Before the coffee gets cold

I read about Toshikazu Kawaguchi's novel Before the coffee gets cold in an article about "newer" time travel books. The premise of the novel is that if you sit in a certain seat in a certain cafe in Japan you can time travel to meet someone who has also been in the cafe at some point in time. There are a bunch of rules associated with the time travel. You must remain in that seat, you can only meet someone who has been in the cafe, you have to stay in the seat, you can't change the future, and you have to finish drinking your coffee before the coffee gets cold. Imagine the pressure!

I listened to the audio book. Some of the language was sort of flat but I wonder if that's because I was listening in translation. There were basically 4 chapters, each basically a little story on its own. Culturally, I'm not sure that these stories could take place anywhere other than Japan. Or at least they probably could not happen in the United States.

The first story was about a young women feeling like her boyfriend chose his career over her. The second story was sadder about a married couple. The wife is a nurse and the husband has early onset dementia. That story was emotionally difficult to listen to. The third story was about the estrangement between two sisters. And the final story was another bittersweet story in which the wife of the cafe manager goes into the future to see how their lives evolve.

There was one character, the woman in the white dress, the ghost in the white dress, that I wish we'd learned a lot more about. That was left hanging.

If you're interested in reading a short, different time travel book, about human nature and that ends with some lessons, this might be a book you'd enjoy.

Anything is Possible

At the end of the e-book edition of My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout was an excerpt from her follow-up book Anything Is Possible. (In the interview with the author at the end of Anything Is Possible, I learned that she wrote most of Anything is Possible while she was writing My Name is Lucy Barton. As she was writing the first book and the conversations that Lucy and her mother have about people from Lucy's childhood, Strout realized that she wondered about the stories of the people that they talk about. She wrote those stories as she was writing the first book.

Lucy Barton is a key character in Anything is Possible, but this is not her story. She is the glue that holds these disparate stories together. Lucy is only a direct part of one of the stories. One thing that Strout says in the interview at the end of the book was about Olive Kitteridge but I think it applies to Anything Is Possible as well.

I'm interested in different points of view, and that's fun to do in a small town. I just love how, in a small town, we think we know someone, but we only know them this way, and someone else knows them that way. That was interesting to me, initially, as a way to give readers a break. But then as I made these characters I realized that they are living people who happen to know Olive in their own way.

In many ways, Anything is Possible is like a collection of short stories rather than a long narrative. There are stories about mothers leaving, about going from rags to riches, about different directions that the lives of siblings take.

Like My Name is Lucy Barton, Anything Is Possible is written in Strout's sparse, stream of consciousness style. It wasn't quite as short as Lucy Barton but it was an equally quick read. The fact that I've already downloaded Oh William! which is the next book in the Amagash "series" where we get to learn a lot more about Lucy's ex-husband, William. I've also but a hold on Lucy by the Sea (Amagash #4) which I'm expecting to be available in about 12 weeks. That should tell you all you need to know.
 

My Name is Lucy Barton

Years ago, I read Amy and Isabelle, Elizabeth Strout's debut novel. That was in the days before I kept really good records of what I'd read. (Can you imagine if I first started keeping track of what I read back when I first started reading?) That means I remember enjoying the novel, but can't remember too much about it. Now that I've read My Name is Lucy Barton, I can't believe that I don't remember her spare, kind of stream-of-consciousness writing style.

My Name is Lucy Barton is the first novel in what is now a series of 4 where Lucy Barton, a woman raised in poverty somewhere in Illinois, is featured. Lucy is hospitalized and her mother, whom she hasn't seen in a long time comes to sit with Lucy in the hospital at the request of Lucy's husband, William. Lucy and her mother share conversations about people they knew in common when Lucy was growing up. Learning about these other people, we also learn more about Lucy and her upbringing.

I can see why this novel wouldn't be for everyone but I enjoyed it a lot. And was surprised by how quickly I read it - and by how short it was. My copy of the e-book ended with an excerpt to Anything is Possible which I downloaded almost immediately after finding him Lucy Barton.

