Readathon- April 25th

I will update this post throughout the day . . . .


Hour 8 Update
Finally my first book is done! I finished Silver Girl by Elin Hildebrand (about 156 pages read - I had already started this one).  Other than that, I took a walk to donate some books at the Book Cellar (and picked up a few books - couldn't resist!)   I also stopped off at the Farmer's Market on the way home for some berries to have with yogurt as a snack plus some vegetables for dinner later.  While out on this excursion, I listened to The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar.  Felt good to get outside in the fresh air and to move (I got about 5,000 steps in so will need another walk later to reach my 10K for the day)

Now I am moving on to Her Name is Rose by Christine Breen - this is another book I had already started and will see if I can polish it off during the Readathon.

How is your Readathon going?



1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? 
NYC - a cold NYC, I will add.  38 degrees at 8 am at the end of April!!


2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? 
Looking forward to finally finishing Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand - I started it over a month ago but have been flitting between other books.  This one is light and a great pick for the readathon so I am going to polish it off this morning.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? 
Already fired up the espresso maker and had my first latte - looking forward to delicious caffeine infusions!

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! 
I have been blogging for almost 6 years (wow)! and though I have flagged a bit with blogging of late, I do love the readathon and am glad to participate again this year,

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today?
More movement - by the end of a day of just sitting still things start to ache so I am going to make an effort to move as much as possible.  My dog will need walking so I plan to get out a few times for a little while and bring an audiobook along.

Audiobook Review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (narrated by Cassandra Clare; 10 hours, 1 minute) tells the story of the mixed race family, the Lee's, who live in suburban Ohio in the 1970's. As the book opens, the family has discovered that Lydia, the middle child and oldest daughter, is missing. When her body is discovered two days later in the nearby lake each family member begins to unwind their history and to try to make sense of the tragedy. With each family member's unwinding, the reader learns all that went unsaid and misunderstood between these family members and how it all combined to crush Lydia.

James Lee, the son of immigrants, attended a prestigious prep school at which his father worked as a janitor. Decidedly out of place due to his race and socioeconomic class, James longed to fit in but never quite achieved it. While at Harvard, he met Marilyn - a young, beautiful student with ambition to do more than just satisfy her mother's dream for her - to become a wife. Marilyn wanted to challenge her mother's and other's expectations of her and to become a doctor. She defied her mother's expectations once again when she fell in love with James, an Asian man at a time when mixed race marriages were still illegal in many states. Despite this and maybe a little due to her need to defy her mother, Marilyn marries James and becomes a young mother when their son, Nath, is born. With the arrival of motherhood, Marilyn places her dreams of being a doctor on a shelf but not without some regret and even resentment. With the arrival of the Lee's second child, Lydia, Marilyn sees a vessel for her own shelved dreams and begins to prepare her daughter to become a doctor. Meanwhile, James, pushes her to be popular and to "fit in" - no one asks or assesses what Lydia might want.

Lydia is uncomfortable with her status of favored child and the pressure of living out both of her parents' own dreams. Despite Nath's occasional resentment of his younger sister and the attention of their parents which she commands, the siblings are close and depend on each other to understand their unique family dynamic as only siblings can. The Lee's youngest child, Hannah, is almost the forgotten sibling - conceived at a time when her parents were going through a difficult time and born into a family preoccupied with their own issues, Hannah moves through the household largely unnoticed. From this hidden vantage point, Hannah sees things the other family member's miss - she takes precious belongings from each family member and through them learns what is important to them. She may not always understand the insights her observations offer but she does see things most family members miss. Her insights into Lydia are especially revealing as they all deal with her disappearance and death.

My Thoughts
This intelligent, debut novel tells a tragic story  - and not just the tragedy of a drowned sixteen year old. The real tragedy is how little the parents know about their own children and vice versa. Clouded by the need to see their dreams lived through their children, James and Marilyn never really see their own children or their needs. They give them what they think they need but repeatedly miss the mark. In much the same way, although more understandable since they are children, the Lee children don't know what drives their parents to push them they way they do. Everyone is moving through life propelled by desires they don't understand or acknowledge. The result is the story of a dysfunctional family which fascinates. Cassandra Campbell is a favorite narrator of mine and does an excellent job with this book.  Definitely recommend (the book and the audio production!)

Review: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is set in France during World War II and tells the story of two sisters - Viann and Isabelle and their lives during this period. Viann Mauriac says goodbye to her husband as he heads to the front to fight for France and she settles into their countryside home in Carriveau with their young daughter to endure wartime and wait for her husband's return. Meanwhile, Isabelle, always a rebel, finds herself working for the Resistance and  risking her life to fight the enemy. Through each of their stories, the reader is transported to France during the war and witnesses the sacrifice and endurance of French women during WWII. Sacrifice and endurance are wrapped in a love story and family drama which captivates the reader.

Viann and Isabelle have a fractured relationship; after the death of their mother when they were both young girls, they were left with their father who was ill-equipped emotionally following the death of his wife to deal with raising his young daughters. Viann, ten years older than Isabelle, was left to care for her younger sister but when Viann marries Antoine, Isabelle is shipped off to boarding school. Feeling abandoned, Isabelle resents Viann and acts out at boarding school and is expelled from school after school. Early on in the war, Isabelle arrives at Viann's home in Carriveau and they must work on their relationship in order to coexist and face the difficulties of Nazi occupation of their town.

