Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
"Frances Mayes -- widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer -- opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. In sensuous and evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. An accomplished cook and food writer, Mayes also creates dozens of delicious seasonal recipes from her traditional kitchen and simple garden, all of which she includes in the book. Doing for Tuscany what M.F.K. Fisher and Peter Mayle did for Provence, Mayes writes about the tastes and pleasures of a foreign country with gusto and passion. A celebration of the extraordinary quality of life in Tuscany, Under the Tuscan Sun is a fest for all the senses."
~~back cover
My friend Maui Jim told me a long time ago that this was a good book. I thought it strange he would say so, since I somehow had got hold of the notion that this was a romance. I'm not big on romances. But then somehow or other the film is coming up in my Netflix queue, and I decided to read the book before watching the movie -- I seem to get what's going on in the movie better if I've read the book first.
I'm sure all of you are snickering behind your hands -- it's NOT a romance! It's a lovely recapturing of falling in love with a place, needing to and determined to be living there, and how the author and her husband achieved that goal. Reading, you feel as though you're there -- the light, the people, the old stone buildings. It's almost a shock to look up and find yourself in your own home, when just moments ago you were sitting on the patio with breakfast, soaking up the light and the quiet morning sounds of Tuscany.
The only thing I didn't like about the book was its eternal summer, with only a few hasty winter sketches. The author and her husband are both university professors in America, and therefore required to spend nine months here, with the Tuscany house shut up and waiting for them.
Tottering in My Garden: A Gardener's Memoir by Midge Ellis Keeble
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"A gardener of 40 years, Midge Keeble has established six outstanding gardens in her life, meeting the challenges of clay, sand, shade and tired soil. Tottering in My Garden spills over with practical advice and, at the same time, serves as delightful reading to anyone who has ever broken ground with a trowel and planted a seed."
~~back cover
I'm not much of a gardener, but this is a charming and laugh-out-loud funny book. The author regales you with the stories of how each garden came to be, the mistakes made along the way, the pets who adopted them, their children growing up, etc. And all the while she talks about the gardens, how to make them what you want them to be, how to care for the plants, etc. There are several sections entitled "NOTES FOR THE NOVICE" which are extremely useful, and other tips and tricks scattered throughout the narrative.
But it's the narrative itself that's the icing on the cake: wryly humorous, self-depreciating humor about mistakes and miscues, animals on the loose, how not to garden, etc. I enjoyed the information, but I loved the story. And devoured the book almost at one go.
Scotland: An Intimate Portrait by Geddes MacGregor
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
"Now a modern classic, Scotland: An Intimate Portrait is an introduction to the soul of Scotland for the millions who have visited this enchanting land and come away wanting to know more that the guidebooks tell us. With wit and warmth, Geddes MacGregor examines his homeland's traditions, history, eccentricities, and contradictions, offering a portrait of Scotland as only a native can. Golf, kilts, clans, tartans, whisky, and other things quintessentially Scottish are described in loving detail. There are sections on local speech, literature and songs, kings and queens, religion, education, and nationalism.
"Described by the New York Times as 'useful and endearing,' Scotland: An Intimate Portrait is indispensable for tourists, armchair travelers, people of Scottish descent, or anyone with a curiosity to know more about this beguiling land."
~~back cover
This is indeed a very informative book! The author very methodically covers just about every aspect of Scotland past & present. A very basic book -- there's too much to know about Scotland to get it all crammed into 235 pages. I read it through, & learned some things I didn't know. But the book didn't capture me -- I was never dying to get my chores done so I could go back to reading it. All that being said, I do recommend it if you're going to Scotland, or wanting to know more about the country.
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Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders by John Mortimer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
"Those who have followed beloved barrister Horace Rumpole's career have heard frequent reference to the Penge Bungalow affair but have never known the details of the famous case that established his reputation. Now in this sensational full-length Rumpole novel, Mortimer at last relates the particulars of Rumpole's first case, some fifty years ago when he was but a youthful novice at the Old Bailey.
