December 21, 2022 EDGE OF SEVENTEEN

 

Seventeen years. That's how long my book club has been together. Funny thing is though-- we still DON'T have an official name. We've tried a few out BUT THEY DIDN'T STICK. So we are just THE BOOKCLUB.  It seems like yesterday when we had our first meeting. I still remember the book and the place. WOW. Time sure flies when you're having fun. Over the last seventeen years, we've read at least 170 books. That's a lot of books. But it's not just books we've shared. We've shared so much more. Good times and bad--AND we've stuck together and supported each other through it all. We might not always see eye to eye on things BUT that's okay. I count myself lucky to be in the company of such exceptional women. Thanks for everything and remember--WHAT HAPPENS IN BOOK CLUB--STAYS IN BOOK CLUB. Ha. Onto the book review. If you enjoyed Hamnet then you will love  Maggie O'Farrell's new book The Marriage Portrait. This is historical fiction at it best. O'Farrell takes some basic historical facts and weaves an unforgettable story about Renaissance Italy. It is 1550, and Lucrezia De'  Medici finds herself promised to the Duke of Ferrara after her sister dies suddenly on the eve on the wedding. This is a marriage to secure an alliance between Florence and Ferrara and Lucrezia is the pawn. At the tender age of 16, Lucrezia becomes the Duchess of Ferrara and is cast into a court of betrayal and cruelty at the hands of her new husband, Alfonso D' Este. The novel is about the aristocracy, power and their dire need to produce an heir at any cost. Find out what happens to Lucrezia, Alfonso and the other exciting characters in this gripping tale that is hard to put down or forget. It's about 350 pages or a 4 mile run that you will thoroughly enjoy. 

December 1, 2022 CRAZY FOR YOU

 I get a little crazy when it comes to books. Example: I read Kate Atkinson's books Life After Life and Transcription a few years ago. I liked them BUT I didn't love them. I knew she was a good writer SO I didn't give up. I was in South Carolina last summer SWEATING MY ASS OFF and decided to cool off in this great little book store. It was there that I came upon the 25th anniversary edition  of Kate Atkinson's first novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum. And I was hooked. I was all in. Crazy. I'm currently in the middle of a DEEP DIVE. It's Kate Atkinson OR BUST.  Who knew she wrote a detective series that became a TV series in 2011? Me--as I'm currently living in Edinburgh helping Jackson Brodie solve his latest mystery. Did I say CRAZY.  Seriously though--Reading takes me to places I've never been and introduced me to so many memorable characters along the way. It's simply amazing. Atkinson's detective series is currently five books so I'll review the first, Case Histories.  Jackson Brodie is a former policeman working as a private investigator in Edinburgh. He's recently divorced and is the protective father of a daughter named Marlee. As the story unfolds, Brodie gets more then he bargained for as he gets wrapped up in several mysteries that revolve around the Land family. Three year old Olivia's disappearance thirty years earlier, the murder of the husband by the wife years later and the most recent murder of a woman in a law office. Brodie, himself, is a case history, as the reader learns about his past and the demons that haunt his dreams and drive him in his chosen profession. The story is filled with interesting characters, insights, biting humor and twists at every turn.  Winter is coming and this is the perfect series to get you through those cold nights. This novel is about 336 pages that you will thoroughly enjoy. Oh yeah--it's important to read this series in order as many characters return in each novel. 

