Winter Book Reviews
Hey everyone! Since it's been bitterly cold in Colorado, there's not much one can do. Thankfully we have books. Here are a few that have kept me from going stir-crazy:
City of Falling Angels by John Berendt - I'm usually not a huge fan of non-fiction, but I fell in love with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt's first book. It was given to me by Martina. She cited its study of the various stata of society in Savannah, GA as similar to Thorton Wilder's book, Mr. North on Newport, RI. Knowing my love of Mr. North, she thought I should give it a try and boy, was she right. If you've just seen the Midnight movie, don't judge the book by it. Go out now and check this one out. Anyway, in City, Berendt give Venice, Italy the same treatment. Once again he immediately captured my interest with a cast of real life characters that only a city like Venice could host. If you've been to Venice, City makes you want to return post haste and if you haven't, get ready to call your travel agent. I first went to Venice about ten years ago with Cyd and was captured by both the beauty and the oddity of the place. It's the kind of city where the directions to your hotel go something like this: Go to xxx square. Find the statue. Walk 64 paces in the direction his sword is pointing and turn left, etc. Basically it was a scavenger hunt for adults and who doesn't love that. It's also the kind of place where you ask a waiter for a cool place to go and he directs you to Il Picolo Mondo (The Small World). After almost giving up finding it, you notice a couple of people knock on a black door. A hidden window slides open and they are eventually let in. You walk up to the door and read in 10 point font, Il Picolo Mondo. After getting in, you learn the tango from mad Italians. And the list goes on....
City tells the story of several of Venice's residents and expats. The story is kicked off by the mysterious burning of the oldest opera house in Italy, the Fenice, and continues with the effort to determine who is responsible and how it should be rebuilt. Basically the amount of red tape involved makes the movie Brazil look tame. Other chapters are devoted to exiled poet Ezra Pound (who knew that he was found a traitor during WWII and sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane for 13 years?), dueling glass blowers, various aristocrats and artists, a world class killer of rats, and many, many more. City is an entertaining read and an interesting look at Venice from the inside.
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle - I continued my travelogue with this book, given by my brother to my mother for Christmas. I got to read it first. Year tells the story of Mayle and his wife as they buy a house in the countryside in Provence. Each chapter represents a month of the year so Mayle spends a lot of time talking about the changing seasons and the different foods each season brings. Early on he makes it clear that life in Provence revolves around food and drink. His description of some of the meals he eats got my mouth watering and me longing for a trip to L'Atelier, our local French restaurant. Mayle also describes the challenges they faced in doing some remodeling of their house. Lots more red tape to be found. This is a mood book for me. When I was in the right mood, the month Mayle was writing about flew by. Towards the end, I started getting a bit bored. I can say that if I were to travel to Provence, this is a book I'd bring.
Jane Austen in Scarscale by Paula Marantz Cohen - I made a triumphant return to fiction with this book, the second of Cohen's that I've read. The first is Jane Austen in Boca, a take on Pride and Prejudice set in a Florida retirement community. Trust me it works. Scarsdale works just as well. Cohen structures the plot on Austen's Persuasion, a novel whose heroine (Anne Elliot) I didn't enjoy near as much as those in P&P or Emma. Scarsdale focuses on another Anne, Anne Ehrlich, a guidance counselor at a highly competitive high school. Much of the book is spent on Anne's dealings with her highly motivated students and their obnoxious parents as they battle to get into the Ivy League schools of their choice. After reading about the effort Anne puts into all of this, I could not help but feel hugely cheated by my own high school guidance teacher - Caroline Roberts, a woman who didn't help me one iota with a single college applicaiton. Where was Anne when I needed her? Anyway, when Anne's not at school, she's helping out her beloved but infirm grandmother and her newly impoverished family. One day in walks Ben Cutler, Anne's first love whom she spurned at her family's request because he wasn't of their class. Ben has made it big and Anne's feelings have not diminished after ten years. I won't spoil the rest. This was a super quick read for me and Cohen is an excellent writer - very insightful.
