Deb Nance

Important reasons for reading a book and how this book fared:

Excellent writing? No. Rather tedious writing.
Fascinating characters? Nope, a main character who does little except drink.
Learning great truths about life? Sorry, but no.

That leaves little but a delightful setting? Surely, this book had a delightful setting? Okay, a weak yes for this one...thus, the two-star rating.

I'd call this a picture book for grownups. It covers every possible topic about food in Italy, with information accompanied by helpful pictures, mostly infographics.

I highly recommend it if you are interested in Italian foods and drinks.

Writing expert Louise Doughty starts her writers off on their quest to write a novel in a year by suggesting a provocative prompt for each of the first few weeks. Then she asks the writers to clear their calendars and write as near to round-the-clock as possible for the next ten weeks. You can write about anything, even things that are only loosely or potentially connected to the story. Then she arrives at what she calls her favorite bit of the whole process: Put everything out on a big flat surface and gaze at it and put everything roughly in order. Gaps, she says, should soon be obvious, and this is where you should then focus.

And that is, distilled to its bones, the rough process.

Funny story. I requested this book from the library in preparation for our upcoming book group meeting. It arrived and I read a bit. What? It's Rae's choice, I remembered. Rae is a thoughtful reader. Why would she have chosen this book?

I thought about this, and I thought about this, and days passed, and soon it was just a day or two before the meeting. I had an unexpected afternoon free, and off I went.

Then I got to swimming class, and one of the members of our book club was talking about how carefully she had to read the book. Carefully? The book was published by Harlequin, I thought. Finally, I spoke up, and told her I'd read the book in a couple of hours. Our book club book? she asked. Yes, I said, Radar Girls. Nope, she said as she shook her head. Radio Girls.

Oops.

I wasn't expecting this.

I thought Beautiful Ruins was another one of those predictable historical fiction books, with a thwarted romance, set in troubled times, concluding with a happy ending.

No, that's not this story.

There's a man who is reluctantly running his father's hotel in a little-known village in Italy. There's a young actress who shows up in the village, dying. There's a Hollywood producer sent to Italy to save a movie that's running wildly over cost. There's a writer who can't seem to put more down on paper than the first chapter. There's Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. And that's all in the past.

There's a young man, lost to drugs and his efforts to find fame. There's a scriptwriter who is pitching a movie about the Donner expedition. There's a young woman who is tired of the reality of her dream job. And that's all in the present.

All of these storylines come together in a beautifully written novel, a novel of regret and yet also a novel of hope.

Here are a few of my favorite lines:

“And if he wasn't entirely happy, he wasn't unhappy, either. Rather, he found himself inhabiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.”

Walter, Jess. Beautiful Ruins (p. 7). Harper. Kindle Edition.

“Life, he thought, is a blatant act of imagination.”

Walter, Jess. Beautiful Ruins (p. 14). Harper. Kindle Edition.

“This is a love story, Michael Deane says. But, really, what isn't? Doesn't the detective love the mystery, or the chase, or the nosy female reporter, who is even now being held against her wishes at an empty warehouse on the waterfront? Surely the serial murderer loves his victims, and the spy loves his gadgets or his country or the exotic counterspy. The ice trucker is torn between his love for ice and truck, and the competing chefs go crazy for scallops, and the pawnshop guys adore their junk, just as the Housewives live for catching glimpses of their own Botoxed brows in gilded hall mirrors, and the rocked-out dude on 'roids totally wants to shred the ass of the tramp-tatted girl on Hookbook, and because this is reality, they are all in love—madly, truly—with the body mic clipped to their back buckle, and the producer casually suggesting just one more angle, one more Jell-O shot. And the robot loves his master, alien loves his saucer, Superman loves Lois, Lex, and Lana, Luke loves Leia (till he finds out she's his sister), and the exorcist loves the demon even as he leaps out the window with it, in full soulful embrace, as Leo loves Kate and they both love the sinking ship, and the shark—God, the shark loves to eat, which is what the mafioso loves, too—eating and money and Paulie and omertà—the way the cowboy loves his horse, loves the corseted girl behind the piano bar, and sometimes loves the other cowboy, as the vampire loves night and neck, and the zombie—don't even start with the zombie, sentimental fool; has anyone ever been more lovesick than a zombie, that pale, dull metaphor for love, all animal craving and lurching, outstretched arms, his very existence a sonnet about how much he wants those brains? This, too, is a love story.”

Walter, Jess. Beautiful Ruins (pp. 325-326). Harper. Kindle Edition.