November 27, 2022 BACK WHERE I BELONG

 I got tired. My brain hurt. Too many OTHER things to do. So I took a break--from the blog. During the last 6 months I've read 25 books, learned how to play pickleball and focused on hot yoga. I finally feel ready to recommit to THE BLOG. It may be a little different and I might not write as often BUT --I'm back. I have read so many great books lately that I'm not even sure which to review first so I'll start with the book I just finished--Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.  Elizabeth Zott, the main character of this quirky novel, is a chemist in an all-male research institute in California in 1960. Because she is a woman, Elizabeth's colleagues treat her poorly-- until she meets Calvin Evans. Evans is a Nobel-prize nominated scientist who is instantly drawn to Elizabeth. Fast forward a few years and Elizabeth is a single, unemployed mother just scraping by. One day, a chance meeting with a producer changes her life. She finds herself the star of a cooking show called Supper at Six. And that's just the beginning of what happens in this inspiring story.  This book features an interesting cast of characters and is laugh out loud funny at times. I especially loved her dog Six-thirty.  This page turner is heartwarming, smart AND QUIRKY. I had a hard time putting down. It's about 400 quick pages that you will never forget. Enjoy.  

May 30, 2022 CAT SCRATCH FEVER

 

HAD COVID. AND IT WASN'T PRETTY. The whole shabang. Headache-fever-body aches-nauseous. SICK IN BED. Even worse though--I lost my sense of SMELL AND TASTE. It's coming back now but it was the strangest thing. Imagine NOT having coffee for 3-4 days because you are too nauseous. That was me. One morning when I was feeling better I decided to try coffee--AND I COULDN'T TASTE IT.  I thought there was something wrong with the coffee--BUT NO--there was something wrong with me.  Then I went outside to try to smell my favorite flowers--LILACS--AND I COULDN'T SMELL A THING. I literally buried my face in the flowers. NO LUCK. What a bummer. Guess I'll have to wait til next year. Then my husband got COVID. He barely had a head cold. Go figure. It's strange how differently COVID affects people. There is NO rhyme or reason--booster or NO Booster. Seems like everyone I know is getting COVID. Take care--partner. If there is one book you read in your life then it should be The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne. This is the life story of Cyril Avery told in first person.  He was born in Ireland in 1945 to an unwed 16 year old mother who was banished from her hometown. Cyril is then  adopted by a strange, wealthy couple, Maude and Charles Avery, and grows up in a loveless home.  Life is difficult for Cyril because he comes to  realize that he is a homosexual living in ultra conservative Catholic Ireland His story spans seven decades where he lives in Dublin, Amsterdam, New York and then back to Dublin. The characters in the story are beautifully written and wonderfully quirky. The dialogue is perfect. Not a wasted word. This lovely novel is as much about Irish history as it is Cyril's quest to discover his true self and where he belongs. I literally laughed out loud SO many times when I read this book but it is equally  heartbreaking and real. I honestly can't say enough about it.  Even though it is almost 600 pages or a 6 mile run--I guarantee  that you will NOT want it to end. This book has made it to my top 10 books of all time--that's how much I loved it. Let me know what you think. 

April 11, 2022 YOU TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUT OF MY MOUTH

I'm pretty sure my "FILTER" is gone. They said it would happen. It's really NOT my fault. I can't help it if my brain is SHRINKING and it's affecting my prefrontal cortex. Yup, that's the part of the brain located within the frontal lobes--OR WAS-- IN MY CASE---AND IT'S DISAPPEARING. This is the part of the brain that actually helps regulate behavior and speech. It's also responsible for INHIBITORY CONTROL--AND therein lies the problem. To put it plainly-- I seem to have difficulty SHUTTING UP. Yup, I just say whatever pops into MY NOW TINY BRAIN. I can't seem to help myself--BECAUSE MY FILTER IS GONE. I think it all started with the mask. I could mumble and say inappropriate things all day behind the mask-- AND NO ONE KNEW. Now that the mask is gone I'M IN BIG TROUBLE. I wonder if shrinking prefrontal cortex is a disability. I'll have to look into that just in case............Lenni & Margot actually have some serious health problems in Marianne Cronin's debut novel The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot.
Lenni is a seventeen year old girl who lives at Glasgow hospital for the terminally ill. After joining the hospital's arts & craft program, she meets Margot, a pleasant eighty-three year old woman with a heart problem. The pair hit it off and decide to create 100 paintings to memorialize their lives. Told in alternating perspectives, the reader learns about Lenni's struggles and why she seems to be all alone in the world. Margot also shares pivotal moments from her life that captivate Lenni's imagination. There are other great characters in the story including Father Arthur, the hospital Chaplain who helps Lenni come to terms with her illness. This multigenerational story about friendship and love is at times laugh out loud funny, but remember they are in a hospital for terminal patients. I enjoyed the book and thought it was worth the read. At 350 pages or a 3 mile run this book taught a great lesson about family and friends.

