The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani

The View From Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani

Published by Dutton ISBN 9780593183359

Hardcover, $29, 416 pages

Nothing brings me greater joy than a new book from Adriana Trigiani, and her newest romantic comedy, The View From Lake Como (publishing July 8th), has all the elements that made her a favorite of mine.

Jess Baratta finds herself living in her parents basement (which doubles as a bonus kitchen and storage unit when "not housing someone old or newly divorced"). She left her husband Bobby after an unfulfilling short marriage, something her mother Philomena, Bobby, and Bobby's mother cannot comprehend.

Jess works for her Uncle Louie owner of Capodimonte Marble and Stone (family owned since 1924). Philomena is currently feuding with her brother and will not speak to him, which makes Sunday family dinners interesting. 

Now that Jess is back home, unmarried and childless (unlike her older sister and brother), she finds her role in the family carved in marble- she is cook, maid, babysitter, and driver. She will transition to nurse and caregiver as her parents age, like the maiden Aunt Giuseppina whom she was named after. I liked what the author had to say about how we can get stuck in our family roles, anyone from a large family will be able to relate to that.

When Uncle Louie tells Jess that she is going with him to Italy to meet with marble manufacturers, Jess is beyond thrilled. This is a dream come true for her! But fate intervenes and Jess now has to deal with  things she never imagined.

Adriana Trigiani writes such rich, fully developed characters. I loved how you always know what Philomena is thinking (whether you want to or not), and Uncle Louie is quite the snappy dresser who dotes on his wife and niece. The fact that keeps his Knights of Columbus tux and sword in his trunk because he is always going to wakes made me laugh out loud (and if you know, you know). 

Many of us would love to have grown up with both sets of grandparents and cousins on the same street, and the dinner and funeral buffet scenes in The View From Lake Como had me wishing I could pull up a chair and pass the ravioli. (No one writes a family dinner scene better than Adriana Trigiani!)

I also enjoyed learning about the marble artists in Italy. I know I will look more closely at the interior of churches after reading this novel. 

I loved The View from Lake Como, it's a perfect summer read to toss in your bag as you head to the beach. It will make you smile and laugh out loud at times as Jess attempts to find her place in this world and in her family. Whether you're from a large family or just wish you were, be sure to preorder your copy from your favorite bookseller today.

The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani

The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani

Published by Dutton ISBN 9780593183328

Hardcover, $28, 439 pages

Adriana Trigiani's novel, The Good Left Undone is an epic, sweeping story about a family of artisans in Tuscany, Italy. The Cabrelli family has been creating and selling beautiful jewelry for generations, and now Matelda, the elderly matriarch, is reflecting on her life as her 25 year-old granddaughter Anina is questioning the choices she has made in her own life. The story is told in present day and in the days leading up to WWII where Domenica is a young nurse who runs afoul of the local parish priest and is sent away from her family to Marseille, France to work with nuns in a hospital. She meets handsome Scottish sea merchant captain John McVicars there and quickly falls in love. 

As war approaches France, Domenica is sent to Scotland, and then Liverpool, England, where Italians are sent to an internment camp because the British government feels they can't be trusted, as Mussolini has aligned Italy with the Nazis. Trigiani once again gives us a fantastic generational family story, and layers in a historical lesson that many of us did not know- Italians (many whom had lived in England and Scotland for years) were rounded up and imprisoned based solely on their heritage. (Susan Elia MacNeal's The King's Justice dealt with this topic as well.) This is similar to what the United States did to people of Japanese descent after Pearl Harbor.

One of the best things about reading an Adriana Trigiani novel is that it is a treat for all of your senses.You can hear the tents snapping in the wind at Carnevale, smell apple strudel baking, taste the delicious cherry cake (I would love that recipe!), and see in your mind's eye the beautifully crafted jewelry "glistening like ribbon candy" in its case. 

As someone who grew up attending Catholic school, I appreciated the nuns in the story. The care they provided as nurses to their charges, the kindness they showed to Domenica, the strength they exhibit, these are the women I grew up knowing. One of my favorite scenes occurs when Anina and her fiancé go to their parish priest for advice. The priest is a wise man, who listens to their concerns and relates his best advice- "Forgive.Forget.Repeat."

At a time when we have all missed seeing our family- parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles- falling into this big, beautiful book about, as Matelda says, how "a family is only as strong as its stories" will encourage us to share our own family's stories with each other. And as Father Fracassi says, we must "reflect on the past, (and) make peace with it. You cannot control the evil done to you. You cannot turn back and right the good left undone." There is so much to ponder in The Good Left Undone, it's the kind of book that once you turn the last page, you want to immediately begin to reread it. I give it my highest recommendation. 

