Tag: book review

A Full Net

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Daignault, Susan. A Full Net: Fishing Stories from Maine and Beyond. Islandport Press, 2023

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I occasionally review cool books.

Disclaimer: I have to say this upfront for the sake of being completely honest. I am not a fishing person. The last time I “fished” for anything, it was off the side of a 7′ skiff with my dad. We were dropping lines (complete with lead sinkers) for mackerel that were running in the harbor of Monhegan. I do not remember eating anything we caught, but I do remember winding up the line and the excitement I felt bringing up those beautiful speckled silver and blue fish. [As an aside, the general store used to smoke mackerel in a converted old fridge. They were delicious.]
Having admitted that I am not an avid fishing fan, it makes sense that I could not fully relate to Daignault’s acute passion/obsession for reeling in the biggest big one or the agony of the one(s) that got away. With the latter, I can only equate it to the pain of a DNF in the world of running road races. [There is nothing more embarrassing for a serious runner than a “did not finish” result attached to your bib number. But again, I digress.]
More importantly, because I am not passionate about fish when Daignault went deep into the fishing terminology I felt like she was speaking a foreign language. Luckily, she translates often.
Aside from fishing, as a person, I found Daignault to be an inspiration. She enthusiastically forged her way through what was considered a man’s world with fishing and her chosen career in the Coast Guard. She was the first woman assigned to the 180-foot buoy tender named Firebush in Kodiak, Alaska. Two years at sea in Alaska is no small feat!
Confessional: Beyond the fishing terminology I found A Full Net hard to read at times only because the stories are all over the place and have a chaotic timeline. One minute she is describing something from her childhood and then the story will jump to the 2020s. There is a bit of repetition I needed to battle as well (How many times could she say her family summered on Cape Cod where she had sand in her toes and salt in her hair?). It was if the chapters were written as stand-alone essays.
One last comment. The subtitle of A Full Net is Fishing Stories from Maine and Beyond. Because Daignault is so secretive about her favorite fishing spots, particularly in Maine, she could have titled her book Fishing Stories from the Southern Side of Pluto. I felt she mentioned other locals such as Costa Rica, Louisiana, Florida, the British Virgin Islands, Alaska, and Cape Cod just as often as Maine.

Book trivia: there is an abundance of photographs which add to the charm of Daignault’s story.

Krik? Krak!

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Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak! SoHo, 1995.

Reason read: Danticat was born in January. Celebrating her birth month with Krik? Krak! I also needed a book for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge of 2024 with a book about loss. This definitely fit the bill.

Right away, you know you are in the presence of a great writer when you read the very first short story of Krik? Krak! In “Children of the Sea” two teenagers who are in love keep journals when they are separated by dictatorship. Danticat keeps the two first person narratives clear by using capitalization and punctuation for one voice but not the other. The educated boy, a member of the Youth Federation, has escaped Haiti on a boat bound for Miami, Florida, while his young love (who does not use capitalization of punctuation) is left behind to endure military abuses. This was probably one of my favorites. Each subsequent story builds upon the next with the tiniest of threads. A minute detail will tie one story back to another.
“Nineteen Thirty-Seven” is a painful story about a woman visiting her mother in prison. Her mother is accused of flying. The government believes she is a witch, capable of rising like a bird on fire.
“A Wall of Fire Rising” tells the short but devastating story of a family barely making ends meet.
“Night Women” demonstrates the lengths a woman will go in order to provide for her child.
“Between the Pool and the Gardenias” is another heartbreaking story about loss.
“The Missing Peace” illuminates innocence abandoned.
“Seeing Things Simply” shares the story of an artist looking for beauty while ugliness crowds all around her.
“New York Day Women” demonstrates just how much a mother’s love can suffocate a daughter.
“Caroline’s Wedding” weaves a tale of expectation in age old customs.
“Women Like Us” is a message to daughters.
“In the Old Days” is an additional story for the twentieth anniversary edition of Krik? Krak! It tells the story of a woman asked to visit her dying father, a man she has never met.

The short stories of Krik? Krak!:

  • Children of the Sea
  • Nineteen Thirty-Seven
  • A Wall of Fire Rising
  • Night Women
  • Between the Pool and the Gardenias
  • The Missing Peace
  • Seeing Things Simply
  • New York Day Women
  • Caroline’s Wedding
  • Epilogue: Women Like Us
  • New to the 20th Anniversary Edition: In the Old Days

Quotes to quote, “At times I feel like I can just reach out and pull a star down from the sky as though it is a breadfruit or a calabash or something that could be of us to us on this journey” (“Children of the Sea” p 8), “I want him to forget that we live in a place where nothing lasts” (“Night Women” p 73), “They kept their arms close to their bodies, like angels hiding their wings” (“Nineteen Thirty-Seven” p 137).

