Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

 As soon as I started reading this book I was hooked.  Tucci had a way of describing his childhood which evoked so many memories of my own.  The benefits of growing up in an Italian neighborhood were immense and I loved every bit of it.

This book is humorous, engaging and sad in parts. Some of my book friends listened to this on audiobook and I can imagine it was very good hearing some of his stories in his own voice.

There are recipes included in this book and i can say you will be hungry as you read about his foodie experiences as well the recipes.

I have enjoyed movies where Tucci had a starring role, particularly Big Night.  I just bought a copy of Big Night after reading this memoir because I wanted to see to again. 5 stars for this book.

Sharing with Shelleyrae at Book'd Out for the 2022 Nonfiction Reading Challenge. (Category: Celebrity)

The Silence by Susan Allott

 

You will experience the severe stifling heat of Australia and a bit of damp, cloudy England in this novel.

The characters are very real, the dialogue rings true with marital problems, tensions of a horrible job, unrealistic expectations and secrets.  Sounds like a bummer but you will love and hate on the characters and want to know what happened in their lives.

The story shifts from 1967 to 1997, back and forth.  The main narrator is Isla Green.  She is 6 years old in 1967 and loves living in her Australian home.  She adores her father. She thought everyone had a house with a backyard stretching to the ocean. Her parents are Joe and Louisa Green, both English but have moved to Australia to start a new life.  Trouble is,  Louisa doesn’t love it.  She misses England and hates the heat but I suspect her biggest problem is an alcoholic husband.

Next door are Mandy and Steve Mallory.  Isla spends quite a bit of time with Mandy and loves her.  Steve wants Mandy to get pregnant but both parties have different ideas about their future together. Steve has a horrible job as a policeman who removes aboriginal children from their families, placing them at The Home where they will be fostered and eventully learn a trade.

In 1967 women didn’t have joint accounts at the bank and have access to their husband’s  earnings. It was a different world and this makes it harder for Louisa and Mandy to make life altering decisions.

The genre is mystery, thriller, suspense and crime drama. Please read the author’s note at the end of the book. She details how the novel came about as well as her educational reading about Britain’s relationship with Australia and the colonial past.

Thinking of Steve Mallory’s police duties I would suggest watching the film Rabbit Proof Fence. It’s worthwhile.  It details a dark time when Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families to be trained and educated, placed in horific foster care and made servants.  But in Rabbit Proof Fence two sisters escape.

Be prepared to read this one straight through. Would I buy more by this author?  Oh, absolutely.  This is Allott’s first novel and I will preorder her next publication as soon as it’s an option.

Susan Allott is an English author who has lived in London and Australia. To read more about the author click HERE .

Sharing with

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Challenge.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

This is a tragic story, full of twists and revelations, made all the more sad as the story’s inspiration comes from historical records. In the 1930s era women could be locked in an insane asylum just for wandering off on long walks, or for keeping their hair long. Your liberty was at the whim of your parents or husband.

The story starts in Scotland when two sisters are sitting at a dance. It’s but a glimpse of two important characters. Then the detailed background story begins in India where these same two sisters are young; you are allowed a look into their early lives and how they interact with their parents. There is a baby brother born, Hugo, and Esme loves to play with him. While Kitty is the more serious of the two and minds the rules, Esme is the polar opposite. She makes excuses to leave her tutoring session and wanders off to visit her little brother. She walks barefooted to the horror of her prim and proper mother, she won’t be molded into the quiet citizen her mother desires her to be. I like her.

The story flashes between the girl’s childhood in India, then their move to Scotland and then advances to present day with Kitty’s granddaughter Iris.

Iris is a single young woman who owns a vintage clothing shop. She is quite possibly in love with her step brother Alex. It’s not as creepy as it sounds when you read their back story. Her life turns on end when a phone call reveals there is an elderly aunt who has been housed at an asylum for over 60 years, and Iris is the family contact. She’s never heard of Esme Lennox. Iris visits her Alzheimer afflicted grandmother, Kitty Lockhart, who is in and out of hazy thought but does confirm Esme is her sister. So what does Iris do now? Move a possibly crazed old woman, a stranger, into her flat? More importantly, why was Esme’s existence kept a secret all these years.

