Books Set in Europe: England

Bitter Orange, by Claire Fuller (2018)

This is a very strange book.  The year is 1969.  Frances Jellico is a self-taught expert on English garden architecture and bridges.  Her mother, with whom she has been living, has just died, so 39-year old Frances has accepted a job cataloguing a dilapidated English manor that was recently purchased by a wealthy American.  Frances has lived a very sheltered life.

She has been relegated to live in two attic rooms in the manor.  She will be sharing space in the house with Cara and Peter, who have also been hired by the American to catalogue the contents of the manor.  They have the rooms below Frances’s attic apartment.  Before she formally meets them, Frances discovers that there is a peephole in her bathroom where she can see into Cara and Peter’s bathroom.

Cara is inclined to tell stories.  Although she is from Ireland, she pretends that she is Italian.  After leaving her home behind in Ireland, she recreated herself as an Italian and spins tales of her so-called exotic life.  Frances is gullible and believes Cara’s tales, but Peter warns her that all is not what it seems.  But is Peter being straight up with Frances?

The novel jumps from 1969 to 20 years in the future when Frances is dying in a hospital bed remembering the past.  As we delve into the novel, we realized the events of that 1969 summer were much darker than they first appeared.

I was intrigued by the initial portion of the novel, but the last third seemed to drag.

Read:  July 21, 2021

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: England

The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig (2020)

 

Nothing is going right for Nora Seed.  She is 35 years old, she just lost her job, her brother is upset with her, her best friend moved to Australia, and her cat is dead.  She is depressed and just wants to end it all.  So she does.  She takes an overdose of antidepressants and goes to sleep.

 

Then, just a midnight, she awakens in the Midnight Library.  It’s that place where some people go that is between life and death, but still have a choice to live or die.  The library is huge and is filled with endless books.  The librarian is Mrs. Elm, the school librarian of Nora’s childhood.  Mrs. Elm explains to her that the books are filled with alternative choices that Nora could have taken.

 

Nora is first given a book entitled The Book of Regrets, which is filled with regrets, large and small, in Nora’s life.  As she ponders over some of the regrets, they fade away as they become meaningless.  As she selects other books in the library, she gets a glimpse of what her life could have been had she not made some of her choices.  For a brief time, she gets to sample the lives she might have experienced had she made different choices.  What would have happened if she hadn’t gotten cold feet two days before her wedding to Dan?  In the first book she selects, she finds herself outside a pub and is married to Dan.  After she quickly sees that she was living in Dan’s dream life, she fades away and is back in the Library.  So, she makes other book selections and tries on different lives.

 

Nora can remember events from her past “choices” so sometimes the people she meets in one “life” come back in another.

 

This was a quiet and gentle story as Nora sees what could have been and has to make the ultimate decision.  Does she want to live or die?  Will she be granted that choice, or will the decision be made for her if the library time passes midnight?

 

I loved this book.

 

Read:  July 18, 2021

 

5 Stars

 

 

 

Books Set in North America: the United States

How to Fight Anti-Semitism, by Bari Weiss (2019)

 

Antisemitism is on the rise in the United States.  In this book, journalist Bari Weiss provides a brief history of antisemitism in the Western world and how it has manifested itself throughout the years.  Antisemitism has many faces.   It displays itself very differently depending on one’s political bent.  Some displays of antisemitism are obvious and violent.  Other displays are more subtle.  I found the first part of this book to be all over the map, as the author wanted to include so much.

 

The last chapter of the book was the most informative and provided tools that American Jews must use to combat antisemitism.

 

Read:  July 17, 2021

 

3 Stars

 

Books Set in North America: Canada: Ontario

The Culprit, by Martin Sasek (2020)

 

This is a memoir about the family’s life with animals with most of the focus on their pet kitten the author acquired after he and his wife became empty nesters.  It was at times funny, but the book could have used a good editor.  There were too many exclamation marks and grammatical errors that were distracting.  This book was recommended by a woman in one of my gym classes.  It was a fair read for the flight from Boston, Massachusetts to Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

Read:  July 14, 2021

 

2 Stars

 

Books Set in North America; United States, Washington, D.C.

The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity, by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy (2012)

 

The modern President’s Club began when Dwight David Eisenhower became President of the United States.  At the time, there were two living former Presidents: Herbert Hoover and Harry S Truman.  Although the two former Presidents had very different politics from Eisenhower, both were the only two people in the world who understood the pressures of being the leader of the free world.  They were there to provide support and advice to Eisenhower.

 

Since that time, former Presidents have made themselves available to the current President for support and advice.  Note, however, that this book was published in 2012, so only applied to presidents up to Barack Obama.  The former Presidents all knew that the most important aspect of American democracy was to protect the Office regardless of which individual held it.

 

Interestingly, there was some controversy regarding the vote count in the 1960 election.  John F Kennedy had won the election, but Richard Nixon believed (and there is evidence to support this contention), that votes in Illinois were skewed in favor of Kennedy.  Nixon was advised by the former Presidents not to contest the election to protect the legitimacy of the Presidency.

 

The role of former Presidents has been the background so as not to diminish the leadership of the current President.  Although egos and personalities can influence decisions, the authors provide anecdotes showing how presidents can warm up to, and become friends, with their successors.

 

This was an interesting and eye-opening account of the interaction of former Presidents with the current President, at least up until the 2016 election.  It makes one wonder how the immediate past President’s action may impact the Office in the future.

 

Read: Summer 2021

 

3 Stars