Author fact: I am reading five books by Edwidge Danticat. Brother, I’m Dying in the last one.

Book trivia: reviewers call Krik? Krak! virtually flawless, passionate, lyrical, devastating, moving and luminous. I couldn’t agree more.

Nancy said: Pearl did not say anything specific about Krik? Krak!

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Contradictory Caribbean: Paradise and Pain” (p 55)

Maine Bucket List

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Gonzalez, Shirley. Maine Bucket List Adventure Guide: Explore 100 Offbeat Destinations You Must Visit! Canyon Press, 2022.

Reason read: I have the Maine bug. What can I say?

If you want a compilation of a bunch of random places to visit in Maine and you like your information willy nilly, Maine Bucket List is the guide for you. It comes with some caveats, though. Comprised of 125-ish places in Maine, Bucket List is sorted into “regions” and includes GPS coordinates for Google maps for each spot. Speaking of maps, though, there is not a one included. Not even one of the entire state of Maine. To make matters worse, I strongly disagree with the so-called regions. I found the organization of regions to be strange because if you don’t know the state of Maine, you have no idea why Gonzalez starts in Lewiston. Actually, I know Maine and have no idea why she chose to start with that town. To explain further – Lewiston, Augusta, and Bangor are the first three locations mentioned, but not one of them is in the same county (Androscoggin, Kennebec, and Penobscot respectively). They are all approximately an hour from each other. Gonzalez goes back to a Lewiston locale 75 pages later. Here are more head scratchers: Peaks Island (near Portland) is the page before Lubec, which is some 4-5 hours away. Then Lubec is followed by Gorham (again, 4-5 hours away). Baxter State Park is not in the table of contents under B for Baxter, nor is it under M for Millinocket (where the park is located). You can find Baxter State Park Park under B for Bangor…which is ninety miles away. As an aside, Millinocket has a pretty cool half marathon every December to help support the town.
But, enough of the “region” complaints. I think I made my point. My next gripe is the inclusion of just Will Kefauver’s studio gallery. Why not include any of the other hundreds of fantastic galleries? Why nothing about the Wyeth family or the gallery of Paul Niemiec? I hoped to see the Rockland Breakwater walk mentioned. It wasn’t. I was disappointed that while Gonzalez included the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens she didn’t mention their fantastic Gardens Aglow event that happens every Christmas. It is an outrageously beautiful display with thousands and thousands of Christmas lights. Every color of the rainbow lights up a winter wonderland. Walking through the park after dark with a cup of hot chocolate is an event not to be missed and so much more exciting than a bunch of trolls.
The guide isn’t all bad, though. Maine Bucket List introduced me to facts about my home state that I was not aware: there is an official memorial to the Underground Railroad, Robert E. Peary graduated from Bowdoin and you can tour his house, and Swans Island has a music festival. I made special mention of the Devil’s Footprint. I will have to check that out the next time I am home.

You know I can’t get away from being critical about information regarding Monhegan Island. I would disagree with the best times to visit the island. Gonzalez says between April and October. I would change that to June to September. Most of the “day tripping” boats don’t start running until Memorial Day weekend. Hotels do not open until the last week of May so if you arrive before the daily boats I hope you know someone to bunk with! Most accommodations are closed by the first or second week of October.                                                

Book trivia: editors of Maine Bucket List had a hard time spelling Mount Desert. It was either Mountt or Deseret. Other missed mistakes include the hours for a monastery: “daily mass at 7:30 a.m. on weekends and 8:00 a.m. on the weekends.” I think the first weekend mention should be weekDAYS. As they say in Maine, hard telling, not knowing. I suppose I could look it up…

Setlist: “State of Maine”

Roma

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Croce, Julia Della. Roma: Authentic Recipes from In and Around the Eternal City. Chronicle Books, 2004.

Reason read: Having just come back from Rome, a coworker gave this to me as a gift.