"Two Second World War heroes have been murdered, and the son of one of the victims has been charged. The judge is intent on hanging him. Old Wystan -- the head barrister and father of Hilda -- seems to have given up the game. But something about the evidence bothers Rumpole who, defying all precedent, takes over the defense and comes through triumphantly, winning the attentions of Hilda -- unaware she will one day become She Who Must Be Obeyed."
~~back cover
I finally need to admit it: I'm just not a fan of John Mortimer, or Rumpole. I realize that the Rumpole character is a send-up or iconoclastic, intelligent, unkempt people who nonetheless are quite good at their profession. The setting of course is a send-up of judges, prosecuting barristers, and the law itself. Nevertheless, the whole thing seems murky and convoluted to me. And I've just watched the first season, and didn't care much for it either.
But if you like this style of thing, it's wonderfully well written, and you'll enjoy it.
Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country by Joe Queenan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
"This book is an attempt to make clear that there are things about Britain that delight me (Chelsea Pensioners, cows on the commons, Edward VII, Keith Richards), things that appall me (Chelsea football supporters, cows on canvases, Edward VIII, Cliff Richard), and things that mystify me (why anyone would listen to English morning radio, the House of Lords, the way people dress once they turn thirty, basically, the entire society). For the truth is, the Brits have always baffled me."
"One semitropical Fourth of July, Joe Queenan's English wife suggested that the family might like a chicken tikka masala in lieu of the customary barbecue. It was this pitiless act of gastronomic cultural oppression,coupled with the dread of the fearsome Christmas pudding that awaited him for dessert, that inspired the author to make a solitary pilgrimage to Great Britain. Freed from the obligation to visit an unending procession of Aunty Margarets and Cousin Robins, as he had done for the first twenty-six years of their marriage, Queenan decided that he would not come back from Albion until he had finally penetrated the heart of limey darkness.
"His trip was not in vain. Crisscrossing Old Blightly like Cromwell hunting Papists, Queenan finally came to terms with the choochiness, squiffiness,ponciness,and sticky wicketness that lie at the heart of the British character. Here he is trying to find out whose idea it was to impale King Edward II on a red-hot poker -- and what this says about English sexual politics. Here he is in an Edinburgh pub, seeking to pinpoint the connection between Edward I's pitiless 1297 invasion of Scotland and Paul McCartney's pitiless 1977 recording of 'Mull of Kintyre.' And here he is, trapped in a Gloustershire concert hall with an Eagles tribute band named Talon who secretly resent that they are nowhere near as famous as their evil nemeses, the Illegal Eagles. At the end of his epic adventure, the author returns chastened,non the wiser, but encouraged that his wife is actually as sane as she is, all things considered."
~~front & back flaps
It started out innocently enough, but then rapidly deteriorated into the sort of book you want to throw against the wall. (I didn't, because I want to trade it in, and my local USB has an intransigent attitude towards books in pieces.) The author was snide, snarky and snotty about most everything he came across, and most of the people as well. I hope he kept his opinions to himself while he was there, or else US/UK relations were set back an untold number of years, and new meaning given to the concept "Ugly American".
I was firmly intending to give this book no stars at all, since there is no star designating "HATED it!" And then I came to the final pages:
"... there is a personal Albion that belongs tome that no English citizen born in more recent times can ever know. I remember Stonehenge before the fence got put up around it, when you could simply drive up in the middle of the night and stand speechless before the mysterious monoliths. I remember the miner's strikes that caused Edward Heath's government to collapse. ... I remember that Carmella's Place in Nailsworth used to be called Tubby's, and that the plumbing didn't work under that name either. I remember stone pubs in Paganhill that were so frigid you had to already be drunk just to stay warm enough to take off your gloves and pay for your next drink ... I remember a pub in Dursley with a ceiling so low that my dart once deflected off the roof into the bull's-eye, much to my brother-in-law's disgust. I remember another freezing pub in Paganhill where my brother-in-law and I got doused in ice cold water by a drunken prankster who claimed to be aiming at somebody else, but Tony insisted on finishing our game of cribbage with the soaking cards because he four fives and a queen with two kings in the box and wasn't likely to get another hand like that for the rest of his life. ...