Isabelle's rebellious streak persists and she is disgusted by Viann's inclination to do as she is told and to follow the orders of the occupiers. When German Captian Beck "billets" in Viann's home and lives side by side with her, Isabelle and Viann's young daughter, Viann is accommodating in an effort to keep from angering the soldier and in the hope that he will assist in contacting her husband who has been captured by the enemy.  Her approach to the war is to stoically accept the hardships and to try to endure; Isabelle, meanwhile joins the Resistance and distributes Anti-Nazi materials undercover throughout the town. This evolves into her shepherding British and American soldiers that have been shot down across the Pyrenees into Spain - her code name is Nightingale. Two sisters take very different paths during the war but ultimately gain an understanding and a respect for each other.

My Thoughts
This book captured my attention and had me hungrily reading for more - beyond the story of the sister's relationship, I was drawn into the hardship endured by those in the French countryside during the war. The author expertly describes the effects of draconian food rationing and intimidation meted out by the occupying German forces.  There were scenes, reminiscent of those in another Hannah novel, Winter Garden, where Viann broke down furniture to  burn and provide a little heat for her and her daughter through the long, cold winter. I cried twice during this novel - both times during scenes which involved children facing the atrocities of war while their parents plead for mercy for them. Hannah perfectly crafted these scenes  - she made them moving without being overly sentimental.

Ultimately, the appeal of this book lies in how humanity triumphed over the unthinkable horrors of war.

Isabelle's character is based on a Belgian woman, Andree de Jongh who set up an escape route for captured Allied soldiers during WWII.

Sunday Salon: March 15, 2015

The Scene: 8:33 am, Sunday: on couch with my trusty sidekick, Prince. He is back from vacation in Florida (he has been down there with my parents since I went to South Africa after the holidays).  They have taken great care of him but I am so happy to have him back.

Reading: While in Florida last week, I was drawn to books with a beach setting so I started reading Silver Girl by Elin Hildebrand.  The book has been on my shelf for a few years and it seemed like a perfect choice for the beach.  I am tearing through the book and glad I picked it up. Prior to that, I finished The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (review coming soon). It is a historical fiction set in France during WW2 and tells the story of two sisters  - one who fights for the resistance and one who lives in the country and tries to survive wartime while her husband is at the front. I loved this book - I even cried twice while reading it. 

Listening: For a while now, I have been listening to Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe - it is the letters of a British nanny in the 80's (Nina) to her sister. The book was lauded as a best book of 2014 but so far I have not seen (or heard) the magic. The re-telling of her mundane days is not capturing my attention but I am nearly done with it and we will see if there is a revelation before the end!  Have you read or listened to this one? 

 Blogging: Last week a blogger and tweeter that I follow, Lisa Adams (@adamslisa) died of metastatic breast cancer. If you follow me on twitter, you may have noticed that I have been re-tweeting the many articles written about this impressive woman. Lisa was first diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer at the age of 37 and, following a number of years with a status of NED (no evidence of disease), she was diagnosed with metastatic disease in 2012.  When she died last week at the age of 45 she left behind her husband and three young children. 

Photo credit: Lisa Adams

Lisa wrote beautifully on her blog about living with breast cancer and her fears about leaving her children at such a young age. Her posts were poignant, direct and moving and articulated difficult emotions so well. Her tweets were a mix of pithy insights into the grind of constant treatment for her disease, observations about her children and commentary on the last show she was catching up via Netflix while trying to regain her energy following a treatment. I found myself looking for her tweets everyday and hoping to see that she was getting some relief and evidence that her latest treatment was working to give her a little more precious time.

Lisa's bio on twitter includes the statement: "Doing as much as I can for as long as I can" which I think perfectly demonstrates the way in which she lived her life with incurable breast cancer - she eschewed any notions of "battling" cancer or outsmarting cellular biology but intelligently developed treatment plans with her oncologist to control her disease as much as possible so she could spend precious time with her young children. She focused on the present and encouraged people to "Make the most of this day. Whatever that means to you, whatever you can do, no matter how small it seems" and urged on twitter "Find a bit a beauty in the world today. Share it. If you can't find it, create it. Some days this may be hard to do. Persevere." Persevere she did and took us along in an effort to educate about metastatic breast cancer, living with the disease and in an effort, I think, to connect and fend off isolation. She will be missed.

You can read her most popular posts here (including one about what to say and not to say to someone with cancer) and also see a collection of the remembrances that have been posted since her death including one by Bethanne Patrick (aka "The Book Maven") and Katherine Rosman of the New York Times. Lisa established a fund at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to fund research into metastatic breast cancer. 

This picture below from my visit to Florida last week is my "bit of beauty" today in honor of Lisa. 