There is more to Roma than delicious recipes and luxurious photographs. Inside the pages of this cookbook you will find the history of some of Rome’s most traditional ingredients like polenta, olives, and artichokes. You will read about what Caesar liked to serve his guests (moray eels) and learn that Anzio was the birth place of Caligula and Nero. Croce also includes a section on where to eat and sleep in and around the ancient city. Because she includes addresses, phone numbers, and days of operations, it is strongly advised to doublecheck this information as Roma was published nearly twenty years ago. Some places may have not survived Rome’s devastating battle with Covid in 2020. There is a section of mail order resources, complete with address, phone number, fax, website and a brief description. Again, I would check for accuracy.
One of my favorite sections of Roma is the information on festivals. The ancient city celebrates everything from polenta, artichokes, flower artwork, fish, pork, lentils, bread salad, olive oil, and of course, grapes.
Croce ends Roma with information about cooking schools, wine courses and Italy tours, starting with her own Italian cooking school, La Vera Cucina and ending with “To Italy with Julia”, a culinary and cultural tour of Italy.
As an aside, I liked the phrase “an aggressive use of pepper” but it had me wondering exactly how much constituted “aggressive” in Croce’s eyes.

Book trivia: The gorgeous photographs within Roma were shot by Paolo Destefanis.

Author fact: I only have this one cookbook by Julia Croce. Probably because I am not a huge fan of Italian cuisine. I am a huge fan of Chronicle Books, though. I have several cookbooks from them.

As an aside, while I was in Rome for ten days I had the privilege of staying with a Roman family in the Laurentino district. On New Year’s Eve, my host cooked an elaborate ten course meal that included pasta, fish, salad, and bread. The last dish (served at 1:30am) was a lentil-sausage stew. The sausage rounds symbolized coins of wealth in the coming year. It was really delicious.

Finding Freedom

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French, Erin. Finding Freedom: Celadon, 2021.

Reason read: this was a gift from my sister. I read everything that comes from her, especially if it takes place in Maine.

To say Erin French is a fighter is an understatement. Let’s start with childhood with an mentally abusive father. I think about what kind of person I would be if, unless I was doing something for him, I never received honest love from my father. To watch him drown kittens would be enough to traumatize me for life. [That is the stuff of nightmares, especially if you are too young to understand the necessity of the act.]
Finding Freedom is not only a story of redemption, but one of tenacity. Coming from a small town is almost always seen as a curse. There is a stigma around being from Nowhere, America. You are considered a nobody if you can’t get out. Breaking free and escaping from your small provincial hometown to make it in the “real world” is always the unspoken goal. Erin almost made it out, but when she had a child out of wedlock and had to come crawling home to Freedom, Maine, it should have been a source of shame, but instead the act saved Erin’s life. Even though there were more adversities to come, her son Jaim gave her a reason to live, to fight, and to succeed. Because of him she was able to navigate a horrific (some would say diabolical) divorce, survive a bizarre custody battle for Jaim, conquer an all-consuming alcohol and prescription pill addiction, and find financial stability. She was able to break down every roadblock her ex-husband and her own demons put in front of her.
You may think I have given you spoilers for Finding Freedom. Believe me when I say I haven’t. There is so much more to Erin’s story. Read it for yourself to find out.

Book trivia: Each section of Finding Freedom is separated by a place in Maine: Hope, Unity, Prospect, Liberty, and Freedom. If people are not familiar with rural Maine they might think she is talking about something entirely different.

Quote to quote, “I didn’t want to live a life where dollar amounts dictated dreams” (p 52). Amen to that. My father always told me, do what you love and love what you do. If you live within the means of your passion you will never want for anything.

Playlist: Cesaria Evora, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Bette Midler’s “Baby of mine”, Stevie Nicks, the Sound of Music soundtrack, and Whitney Houston.

A House in Corfu

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Tennant, Emma. A House in Corfu: a Family’s Sojourn in Greece. Henry Holt and Company, 2002.

Reason read: in January 1981 Greece joined the European community.

So you want a house on the Greek island of Corfu? It is going to take a lot of work…as Emma Tennant’s parents soon found out. In A House in Corfu it is the 1960s and Emma’s parents have been entranced by a spot at the mouth of a mythological bay. Supposedly, this is the spot where Odysseus came ashore; where Nausicaa took him in. The Tennants decide to build a house they name Rovina. Emma Tennant’s romantic descriptions make Rovina sound like a fairytale when it was all said and done, but first there was the initial build where troubles naturally abounded. Water was difficult to find. (The search went on for seven weeks while the family relied on rainwater.) Supplies needed to come by boat from a tiny harbor and hauled up the countryside. Then there were the island politics to navigate. The locals used the land as shortcuts to fishing spots. Then there was the one time Tennant couldn’t return to London. Because of a military coup led by Colonel Papadopoulos the planes refused to fly.
Tennant pays tribute to other Corfu writers like Homer, Durrell, and Edward Lear.
While I enjoyed Tennant’s romantic descriptions, her parenthetic comments and run-on sentences were tiring.