Jack's aunt is out of money, and off go Jack and his butler, Praiseworthy, to the gold fields of California. On the way, the two run across scoundrels and sailors, miners and outlaws.

I do love me some Sid Fleischman stories.

You will learn more in this book about the dangers of animals and plants than you ever thought you might need to know.

Food expert Elizabeth Minchilli shares her favorite Italian foods and her favorite places in Italy to find the foods.

My take-aways?

(1) Stuffed pasta. She differentiates between tortellini; tortelloni (bigger than tortellini; not stuffed with meat); cappelletti (filled with just cheese); Tortelli di Erbette (square shaped; served with butter); anolini (round and stuffed with pot roast); ravioli (general name given to any square shaped stuffed pasta).

(2) Parmigiano Reggiano. Rules: Not pasturized; cheese made in copper kettles; milk must come from region; no additives.

(4) Truffles. Say no to truffle oil. Truffle sauces are common and delicious. Can't return home with truffles unless they are in jars. Consider Pecorino al Tartufo (cheese).

(5) Olive oil. Store oil in dark glass bottles. Olive oil is a condiment, to add to a dish at the table, though it's not for bread in Italy.

(6) Bari. Common rhyme about Bari: “Se Parigi avesse il mare, sarebbe una piccola Bari.” Translation is “If Paris was on the sea, it would be a little Bari.”

(7) Passeggiata. Once the heat of the day begins to subside, people head out to stroll along the main street.

Much of the information about recommended restaurants may or may not still be valid.

Name a number. What sports legend do you associate with that number?

That's the game that sportscaster Mike Greenberg, aka “Greeny,” plays in this book.

My husband and I eagerly listened to this audiobook during last weekend's trip to and from Dallas. Riveting. Delightful.

I read part of this book, and I listened to part of this book. The book is a series of interviews with Jane Goodall, most of which took place during the pandemic. Goodall explains her concerns for the world as well as her hope for the future.

Lucy Knisley tells the story of her five-week trip to Paris with her mother to celebrate her mother turning fifty in this book, French Milk. Knisley visits all the places those of us who love books and art would like to go, and the drawings are charming.

Mrs. Loretta Plansky, at 71, is trying to corral her 98-year-old father and keep her adult children financially afloat when she gets a late-night call from a person purporting to be her grandson and claiming to be in trouble and in need of money from Mrs. Plansky. Of course it is a scam, and when she wakes up the next morning, she discovers all her money is gone. Others sadly assure her that nothing can be done. But does that stop Mrs. Plansky? No, she is soon off to Eastern Europe in search of the perpetrators of the crime.

A gentle and lightly humorous romp in the life of an elderly American. I enjoyed this book so much that I read it cover-to-cover in one day.

After his mother's death, author Timothy Egan sets off on a pilgrimage across parts of England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. He was raised Catholic but many events in his life have left him questioning his faith. As he travels down the Via Francigena, Egan explores the history of the church as well as the spiritual journeys of his family and himself. It's a book well worth reading.

A Prince Without a Kingdom is the sequel to Vango, a book that can only be called a historical fiction fantasy. The story includes hot air balloons, Nazis, a girl who walks the rooftops of Paris, a castle in Scotland, a monastery off the coast of Italy, treasure, murder, Russia, and more. It's fun to see how this author combines all these elements into a great adventure story.

What do you think about when you hear the title of this book? It sounds pretty bleak, don't you think? It sounds like it would leave you feeling dark and depressed about life.

Wrong. Down and Out in Paris and London is the story of George Orwell's experiences living among the destitute in these two major cities ninety years ago. It is told with a hearty cheerfulness that belies the stark living conditions the people in this book undergo. The people Orwell meets are fresh and compelling people and the stories they tell are fascinating.

I'm adding this to my favorite reads shelf.

Two men. Two different times. Two longing for love. One telescope.

Have you read Antoine Laurain before? If you haven't and if you enjoy a light story set in Paris with a bit of adventure and a bit of thoughtful life wisdom, I'd encourage you to read this book or one of his other books. When I set down an Antoine Laurain book, I feel more positive about life, and I can't say that is the way I feel when I set down most books.

I brought Vango: Between Sky and Earth home from a conference in 2014, and it has been sitting in my TBR for all these years. It's over four hundred pages, and set (somewhat) in France, so I've been waiting for just the right time to read it.

I'm writing my own adventure story, and it's Paris in July, so why not now?

And Vango is a wonderful adventure story, with airships and pirates and murders and treasures, with the point-of-view shifting from Vango himself, who knows little about his past except that he washed up on an Italian shore many years ago, to an airship maker in Germany where Hitler is rising to power, to an heiress in a castle in Scotland, to Stalin's daughter in Russia...