Review and Giveaway: The Unexpected Consequences of Love by Jill Mansell

The Unexpected Consequences of Love by Jill Mansell is set in Cornwall where Sophie works as a photographer. Happy to be building her new business, Sophie seems content but lives a very narrow life. She has completely shut herself off to dating and the heartache in her past that has led to this is slowly revealed. Josh Strachan, who has returned from the US to the seaside town to help run a hotel, Mariscombe House,  with his grandmother, pursues Sophie and tries to break through her shell. Meanwhile, Sophie's friend Tula has moved from Birmingham and is working at the hotel. Unlike Sophie, Tula is in constant pursuit of love and romance. She is especially interested in Josh even though he barely notices her while he focuses on Sophie.

  My Thoughts
I always find Jill Mansell's books entertaining and love to sink into them - this one was no exception. I felt as if I was transported to Cornwall while I read and became engrossed in the lives of Sophie, Tula, Josh and the other cast of characters. The main character, Sophie,  and her story interested me most. The event in her past that has led to her reluctance to open herself to love is gradually revealed in a series of flashback scenes and deepens the readers understanding of Sophie. Meanwhile, Tula provides comic relief - she is much more lighthearted than Sophie and continually finds herself in scrapes. Sophie, Tula and Josh are supported by a cast of characters that includes Josh's grandparents who have an interesting relationship; Riley, a fun-loving playboy who pursues Tula and Riley's Aunt Marguerite who is a temperamental, self-involved author.

The author expertly weaves the multiple story lines together - there are just enough connections between these characters to make their story cohesive without seeming contrived.  If you haven't read a book by Jill Mansell yet this is a good one to start with - it includes her hallmarks of a cast of characters and an enjoyable story of found love.  If  you are already a fan of the author, like me, this latest book doesn't disappoint!

Giveaway

The publisher is offering a giveaway of the book and you can enter it here: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Girl Before Mirror by Liza Palmer

In Girl Before Mirror by Liza Palmer, Anna Wyatt is fighting to make her mark in the world of advertising. Relegated to smaller accounts with a target audience of women only, Anna is frustrated as she bumps up against the glass ceiling. She is also facing challenges in her personal life - at forty with a failed marriage behind her, Anna has been on a "time out" from romance and dating but she is starting to realize that, as with her professional life, she is going to have to go after what she wants to get a different outcome. When she is introduced to a self-help book, "Be The Heroine, Find Your Hero", it plays a role in bringing her professional success -but not in the way you expect. As she buys into the Be The Heroine philosophy, she realizes it translates into her own personal life and she begins to combat her long held beliefs about her worth and whether she can risk much to win in love. 

Anna Wyatt grew up with a demanding father and a mother who virtually ignored her children. Anna took care of her younger brother, Ferdie, and tried to provide him with the love she never received from her parents. This upbringing left her with some well-established guards which limit her in her relationships. Following her divorce from a husband to whom she never opened up, Anna has placed herself on a dating sabbatical and essentially opted out altogether. When she looks around the table at her birthday dinner, however, she realizes she wants more than she is getting out of this opt-out approach and the germ of change is planted.

Professionally, Anna is also frustrated by being limited in the ad agency to only small accounts with products focused on women. She sets her sights on Quincy Pharmaceuticals and sees an in road via a neglected body wash that has not been actively promoted by the company. She drafts a proposal that ties into the "Be The Heroine, Find Your Hero" theme and gets an audience with the team that manages the product at Quincy. Her proposal resonates and Anna finds herself at the Romance Writers Conference working the connections with her proposed ad campaign. By focusing on a theme that resonated with her and articulated what many women feel, Anna has landed on professional success.  She also finds a love interest at the conference in Lincoln Mallory, a Brit visiting the hotel for business. Lincoln challenges all of Anna's well-established guards and she struggles to take the chance that she knows will bring her success in her personal life.

My Thoughts
I am a fan of Liza Palmer's books - Conversations with the Fat Girl and Seeing Me Naked are two of my favorites. I remember underlining passages in both books because I felt they perfectly expressed my own thoughts and reflections.  I found myself doing the same with this book - Anna's struggles with self-confidence and living safely rather than pursuing what she really wants are so well captured by the author and I suspect will resonate for many women. There were times, however, that I felt this book covered too much ground - there was the story line about Anna's campaign for Quincy, story line about her relationship with Lincoln and then the story line about Ferdie. Each was rich but I felt the book could have been better with a focus on only two out of the three. This was not my favorite book by the author but does have her dialogue laced with humor and wry observations.

Audiobook Review: Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming

Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming: Alan Cumming is a Scottish actor who currently plays Eli Gould on The Good Wife and stars in the Broadway production of Cabaret. This book, however, is not about his life as an actor or how he found his calling to act - it is about his tortured relationship with his father who physically and emotionally abused him throughout his childhood. At times difficult to listen to, the book is raw and insightful and ultimately, quite brave.


Alan Cumming is the youngest son of Mary Darling and Alec Cumming and, with his older brother Tom, grew up in Scotland on an estate for which his father was the caretaker. His father was stern and had high expectations of both boys but seemed to reserve his greatest ire for young Alan. In talking about his childhood, Alan Cumming describes fearing his father and how the family walked on eggshells expecting the next outburst. His father often put the boys to work around the estate doing very manual labor and then criticizing the work they did including physically beating them when it was not to standard. In the rare moments when Alan got to act like a child such as when he rode his bike through the village, he recognized how little of that happiness was in his daily life and how he lived with a pervasive anxiety. He repressed that through much of his life but as an adult, its effects began to become obvious and he could no longer ignore it.