March 12, 2022 BEAUTY LIES IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

 

FYI-- Recent studies have found that faces are significantly MORE attractive when covered with a mask. Studies ALSO suggest  that people look MUCH YOUNGER with their faces covered too. SOO--If I keep the lower third of my face covered I will look MORE ATTRACTIVE AND YOUNGER.???  SEE MY DILEMMA? Listen--I hate the mask as much as the next person BUT there are many PERKS TO KEEPING IN ON. NOT only will I look younger and more attractive BUT I can also talk to myself, leave spinach in my teeth, have coffee breath, forget my lipstick--AND NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW.  I can also hide my NOSE that is wider than the Grand Canyon, acne, coffee stained teeth, wrinkles, dry skin, nose hair, cracked lips. It should really be a NO brainer. BUT........I don't know. Maybe I'll chance it--maybe-just-maybe the LOWER THIRD OF MY FACE isn't THAT BAD. I guess it's a risk I'll have to take.....AND SO WILL YOU. While you're pondering life without a mask, you just might want to read Liane Moriarty's new book Apples Never Fall. Set in Sydney, Stan and Joy Delaney seem to have everything. They've been married for 50 years and have four grown children. They are former tennis pros, who have just sold their tennis academy and plan to retire. One evening, a mysterious, seemingly battered  woman named Savannah knocks on their door in need of help. Joy welcomes Savannah and even lets her stay at the house to sort out her life--much to the chagrin of her children.  Several months later, Joy goes missing and her husband Stan is the prime suspect. While two of the siblings believe their father may have killed Joy, the other two are determined to prove his innocence. The story flips back and forth in time as the children reexamine their lives and their parents' marriage in an effort to uncover the mystery. This family drama is laugh out loud funny at times as the family dynamics of the siblings and old resentments reappear but remember it is also a mystery. What happened to Joy? Is Stan involved in her disappearance? Where is Savannah? Will the siblings learn from their mistakes and forgive the past? Find out for yourself when you read this 480 page book. It's an easy 5 mile run that I really enjoyed. 

February 20, 2022 AGAINST THE WIND

 

What's with the wind? It's making THIS winter unbearable. Seriously. I can handle running when it's 15-20 degrees--BUT--when the wind makes it feel like 5--I get a little cranky. ANY wind--this time of year--is too much wind as far as I'm concerned. I've had to really bundle up this winter--it been a 2 pair of pants kind of year. I don't remember it EVER being this cold and windy. It's all I can do to go out for a run--then spend the rest of the day trying to warm up. I actually wish I could hibernate til spring but I'm not a bear. Maybe I'm just getting older and the cold weather is affecting me more. UGH.  I finally understand why SO many people head SOUTH for the winter. This weather SUCKS. I can't stand it. I got the February Blues--hoping March will be a little kinder. If you're in a purple funk this February then maybe Louise Penny's newest installment of the Gamache series, The Madness of Crowds, will help perk you up. In this book, number 17, Chief Inspector Gamache returns to his home in  Three Pines, a tiny Quebec village, after the pandemic.  Gamache is called upon to provide security for a Statistics Professor named Abigail Robinson who is giving a lecture at a nearby university. Although this seems like a strange request for the head of police, Gamache agrees to provide security but has mixed feelings when he finds out what the lecture is about. Professor Robinson is using pandemic data to further her agenda--a government policy accepting euthanasia for the elderly, sick and even deformed. When a murder is committed after the lecture, Gamache, his second in command Jean-Guy Beauvoir and team investigate the crime. I found this novel interesting, especially, because Robinson manipulates data to further her agenda. Blurring the line between fact and fiction and frighteningly enough--the people--the madness of the crowds--who believed in her message. This mystery is about 448 pages or a 5 mile run that is not only a good story, but a timely one that deals with social issues that are relevant today. 