It's my own fault that I didn't know it's just Part 1, but eek, can I leave poor Vango where I left him at the end of the book?

Writer Patrick Leigh Fermor visits, and occasionally stays at, several monasteries—the French Abbey of St Wandrille de Fontanelle, the Priory of St Peter of Solesmes, La Grande Trappe, the Rock Monasteries of Cappadocia—and puts down his thoughts on their architecture, their history, and, most importantly, their meaning.

The first half of our life, Richard Rohr tells us, is spent establishing our identity and grounding our lives in security. Some people spend their whole lives doing this.

But to grow spiritually, Rohr says, we must take the trials of the first half of our lives and use the pain and suffering to look at ourselves and our lives in a new way, a life of undoing, unknowing, letting go, a life led by forgiveness for our own imperfections and the imperfections of others, a life of solving problems by falling into what Rohr calls a larger brightness.

The Covenant of Water is a big novel, set in Kerala along India's Malabar Coast. It's the story of a family of people who suffer from a curious problem: many people in the family unexpectedly drown.

The story opens with the marriage of a twelve-year-old girl in that family, a girl who comes to be known as Big Ammachi. We learn about Big Ammachi's life and the lives of her new extended family and friends over three generations.

It's a compelling story with many wonderful happy moments and many terribly sad moments.

I knew that I wanted to read this book the moment I heard author Abraham Verghese speak about this novel at Inprint in Houston this year. And, despite my high expectations, I was quite satisfied with the story.

What are Italians like? If you are interested in learning the inside story on contemporary Italians, especially Italian culture, Italian history, and Italian politics, then this is the book I'd recommend. Even if you are just planning a casual visit to Italy, this is a book I'd put on your reading list.

Edmond Dantès is a young man with everything—a woman who loves him, a career on board a worthy ship, and men who respect and admire him. Then he is falsely accused of treason and imprisoned, in isolation, in a fortress, without trial, and his life dramatically changes as everything is taken from him. It is three men who conspire to have Dantès disposed of, and it is against these three men that Dantès plots his revenge during the fourteen years he spends in prison, a revenge he feels that he will be unlikely to ever carry out. His life changes again when he comes to know the friar in the adjoining cell, Abbé Faria. It is this friar who teaches Dantès many important things and becomes a source of courage and wisdom amid the terrible life Dantès is living in the prison.

I've never felt 1100 pages turn so quickly as I have while reading this amazing story. Love, hatred, evil, goodness, revenge, forgiveness—it's all in this book. And the tale is still as fresh as if it was published last week.

I've started this book and stopped three times before I finally was able to read it from beginning to end. Bleak. That's the only word for this novel. Unremittingly bleak. A boy is born to a poor, single mother living in a trailer in one of the most poverty-stricken areas of Appalachia. His mother takes up with a cruel man and dies a sad death...

And that's just the beginning of bleak events that happen to our main character, Demon. I could hardly bear to keep turning the pages and face the addictions and miseries and early deaths that Demon and the other characters in this story face.

The charm of it, I think, is the hope that keeps Demon going, hope that arises from the occasional folks in his life that surprise him with their goodness and their generosity.

There are some killer lines in this book. Here are few of them:

“Certain pitiful souls around here see whiteness as their last asset that hasn't been totaled or repossessed.”

He said, “You know, sometimes you hear about these miracles, where a car gets completely mangled in a wreck. But then the driver walks out of it alive? I'm saying you are that driver.”

“The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.”

‘I said probably they were just scared he was going to put ideas in our heads. She smiled. “Imagine that. A teacher, putting ideas in kids' heads.”'

Wait, did I write this book? Fan fiction written as an homage to No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency?

Note these similarities to No. 1:

(1) Characters go to a laid-back place.
(2) Main character has been hurt by love.
(3) Their work comes easily to our main characters.
(4) Very, very light romance.
(5) Minor characters are all very kick-back.
(6) Very little plot.
(7) The author spends a lot of time inside the head of the kind main characters.
(8) No real villains.

So there you have it.

Spirals in Time is everything you should know about mollusks.

I've been eager to read this book for the months, maybe years, that I have had this book. Author Helen Scales was comprehensive in her coverage of the mollusk subject. But it turns out that I am less interested in knowing everything about mollusks (I was especially lost during chapters about how the mollusks create lines on their shells and the results of scientific studies done on mollusks placed in low pH conditions) than I expected.