-sunday
City of Falling Angels by John Berendt - I'm usually not a huge fan of non-fiction, but I fell in love with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt's first book. It was given to me by Martina. She cited its study of the various stata of society in Savannah, GA as similar to Thorton Wilder's book, Mr. North on Newport, RI. Knowing my love of Mr. North, she thought I should give it a try and boy, was she right. If you've just seen the Midnight movie, don't judge the book by it. Go out now and check this one out. Anyway, in City, Berendt give Venice, Italy the same treatment. Once again he immediately captured my interest with a cast of real life characters that only a city like Venice could host. If you've been to Venice, City makes you want to return post haste and if you haven't, get ready to call your travel agent. I first went to Venice about ten years ago with Cyd and was captured by both the beauty and the oddity of the place. It's the kind of city where the directions to your hotel go something like this: Go to xxx square. Find the statue. Walk 64 paces in the direction his sword is pointing and turn left, etc. Basically it was a scavenger hunt for adults and who doesn't love that. It's also the kind of place where you ask a waiter for a cool place to go and he directs you to Il Picolo Mondo (The Small World). After almost giving up finding it, you notice a couple of people knock on a black door. A hidden window slides open and they are eventually let in. You walk up to the door and read in 10 point font, Il Picolo Mondo. After getting in, you learn the tango from mad Italians. And the list goes on....
City tells the story of several of Venice's residents and expats. The story is kicked off by the mysterious burning of the oldest opera house in Italy, the Fenice, and continues with the effort to determine who is responsible and how it should be rebuilt. Basically the amount of red tape involved makes the movie Brazil look tame. Other chapters are devoted to exiled poet Ezra Pound (who knew that he was found a traitor during WWII and sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane for 13 years?), dueling glass blowers, various aristocrats and artists, a world class killer of rats, and many, many more. City is an entertaining read and an interesting look at Venice from the inside.
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle - I continued my travelogue with this book, given by my brother to my mother for Christmas. I got to read it first. Year tells the story of Mayle and his wife as they buy a house in the countryside in Provence. Each chapter represents a month of the year so Mayle spends a lot of time talking about the changing seasons and the different foods each season brings. Early on he makes it clear that life in Provence revolves around food and drink. His description of some of the meals he eats got my mouth watering and me longing for a trip to L'Atelier, our local French restaurant. Mayle also describes the challenges they faced in doing some remodeling of their house. Lots more red tape to be found. This is a mood book for me. When I was in the right mood, the month Mayle was writing about flew by. Towards the end, I started getting a bit bored. I can say that if I were to travel to Provence, this is a book I'd bring.
Jane Austen in Scarscale by Paula Marantz Cohen - I made a triumphant return to fiction with this book, the second of Cohen's that I've read. The first is Jane Austen in Boca, a take on Pride and Prejudice set in a Florida retirement community. Trust me it works. Scarsdale works just as well. Cohen structures the plot on Austen's Persuasion, a novel whose heroine (Anne Elliot) I didn't enjoy near as much as those in P&P or Emma. Scarsdale focuses on another Anne, Anne Ehrlich, a guidance counselor at a highly competitive high school. Much of the book is spent on Anne's dealings with her highly motivated students and their obnoxious parents as they battle to get into the Ivy League schools of their choice. After reading about the effort Anne puts into all of this, I could not help but feel hugely cheated by my own high school guidance teacher - Caroline Roberts, a woman who didn't help me one iota with a single college applicaiton. Where was Anne when I needed her? Anyway, when Anne's not at school, she's helping out her beloved but infirm grandmother and her newly impoverished family. One day in walks Ben Cutler, Anne's first love whom she spurned at her family's request because he wasn't of their class. Ben has made it big and Anne's feelings have not diminished after ten years. I won't spoil the rest. This was a super quick read for me and Cohen is an excellent writer - very insightful.
-sunday
posted by Sunday at
2:49 PM
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