Now we flashback to Kitty and Esme Lennox as teenagers who are being introduced to the social circle. Kitty is the older sister and all about propriety and appearance. Esme is not confined to conventional social mores and continues to upset her parents. Surprisingly, the young man they hoped would be interested in Kitty is actually besotted with Esme. Later events will change everything in Esme’s life.

 I am upset for Esme that her life was stolen from her. For no good reason she is swept out of her parents’ home at the age of 16 and then left to rot in an asylum. She is asked at one point how long it was since she had last seen her sister. Her reply: “Sixty-one years, five months and 6 days” and fact is, if the hospital had not been closing down, she would have ended her days there.

This is the second book I have read by this author and I like this one as much as the first. It’s sad and it leaves you with much to think about. I like having some things unresolved where you think about potential outcomes. Excellent writing. Well done Ms. O’Farrell.

A quote that sums up the lives of the patients…and when you ponder it, the everyday rituals we all move through.

“It is always the meaningless tasks that endure: the washing, the cooking, the clearing, the cleaning. Never anything majestic or significant, just the tiny rituals that hold together the seams of life.”

This is another paragraph I like. Esme is reflecting on Iris sitting on the beach. It’s perfect – as someone who enjoys genealogy this last part really spoke to me, thinking about my ancestors.

“From all her family – her and Kitty and Hugo and all the other babies and her parents – from all of them, there is only this girl. She is the only one left. They have all narrowed down to this black-haired girl sitting on the sand, who has no idea that her hands and her eyes and the tilt of her head and the fall of her hair belong to Esme’s mother.

We are all, Esme decides, just vessels through which identities are pass: we are lent features, gestures, habits then we hand them on. Nothing is our own. We begin the world as anagrams of our ancestors.” I think that was a marvelous bit of prose.

Sharing with

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Challenge.

Paul McCartney - The Lyrics

If you are a Beatles and Paul McCartney fan and want to know some background on their songs and history THIS is the book.  When I picked this up from the library I couldn't believe the size of these two volumes.  I am reading it much faster than I had thought I might.

The volumes cover 1956 to the present and organized alphabetically by song. Each song title has the lyrics and a story written by McCartney explaining the inspiration or an antedote from his life growing up.

There are also many photos of the Beatles, individual ones of John, Ringo and George and so many of Paul's family with Linda.

This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it for fans.  The Rocky Raccoon story is especially amusing explaining how Paul had a cut lip from  a motorbike accident.  The doctor who arrived at his cousin's home was drunk and you could smell the gin. He did such messed up job of stitching the lip that Paul grew a mustache to cover the bump.

Sharing with:

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

ShelleyRae at Book'd Out for the 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge (category: reference)

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

 Diana and Finn live together in New York.  Finn is a doctor in his fourth year of residency and Diana is a specialist in the art auction field handling acquisitions  of prime pieces of art. They have a specific plan for getting married, moving to a suburb, buying a home and having children.  That part of the plan reminded me of Rebecca Serle's book In Five Years. Very similar with the plans/goals and timeline.

Covid is just starting to make it's presence known and the medical professionals are dealing with cases flooding the emergency room. The well planned trip to the Galapagos Island Finn and Diana made may need to be canceled.  Finn tells Diana to go ahead as it's paid for and nonrefundable.

I found it interesting to read about Finn's perspective in trying to treat patients, watching them die after being ventilated, trying new treatment plans and drugs and the sheer exhaustion he feels after working nonstop for days. This is so realistc and you can tell Picoult did her homework on these scenarios.  It's relayed to Diana through emails as she went on the trip and then found herself isolated and in lockdown.  She wishes she hadn't gone but her experiences on the island are interesting as well. 

Without revealing spoilers you will come to a part of the story where it changes completely and you wonder if Diana is indeed in the Galapagos. This isn't like other Picoult books but I did find it interesting.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Page one: 
 " Between life and death there is a library," she said. "And within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides the chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would have been if you'd made other choices....Would you have done anything different, if you had a chance to undo your regrets?"

Nora Seed is an extremely intelligent young woman but she is very depressed.  Life didn't turn out as she thought  and she decides to end her life.  She "wakes up" in a library at midnight and the librarian from her childhood school is there.  The librarian was always kind to her and becomes her guide assisting with choices.