"Much of the Britain I love has disappeared. Edwardian pubs have been torn apart and remodeled to look Tudor; even in the dainty Cotswolds people rarely say things like 'Excuse me, old cock, could I borrow that stool?' anymore. But enough of the old Britain remains. ...
"There isn't anything in the world better than riding a London double-decker bus. There isn't a more beautiful place in the world than the Embankment at sunset. There is nothing more stirring than the Houses of Parliament illuminated at midnight... I have often said that if I had to pick a city to live in the rest of my life it would be Paris, but if I had to pick a city in which to spend the last day of my life it would be London. One chilly evening, I called a friend in New York to gloat that I was standing in the shadow of Nelson's statue in front of the National Gallery right beside St. Martin-in-the-Fields as Big Ben struck midnight, and he had the misfortune to be elsewhere. You cannot put a price on these things, and if you did, it would not be nearly high enough.
"I left London for New York the day after the Queen Mother's funeral. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people lined the streets. The service was broadcast over enormous speakers lining St. James Park; the silence was breathtakingly visceral. People were not afraid to weep openly ... After the funeral, the Queen herself motored past; it was the second time I had seen her in the past month. She had just lost a sister, now her mother. ... At the very end of the service, the Coldstream Guards, the Highlanders, and all the rest marched past in their amazing, resplendent, and very strange costumes. There were kilts, bagpipes, massive furry hats, battered tiger skins ... The British may have lost their empire, but they still know how to put on an impressive show. The ancient pipes filled the air with the tunes that had petrified enemies from Bunker Hill to Bengal. The pipes sported the very stiffest of upper lips. ... I did not want to be anywhere but Britain.
"As the last of the pipers disappeared toward their headquarters near Buckingham Palace, and I gazed over the sea of teary-eyed Brits, I felt the same way I did whenever I heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, that it was hard to believe that I had been lucky enough to live in the same solar system as such a remarkable human being. The English inspired a similar sense of affection and awe. They were, by turns, mad, hilarious, exasperating, unpredictable, peculiar, courageous, thrilling. The Brits were the very best mankind had to offer; if the planet was ever to host a more fascinating race, then the rest of us were in for a real treat. ... Standing in the park as the drone of the bagpipes receded into the distance, I was reassured by the though that there would always be Highlanders, there would always be Coldstream Guards, there would always be the queen, there would always be an England.
"The alternative was simply not acceptable."
Impossible to read that with a tug on your heartstrings. And it certainly redeemed the book.
(Q authors aren't that easy to come by, which explains how this book wound up in my TBR pile.)
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The Perfect Summer England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"The Perfect Summer chronicles a glorious English summer a century ago, when the world was on the cusp of irrevocable change. In the summer of 1911 a new kind was crowned and the aristocracy was at play, bounding from one house party to the next. At a debutante charity ball where the other girls came dressed as as white swans, the striking Diana Manners made a late appearance as a black swan. The Ballets Russes arrived in London for the first time and people swarmed to Covent Garden to see Nijinsky's gravity-defying leaps. But cracks in the social fabric had begun to show. The country was brought to a standstill by industrial strikes; led by the charismatic Ben Tillett, the Southampton Dockers' Union paralyzed shipping in the south, causing food shortages. The young Home Secretary Winston Churchill worried in his diary that 'all the world is changing at once.'
"Through the tight lens of four months, Juliet Nicolson brings that portentous summer into crisp focus. Drawing on material from intimate and rarely seen sources, The Perfect Summer is a vividly rendered story of how, day by cloudless day, a nation began to lose its innocence."
~~back cover
This was indeed a "brilliant, lucid, entertaining and fascinating" book. Like Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men, I had expected this book to be a somewhat dry recital of facts and figures, slightly boring -- a book to be waded through rather than read. Instead, I could hardly put it down. It's not fiction, but it reads as easily and charmingly as good fiction does. The author cleverly selected people and events to give an accurate picture of the end of the Edwardian age, juxtapositioning them for the most contrast and continuity.