February 4, 2022 THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'

 

Now that I'm old--I have to go for BONE DENSITY TESTS.  Basically--X-rays are taken to make sure that MY BONES are strong enough. First of all--I was a little taken aback that I am actually--THAT WOMAN OF A CERTAIN AGE. Are you kidding me---I'm pretty sure that I was all that just a few years ago. OKAY--Maybe that was 20 years ago. It's hard to keep it all straight. Then I really freaked out when  I remembered that my grandmother--on the Polish side-- had such brittle bones that she actually snapped ribs when she SNEEZED. I am NOT kidding. She had something called OSTEOPOROSIS.   Fast forward to today and it's a NO BRAINER that I got a call the other day from my doctor telling me that I HAVE OSTEOPENIA. Basically--I have first stage Osteoporosis in my hip and lumbar. UGH. I already take extra calcium, vitamin K and exercise SO.................. now I have to go for a test every year to check MY BONE DENSITY-- so that they can tell me in a few short years THE BAD NEWS.  YUP--85%  of women with a family history will develop the BIG O. Remember when the BIG O meant something else?? Times --they are--a changin. I guess I'll just have to soldier on. Just finished reading Pulitzer Prize winning author Louise Erdrich's newest book The Sentence. This novel is set in 2020 over the course of one year  in Minneapolis as the main character Tookie faces many obstacles. Tookie is a Native American recently released from prison who feels lucky to be working a Erdrich's small bookstore, Birchbark Books. She also happens to be married to Pollux, the tribal policeman who originally arrested her for the crime she was sent to prison for. Tookie learned to love books in prison and her knowledge of the stacks and recommendations to customers are unmatched by other employees. Work is great-- until one of the customer's passes away and starts haunting Tookie.  In addition to being haunted, Tookie is also trying to deal with Pollux's rebellious daughter, Hetta, and her new baby, Jarvis. Stir in a little pandemic--COVID, Native American customs & lore, and a listing of great book recommendations by Tookie and this is one special novel. The characters are interesting and I actually learned a lot about Native American culture so that was a plus. This is a book that explores family, culture, forgiveness and the things that bind people together. It's a bit dense--a 6 mile run of 400 pages--but I did enjoy this book by one of the finest writers of this century. 

January 23, 2022 COLD AS ICE

Was feeling a little down and out  last weekend. The weather was FRIGID and DARK clouds loomed overhead for DAYS. It was BITTER. Running is especially hard this time of year--So I did what any seasoned runner would do--bundled up and surrounded myself with other runners who are as crazy as I am and we GOT IT DONE.  Seriously--only the DIEHARDS were out last weekend. THEN I did the ONLY other thing that runners do this time of year to cheer themselves up--Yup--I bought some new gear. There's nothing like some new cold weather gear to turn my frown upside down.  I'm trying out this new brand I read about in Runner's World---BALEAF. Have never heard of this brand but was thrilled when my new fleeced lined pants and jacket arrived the other day-- I was psyched to go out for a run--even if it was only 24 degrees. See that's all it took. Something New. Just finished Sarah Winman's new book Still Life and thoroughly enjoyed it. This beautifully written novel begins in 1944 as Private Ulysses Temper meets Evelyn Skinner, a 60 year old art historian, on a road in Tuscany. She has come to Italy to help salvage art work from the ruins of war. Temper and his best friend Captain Darnley agree to accompany Evelyn to Florence, an event that changes their lives forever. After the war, Ulysses returns home to London and works at the Stoat &  Parot where the reader meets a host of unforgettable characters including Peg, Alys, Pete, Col, and Cress. After Ulysses gets an unexpected inheritance,  he returns to his beloved Florence to live and over the years,  several of his friends from London join him. The novel spans four decades where Evelyn and Ulysses look for each other only to miss at the last moment until Evelyn spies his picture in a newspaper after the Florentine Floods of 1966. This heartwarming novel of friendship, family, love, art, wine, great food and conversation set under the Tuscan sun will definitely help you forget the winter blues. Seriously,  It's a gem of a story that I'll never forget. It's about 450 pages or a 6 mile run that I was sad to finish and will surely read again. It's definitely earned a place on my book shelf. 

