As seen on tv

This week I was watching Conversations with Friends based on the novel by Sally Rooney (see the show vs book comparison here). In one scene the main character Frances is on vacation in Croatia and pulls out her beach read - Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen. Uncannily, the next day, my google feed pops up with this article on how books become props. Some shows are better at this than others. Issa’s nightstand in Insecure was always a good place to look for a recommendation. That’s how I discovered The Turner House by Angela Flournoy. For more books seen on screen, check out this post from Penguin. What books have you spotted in your favorite show?

The Flight Attendant

For Cassie Bowden, not remembering what happened the night before is typical. Finding a dead body beside her. Not typical. As the story progresses, she must piece together what happened as fragmented moments come back to her. Meanwhile the real murderer is given orders to rectify her mistake in sparing Cassie’s life on that fatal night.

It’s rare that I find the show better than the book (written by Chris Bohjalian). But in this case the actress Kaley Cuoco infuses Cassie’s character with a much-needed sense of fun. She acknowledges the ridiculousness of the whole premise of not being 100% certain she didn’t commit the murder herself. The show also allows Alex (the corpse) more screen time as a voice of reason in Cassie’s head as she navigates her next move to prove her innocence. As an armchair traveler, I also appreciated the scenes where Cassie is packing, hanging out in a hotel room, or walking the streets of romantic destinations. I’m a sucker for travel-sized anything and cobblestones. Throw in a murder mystery, and I'm on board. 

“she had been beautifully hoping”

Apparently, I gave up blogging for April. Not coincidentally, that’s about the time I went down the rabbit hole of this reading list. Several books by Nicole Baart, Jessica Barry, Elizabeth Klehforth, and Annie Ward later I hadn’t really found one that matched Moriarty’s sense of humor. Instead they offered several weeks of page-turning suspense. Finally sated on murders and mayhem, I turned to the recommended reads page of my library.

Enter Benefit by Siobhan Phillips.

Laura has just lost her teaching job. A Henry James scholar, she’s not hopeful other colleges will be lining up to hire her. Instead, she spends her time reconnecting with those she spent two years with as a Weatherfield Fellow at Oxford. Despite her participation in this prestigious program, her daily life is hampered by imposter syndrome. In her mind, she never measures up to her fellow fellows. Trying to be supportive, her friend Heather asks her to write a history of the Weatherfield Foundation for the upcoming centennial gala. As Laura researches the family who established the foundation, she dives deeper into the nefarious world of the sugar trade, bringing to light the tainted legacy that supported her ambitions.

Beautifully awkward, Phillips captures the interactions between those who would rather be reading a book and everyone else. Having picked up this book solely on the basis of its cover image, I found it an engaging read despite its dearth of detectives.

Mother's Day

 Have a bookish mother in your life? Here are some books that might make her day.

 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

“For Elizabeth, cooking wasn’t some preordained feminine duty. As she’d told Calvin, cooking was chemistry. That’s because cooking actually is chemistry.”

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

“What a gift it was to know so clearly what you were not, who you did not want to be. Nina wasn’t sure she’d ever asked herself that question.”

Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

“How could she not be depleted when she came home, having been exposed for hours, without protection, to all those thrumming radiant selves? Here they were, just old enough to have discovered their souls, but not yet dulled by the ordinary act of survival, not yet practiced in dissembling.”

Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

“To Simon, the world of musical structures was far more real than the shoddy saloons in which he had to play. Nothing could match it, nothing in this day-to-day world could ever come up to it. It existed outside him. It was better than he was. He was always on foot in that world, an explorer in busted shoes.”

The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia

“Good fried chicken was remarkably hard to come by in New York, but this---tender, with just enough crust-only bits protruding, skin peeling easily away from the meat---this was good. The fries were thin and still hot, some with crunch, some with bite, lightly sprinkled with the salt blend they'd always used. The biscuits were fresh and flaky, and the salad's iceberg lettuce was dressed in Mimi's trademark sweet oil dressing---a closely guarded (but really very simple, and once very common) recipe.”

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller

“It was the dandelion principle! To some people a dandelion might look like a weed, but to others that same plant can be so much more. To an herbalist, it’s a medicine—a way of detoxifying the liver, clearing the skin, and strengthening the eyes. To a painter, it’s a pigment; to a hippie, a crown; a child, a wish. To a butterfly, it’s sustenance; to a bee, a mating bed; to an ant, one point in a vast olfactory atlas.”