In many ways, these times are a mirror of those we live in today--the poor working long hours at menial jobs and unable to make enough to live on; the rich living lives of unbridled luxury and frivolousness. We can but wonder whether the Occupy movement will ever gain enough support to compel changes, as the 1911 strikes did.
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The Old Gods Waken by Manly Wade Wellman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"In the wilds of Southern Appalachia lies Wolter Mountain -- a sacred place for the Indians and for their predecessors. But the land atop the mountain, taken over by two Englishmen, Brummitt and Hooper Voth, is undergoing frightening changes.
"Strange and evil rumblings begin to happen around the mountain -- man-like creatures prowling around, mysterious voices reciting evil incantations that terrorize Luke and Creed Forshay who live at the foot of the mountain. Then a wandering minstrel, known only as John, learns that the Voths are Old World druids who are hell-bent on reawakening the pre-Indian spirits that sleep at the summit of Wolter Mountain. Armed with his own arsenal of mystical powers, John and an Indian medicine man must fight their way through the druid's sorcerous defenses to rescue their friends from certain death at the hands of the blood-sacrificing priests.
"A tale of mysticism and terror featuring the author's famous wanderer-hero."
~~front & back flaps
I've loved this series since I read the first book,Who Fears the Devil? a good 30 or more years ago. Silver John wanders the Appalachias, his guitar strung with silver strings, and comes upon situations that prove the truth of the old folk songs: "In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines ..." Eerie, haunting songs. And Silver John wrestling against evil, vanquishing it with his silver strings.
The first stories of John were collected in Who Fears the Devil? This book is the first Silver John novel, written 16 years later. It differs by being a novel rather than a collection of stories, and also because John takes second place in the final battle against the evil at the summit of Wolter Mountain. A bit of research informs me there are other books in the Silver John series that I haven't read. It will be interesting to see how they compare with these two.
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Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra by Jordan Fisher Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"A nature book unlike any other, Jordan Fisher Smith's startling account of fourteen years as a park ranger thoroughly dispels our idealized visions of life in the great outdoors. Instead of scout troops and placid birdwatchers, Smith's beat -- a stretch of land that has been officially condemned to be flooded -- brings him into contact with drug users tweaked out to the point of violence, obsessed miners, and other dangerous creatures. In unflinchingly honest prose, he reveals the unexpectedly dark underbelly of patrolling and protecting public lands."
~~back cover
I loved this book! Perhaps because the land patrolled by the author is just up the road from me, so I'm familiar with the terrain and the sort of people who are drawn to it. Perhaps because I've worked for the Forest Service, and so am familiar with the other side of public land stewardship -- it's definitely not all scout troops and birdwatchers! It's marijuana gardens, meth lab residue, illegal hunting, etc.
The author tells the story of these lands and these people with convincing and compelling honesty. I could hardly put the book down.
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Miss Hargreaves: A Novel by Frank Baker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
"When, on the spur of a moment, Norman Huntley and his friend Henry invent an eighty-three-year-old woman called Miss Hargreaves, they are inspired to mail a letter to their new fictional friend. It is only meant to be a silly, harmless game -- until she arrives on their doorstep. She is, to Norman's utter disbelief, exactly as he had imagined her: eccentric and endlessly astounding. He hadn't imagined, however, how much havoc an imaginary octogenarian could wreak on his sleepy Buckinghamshire town. Norman has some explaining to do, but how will he begin to explain to his friends, family, and girlfriend where Miss Hargreaves came from when he hasn't the faintest clue himself? Will his once-ordinary, once-peaceful life ever be the same again? And what's more,does he want it to be?"
~~back cover
Here's a review from my friend Simon. Simon loves this book -- it's got to be one of his Desert Island books:
"...if you only read one book I recommend, let this one be it. It will change your life - honest. (Only very *slightly* over the top...) I can't think of a novel which compares; Miss Hargreaves is truly in a class of its own.