As the book begins, Alan is about to appear on the British version of Who Do You Think You Are? and the producers are going through his family tree looking for a line/story to follow. When his father learns of this, he worries that they will discover his secret so he abruptly discloses to Alan that he is not his real father and that Alan was conceived following a dalliance by his mother. At this point, Alan's relationship with his father was non-existent but this news rocks him and prompts him to re-examine what he thought to be true about his father and their difficult relationship. Interestingly, the show actually ended up exploring Alan's mother's family and focuses on Alan's grandfather. Through that, Alan discovers his Grandfather also had secrets and discovers parallels between the his own life and that of his Grandfather.

My Thoughts
At times, this book was difficult to listen to - I could feel my own chest tightening as Alan recounted the cruel words his father spat at him or the blows he struck. There is a tenderness in how he tells the story because, despite all the therapy he has obviously been through to cope with his history, there is still a rawness to his emotions and he has insights which are revelatory.  I thought the story line of the work on Who Do You Think You Are? provided a nice counterbalance to the conflict with his father. It is also emotional but in a different way and I looked forward to the revelations in that story line. After listening to the book, I actually watched Alan Cumming's episode on the show and it was interesting to see what I had listened to played out on the screen and see expressions on his face which he had described in the book.

The book is read by the author and I enjoyed his Scottish accent but more than that I appreciated the authenticity of the reading of a memoir that only an author can bring to the production. In addition, Cumming is a trained stage actor and his professionalism comes through in the reading of the audiobook. All in all, although his story is very painful, his journey through it is a triumph and provides hope. Definitely recommend.

Review: Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin: Nora Webster, recently widowed, lives in Wexford, Ireland in 1969 with her two young sons, Donal and Conor. She also has two older daughters who now live away from home. As the story opens, Nora is enveloped in her grief over the recent loss of her husband, Maurice, to a long illness and is facing the practical challenges of being a widow. She worries about needing to sell a seaside property that has special meaning for her children and at which she has wonderful memories with her late husband but she cannot afford to keep the small cottage now that she must support her family alone. She faces the pitying looks of her neighbors and the constant flow of people stopping by to check on her. She worries about her young sons and how they are adjusting to this loss but mostly she is blinded to the effects by her own grief. As Nora moves through her grief, she gradually discovers herself.

 Nora is in a fog following the death of her husband Maurice. She is haunted by his last days which were spent in pain and in a hospital where she felt he got little support from his doctor. Everyone has an opinion on how Nora should move forward - from her sisters, to Maurice's brother and his wife to her Aunt Josie. Nora finds all their opinions intrusive and no help in determining her path but she is unable to state her point of view. In an effort to keep her emotions in control, she is almost shut down and appears passive. Amid this passivity, however, there are glimmers of her will. At her sister's home for the weekend, Nora takes to the formal front room and reads for an afternoon alone much to the bewilderment of her sister who hurried around the home preparing meals and heading into town to shop. While on vacation at the seaside with her Aunt Josie, Nora strikes out and finds another place to sleep in order to escape her older aunt's snoring. A big part of Nora's movement beyond her grief was getting a job. She returns to an office job at Gibney's where she worked before her children were born. She is initially cowed by the powerful Gibney family and a controlling office manager but slowly but surely she asserts herself and develops a confidence in her skills. Piece by piece, Nora emerges from her grief and returns not to the woman she was before her husband's death but becomes a new woman who knows her mind and isn't afraid to follow it.

My Thoughts
Typical of Toibin's style, this novel is quiet and unassuming. Despite Nora's grief being so central to the story, there is no melodrama and a notable lack of emotion on Nora's part. She suffers quietly and only with fleeting connections to her own emotions and certainly to those of her sons. At times, the distance from her young sons is hard to understand especially given that they are obviously so affected by their father's death and its effect on the family. You do see, however, the fierceness of her love for her sons as she musters up the courage to defend Conor to the Christian Brothers at his school who think he should be demoted a grade. There is a passion there but it is buried beneath her grief and some expectation that she not express her emotions or overtly display her affection for her children.

Nora is an ordinary woman; it is Toibin's skill as an author which brings her to life as she proceeds through mundane activities. He artfully offers glimpses into the woman that Nora is becoming and peeks into her internal dialogue. I was quite impressed by this book and reassured by Nora's ability to emerge from her grief. This is not, however, my favorite book by the author.  The Blackwater Lightship still holds that position but I highly recommend Nora Webster.

Sunday Salon: January 18, 2015

The Scene: 8:33 am  - sitting on couch, coffee in hand (as usual on a Sunday!) I have been up for a few hours because I am still dealing with some jet lag since returning from my trip. I love being a morning person for a precious few days after getting back from a trip!  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen some pics from my trip.  If not, I included a few below:

View from Table Mountain, Cape Town

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Elephants - Chobe National Park, Botswana

 Reading: Fortunately, between the trip and these early mornings, I have been getting a lot of reading done. This morning I finished Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight - it is an excellent mystery/thriller and I think will strike fear in most parent's hearts.  I don't even have kids and was haunted by the secret lives that many kids face while at school. Earlier this week, I finished Nora Webster by Colm Toibin. He is a favorite author of mine and  while I enjoyed his latest book, I am not sure I think it is his best.