As an aside, I love learning new things. I did not realize Greeks have siestas. dhen pirazei means never mind.

As another aside, I am fascinated by the Judas trees Tennant described. I was able to see one that was one hundred years old while I was in Rome. Unfortunately, it was not in bloom.

Lines I loved, “Greece has entered our blood by now, and we can no longer remember the cool summers back home or the precautions taken when embarking on a picnic or a day by the sea: waterproofs, cardigans, rug that may never be unrolled due to sudden, half-expected rain” (p 148) and “The sea is a great cleanser, of body and soul: to feel at first that you are entering the heart of a sapphire or an aquamarine, then to sink deeper into the water that has cold springs as refreshing as a subaqueous shower, is to know that you will come out transformed, like a creature in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and begin the day again as if you had gone nowhere at all” (p 185).

Author fact: I found it interesting that Tennant does not mention a husband, only a son and friends that travel to Greece with her.

Book trivia: There are no photographs of Rovina in A House in Corfu.

Setlist: Melina Mercouri’s “Never On a Sunday”, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, and the Rolling Stones’ “I Can’t Get no Satisfaction”.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the simple chapter called “Corfu” (p 70).

And a Right Good Crew

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Kimbrough, Emily. And a Right Good Crew. Illustrated by Mircea Vasiliu. Harper and Brothers, 1958.

Reason read: A pleasant end of the year read.

Sophie and Arthur Kober, Howard and Dorothy Lindsay, and Emily Kimbrough make up the “right good” crew. This is the story of the five of them are canal cruising aboard first the Venturer and then the Maid Marysue. They travel between Staffordshire and London with plenty of adventure along the way.
Parts about Kimbrough that made me laugh: she was a self proclaimed arguer. She liked a persuasive dialogue challenge. Throughout And a Right Good Crew she was witty and humorous. I loved how she described herself and her companions as heathens who didn’t know how to make a proper pot of tea. She shamelessly uses her daughter’s pregnancy to gain special treatment while traveling and desperately wanted to see how a game of darts was played. I think I would have liked to be friends with Emily Kimbrough.
A few scenes I enjoyed: shopping in 1950s England. They didn’t supply shoppers with containers for their purchases, (What is old is new again. Maine does provide shopping bags, either.) Arthur Kober’s attempt to steer the Maid Marysue, and the ringing of the bells.
Beyond a pleasant memoir, And a Right Good Crew includes some practical late 1950s information about traveling by canal: a glossary of terms, a step by step directive of how to take a boat through a lock, a list of books for suggested reading, and a tally of basic expenses.

As an aside, if you order a Bloody Mary in London, are you swearing at Mary?

Author fact: Kimbrough grew up in Chicago and developed a sense of wanderlust early on.

Book trivia: be forewarned, the details are a little dated. Case in point, the hire fee for a boat was twenty-nine pounds per week. A charge for a lad was six a week.

Head scratching lines, “He had phrased her incompetence delicately” (p 7), “We continued to impose our involuntary shock treatment” (p 180), and “Neither activity came even in the neighborhood of my comprehension” (p 224).

Setlist: Gershwin’s “A Woman is a Sometime Thing”.

Nancy said: Pearl included And a Right Good Crew as a humorous book about cruising. She had more to say about the book but you should check it out for yourself in Book Lust To Go (p 253).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Water, Water Everywhere” (p 253).

White Boots

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Streatfeild, Noel. White Boots. Illustrated by Milein Cosman. Puffin Books, 1963.

Reason read: Noel Streatfeild, if you couldn’t tell by her first name, was born on Christmas Eve. Read in her honor.

Who doesn’t love Noel Streatfeild’s “Shoes” books? Whether you read the British version (White Boots) or the American (Skating Shoes), either is just as cute. Ten year old Harriet is a frail child, recovering from a long illness that has left her legs “cotton-woolish” and weak. Her doctor prescribes exercise to rebuild her muscles. He knows just the sport, ice skating. There at the rink Harriet meets a girl her age, skating sensation Lalla. Lalla’s father was a world famous skater as well but died in an accident. His sister is tyranically determined to make her niece the next star on ice. Seeing that Harriet is a good influence on Lalla’s training, Harriet soon starts taking ice skating, dance and fencing lessons to keep Lalla engaged. I think you can see where this is going.
This is a story of opposites attract. Lalla is beautiful and wealthy. Harriet is plain and poor. Lalla’s skating prowess prompts her to be shallow and selfish. Harriet’s lack of privilege leaves her hungry for friendship. Harriet has a loud, loving, and large family while Lalla only has her nanny, her prim and proper aunt, and a home-schooling governess.
This is also a story of acceptance. Just because you have a world class athlete for a father doesn’t mean you have inherited the genes. All Lalla’s life she has been pushed into believing she had to be the skater her father was. She had been given every advantage to fulfill that expectation except she lacked one thing. Talent. Along comes a nobody of a girl. No fancy clothes. No world class father. No money to buy premier lessons. But Harriet did have one thing. Ability.
As an aside, times have changed. In today’s world it is incredibly rare for a sibling to start a paper route just to support his sister’s recovery. What kid does that? Alec is a smart brother. He knows exactly how much he will earn from delivering papers and he also knows how much the skate rental will cost. His business sense drives him to save the two extra shillings to put towards his father’s failing business. Again, what kid does that? I enjoyed the side story of the garden very much.