"Norman and his friend Henry are on holiday in Lusk - on a dull day they wander into a church, and have to make conversation with an even duller verger. On the spur of the moment, Norman says he has a shared acquaintance with the parish's old vicar - and that acquaintance is one Miss Hargreaves. She's nearly ninety, carries a hip flask, bath and cockatoo with her everywhere, not to mention Sarah the dog. Continuing the joke, they send a letter to her supposed hotel, asking if she'd like to come and stay. When Miss Constance Hargreaves arrives on a train, Norman has some explaining to do, and the strange occurences are just beginning...
It is a cliche of criticism, but Miss Hargreaves genuinely did make me both laugh and cry - and pretty much every emotion in between. I thought the theme would pall, but Baker keeps the momentum going for every page, and I never wanted it to end. And though this is without doubt Connie's book, the secondary characters are also wonderful - especially Norman's bookshop-owning father, Mr. Huntley. As my friend Curzon recently said "what a joyous book! I loved every moment" - in fact, don't just take our words for it. I have forced - apologies, suggested - this book to so many people, probably two dozen, and only one has not raved. If you've liked any of the other books I've mentioned, I guarantee you'll love this. And you're in hallowed company - Elaine at Random Jottings, Lisa at Blue Stalking, Ruth at Crafty People, and Lynne at dovegreyreader are all fanatics."
~~Simon Thomas, stuck-in-a-book.blogspot.com
From Amazon:
www.briansibleysblog.blogspot.com says: "A fantasy of the most hilarious description. Miss Hargreaves may be the utterest lunacy - a tissue of moonshine - but it is the kind of novel, I fancy, that is badly wanted at the moment, and its central idea is one which has rarely, if, indeed, ever, been used before."
The Sunday Times says: "A comedy about the creative imagination, loss of control and the pressures of conformity."
The Independent says: "This is a masterpiece of imaginative fiction ... mystical, humorous and poignant. Once this extraordinary woman has entered your life, you'll never want her to leave."
Sometimes I wonder if I've read the same book as everyone else did. It started out as great fun: Miss Hargreaves arrives in Cornfold in answer to Norman's letter and the fun begins. I expected her to be just a remarkable coincidence, but then the coincidences became too strained: Norman and Henry decided that Miss Hargreaves has a cockatoo named Dr Pepusch, and sure enough, the real Miss Hargreaves arrives complete with a cockatoo named Dr Pepusch. Etc.
I expected a sweet old lady, all tea cozies, WI and herbaceous borders. Which she definitely is not! I didn't find her a sympathetic character, although Norman did (alternating with anger and loathing.) Norman, by the way, started out as a Bertie Wooster sort of young man: weedy & a bit wet. As things progressed, he became more and more ineffective, as I suppose he must have done or the story would have been completely different.
This book is the "utterest lunacy", but it wasn't a lunacy I could join in. I'm much more a P.G. Wodehouse lunacy sort of person.
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Little Chapel on the River: A Pub, a Town and the Search for What Matters Most by Gwendolyn Bounds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"Forced from her downtown Manhattan apartment by the terrorist attack of September 11, journalist Wendy Bounds was delivered to Guinan's doorstep -- a legendary Irish drinking hole and country store nestled along the banks of the Hudson River in the small town of Garrison, New York -- by a friend.
"Captivated by the bar's charismatic but ailing owner and his charming, motley clientele, Bounds uprooted herself permanently and moved to tiny Garrison, the picturesque river town they all call home.. There she became one of the rare female regulars at the old pub and was quickly swept up into its rhythm, heartbeat, and grand history -- as related by Jim Guinan himself, the stubborn high priest of this little chapel. Surrounded by a crew of endearing, delightfully colorful characters who were now her neighbors and friends, she slowly finds her own way home.
"Beautifully written, deeply personal, and brilliantly insightful, Little Chapel on the River is a love story about a place -- and the people who bring it to life."
~~back cover
I couldn't have said it better myself. I fell into this book, couldn't put it down, and wished with all my heart that I could move to Garrison and be part of this world.
