Wish You Were Here

 

I'm not sure if I mentioned it here - or just in emails to some friends, but way back in March 2020, when Covid was new and even more uncertain than it is now, I used to lay awake at night wondering what a novel about that time period could be like. I had lots of ideas for stories... but my big question was, every single night... yes, every single night... How is this pandemic going to end? How does the story end?

Somewhere in one of my journals I have a list of ideas for pandemic stories... but Jodi Picoult actually quickly wrote one and got it published. (I'm not sure if I would have considered the same exact ending... but... NO SPOILERS HERE!!!)

Wish You Were Here is Jodi Picoult's novel that she wrote while quarantining at home with her family during the early part of the pandemic. It examines how life changes so quickly and what resiliciency humans have. It also gives what I imagine is a pretty accurate telling of how difficult this pandemic has been on our medical professionals and hospital workers, especially during spring 2020 when so much was still unknown and vaccines were still a dream in the eyes of the public.

Diana and Finn are living the life in Manhattan. They have career plans, marriage plans, family plans. Diana works for Sotheby's in art auction sales and Finn, her boyfriend, not her fiance, is a surgical resident at New York Presbyterian Hospital. March 13, 2020 is the day they are supposed to leave for their bucket list trip to the Galapagos. Only Finn can't go. No one is allowed to leave for vacation from the hospital. He tells Diana that she should still go. She's got the time off from work and it would be a shame to lose the money spent on a nonrefundable trip. She should go. She is torn, but ultimately she goes.

One thing after another gets screwed up. Her suitcase is lost. The island is under quarantine. Her hotel (which has the only semi-reliable internet on the island) is closed. She's stranded, without a place to stay, without her suitcase, with very little money, until the borders reopen.

Due to the kindness of a stranger, Diana finds a place to stay. She finds ways to get food. Forging a connection with the stranger, Abuela - who speaks no English and Diana speaks no Spanish - and Abuela's family, life goes on. Diana starts wondering about her life at home, her grand plan and her choices.

I'm kind of glad that I read nothing about this novel before I started it. I only knew that there would be a twist, kind of a signature Jodi Picoult  thing. I really, really enjoyed this novel. I know there are some people who can read about a pandemic as we're living through a pandemic (because despite what many thing, this pandemic thing is far from over) and there are some who cannot. I fall into the first category. Consider my recommendation based on where you might fall.

The Matzah Ball

I will admit this here. I am a sucker for a good Hallmark movie. I pretty  much restrict myself to the weeks before Christmas. But when I watch these little gems, I get fully drawn in.

Jean Meltzer's holiday novel, The Matzah Ball, is the perfect plot for a Hallmark movie that I'd enthusiastically watch. This year's favorite Hallmark holiday movie was Eight Gifts of Hanukkah. I mean... who doesn't like to see "themselves" represented in a holiday movie?

(A little aside here. On what would have been Betty White's 100th birthday last week, I watched her Hallmark movie, The Lost Valentine. What a wonderful movie. It will be on again on Valentine's Day. If Hallmark movies are your thing, I highly recommend this one. Now back to the book...)

The Matzah Ball is the story of Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt and her summer camp archenemy, Jacob Greenberg. They were at camp together just one summer, but that summer was memorable for both of them.

Rachel is a writer living in New York. Despite having chronic fatigue syndrome, she has made a rather full life for herself by writing from home. She's the daughter of a big Long Island rabbi. But Rachel has a secret. She loves Christmas. She secretly watches Hallmark Christmas movies under the blanket when she's staying at her parents' house. It's such a big secret that she won't really tell her parents that she writes Christmas romance novels under a pseudonym. She's had 4 holiday movies made from her novels. Her home office is also a big secret. It's a room perpetually decorated for Christmas, complete with a train that goes around the room once per hour. To Rachel, a visit to Santa is better than a trip to a therapist.

Jacob is a big event planner headquartered in Paris. Jacob comes to New York to pull off his biggest Jewish event ever, The Matzah Ball. It's supposed to be an upscale event. No little grocery store bags of Hanukkah gelt (chocolates) here! To add some prestige to the event, he asks Rabbi Goldblatt, Rachel's dad, to light the big 10-foot menorah. Dr. Rubenstein, Rachel's mom, invites Jacob to Shabbat dinner. She lets Rachel know that Jacob will be there and suggests that it would be lovely if Rachel came as well.

Earlier that day, Rachel's publisher informs Rachel that she won't be getting a new contract. Unless... unless she writes a Hanukkah romance novel. Rachel throws up her hands. Hanukkah is just Hanukkah. Christmas is where the magic is. How can she possibly write a Hanukkah romance novel? Once she learns about Jacob's big event, The Matzah Ball, she is determined to snag a ticket to the sold-out event. For research and inspiration.

You can guess what comes next. But it might be more difficult to predict the specifics. Or how Rachel and Jacob make it from Point A to Point B. I knew how the story was going to end, but that didn't diminish the pleasure I took reading the novel. I only wish I'd heard about it earlier so I could have read it in November or December rather than at the end of January!