Confessional: when Streatfeild was setting up the family’s history of poverty, I couldn’t keep up with who lived in which house.
Father Christmas only has six tiny reindeer?

Author fact: Noel Streatfeild was born on Christmas Eve.

Book trivia: Originally published in 1951 in the United States as Skating Shoes.

Playlist: “Where the Rainbow Ends”, “The First Nowell” (Streatfeild’s spelling, not mine), “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, and “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

Nancy said: Pearl said Streatfeild is best known for her shoe books.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fantasy For Young and Old” (p 83). The “Shoe” books should not be included in this chapter because they are not fantasy. Pearl only mentions them because of The Fearless Treasure, which I have not been able to find.

Japanese By Spring

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Reed, Ishmael. Japanese By Spring. Athenaeum, 1993.

Reason read: Traditionally, December is the end of a term. Since Japanese By Spring is set in academia I thought I would read it in honor of the end of a trying term.

An ad promises Benjamin “Chappie” Puttbutt III that he will learn the language of Japanese by spring. He had started taking lessons to learn Japanese in the Air Force Academy in the mid 1960s. Only the lessons ended after he had been expelled from the Academy. In the beginning the reader has no idea why Puttbutt has been expelled, but hang on! That story is coming and it’s a doozy. In present day, Puttbutt teaches English at the Jack London College. His only ambition in life is to make tenure, but he is a miserable failure. [As an aside, I can tell you that tenure is not all that it is cracked up to be.] But anyway, Puttbutt is so desperate for this recognition that he jumps on the latest support bandwagon that will further his cause, even if it means derogatory talk about his own race and culture.
Reed’s tongue in cheek commentary on institutional endowments was pretty funny. A student can get away with murder because his father practically funds the entire college. Where have we seen that before? Be prepared for other snarky commentary on political hotbed topics like the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill scandal, LA riots and the beating of Rodney King, nationalism, racism, any ism you can think of. Speaking of racism, here is a snarky scene to ponder: a professor is exclaiming that racism has never existed on the Jack London College campus while a fraternity is having its annual “Slave Day.” I was tempted to play a drinking game with the words nationalism and Yoruba.

Fair warning: the details are a bit dated and unbelievable. Chappie is powerful enough to have a plane brought back to the gate when he misses his flight. These days, a plane can still be at the date, but if the door is closed, you will not gain access no matter who you say you are. Not for anything.
Chappie’s mother had been kidnapped three years earlier by Arabs? Supposedly, she helped plan a bombing raid on Libya. This would make sense as Chappie’s father has been tapping his phone and his grandfather, who has been in hiding, had to kidnap him.
The satire drips thick in Japanese By Spring. Chappie’s main rival is a woman by the name of April Jokujoku and all I could think was April Fools. The president of the college is President Stool. The Berserkley left, I could go on and on.

Author fact: Ishmael Reed inserts himself into Japanese By Spring with real facts, like he was born in Tennessee and

Book trivia: Satire is even hidden in the Japanese words Reed peppers throughout Japanese By Spring, like bakamono.

Lines I liked: According to the copyright of Japanese By Spring , one cannot quote any part of this book for any reason. So. No favorite lines will be mentioned. Ugh! there was a line about pacifism that is so hilarious.

Setlist: “You Will Never Walk Alone”, Little Milton, Max Roach, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, John Coltrane’s “Blue Trane”, Beatles, Michael Jackson, Prince, Hank Williams, Matata, Ice Cube, Sister Soulijah, George Clinton’s “Do Fries Go with That Shake”, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and “Onward Christian Soldiers”.

Nancy said: Pearl called Puttbutt’s story “hilariously sad” (Book Lust p 3).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Academia: the Joke” (p 3).

D.B.

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Reid, Elwood. D.B. Doubleday, 2004.