January 8, 2022 LET THE MUSIC PLAY

 

I finally gave in. I had NO choice. You see--my second generation NANO finally died. It had a good run--at least 15 years. I'm one of those people--I NEED music--especially if I'm racing. It really MATTERS. Otherwise I'm a self proclaimed LOLLYGAGGER. SO--I finally bit the bullet. Got an Apple Watch. I've never run with a watch before--I've never kept track of my mileage--splits--and all that JAZZ--until now.  I really like the watch  BUT at the same time it's causing me anxiety. It's a little like BIG BROTHER. It sends me notifications EVERY HOUR telling me to BREATHE--MEDITATE--STAND. It's also got this activity button that I refer to as the--RING OF TERROR. If the rings DON'T close by the end of the day then I haven't EXERCISED--MOVED--STOOD-- ENOUGH. I'm telling you--this is A LOT OF PRESSURE. See--I never wanted a gizmo that told me how many steps I took each day because then I would feel obligated to TAKE THE STEPS. NOW THAT I KNOW--it isn't pretty. Last night I was running up and down the steps at midnight to meet my goal of 10,000 steps and flights climbed.  This kind of thing can make a person like me KOOKY.  Pretty sure I was happier when I was IN THE DARK about the numbers. Yet another reason I have to escape into the world of books. I recently finished a wonderful novel by one of my favorite writers--This Must Be The Place by Maggie O'Farrell. First off, O'Farrell is an exquisite writer who has the ability to render characters flawlessly--Characters I miss long after finishing her novels. As this story unfolds, Daniel Sullivan, recently divorced father of two, is in Ireland collecting his grandfather's ashes. While there, he meets Claudette and her son Ari. After learning that Daniel is a linguist, Claudette convinces him to stick around and help her son who has a crippling stutter. Although the story is centered around the marriage of Daniel and Claudette that is just a microcosm of the story which then flashes back and forth between 1944-2016 where multiple narrators--from different time periods and places--help the reader understand why Claudette is a recluse, why Daniel hasn't seen his kids in 10 years and why guilt is crippling his life.  Again, this book is a treasure--and it was on my best books of 2021 list. It's about 400 pages or a 6 mile commitment worth every step. 

January 1, 2022 BOOK OF LOVE

 Happy New Year. 2021 was a tough year. Hoping 2022 will be a little kinder. Looking back at 2021--The Belle of the Book read 46 books--and reviewed 36 books. That's over 15,000 pages. Not bad.  My favorite books of 2021 include:

1) The Color of Water by James McBride--Blog post titled My Generation 11/6/21

2) The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles--Blog post titled Respect 11/21/21

3) Gilead Series including the books Home, Lila and Jack by Marilynne Robinson--Blog post titled Life is Hard   6/22/21

4) A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki--Blog post titled Chicken Fried 3/27/21

5) Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride--Blog post titled Back on the Chain Gang 9/16/21

6) The House at Riverton by Kate Morton--Blog post titled High Maintenance Woman 1/24/21

7) This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell--Sorry--haven't reviewed yet

8) Nobody's Fool and the sequel Everybody's Fool by Richard Russo--Sorry--haven't reviewed yet

Hope you find peace and stay healthy in the New Year. Happy Reading.