Outlander again! Finally!

I put the latest in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone on a library request list as soon as I saw there was an actual publication date. I'd heard it was coming... and it was coming... but had no idea when. The wait felt so long!

I think that this might have been my least favorite of the Outlander books. There were many references to characters or events in earlier books with very little context. I found those frustrating at times, especially since I know that I will never go back to read the earlier books. While it was very interesting to read about battles of the American Revolution, sometimes the military stuff got a bit too much for me and slowed down the pace of my reading.

I thought this was going to be the final book in the series. If that is so, the ending was terrible. It just kind of dropped off. There has to be more!
 

Too Many Books, Too Little Time

 

These are last two novels that Books & Beer selected. The club seems to really gravitate to the classics. I'm okay with that, for the most part, but sometimes those just seem like so much work to me. I'd rather read something contemporary - or written more recently, as in the case of a lot of the historical fiction that I read. But I hate dropping books!

I started The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas too close to the date of the book club meeting. I hadn't realized it was such a long book and all I was able to read through was a little more than one-third of the novel before we met. After which I said, "Oh, okay, I'll read it when I'm waiting for a library book to come in." Now, two months later, I'm not really sure that I meant that. I enjoyed the story, but...

Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago isn't nearly as long, but I gave myself plenty of time to read it. One of the book club members had sent out a chart of all the characters from the novel. That should have been my sign that I wasn't going to have the patience to read through that one. Once I started reading, I realized that each character went by several names and it was going to be impossible keeping them straight without keeping actual notes on a piece (or more) of paper. I figured I wouldn't pay attention the characters and just read the story. When I'd pick up the book at night, I'd wish I was reading something else. So I took the audio book out of the library figuring I'd listen to as much as I could before the book club meeting. I listened in the car, I listened while I walked. I still wasn't paying close attention to the characters, picking up little bits here and there. Eventually, it just got to be noise. That book club is this coming week, but I don't think I'm going to devote any more time to trying to finish it since I know that can never happen.

What listening to Doctor Zhivago did do for me is make me realize that with the right headset, I could easily listen to books while I walk. (I listened to Doctor Zhivago with my phone held up near my head... not the most pleasant way to walk.) I purchased an AfterShokz set of headphones and hope to start using them to listen to something more enjoyable and a bit less work this week.

The Shift: 7 Powerful Mindset Changes for Lasting Weight Loss

As a lifetime member of WW (previously Weight Watchers) who got serious about returning to my goal weight last year, I'd gotten several WW emails about The Shift and went to a virtual book signing online to hear more about it.

Gary Foster, PhD is the Chief Scientific Officer at WW. (He also happened to get part of his education at the University of Pennsylvania, my alma mater.) He's been studying weight-related issues for the entirety of his professional career.

This is not your typical diet book. It's not about what to eat or not eat. Well, maybe it is since I do recall Dr. Foster writing (and I'm paraphrasing here) if you want the cheese, you should eat the cheese. Which kind of sums up the point of the book. It's not about what you eat or when you eat it. It's making mindful eating a part of your regular life. It's not at all about being good or being bad. It's about being mindful.

Because of how long I've been on WW (many, many years) and how much reading I've done in the past, there was nothing at all earth shattering written here. But Dr. Foster has a nice conversational tone and includes personal anecdotes from others who struggle with their weight.

I started reading this book while on Christmas vacation. It definitely did make me feel better about the choices that I'd been making over the few days before I started reading. And I am positive that reading this helped me get 100% back on track with my eating as soon as I woke up the morning after we arrived back home. (Why my body craves either pizza or a grilled cheese after arriving home from a longer trip is beyond me. I came home, ate my grilled cheese, went to bed and was back on track the following morning. Easily. Because even though I hadn't yet finished the book, I had started my shift in mindset. That was vacation. I was faced with foods that I'm not faced with at home. I didn't want to feel deprived while away celebrating. However, I made mindful choices. I was selective about what I ate and didn't eat it all. I was extremely mindful of what went in my mouth. I felt good about my choices.

The Shift was a reminder that I need to be kind to myself, I need to be grateful for even small things. I need to focus on positive behaviors and positive changes. And most of all, a bad day doesn't make me a failure.

I'm glad I was able to get The Shift from the library. I figured I'd read it and if I felt it was a book that I'd turn to time and again that I'd buy a copy. For me, it's not that kind of book. I luckily got the book at the absolutely perfect time for me. I was out of my routine, in celebratory mode. I'm not sure if the book would have resonated quite so much with me had I read it when I was still pretty much locked-down during my first few months back on the program during winter/early spring 2021.

If you need an extra little something to help you shift your thinking, I would highly recommend The Shift.

The Rose Code

Since my New Jersey book club has moved back to zoom meetings for at least the winter, I picked up The Rose Code so I can join them having read the book in January. (In December, their first month back zooming, I joined them but hadn't read whatever they were discussing.)