Listening: Currently I am listening to Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming. The author narrates the book himself and I love listening to his Scottish accent.  But it is painful to hear him recount the (mostly emotional) abuse he faced at the hands of his father.

 Blogging: Yesterday I posted my review of  The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading others by the author. I am hoping to use my short-lived spurt as a morning person to get ahead on blogging this weekend and catching up on reviews.

Watching : While away, I missed the start of Season 5 of Downton Abbey.   I can't wait to catch up on the first 2 episodes - today's project will be figuring out how to stream from my laptop to the TV so I can watch episode 1 and 2 before episode 3 airs tonight.

While I was in the UK for a meeting last week, I heard about a series there that I think I will like - Broadchurch.  Season 2 just started airing in the UK but Season 1 is available here on Netflix.  I forsee a binge-watching session in my future! Have you seen or heard about Broadchurch?

Looking Forward To: Getting back into a routine - vacation was wonderful but now the routine of going to the gym and eating regular meals at home seems welcome!

Hope everyone has a relaxing Sunday!

Weekend Cooking - Review: The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline

The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline: Angela Russo is in her thirties and living in New York City; her life, however, has stagnated. She is alone and working at a job as an events planner which doesn't excite her. After getting fired following a spectacular disaster at a high profile event, Angela decides to head to Maine to nurse her wounds and move her life in a different direction. She is not just escaping NY - she had recently started communicating with an guy that lives in Maine through an online dating site. With potential love on the horizon with her "MaineCatch", Angela heads to Maine to start over.

 Growing up, Angela learned to cook at the side of her beloved Italian grandmother, Nonna. Her grandmother and the rituals in the kitchen provided a steadying force as Angela dealt with the ending of her parent's marriage and the adjustment to her Dad's new wife. Once she arrives in Maine and things are not turning out as she planned, food and the rituals that surround it once again provide comfort for Angela. Before long, Angela is working at a cafe and baking fresh muffins and cakes to replace the stale bagels being served with the strong coffee. Food is the vehicle she uses to connect to people and to draw them in. As Angela faces the isolation of Maine in winter, she once again turns to food and cooking. She starts offering cooking lessons in her small cottage and collects a group from her community once per week to learn how to cook a dish inspired by Nonna and to connect with each other and begin to reveal a little about themselves.

My Thoughts
This is my first novel by this author but it certainly won't be my last.  I tore through this book and didn't want to leave the characters at the end (I think the book lends itself well to a sequel - wonder if there will be one?) The story of self-discovery is very relatable and you want to see Angela succeed in the new life she has set out to create. Finally, the cooking scenes convey a real love of the art of cooking and it's power to heal and connect - they had me considering settling in for an afternoon of cooking on a cold winter's day.  The book even includes recipes from the novel including Maine Blueberry Muffins, Torta Al Limone and Stracciatella alla Romana, The comfort of a good novel and good food all in one!

Have you read other books by this author?  Which do you recommend I read next?

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Sunday Salon: December 21, 2014

The Scene: 9:45 am  - sitting on couch, coffee in hand, surveying the apartment and trying to remember what I have forgotten to pack. Prince is lounging next to me - he is down for the count after getting vaccinations on Friday.  The pics below sum up the before and after pretty accurately.

 Reading: I have a few books in progress right now (which is rare for me but it has to do with all the formats). In print, I am reading The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline - I am really enjoying it.  I never read her most famous novel - The Orphan Train - but likely will after this one.  On my reader, I am reading a Christmas book - Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan.  It is set in London, light and fluffy and perfect for this time of year! Finally, on audio, I am also transported to England by Jo Jo Moyes's One Plus One. I read The Girl You Left Behind (my review) by the author and loved it.  This book is also shaping up to be quite good!

Listening: See above for current audiobook. Need to queue up some others with a long flight coming up next week - any recommendations? I have been hearing a lot about Serial and will try that podcast while traveling too.

 Blogging: This week I posted my review of We Are Not Ourselves - this is easily my favorite read this year and based on feedback, it seems very popular with many of you too!  I also want to feature a post I did at last year at this time as part of the Virtual Advent series - review of Christmas on Jane Street.  I think about this story each time I walk past the tree vendors in the city.  If you are looking for a good read this time of year, I definitely recommend this! It reminds me a bit of a modern day Gift of the Magi.  And today, the ebook is only $1.99!

Watching : With holiday parties, year-end stuff at work and holiday prep miscellany, I haven't been watching much TV (which is really just fine).  But I have become fascinated by the holiday decorations on the buildings and townhouses throughout the city. I have been following a hashtag called #festivefacades on Instagram (follow me) which got me looking at all the #festivefacades in Manhattan!  Here is a sample from my wanderings while running errands yesterday.

Looking Forward To: So much to look forward to - heading to Texas to visit with family over Christmas and then on to Cape Town for New Year's (hence the packing stress right now - I am sure something will be forgotten).

Hope everyone has a relaxing Sunday!