Reason: I started this in the last week of November because the book opens with the date November 24th, 1971.

Does everyone know the real story of the man who used a bomb to skyjack a plane back in the early 70s? Elwood Reid takes the real-life events of D.B. Cooper and turns them into two parallel stories. Fitch’s sounds like a bad country song. He loses his wife, his job, and his Dodge Dart all in quick succession. In truth, it reminded me of a movie called Dead Presidents where a man, down on his luck, is forced into a life of crime because he cannot catch a break the honest way. He tries and tries but finally decides he needs a one-time, single-payout super crime. Something huge that will take him away from it all for the rest of his life. As an interesting aside, Dan Cooper, aka Fitch, skyjacks a plane for $200,000. Today, that same sum would be worth $1,519,362.96 Not too shabby.
On the other side of the narrative is newly retired FBI agent Frank Marshall. Typical of most law enforcement, Marshall can’t immediately give up all he has ever known for a life of leisure. He still feels the need to protect a female witness with whom he is slowly falling in love, he continuously carries the finger bone of a murder he couldn’t solve, and occasionally thinks about a man who jumped from a Seattle-bound 727. When a fresh faced eager agent approaches Marshall about putting down the bottle to help him with the still-open D.B. Cooper case, Marshall feels the tug of solving the old mysteries. Is it possible D.B. Cooper survived the jump? Is he still out there?

Confessional: this takes place in a different time so the details are a bit dated. This happened in a time when one could call an airline for the names of passengers on a certain day’s manifest. I appreciated how Reid used the presidents in office orientate the reader to the appropriate era.

A point of irritation: Dan Cooper asked the stewardess to sit next to him. He then looked at a note he had written on his wrist. Did Susan see that note? How could she not? I know seats were a little more comfortable in the 1970s, but surely she noticed this?

Author fact: While Reid wrote a bunch of novels, I am only reading D.B. for the Challenge. As an aside, Reid publicity shot looks like a head shot and he could be a stand in for Treat Williams.

Book trivia: D.B. is based on a true story.

Playlist: John Lennon’s “Imagine”, Carole King, “American Pie”, Blood Sweat and Tears, Nancy Sinatra, “Lara’s Theme”, Wagner, 96 Tears, Frank Sinatra, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, Bob Seger’s “Night Moves”, Willie Nelson’s “River Boy” and “Crazy”, Neil Young’s “Everyone Knows This is Nowhere”, Thelonious Monk’s “Crepuscule with Nellie”, “Over the Hills and Far Away”, Beatles, the Golden Variations, Roy Orbison, “Sister Ray”, and Velvet Underground.

Nancy said: Pearl called it a great read.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Plots for Plotzing” (p 185).

Just Up the Road

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Diehl, Chelsea. Just Up the Road: A Year Discovering People, Places, and What Comes Next in the Pine Tree State. Islandport Press, 2023.

Reason read: This is a very special Early Review book from LibraryThing. I am super excited I won it.

Confessional: I was born in Maine. I have roots in Maine even though I am currently displaced. My family is still in Maine. Needless to say, my heart is still in Maine. And. And! And, mark my words, I will retire to Maine. I predicted I would love Just Up the Road and I did.

I love scavenger hunts. As soon as I read the subtitle of Just Up the Road I had this hope that the book would contain tons people and places I could discover for myself. I was not disappointed. I started a comprehensive list of places to go, activities to try, and restaurants in which to eat. In all, Diehl mentions twenty-three places to hike, thirty-seven activities beyond hiking, and twenty-three restaurants. She also includes a smattering of black and white photographs and fifteen stories of Maine from the perspective of others. Quoting Maine in other people’s words was a touch of humbleness I didn’t expect. While I wanted to call this a guide to Maine, it is most definitely not. There are no maps of the places mentioned. There is no contact information. No hours of operations, emails, or websites. It is a strictly a travelogue/memoir with perfect inserts of Diehl’s opinions, past triumphs, and future dreams with husband, Andrew and daughter, Harper. As an aside, the decision to include Monhegan Island was a no-brainer in my mind, but then again I am uber-biased. Diehl does an excellent job avoiding trope and superfluous flowery language about my hometown. Nowhere in her description does she talk about the magical light or spell-bounding beauty. Blah, blah, blah. She even avoids talking about fairy houses. Bless her heart.
While Diehl is heavy on hiking, she does not seem to be into music. For great places to see music I would add Camden’s Opera House, Rockland’s Strand, Portland’s State Theater, and Brownfield’s Stone Mountain Arts.
Confessional: I wanted to see Home Café in Rockland, the Orono Bog on Bangor, the Rockland Breakwater, or Newscastle Publick House in Newcastle. Just a few of my favorite Maine places beyond music venues.