The Office- the Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene

The Office- the Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s by Andy Greene
Published by Dutton ISBN 9781524744977
Hardcover, $28, 464 pages

With everyone stuck inside all day and night, people turn to binge-watching great television shows. One of Netflix's most watched shows is The Office, which ran for nine years on NBC, and introduced the world to many talented writers and actors.

It is great timing that Andy Greene's book, The Office- the Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History published last month. If you are watching The Office, whether for the first time or rewatching on Netflix or Comedy Central, this book is one that will enhance your enjoyment of the show.

Greene is a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, and he wrote a article for the magazine about the show when it was on NBC. Over the years, he has written other articles about the show, and even became good friends with Creed Bratton, who began as an extra, and worked his way into one of the most interesting roles on the show.

The book begins with the start of the The Office on the BBC in Great Britain, the brainchild of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. If you are not familiar with that show, you get a great peek into the mindset of the origins that led to many international versions of The Office.  It works so well because many people all over the world work in an office with characters like the people we see on the TV show.

Greene goes season by season, giving an overview of the season, and doing a deep dive on one specific episode, like "Diversity Day", and "The Dinner Party", generally thought of as the best episode of the show.

He interviewed writers and producers of the show, which really adds to the inside baseball aspect of the show. I found this the most interesting parts of the book, getting a perspective we haven't yet heard about.

While most of the quotes from the lead actors (Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Jenna Fisher, Rainn Wilson) came from previous sources (which Green annotates at the end), his new interviews with the actors in secondary roles (Brian Baumgartner, Kate Flannery, etc.) are fascinating.

We learn which actors auditioned for the roles (Bob Odenkirk from Better Call Saul came very close to playing Michael Scott), and why Steve Carrell was generally thought of as the nicest guy in show business. Everyone loved him, and for good reason. His goodbye almost had me teary-eyed and I don't even know him personally.

The show had up and down years, and when Carrell left after season seven, the show lost its way. The writers, producers and actors were pretty honest about what happened. Imagine what would have happened if James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) actually took them up on their offer to join the cast as the new boss!

So many great talents came from The Office- Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms, producers Michael Schur and show runner Greg Daniels are among the many people who have left their mark in the entertainment industry.

If you are a fan of The Office, this is a must-read. If you know a fan of The Office, give this as a gift. Who knows, you might get a World's Greatest Gift Giver mug in return.

Two Perfect Books for the Weekend

Reprinted from the Citizen:

It’s hard to believe we’ve come to the unofficial end of summer. Why do summers go by so fast, and winters drag on? If you want to hang on to a little bit more of summer, this month’s Book Report has a few books that will help you do that.au

Miriam Parker’s delightful debut novel, The Shortest Way Home, begins as Hannah and her boyfriend, Ethan, are celebrating their impending business school graduation with a trip through Sonoma wine country before their move to New York City, where Hannah will begin a coveted job at Goldman Global Investment Research. 

They end up at a lovely small family-owned winery, Bellosguardo, where Hannah becomes enchanted by Tannin, the family dog, and the beautiful setting. Hannah strikes up a conversation with the owner’s son, William, and after awhile, she begins to brainstorm some terrific ideas to drum up more business for the small winery.

Hannah is the kind of person who likes to talk to the locals to find out where the best places are; Ethan likes to research and plan, and follow that plan to the letter. Ethan prefers to observe, Hannah prefers to interact.

Hannah can’t get the small winery out of her head, and when she discovers that she left her wallet at the winery, she returns and meets William’s mother, Linda, who offers Hannah a summer job at the winery working on marketing.

Her excitement gets the best of her, and Hannah decides to take the job, which doesn’t pay much, but allows her to live in a sweet little cottage at the winery. Ethan is dumbfounded that Hannah is willing to give up a high-paying job in New York to work at the small winery. He is also concerned what this will do to their relationship, as he loves Hannah and hopes to marry her.

I adored The Shortest Way Home. If you are a wine lover, as I am, this book is for you. It will have you planning a trip to beautiful wine country, or in the case of central New Yorkers, heading over to one of the many lovely local wineries in the Finger Lakes region to taste the best of what it has to offer.

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I also think Parker realistically portrays the difficulties of owning a small family business, and the incredibly hard work it is to keep a business afloat. I related to Hannah and Ethan’s habit of looking at a business and coming up with ways to make it more successful (my husband and I like to do that, too). 