Audiobook Review: We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas (narrated by Mare Winningham; 20 hours 51 minutes) opens in Woodside, Queens in the home of young Eileen Tumulty. The daughter of Irish immigrants, Eileen is an old soul who faces adult issues at a young age as she watches her mother struggle with alcohol. She is also acutely aware of the fact that her family has not "arrived" and is striving to have enough and to better themselves. Eileen takes this struggle very much to heart and begins an upward climb to acceptance and respectability which she believes comes with financial security. As the book continues, she marries Ed Leary and gives birth to a son, Connell. Together they face the changing face of their neighborhood in Jackson Heights, a health crisis and the realization that, despite hard work and tenacity, the American Dream may remain that little bit out of reach. Beyond just Eileen's story, this novel is the story of mid century American life through to present.

Eileen's story begins as the daughter of Irish immigrants in Queens, NY. Her father, Big Mike, is well known in the neighborhood and the life of the party which is contrasted by her mother who is fragile and turns to alcohol to cope. Eileen identifies more with her father and aims to please him by being a good student and wanting to better herself. When her father tells her he dreams that she will one day own a home as opposed to renting as he and her mother have done, Eileen puts that goal in her sights and goes about achieving it. When she meets Ed Leary, she sees a man who can provide stability but also work with her towards her goals. They do ultimately buy a multi-family home in Jackson Heights but it is Eileen that is the driving force behind making that happen and she is dismayed at Ed's lack of drive towards the goal.

The theme of moving up continues as Jackson Heights begins to change - it becomes more urban and multi-cultural. Eileen sets her sights on Bronxville - an upscale bedroom community with stately homes.  Despite it being quite a stretch financially, the Leary's move to the new neighborhood but Eileen still doesn't feel comfortable - that reaching instilled in her at a young age is nearly impossible to satisfy. In this quote, Eileen considers her inability to find satisfaction:

 “The fact that they were there, that everything they owned wasn’t enough somehow, disturbed her, suggesting a bottomlessness to certain kinds of unhappiness."

 Shortly after their move to Bronxville, however, Ed Leary receives a devastating diagnosis which changes the family's trajectory and pushes the concerns about fitting in to the backseat.

My Thoughts
This powerful novel moved me and is one I won't soon forget. There is so much familiar to me in this book - from the locations throughout Queens (I also grew up in the borough) to Eileen's struggle to make her father proud by doing better than he did thereby making his sacrifices and hard work worthwhile. But as much as this book reflected my own personal experience, it is so powerful because it reflects the quiet drama of every family's lives throughout the years. There is beauty in the capture of everyday celebrations and losses (most especially the losses) and the words the author chooses to describe these moments provide insight you don't understand until you read it.

I listened to this book on audio - the fact that it is over 20 hours long but I found myself looking for more opportunities to listen is a testament to the powerful story told by the author. The narrator, Mare Winningham, is new to me but her voice was perfect for this story largely told from Eileen's point of view.  I do, however, think this would also be a good book to read in print - the sentences are so well crafted, it would be nice to re-read and savor them.  Whether in print or audio, this is definitely the best book I have read in 2014.

Note: Special thanks to Diane of Book Chick Di and Joanne of Lakeside Musing - they both recommended this book and I am glad they led me to it!

Weekend Cooking: Coconut 24/7 by Pat Crocker

It seems that everywhere I look these days, I see coconut - coconut water, coconut milk, coconut oil and even coconut flavored teas! In addition to it's delicious taste, coconut has a lot of health benefits and it is this feature which is contributing to its current surge in popularity. In Coconut 24/7, Pat Crocker, discusses the various benefits of coconut and then provides recipes featuring coconut from shakes and apps to entrees. In an age where recipes abound on Pinterest and elsewhere, I appreciate that this book added a lot of discussion about the health benefits of coconut and how to store and cook with it to maintain all those benefits.

 The book opens with a primer on the coconut and the various forms in which you can cook with it - the author even covers how to extract milk and water from a fresh coconut. Realistically, that is not going to happen in my life so I was glad she then moved on to discussing the coconut products you get off the shelf. I began using coconut milk in a mango protein smoothie this summer (tastes like the tropics!) so I was particularly interested in her discussion of coconut milk. In general, the author advocates limiting the processing of the coconut (hence the detail on how to extract milk from the raw coconut) so she recommends looking at coconut milk packages for unwanted ingredients like cane sugar, carrageenan and inulin. She also recommends selecting milk in the tetra packages rather than cans which can be tainted with BPA. Based on a review of the carton currently in my refrigerator, I am going to need to look a little harder for a less processed version. This was definitely eye-opening for me since I thought I was being "healthy" as I enjoyed my tropical smoothie.

 After the coconut primer, the book is separated into meal categories - breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizers and snacks, spice blends, sauces and dressings, beverages, and desserts. The final chapter is "spa recipes" and covers how to make your own body products, like hand cream, using coconut products. Probably a little ambitious for me so I focused on the recipes. I wanted to expand beyond my smoothies and the entrees chapter offered a lot that appealed to me. I especially liked this Coconut Curry Chicken - it reminded me of many of the great dishes I had while in Thailand:

Coconut Curry Chicken

2 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp sea salt
8 chicken thighs
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
2 onions, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 tbsp Madras Curry Spice Blend
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup coconut milk
1 banana, coarsely chopped
1 sweet potato, coarsely chopped
1 bay leaf

1. In a flat bowl or pie plate, combine flour and salt, Dredge chicken thighs to coat. Reserve extra flour mixture

2. In a dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat.  Add chicken thighs and cook for 10 minutes or until browned well on all sides. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

3. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of oil in the pot. Add onions and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and curry spice blend and cook stirring constantly, for 2 minutes or until onions are soft. Return reserved chicken to the pot along with any reserved flour mixture. Add broth and milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and add banana, sweet potato and bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until potato is fork-tender and chicken is cooked through and reaches 160 degrees on a meat thermometer.