I've had Kate Quinn's The Alice Network in my list of books to read for quite awhile but hadn't heard of The Rose Code until this book club selected it. It's about women who work together decoding encrypted messages during World War II. I think I might have seen a movie about a group of women doing just that so the historical reality was something in the back of my mind.

Osla, Mab, and Beth first meet when Osla and Mab are billeted in the home of Beth's mother when they are assigned to work at Bletchley Park, at the Government Code & Cypher School. The work is highly secretive and even discussing things amongst each other is considered treasonous. Beth's mother is overbearing and horrible and refers to Beth as "mother's little helper." Beth is also amazing at solving puzzles so Osla and Mab suggest her as an addition to the crew at Bletchley Park. Beth is hired and becomes a top notch decoder. She's always been told that she's good for nothing other than helping her mother and at "BP" she finds her place.

The three women couldn't be more different. Osla is  a society girl, often called a ditzy deb, and in a relationship with the recently deceased Prince Philip prior to his marriage to Queen Elizabeth. I suppose I should say Princess Elizabeth as she had not yet ascended to the throne. Mab has led a hard-scrabbled life and has worked very diligently to elevate her station in life. Beth, the oldest of the three, has lived a very sheltered life. They have different skills, work in different "huts" doing different jobs. The bond together and become extremely close.

Until a betrayal! But who betrayed whom? And how did Beth end up in a sanitarium? The story line jumps back and forth from the war years to the days leading up the Royal Wedding in 1947. I've noticed some reviewers complaining about the jumping back and forth between two timelines, but that's a format that I'm quite comfortable with. In this case, it's what really kept the suspense going.

Many passages in the book were way too technical for me, about the methods and equipment used to decode. It wasn't necessary to understand that. I think the point was that they were doing really difficult work that not everyone is suited to do.

I gave the novel 3 stars on goodreads because it got off to a slow start, not even counting the technical bits that were very often tedious if they ran on too long. But the story was fascinating and the author's note at the end, what characters and parts of the story were highly fictionalized versus actual people and their actual histories. It should make for a good book club discussion.
 

Taste: My Life Through Food

Sometime in 2021 (how does one keep track of things that happened in that year that didn't fit any pattern?), my husband and I watched "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy." We were engrossed. Tucci travels around Italy, exploring the food cultures and the foods of different areas of the country. All we could think of as we watched was that we wished we could travel around Italy with Stanley Tucci. What a wonderful companion he would be. And the foodie doors he would open for us would be amazing!

In Renee's Reading Club, the Facebook group that I am a member of, a woman mentioned reading his memoir, Taste. It sounded wonderful. My husband is not a reader, but I thought he'd really enjoy it. Perfect choice for an audio book for the two of us to listen to together.

And boy, was it ever! We both so thoroughly enjoyed listening to this memoir! Each one of us for our own personal reasons. As Tucci described the role food played in his family, my husband was nodding his head. I was hearing it differently. My husband and I have very different attitudes towards food. As Tucci explained his connection to food, something clicked. My husband wasn't weird in his attitudes to food. He must be coming from the same place as Stanley Tucci. Stanley Tucci was raised by parents born in America with Italian roots. My husband was born in Italy but raised in America. I was raised as a 3rd generation American Jew. Big difference in attitudes towards food!

We both love food and we loved listening to Stanley Tucci tell his stories. We loved listening to him read off his recipes. I have requested the e-book from the library so I can copy some of them down. There were some laugh-out-loud moments and some tearful moments as well.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. And if you have the opportunity to listen to it rather than to read it, that's the route I'd take. 

While I'm waiting for the e-book and Season 2 of "Searching for Italy," I have The Tucci Cookbook to drool over. After listening to the first chapter of Taste, I knew that exactly what I needed to get my husband for Christmas. In addition to Tucci's cookbook, I got him two editions of Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi. One in English and the other in Italian (La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene. It's a book that Tucci recommended in the TV series, almost like the Bible of Italian food.

Buon appetito!

 

Migrations

 

I guess the holidays got me a little off kilter as far as sharing my book reviews. For that, I apologize.

Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations was a book club pick. The woman who suggested the title felt it was a must read. I have to say that it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Not at all.

It's the story of Franny, an odd character, who wants to follow the Arctic terns for what she believes will be their final migration to Antarctica, all due to climate change. Those are the birds who follow the longest migration route of any birds, according to the novel. She essentially hitches a ride on a fishing boat where the fisherman struggle to find anything to catch.

In my reading log, I classified Migrations as environmental fiction. If there isn't a genre with that name, well, that's what I'm using. This was a touch dystopian, too. I believe this story takes place sometime in our (near) future and  it's a future that looks very bleak indeed. At least I hope what McConaghy has written isn't a reality right now.

I'm not sure how I felt about the novel. It was fascinating, definitely held my attention as I tried to figure out Franny's secrets. But the darkness of the novel... maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a dark novel such as this one. I do, think, though, that it will be a great novel to discuss. I only hope that reading it 3 weeks before our next book club meeting that I will remember the finer points for discussion.