Playlist: “We’re Off to See the Wizard”, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, “the Family Madrigal”, Ella Fitzgerald (spelled wrong), Bessie Smith, “Pretty Woman”, and “Shake Rattle Roll”.

Author fact: I am pretty sure this is Diehl’s first nonfiction.

Book trivia: I know I said Diehl doesn’t include maps or any other business information related to the places she goes, but she does include beautiful black and while photographs.

You or Someone You Love

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Matthews, Hannah. You or Someone You Love: Reflections from an Abortion Doula. Atria, 2023.

Have you ever been around someone so kind, so heart-open and emotionally connected that at turns they embarrass and inspire you? You squirm a little because they are so eager to display all the feels and worse, imparting those raw emotions onto you, but at the same time you admire their ability to be so free with their passions. I know I don’t know what to do when someone is even the slightest bit complimentary or caring and Matthews, within the very first pages of You or Someone You Love, seems overly gentle and loving. I do not need her to call me radiantly gorgeous or perfect. I know I am neither. I need to understand that Matthews wants to set her readers at ease. Her book is a minefield of controversy, pain, anger, shame, and guilt. She doesn’t want to intrude on the fragility of some readers while she unearths the feelings they might have buried deep down. At the same time Matthews wants her initial message to be clear, straightforward and reassuring. Simply: I. Care. For. You. The message is received loud and clear.
I wanted to go beyond healing and actually learn something from reading You or Someone You Love. Here are a few lessons: I had never heard of the Mississippi Appendectomy. I was excited to discover the Native Land map. I never knew one could donate breast milk. But! The ultimate truth: I didn’t expect to learn something about myself in the process. Well played, Matthews.
As an aside, why do we always apologize for our pain? I am bothered when someone apologizes for crying during an interview; when someone says they say sorry for their pain. I get irritated when people are ashamed of their tears and yet, I go to that same place. I apologize for feeling something beyond my control. The section called “Abortion is Pain” resonated. When Matthews was talking about the anticipation of receiving pain, I felt myself tensing, locking, tightening, and clenching in readiness of an imaginary pain yet to be delivered. Just reading the words made me wat to curl into a tight, tight, tight porcupine ball and play dead for all I was worth. But I kept reading and that made all the difference.

Quotes to become bumper stickers: “Hope is the thing I just keep doing” (p 167).

Playlist: “the Mother” by Brandi Carlile.

Silver Scream

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Daheim, Mary. Silver Scream: a Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery. William Morrow, 2002.

Reason read: I have no idea.

In a word, goofy. Everything about Silver Scream was goofy. The premise goes like this: the owner of a bed and breakfast needs to solve a murder on her property before the authorities blame her for the death and shut her business down. I thought that was a plausible and clever way to have a civilian try to solve a mystery. A bunch of movie are staying at Hillside Manor for a movie premier. When the producer is found dead, drowned in the kitchen sink, the race is on to solve the death. Accident? Suicide? Murder? The cleverness ends here and the story becomes just plain goofy. Judith, as the bed and breakfast owner, became completely unbelievable when she promised to have an elaborate costume for an actress repaired in one day. Then there was this goofy moment: the rookie police officer, responding to aforementioned death in Judith’s kitchen, makes bunny ears behind her superior officer’s head while investigating the scene. This is at a potential crime scene! Goofy! And another (still at the same crime scene): Judith’s husband’s ex-wife shows up. She’s not only allowed to enter the potential crime scene, but she hangs around for awhile. I could go on and on, listing all the silliness of Silver Scream. Even though I didn’t solve the mystery right away, I wasn’t sure I cared.

Here is another head-scratcher for me. In the toolshed, where mother is squirreled away like Rochester’s wife, one has to go from the bedroom and through the living room and kitchen in order to get to the bathroom (counter clockwise), when the bathroom is literally on the other side of the bedroom wall. In the main house there is a guest room but no bathroom unless the guest is allowed to go through the master bedroom in order to get to the nearest bathroom. I guess whoever designed these structures wanted the bathrooms as out of the way as possible.

As an aside, as a former housekeeper, if I found a slip of paper that appeared to be a prescription of some sort, I don’t care how illegible the handwriting was, I would never throw it in the trash. That is definitely not my call.

Quote I liked, “Who will you blame if something happens while these movie nutcases are staying at Hillside Manor?” (p 3). The word nutcase is one of my favorites.

Author fact: all of Daheim’s books have pun-typical titles.