This dish is delicious! If you are interested in how to incorporate coconut into your diet in a healthy but delicious way, I recommend trying this cookbook.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Review: The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell: The Bird family lives in a lovely home in the Cotswolds in England. The four Bird children live what appears to be a charmed childhood being doted on by their mother, Lorelei,  who is a free spirit and delights in celebrating traditions with her family and creating memories. As is often the case, however, all is not as perfect as it appears. Behind the beautifully choreographed Easter egg hunts in the garden and the lovely dinners, is an inability to face anything uncomfortable. Lorelei copes by collecting things and this collecting soon turns to hoarding which slowly smothers this family. With this dysfunction as its backdrop, the family faces a tragedy and the trajectory of each member's life is changed.

Free-spirited Lorelei embraces being a mother and creates a lovely home for her family. She wants them all around her and enjoy nothing more than being home. She fills the walls in their home with the children's art and collects every memento of the passing years for each child. As the children get a little older, however, they want to spread their wings to a live outside the home; in response, Lorelei clings all the harder to them and adds more things to her "collection" - of course, all this stuff becomes a wedge between her and the family and only drives them further away.

My Thoughts
Hoarding is an uncomfortable topic - it is hard to imagine how someone could let things get so out of control.  Of course, it is not unlike many other addictions and beneath the compulsion is a person who is hurting and trying to fill a void. With this in mind, I felt much sympathy for Lorelei and even found her progression  from collecting to hoarding fascinating.  Thankfully, however, this book was not only about Lorelei and her hoarding.

The real story of the book is the ripple effect of dysfunction through this family. Chapter by chapter, the author reveals a little more about each of the children through the years into adulthood and about each of the parents. Between the impact of growing up in this home that slowly closed in on them and the horrible tragedy they all face one Easter, each family member had their fair share of issues to deal with and you see the effects of all that play out in their adult lives.

This book is compelling and I found myself hungrily reading to see what happens with each character.  Although not everyone has grown up with a hoarder, most face their own versions of family dysfunction in whatever degree. The family drama makes this book relatable while the degree and eccentricity this family faces makes it fascinating.  Highly recommend.

Sunday Salon: December 7, 2014

The Scene: 10:45 am  - back home in my warm apartment after taking Prince out for a blustery Sunday morning walk.  Despite being out for 90 minutes including a romp in the dog park, he is still running around me now with a squeak toy demanding attention.

 Reading: I was on vacation (I know, again, but all my vacation somehow got put off until year end) with the family for Thanksgiving week and I got some welcome reading time.  I polished off Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - I couldn't put it down.  I enjoyed her last novel, The Husband' Secret, so was relieved that I also liked this one. I have decided to get back to some books that I put down over the course of the year but want to finish so right now I am reading The Wife, The Maid and The Mistress. 

Tortola, B.V.I

 Listening: While away,  I finished We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas and cannot say enough good things about it (review coming soon!) but I found myself looking for excuses to walk so I could get some listening in.  My cab fares are down and my Fitbit is very happy - thank you Matthew Thomas! On a serious note, I found this novel very affecting and know it will stay with me for a long time.

 Blogging: Thank you all for your comments on my last Sunday Salon post when I acknowledged that I am struggling with the blog and trying to decide whether to keep going with it.  I have recently had a writing streak and have a bunch of posts in the can ready to go so I am feeling more optimistic.  It's been fun revisiting the books I have read this year now that I am finally writing posts about them.  Last week, I posted a review of Americanah (audiobook).

Watching : Finally saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular - I have lived in NYC practically my entire life but had never seen the iconic show with the Rockettes.  It was a wonderful 90 minutes and really put me in the Christmas spirit.  We started the evening with dinner at the Sea Grill which is on the ice at Rock Center and witnessed three proposals on ice during dinner.  The concierge told us during the season, there are up to 5 proposals each night and that there is an entire package offered by the rink that allows the proposal to take place on the ice.

 Looking Forward To: Another trip! I recently decided to go to Cape Town over New Year's - I have a friend working in South Africa right now and it just came together. I am looking forward to seeing her and seeing Cape Town again - I was there once before for work but it was a quick trip.  This time I am going to add a few days at Victoria Falls.  I love planning a trip!

Audiobook Review: Americanah by Chimamamda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah by Chimamamda Ngozi Adichie (narrated by Adjoa Andoh; 17 hours and 28 minutes) tackles many big themes - immigration, race and class - in a story about a young couple who are separated when they both leave military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Ifemelu and Obinze meet in school in Nigeria and quickly fall for each but with their homeland under dictatorship they, like many of their peers, decide they must leave Nigeria. Ifemelu departs for the US where she has some family and Obinze initially intends to follow her but then is not allowed to enter the US and he goes to London. The book follows each of their stories as emigrants separately until they both return to Nigeria and reconnect. At that point, the book follows them together again as they face returning to a Nigeria they left and the realization that their lives have become more complicated.