There is a book of regrets she has Nora read through and the more she reads, the more upset she becomes.  Now she has a chance to drop in on a life she regrets losing.  Perhaps that will be the perfect life for Nora.  You don't go back in time but join the life you would have if you'd taken that path.  

Nora wishes she'd married Dan and pursued his dream of opening a pub in the English countryside. She visits many lives she could have had because each choice we make in life would take us on a different path.  She can become the olympic swimmer, a married woman with children, a successful musician, a dog walker and it goes on and on.

It's not the type of book I had thought it would be and yet I was loving every single chapter.  This is a marvelous book and reminds you the grass isn't always greener.  No life choice is perfect and you aren't guaranteed of smooth sailing with zero heart ache.

It turned out well, loved the ending chapters and I can recommend this book as a very enjoyable read.  It's emotional and uplifting.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday. as it's set in England. Author Matt Haig is an English novelist.

Note: Netgalley provided me with a bookclub kit for this book.  Alas, I wasn't able to view the kit/verbage as it was "faded" - can't think of another way to describe it.  Couldn't see it. 

Trauma: My Life as an Emergency Surgeon by Dr. James Cole

 

This medical memoir by Dr. James Cole drops you into the hectic and unpredictable life of a trauma surgeon.  What the interns and first year residents endure to get through training takes dedication and stamina.  Honestly, I don't know how anyone endures the long hours and work conditions but, thank goodness people like Dr. Cole persevere.

This is a fast paced and realistic accounting.  While I can't abide looking at graphic images of surgery or trauma when watching medical dramas, I could read this - with the exception of cardic section.  That was my real squeamish point in the book, even though other injuries such as a stabbing with a screwdriver, a severe burn patient and gunshots wounds were written in great detail.

Each chapter takes on a different medical emergency.  The crossbow incident was both interesting and sad.  His time spent with Navy SEALS and his deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan were also interesting to me.  

Sharing with

Shelleyrae at Book'd Out for the 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

Category: Medical Memoir

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

 

This story will be enjoyed by those who loved C.S. Lewis' books about Narnia and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  As someone who hasn't read those books in decades I realized you didn't need the background to be entertained by this narrative.

The story begins in 1950, location Worcester and Oxford England. Young George Devonshire is a frail little boy with a heart condition.  He is completely besotted with Lewis' book The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and wants desperately to know if Narnia is real.  He will occassionaly climb into the wardrobe in his room and sit, imaging the world outside and a life he'll never have chance to know.

His older sister Megs is a mathmatics and physics student in Oxford and doesn't think beyond mathmatical probabilities - it's either right or wrong. Fantasy and imagination never cross her mind with any serious thought.  

One thing for sure, Megs loves her little brother very much and rushes home from college to be with him each weekend and break. As she is reading to him one day George asks if she will approach Mr. Lewis and ask where the stories about Narnia came from.  Is it real? Where did the inspiration come from? Megs has been to a lecture of Mr. Lewis but is reluctant to approach him with this request.  Loving George so much she risks it as it's his dying wish.  From there - what a wonderful story this becomes.  

Megs is invited into the home called The Kilns, the residence of Warnie and Jack Lewis. (Jack is C.S. Lewis) and the story unfolds from there.  It's a nesting doll of stories

There is saddness in this story but it's also wonderfully rich with details aout Lewis' life from boyhood to present. Adventure seen through a child's eyes and some very imaginative adults.

I want to thank Katherine at I Wish I Lived in a Library for recommending this book.  It was one her favorites from 2021

Sharing with:

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Stonehenge: The Story of a Sacred Landscape by Francis Pryor

This book about Stonehenge caught my attention at the library and it's been an interesting narrative overall. I won't lie, there are some dry parts to this book but the stories I found interesting are the discoveries of grave sites, historical excavations and carbon dating.

Stonehenge has been a fascination of mine since I was a teen.  My husband, son and I were fortunate enough to take a vacation over a decade ago and visited Stonehenge twice. Highlight of the trip!

The fact that the stones come from Wales and other areas in England show that the stone was not constructed for practical purposes with straightforward business motives. If that were the case, stones would have been sourced as locally as possible. It was far more complex and a place of gatherings for many "tribes" and communities from all over England.