Book trivia: It is not necessary to read the other Daheim mysteries in order to enjoy Silver Scream. Daheim will fill you in on details such as Judith worked as a librarian and bartender during the time of her first marriage and there were two other murders at Hillside Manor. Of course there were…

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Living High in Cascadia” (p 154). Maybe it was just me, but I felt Silver Scream could have taken place anywhere.

Wintering

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May, Katherine. Wintering: the Power of Reset and Retreat in Difficult Times. Riverhead Books, 2020.

I feel like this book comes from a place of privilege. How many of us can safely leave employment and snuggle into a season of wintering? I learned to manage my expectations in regards to what I am hoping to “get” out of reading Wintering. I found myself asking what is the difference between an entertaining story and one from which you are supposed to greatly benefit? I want to call Wintering a beautifully written memoir with a message and leave it at that. To think there is a self-help promise was almost too much to ask. Otherwise, if I don’t just call it a memoir, Wintering will be nothing more than a book with an identity crisis. Self-help or self-story? More of the latter is my honest opinion. It is a memoir about navigating a difficult season, if you take wintering in the literal sense.

Lines I liked, “But then, that’s what grief is – a yearning for that one last moment of contact that would settle everything” (p 60), “Even at the ripe old age of forty-one, I’m shy about asking if anyone’s free, lest I make myself look unpopular” (p 129), and my favorite, “My blood sparkled in my veins” (p 180).

A few comments about the favorite quotes. Everyone asked, if you had one more moment with a loved one, what would you say? It’s as if the questioner knows the answer to solving the mystery of regret is to have that one last moment of contact. What is wrong with not having anywhere to go (and no one to ask)? And lastly, I was a member of the Polar Bear Club in my high school days. We didn’t swim year round, but we did jump in Songo pond every spring, just after the thaw.

Setlist: ABBA, “Silent Night”, and “Wichita Lineman”.

Orchid Thief

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Orlean, Susan. The Orchid Thief. Ballantine Books, 1998.

Reason read: I swore I got rid of all categories regarding the best time to travel to a region but somehow this one slipped by. December is the best time to visit the Caribbean. I swear, this is the last one for this category. And! And this book doesn’t really fit in the genre, so there you go. Luckily, I also needed a book with a flower on its cover for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge…

Orchids have been described as evil, mysterious, challenging, captivating, beautiful, the devil, sexual, an obsession…
John Laroche seemed like an interesting character. Susan Orlean found him to be the most “moral amoral person she had ever known” (p 6). Is this why she chose to write his biography? I don’t think it was for the love of orchids. If I am being honest, Orchid Thief isn’t a biography of John Laroche either.
A few facts I picked up about orchids: They can live seemingly forever; they often outlive their owners. They are incredibly durable despite being difficult to grow from seed. (As an aside, I now want to visit the New York Botanical Gardens to see the 150 year old wonders.) Here’s something I can spout at a party the next time I need small talk: Charles Darrow, the inventor of the game Monopoly, retired at the age of forty-six to devote himself to all things orchids. What is it about these flowers? I see them at Home Depot and think they are garishly ugly.
Then there were all the things I learned about Florida: the development of the swamp lands, the way anything can grow there (I have a story about that for later), the mystery of Osceola’s head. In the end, I came to the conclusion that the whole state of Florida was one big cesspool for scams.
All in all, Orchid Thief was entertaining.

I love it when a book makes me explore history, geography, or biography. This time I needed to seen the image of Annie Paxton sitting on a ginormous lily pad.

So. The Grow Anywhere story. A friend of mine moved to Florida to be closer to his granddaughter. One day he and said granddaughter were eating peaches. Once granddaughter was finished eating the fruit she didn’t know what to do with the pit. She asked her grandfather if she could plant it. They now have a peach tree in their backyard. Whether it is bearing fruit, I do not know.

As an aside, I was reminded of an episode of Northern Exposure when Laroche’s boss couldn’t spend more time with Orlean due to the fact he had Japanese investors in town. Golf course?

Author fact: Orlean used to write for Newsweek.

Book trivia: Orchid Thief started as a piece in a Florida newspaper and the Orlean wrote about it in the New Yorker. Suddenly it became worthy of a whole book.

Playlist: “Polly Wolly Doodle”, “My Darling Clementine”, Grateful Dead, Mama Cass, “Yes, We Have No Bananas Today”, “Down in the Boondocks”, “Jailhouse Rock”, and “It’s My Desire to Live for Jesus”.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in two chapters. First, in “Dewey Deconstructed” (p 73) and again in “Line that Linger, Sentences that Stick” (p 143).