"they lived in a world of superlatives"

When one doesn’t have air conditioning, the temps rise about 90, and the wildfire smoke descends from Canada, what else to do but turn on the fan, grab an iced tea, and cool off with a book like The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford.

“Life is sometimes sad and often dull, but there are currants in the cake, and here is one of them."

Linda Radlett longs to marry the Prince of Wales. Growing up in the country with parents who disparage difference, a brood of younger siblings, and beloved cousin Fanny (who narrates the tale), Linda whiles away the hours playing solitaire or chatting in the airing cupboard waiting to meet the man of her dreams. And eventually, over the course of the novel, she meets three. The first supports her lifestyle as a bright young thing, the second dashes her hopes of being a do-gooder, and the third lavishes her with clothes and laughter. When the war begins, she flees Paris. When her house in Chelsea is destroyed in an air raid, she reluctantly finds refuge with the Radletts.

“We had never learnt to dance, and, for some reason, we had supposed it to be a thing which everybody could do quite easily and naturally. I think Linda realized there and then what it took me years to learn, that the behaviour of civilized man really has nothing to do with nature, that all is artificiality and art more or less perfected.”

This satire artfully captures the artificiality of not only the British upper class, but well, of all of us who live with privilege. Thanks to Emily Mortimer, this work from 1945, has been made into a Prime miniseries. If Sofia Coppola directed an episode of Downton Abbey written by Wes Anderson, it couldn’t be more charming than Mortimer’s adaptation. 

I think it had a star on the cover?

I recently saw a meme (see #3) that brought back memories of working at Taylor’s bookstore during college. Whenever a customer mentioned they’d seen a book on Oprah, we’d pull out our microfiche (remember those?) and search for books mentioned on a recent show.

These days, you’d think finding a book whose title you’d forgotten would be one Google search away.

It wasn't. 

When I typed “novel about a boy who lives with his celebrity father for the summer,” the top search results were links to the movie Secondhand Lions and the book Beautiful Boy. The third result was a link to an article entitled “Finding a book when you’ve forgotten it’s title.” Thanks, Google.

Thinking I may have read this book when we lived in Ann Arbor, I went to the Ann Arbor Library catalog and searched for divorce, dysfunctional families, and movie star fathers. No dice. Then I tried the “Authors similar to” lists on Goodreads. Matthew Norman, Jonathan Tropper, and Tom Perrotta. Nope.

After these fruitless searches, I created a post on this forum.

Less than 24 hours later, the mystery was solved. Thanks to Brenna, who correctly identified the book as Blind Sight by Meg Howrey. Since I love Howrey’s other books, I hope it will be as good as I remember.

 (Incidentally, her book The Wanderers does have stars on the cover.)

I Spy

Remember those family car trips, playing I Spy, the Alphabet Game, or Who Can Annoy Their Sibling the Fastest? Now that I have teenagers, a trip of any kind has them plugged into their devices. Although I miss the hunt for "q," I don’t mind slipping into my own device for a good book. 

Three summer reads that will capture your attention however you might be traveling these days:

Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang 

Julia is a Russian orphan turned tech company COO with a host of household helpers. Alice is a tech support minion, grateful for a steady paycheck. Wang examines the disparate lives of these two women as they each risk their own livelihood seeking to define power and loyalty. Fans of Killing Eve might relish the suspense sans the slaughter.  

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Fans of fantasy will be smitten with his imagination. Fans of literary fiction will swoon at his turns of phrase. What if your soul was encapsulated by an ice cube? What if a camera could capture your memory?

What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster

The story starts in North Carolina, tragically, with the loss of two men’s lives. Moving back and forth in time and place, we find out how their children cope with that loss. Gee struggles to fit in at a new high school. Noelle finds refuge in theater. One sister becomes an influencer. The other finds companionship in caring for dogs. Eventually we learn how the two families’ futures are intertwined. The story ends, comedically, with a wedding.