The Shortest Way Home is the perfect book to end with this summer. Pour a glass of your favorite white wine, take it out to your comfy front porch chair and settle in for an enchanting read.

Elin Hilderbrand sets most of her books in Nantucket, and her latest book, The Perfect Couple, is no exception. What is different is that this book has a murder mystery at its center. Celeste is about to marry Benji, whose wealthy family has a summer home on Nantucket.  

Benji’s mom is a popular author, having written a series of mysteries for 20 years, although her last book was rejected by her publisher. His dad owns a successful hedge fund. Celeste’s parents are solidly middle-class, her dad works at a clothing store in a mall in Pennsylvania, and her mom is suffering from breast cancer and not doing well.

When the maid of honor is found drowned the morning of the wedding by Celeste, the police are sent in to discover if it was an accident or a murder. Everyone at the wedding seems to be hiding something, from the married man who was having an affair with the maid of honor, to the best man who is keeping a big secret from the groom, to the family friend (frenemy?) lurking at the edges of the wedding festivities.

Characters from Hilderbrand’s previous books pop up to give her fans an added level of enjoyment. I liked the sunny setting of the wealthy Nantucket enclave and the juxtaposition of the relationships of Benji’s wealthy parents and Celeste’s middle-class parents.

Hilderbrand has written a classic beach read with a twist, and if you bring this book to the beach to read, be sure to put on plenty of sunscreen because you won’t be leaving your chair until you finish every last page of this intense novel.

If you read

BOOK: The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker

GRADE: A+

PUBLISHER: Dutton

COST: Hardcover, $26

LENGTH: 320 pages

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BOOK: The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand

GRADE: A

PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Co.

COST: Hardcover, $30

LENGTH: 481 pages

Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and blogs about books at http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com. You can follow her on Twitter @bookchickdi, and she can be emailed at laruediane2000@yahoo.com.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara
Published by Anchor ISBN 9780804172707
Trade paperback, $17, 832 pages

A friend of mine, whose taste in books I truly respect, told me I must read Hanya Yanagihara's novel A Little Life. She said it was difficult subject matter, but one of the best books she has read in years.

I had the book on my pile forever and it got such great reviews, but I kept putting off reading it. Was I afraid I wouldn't like as much as everyone else? Was it because it is 800 pages long? Last week, I decided to tackle it.

A Little Life tells the story of four college friends- Malcolm, who comes from a well-to-do family and becomes an architect, JB, an artist raised by his immigrant mother and aunt, Willem, an orphan from the midwest who had a brother who died at a young age, and Jude, a lawyer who was in an a terrible car accident as a youth and was left with lifelong injuries and crippling pain, and who has no family.

The story follows the men as they go through life, with their successes and failures, their loves and losses. But mostly it is about Jude. Slowly we discover that Jude was abandoned as a baby and raised in a religious community of brothers. He was treated cruelly by some of the brothers, but found what he hoped to be a savior in Brother Luke.

Jude's life as a young boy and young man was one devastation and degradation after another. He told no one what exactly had happened to him, although he came close to telling his social worker, a kind woman named Anna.

He formed a close bond with his college roommates, but never told anyone his life story. He studied hard, never dated anyone and became a very successful lawyer. The story weaves back and forth in time, which might be confusing to readers in the hands of a lesser writer, but Yanagihara handles it beautifully.

The thing that strikes me most about this stunning novel is the struggle between good and true evil in the world. Jude saw the worst of humanity and it scarred him both physically and emotionally for life. But he also saw the goodness of people. Willem, JB and Malcolm were lifelong friends and for the most part, were there for him when he needed them most.

Anna the social worker, his professor Harold and Harold's wife, and Andy, a doctor who took incredible care of Jude's many physical ailments but couldn't get through to him emotionally, all loved and cared for Jude, even if they didn't completely understand him.

A good novel creates empathy in the reader for its characters and A Little Life does that very well. Jude is an unforgettable character, one that the reader roots for and hopes that he can overcome the horrors of his young life. If you can't feel for Jude, you are simply not human. And if you ever doubted the resiliency of the human spirit, Jude will allay those doubts.

I don't generally like to read books where characters suffer abuse, and A Little Life truly gutted me. I sobbed through some of it and audibly gasped a few times. Even now, a week after reading it, my eyes fill with tears for Jude and all he suffered.

A Little Life is a towering achievement, and it rightly deserved all the praise it earned last year (it made many best-of lists). I give it my highest recommendation. It is one of the best books I have read in many years, my friend was right.