Near Stonehenge at Amesbury Archer a discovery of  three males, apparently related, were buried in nearby graves. Human teeth do most of the growing during childhood,  therefore the composition of the enamel will reflect the water a child drinks. Experts were able to find where they came from through their teeth.  The oldest male came from Germany but a younger male's teeth revealed he grew up in Southern England - his teeth showed he drank water from the chalklands.

In 1978 during an excavation they came upon burial mounds. They found the body of a man with his legs bent and one arm across the chest. The time period could be estimated because of the distinctively shaped arrowheads found. These arrows entered his chest from three different sides of his body. This would seem to imply someone protecting Stonehenge and shooting at the intruder.  I think it’s also amazing they can do radiocarbon dates and therefore knew this body was buried somewhere between 2400 and 2140 BC.

These are just a few interesting facts I read in this book by Francis Pryor. If Mike Biles,  who writes at A Bit About Britain, wrote a book about Stonehenge I would be very interested to read that book.  Historical narratives can be very engaging depending on the author and style.

Sharing with

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

Shelleyrae at Book'd Out for the 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

Category: Geography

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

 

Mr. and Mrs. Wright have a problem with their marriage. They also have secrets from each other that, I'm certain, doesn't help the issues they face in their failed relationship.

Adam and Amelia Wright have been married ten years.  Amelia works at a dog rescue organization at Battersea.  Adam is a writer and adapts books to movie scripts.  He wrote a script called Rock Paper Scissors which he hoped would be a successful screenplay but it's never made into a movie. He spends his days adapting other authors' work into films.

Adam also suffers from a condition called Prosopagosia which is also called face blindness. When I read that bit I was certain the author had made up that medical condition but sure enough, it's quite real.  Those who suffer from this condition can not recognize faces at all - their loved ones or anyone.  They cope by learning a scent, perfume or the way someone walks. This is important in developments of this thriller.

Amelia, unbeknownst to Adam, writes a letter to him every year on their anniversary where she pours her heart out about her love, her hopes and her frustrations with him being a workaholic.  She never gives him the letters but through this you get the core of their failings with one another.

Then Amelia wins a trip to a remote getaway in the wilds of Scotland.  Blackwater Chapel is so remote the phones do not work and there is absolutely nothing near them. No stores, petrol stations or homes.  It's a windy, snowy stormy night when they finally arrive, bickering most of the way.  It's the last chance to save the marriage by getting away and having time together. 

So, here is where I looked up the genre of the book because I do not like horror, at all.  It isn't.  They arrive and the chapel door is locked.  They walk around the building and when they come back, the door is open.  Creepy.  Inside there is a dust coating on the bench in the foyer. Adam gets the lights on and Amelia sees a smiley face traced in the dust on the bench.  Amelia asks Adam is he did it but he claims he did not. The lights go out after Amelia is in a wine cellar, a face appears in the frosted  stained glass window, their very clean guestroom has the exact furniture and decoration as they have in their London home.  

This is a suspenseful story which reveals the big twist very close to the end.  The chapters are titled Amelia, Adam and eventully a third perspective is introduced called Robin.  You won't know who Robin is until much later.  Again - thriller, suspenseful and you'll immerse yourself into the very cold Scottish countryside and wish you could pull that blanket a bit tighter around you as you read.

Sharing with Joy at Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

 

This isn't labeled as a fantasy genre but there is an element of  unintentional time travel in the plot.  Sounds weird, right? What attracted me to this story was a chance to go back in time and meet your mother again when she was young.

Katy is very devoted to her mother Carol and the feeling is mutual.  They are like best friends and so very close.  The story begins with Carol's death and Katy grieving. At the same time Katy was questioning if her marriage to Eric was over so there is a lot of emotional turmoil in her life.

Katy and Carol were meant to take a trip to Italy, the tickets had been purchased months before.  When the tickets arrive Katy decides to go on the trip alone and think about her marriage as well as deal with the grief of losing her mother.  

Something strange happens once she arrives at the hotel. After awakening from a nap, she comes upon her mother in the hotel lobby.  Carol is 30 years younger and Katy thinks she's lost her mind.  Well, wouldn't you?

They strike up a friendship and Katy learns more about her mother and her past, making her evaluate her life a bit differently. 

This is the second book I have read by this author and I liked In Five Years a bit more than this one. I would read more by Rebecca Serle.

Publication date March 1, 2022 by Atria Books.  Genre: Women's Fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.  I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.