The Last Castle

 

I really enjoyed reading The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan. I am sure the fact that I started reading this days before heading to Asheville, North Carolina and my first visit to the Biltmore Estate and I finished reading the morning after arriving back home was a huge contributing factor. I would highly recommend that everyone visiting Biltmore takes the time to read this non-fiction accounting of George W. Vanderbilt's visions of his mountain home becoming a reality and then the fight by Edith Dresser Vanderbilt to keep her husband's dream alive after his death.I'm glad that I first read The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey, the fictionalized version of basically the same story. (It also became incredibly obvious that Harvey did her research well. Reading both these books in conjunction with my trip gave me enough information so that I had a good background about the city of Asheville, the history of the area, the Vanderbilt connection to the area, and some specific history of Biltmore.It also insured that I was more curious about things that I saw while sightseeing. And that sightseeing included a trolley around Asheville, time spent at the Grove Park Inn, spending time at the Estate and driving around the Piegan Forest. Now that I finished The Last Castle, I wish I was close enough to go back to the Asheville and look at some specific things a little more closely.

Sadly, it was too cold on the day of our visit to explore the gardens the way that I'd hoped. I'd done research on how to best maximize your time at the estate so we got their mid-morning, giving us time to shuttle to the house, then get to the gardens (I thought that would be a walk and not a shuttle), explore, and time to get back to the house to enjoy a hot chocolate before getting to go inside for our audio tour appointed time. We took the audio tour slowly, savoring lots of the rooms. From there, we shuttled back to the parking area and then drove to the Antler Hill Winery, a new business started by. the latest generation of the family. After the wine tasting, we went to the Legacy exhibit which I really enjoyed. That brought even more of the book to life. It also got me thinking about the generation running the estate now. A brother and sister about my age running their family home as a business. George and Edith's great granddaughter lives on property so she's running her home as a business. Intriguing. 

Wealth is a strange thing. There's so much curiosity about how "the other half" lives as well as such disdain for those who have so much. At least this branch of the Vanderbilt family did a lot of good with their riches. And fascinating how they've struggled financially for many years trying to maintain the house the way George dreamed it could be.

Day 1 in Asheville we spent several hours at 
The Omni Grove Park Inn

The view from the Inn

Interesting construction






Day 2 was our Biltmore Day

The Wedding Veil

Preparing for a return trip to Asheville - and my first visit to the Biltmore, I was interested in reading something to give me a little background. The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey fit the bill. It's a perfect cross between well-researched historical fiction and a Hallmark movie. And I love Hallmark movies!

The novel unfolds in dual storylines. Some people don't like this format for novels. I don't mind. 

The historical fiction storyline is about the Vanderbilt family, the building and maintaining of Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. Edith Vanderbilt is determined to preserve her husband's legacy after his untimely death. Their daughter, Cornelia, would also like to preserve the legacy, as well as maintain her "safe" home away from the spotlight in the mountains. Until she comes to the realization that she needs to make her own mark on the world.

The romance storyline is about runaway bride, Julia, and her determination to find out more about the history of the wedding veil that her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother all had worn before her. It was while putting on the wedding veil, which comes with the promise of a "happily ever after" that Julia realizes the guy she's about to marry at, where else, but at the Biltmore, isn't going to be her happily ever after.

It doesn't hurt that Julia and her grandmother, Babs, my favorite character in the novel, have a special connection to the Biltmore. Babs has a mountain home in Asheville. It's a place where both Babs and and Julia go to think about life.

After reading this, I'm more excited than before to make my trip.

All-of-a-Kind Family

If you are a Jewish woman of a certain age,  you probably read All-of-a-Kind Family as a young girl. I read probably the entire series by Sydney Taylor as a little girl going to Hebrew school. Each book (there are several in the series) are full of stories about five little Jewish girls on the Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century.

As a girl - or even now - it's rare to read stories about Jewish people doing things that Jewish people (meaning me and my family) might be doing, thinking, celebrating. To read about a family celebrating the Sabbath or observing Jewish holidays, well, that was ideal for a young girl. And sorry, brother, but my whole life I always wished I'd had a sister. Maybe these books are the reason why.

