 pages

I have one shelf on my many, many bookshelves devoted to my all-time favorite books. Jennifer Haigh's debut novel Mrs. Kimble holds a place of honor there. She is remarkable writer, and her last novel Faith just reaffirmed my belief that she is one of the best fiction writers out there.

She recently published a short story collection, News From Heaven: The Bakerton Stories, set in different eras in the coal mining town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania. Some of the characters were featured in her previous novel, Baker Towers. 

Each of the ten stories is moving, and anyone who has lived in a small town with one major employer will recognize the people in these stories. Haigh's describes people in just a few sentences and you get them right away. Teenage Regina describes her mother this way in Broken Star:

"She greeted all presents this way- you shouldn't have- no matter how worthy the occasion or how trifling the gift. It was a habit born of embarrassment. No gift- even one she'd always wished for- was worth drawing attention to herself."

I feel like I know this woman because I know people just like her.

She also has such a sense of place, as with this sentence from the same story:

"Night was falling as we left the bus station, an amenity that, until then, I hadn't known the town possessed."

There are many people who live lives in a small box, and even those who live in a large city may contain themselves to just a few blocks.

There were a few stories that really moved me. A Place in the Sun is about Sandy Novak, one of the characters from Baker Towers.  Sandy is handsome man who left Bakerton to head west. He ends up living hand-to-mouth, bartending here, working as short-order cook there. He sleeps with his boss' wife, then steals from the boss and takes off to Vegas with a younger woman. Life hasn't turned out the way he hoped, and he thinks he has one last chance for a big score.

Sandy's story continues back in Bakerton in To The Stars, where Sandy's siblings Joyce, Dorothy and  George are left to deal with the fallout Sandy leaves behind. We see the family dynamic in this encounter about Joyce:

"She accepts condolences and prayers. It is her role, always: the public face of the family. Dorothy, whose backwardness is known and accepted, busies herself in the kitchen. George is nowhere to be found."

Again, in just a few sentences we know so much about this family and each sibling's place in it.

We see what happens to the high school football hero who can't make it in college in Favorite Son, which also has the best line in the book:

"For a certain kind of teenager, a small town is a prison. For another, it is a stage."

 A lonely nurse meets a handsome younger man and her life changes in Thrift. What Remains tells the  sad story of Sunny Baker, the last remaining descendant of the Baker family, the founders of the Bakerton.

The story that moves me most is The Bottom of Things, which features Ray, someone who made it out of Bakerton and ended up with a good life in Houston. Ray reluctantly goes home for his parents 50th anniversary party, and feels guilty for what he left behind. His has no relationship with his sons since he divorced their mother years ago. His brother Kenny has never gotten over his time in Vietnam; it is this relationship that seems to hurt the most.

News From Heaven is about family, relationships, loyalty, guilt, and the sacrifices people make. It's about the people who live in this decaying town and how that decay affects them. As I read this, I felt like I was peeking in the windows of these people's homes and watching them live their lives. The lyrical writing soars, and I wish I was reading this again for the first time. It's one of the best books so far in 2013.

rating 5 of 5

Jennifer Haigh's website is here.

Listen to Jennifer discuss News From Heaven on Book Club Girl's Authors on Air.

Listen to internet radio with Book Club Girl on Blog Talk Radio