When Ifemelu arrives in the US, she faces racism for the first time and in addition to adjusting to a new country, she also struggles with learning about "American blacks" (AB) and "non American blacks" (NAB). With the benefit of an outsider's perspective who is also a member of the race facing discrimination, Ifemelu's observations on the topic are incisive. She begins writing a blog about her experiences which is popular but controversial. Ifemelu is conflicted about her life in the US - on one hand, she welcomes the freedom and the bounty of options available in the US but, on the other hand, she does not understand the constant optimism and apparent lack of grit she finds in her new home. 

Obinze's immigration takes a different route when he ultimately ends up living illegally in London. This educated, self-assured man is relegated to poorly paying jobs and living on the fringes of society. He enters into an agreement for an arranged marriage that will guarantee his British citizenship. Although he thinks of Ifemelu frequently, Obinze does not reach out to her and continues to live a lie in his new homeland. Ultimately, he is deported to Nigeria where he marries a woman and becomes a successful businessman. He continues to think of Ifemelu and is reunited with her when she returns to Nigeria from the States.

My Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself stopping often on walks to consider the beauty of the sentences created by the author. I wish I also read this book in print so that I could underline passages and quotes because they so perfectly expressed a concept. This book is about Ifemelu and Obinze but their stories, individually and together, are really just a vehicle for the themes the author addresses in this wide ranging novel - themes of immigration, race and class.  It certainly has given me much to consider and months later I find myself reflecting on  the book and its characters. This is the first audiobook I have listened to by narrator Adjoa Andoh (others may be familiar with her as the narrator of Alexander McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies Detective Agency) - her British accent tinged with an African twang is perfect for this novel and its main characters although her narration of American characters sounded a bit generic.  Overall, I recommend this audiobook and also recommend the print version to better enjoy the excellent writing.

Sunday Salon: October 26, 2014

The Scene: 5:45 am (Pacific Time) - am in SFO visiting friends so thought I would use the time difference making me a morning person and get some blogging done - finally!!

Reading: Lots of time to read this week with the 5+ hour flight out here so I finished most of the newest Shopaholic book by Sophie Kinsella - Shopaholic to the Stars. What an enjoyable way to spend a flight! Every time I pick up one of these books, I secretly worry that I will have outgrown Becky's antics or find it all too far fetched but the author does such a good job of making Becky loveable that I am never disappointed!

I had the chance this week to attend a fun event in NYC celebrating the author and her new book - Girls Night Out with Sophie Kinsella.  The event was held at the Red Door Spa - Union Square and in addition to the author speaking and signing, they had delicious food, wine and little spa stations dotted through out where people were getting make-up applied and having custom-matched foundation mixed up.  A fun way to spend a Monday for sure!  Unfortunately, my phone died as I walked in that night so I don't have pics of the festivities but you can check them out at Random House's Facebook Page.  As you can see by the pics, Random House does an excellent job with these events - they attend to every detail.  If you are in NY in November, I recommend joining them for their Open House on Friday, November 14th.  I attended the first one a few years ago and it was a great day of books, authors and mingling.  Let me know in the comments if you plan to be there this year.

Got my book autographed!

Listening: On the recommendation of Diane (from Bookchick Di), I am listening to We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas. So far I am really enjoying it and keep trying to find excuses to settle in with it (out for walks, cleaning the apartment).

 

Blogging: Much like California, this blog has hit a dry patch.  I apologize for the long absences between posts for most of this year.  I have been reading books and following many of your blogs, but somehow haven't always been able to muster the time and energy to settle down and blog here. As many of you know, I had surgery earlier this year and used that as a catalyst to get serious about getting back into shape and losing weight.  It has been a great year and I am thrilled with the results but honestly that has taken a lot of my attention.  As I rediscovered jogging, boot camp and just generally moving a lot more, it has been hard to sit and write at times. I find myself more readily drawn to Twitter and Instagram for quick updates.   As the year comes to a close, I intend to make a decision about the blog.  I will either reinvigorate things here or decide that it is time to move on.  Thanks for staying with me through this and please stay tuned!  If you have secrets for balancing blogging and keeping things fresh, please leave them in the comments!


Watching : Not much right now - I had been on vacation to Ireland for 10 days and then just back a few days before coming out here so haven't been watching much.  I will have stuff stockpiled when I get back to TV watching.

Looking Forward To: Getting my pics from Ireland downloaded from my DSLR - I was snap happy!  We had gorgeous weather (NEVER a given in Ireland) so everything looked that bit more picturesque. I absolutely love it there and this trip we got to some sights that either I saw as a kid and don't remember or saw for this first time on this trip including the Cliffs of Moher and the Giant's Causeway. Below is an iPhone pic of each from my trip.  I have some more pics on Instagram if you are interested.

Giant's Causeway

Cliffs of Moher (with Rainbow!)

Grateful: For the chance to travel to great destinations like Ireland and San Francisco - and for the comforts of home when I return!