A few weeks ago, reading the news, I came across a story about a new TV miniseries based on this book series. I shared the link in Renee's Reading Club on Facebook and that started a dialogue amongst all those who loved reading the books as little girls or reading the books to our own little girls. Why did I never read these to my little girls? The conversations made me wonder if I'd enjoy reading the stories now as an adult old enough to be a grandmother! I remembered loving Little House on the Prairie as a kid but then finding it incredibly tedious as an adult. Or was I just remembering the TV series and not the books?

I found All-of-a-Kind Family in the library, borrowed it, figuring I'd read the book in a night or two since, after all, it is a children's book. After reading the first two chapters, I realized that rushing through it wasn't going to work so I started reading one chapter per night before I did my regular reading. That was probably the way it was read to me when I was younger. And it was the perfect way to consume this sweet, lovely book as an adult. Now I wish I had a little girl to share it with!
 

The Rebel of Savannah

After visiting Savannah - and specifically after visiting the old synagogue in Savannah, Mickve Israel - I was very much interested in the history of Savannah and the growth of the Jewish community in Savannah. In fact, as I was digesting all we'd learned on our visit to the synagogue, I said to my husband, "I wish I could find a historical fiction novel about the Jewish community in Savannah." I did some cursory searching of my own. Their history is very much tied to the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Portugal. I had no luck!

I was having a conversation with a friend who mentioned she mostly reads Judaica fiction. She also has Sephardic roots. I asked her if she knew of a book that might fit my need. She recommended The Rebel of Savannah. It sounded perfect.

It was incredibly interesting, but it wasn't perfect. It was not the story I was hoping to read and it really did not satisfy my desire to learn more about the history of the Jewish community in Savannah. (I read it on Kindle and I'm not sure if that's why it was so poorly formatted, making it even more difficult to read than it might have been otherwise. It also needed some pretty major editing. Was I somehow reading an Advanced Readers Copy?)

In The Rebel of Savannah, Hayim Tawal, Chananya Weissman and Mazal Mizrahi tell the story of the development of the colony of Georgia and the role of the Georgians during the Revolutionary War. The Rebel of Savannah happened to be a Mordecai Sheftall, Jew, son of the founder of the Jewish community in Savannah, a Prussian Jew who organized the first Jewish congregation. Mordecai was the highest ranking Jewish officer in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

The novel seems to be very well researched. For me, though, it focused too much on narratives of specific battles. And often I found it difficult to follow the storyline. Once I realized this wasn't what I was looking for, I could have put this book down and moved on to the next book. There are so many good books out there. But, as I said, it was a very interesting story non-the-less. Would I recommend this one? Conditionally. If you're interested in learning about the early days of the colony of Georgia and it's role in the Revolutionary War - including fairly graphic battle scenes - this novel is for you.

 

The Thread Collectors

I really enjoyed listening to The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman. Had the story gone a little bit deeper, I think I would have loved it. That being said, it was an excellent story told in an effective way. I highly recommend it. It was too new to select as a book for my synagogue book club, but at some point I'm hoping we can discuss it.

The authors, Edwards and Richman, tell the story of the Civil War from perspectives we don't often hear from. William is a fugitive slave who enlists in the Union Army where he meets Jacob, a Jewish musician from New York, who is a musician in the Union Army. Through their chance meeting, William's experience in the war is very different from what it might have been had they not met.

Both men have left loves behind. William leaves Stella, a slave to the same master, back in New Orleans while Jacob leaves his wife, Lily, in New York City. While the men communicate with the world thru their music, the women have different ways of communicating. After Stella hand stitches a map to help William escape in order to join up, women on her street ask her to stitch maps for their loved ones. Lily shares her thoughts through her written words. She volunteers in New York City, trying to make a difference to the war effort. She writes articles for an abolitionist newsletter and is part of an organization of suffragettes. To make an early connection between Lily and Stella, Lily is part of a quilting bee even though as a motherless girl, she never learned how to quilt. Or sew. Or knit.

This isn't exactly a spoiler, but at the end of the novel, the authors' note indicates which parts of the story are based on facts from the authors' families' stories and which parts of based on historical research. I'm can't stop thinking about the connections.