Quite Elementary

You’ve seen the movies and shows. The haunting, but jaunty, violin music that follows Benedict Cumberbatch all over modern London. The signature intense cuts of Guy Ritchie. The unforgettable stained glass knight. Joan Watson.

If you’re feeling a bit sated by the sweet holiday movie/book offerings, here are a few Sherlock  spinoffs suitable for cold winter nights.

Julian Barnes sets the stage around Sherlock’s creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in Arthur and George as he sets off to solve a mystery in “real” life. 

Anthony Horowitz sends Sherlock and Watson on a new case in The House of Silk. He follows it up with Moriarty which explores what happened to Sherlock and Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. Although it’s more graphic (ummm much more graphic) than the original mysteries, the suspense is just as thrilling.

Laurie R. King focuses the plot around Holmes’ wife Mary Russell. King explains how they met with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. If you find yourself hooked, find the complete series list (in order) here. The star in these books is the exotic locale which varies in each book.

Nancy Springer puts the spotlight on Sherlock’s younger sister, Enola Holmes, in this series of nine books written for the YA set.

Murder She Baked

When I first started reading Joanne Fluke’s series a few years ago, I had no idea it was being adapted into mystery movies. Imagine my delight in discovering that our HULU live subscription (obtained to watch sports) includes offerings from the Hallmark Channel. You might say a little something for everyone, including my teenage son who is just as likely to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie as he is a football game. Until the Christmas romance watching commences, I’ve been biding my time with the Hannah Swenson mysteries, some of which can be found under the title Murder She Baked. While true to the characters, the movies do change the perpetrators from the books, so no spoil alerts needed if you are watching after reading.

If you do want to read before you watch, this is a post I wrote about the books in 2016.

In the murder mystery series by Fluke, Hannah Swenson owns a bakery in Lake Eden, Minnesota. However, in between baking the next day’s batch of cookies or catering her mother’s Regency Romance club, she has a nasty habit of stumbling upon dead bodies.

Comfort food for the serial reader, this series is predictable in plot (find a body, eat chocolate, go behind boyfriend detective’s back to interview suspects, make a cake, get trapped in a small space with the killer, eat more chocolate).  Swensen’s obsession with new recipes (helpfully printed at the end of each chapter) and the dilemma of which suitor to marry - detective or dentist - is quaintly old-fashioned, in our age of Instagram and Tinder. Also, comforting, once you’re hooked, is knowing that there are 17 or 18 more to read.

And recipes involving double or triple chocolate to try.

"I should have known better than to let myself get swept away"

When a movie comes out on a streaming service we don’t have, I look to see if it was based on a book. So when I saw this trailer, I was excited to find Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen. If you enjoy this one and the second, Loveboat Reunion, you’ll be thrilled to know  Loveboat Forever comes out next week.

In the first book, it’s the end of senior year for Ever Wong. She’s been accepted to a pre-med program at Northwestern. Her parents are ecstatic. Little do they know she’s been secretly applying to dance programs. And little does she know they’ve signed her up for an intensive language and culture program for the summer in Taiwan. In the program, she meets Xavier, the son of a mogul, who would rather be drawing than aspiring to run a company. Other key players (pun intended) are cousins Rick and Sophie. Rick becomes one of Ever’s love interests and Sophie discovers her prowess at social connections can be put to good, after she admittedly does some evil  

Fans of Crazy Rich Asians will find some familiar tropes - social media exchanges, extravagant parties, people who own private jets, and matchmaking schemes. Wen provides plenty of teen angst, over the top drama, and will they/won’t they moments to keep the plot moving.

Turns out they almost always will.

"All My Puny Sorrows"

With the release of the movie Women Talking, you may be curious about the book from which it's based. You could read the book or (about its author here or here), but I also recommend reading one of her earlier works, All My Puny Sorrows. This is a repost from 2015.  

“Our house was taken away on the back of a truck one afternoon let in the summer of 1979.” So begins the novel All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews. In it, Yoli’s family can’t seem to catch a break. In childhood, it’s because her family balks against the rules of their conservative Mennonite village in Canada. They harbor a forbidden piano to foster her sister Elfrieda’s musical talents. When not at the piano, Elf spray paints the letters AMPS (“all my puny sorrows”) around the village in further rebellion.

In Yoli and Elf's adult years, the family suffers from Elf’s unhappiness. Elf’s career as a concert pianist is overshadowed by her multiple suicide attempts.Yoli has been traveling back and forth from Toronto to support her mother and brother-in-law and sit at her sister’s bedside. When not at the hospital, Yoli can be found sitting on her friend Julie’s porch. It is here the novel provides cathartic humor to balance the sadness of the rest of Yoli’s day. 

Toews brightens the pages of this devastatingly sad novel with Czech violinists, Italian agents, huffy nurses, and eccentric aunts. The brightest character, however, is Yoli. Her struggles to see her sister’s point of view, her texts with her teenage children, her endless to-do-lists, her trysts with mechanics and violinists, and her sometimes flinching optimism all carry the reader onward - even when the Kleenex box is empty.

Blah Humbug

The weeks after Christmas always hit hard. I find myself sleeping more, eating more, and when I’m not doing those two things, reading more, of course.

Luckily, I found two books perfect for this in-between time. Although ostensibly not Christmas books, they help make that transition from holiday rom-com to New Year fitness videos more palatable.

Something from Tiffany’s by Melissa Hill

If you’ve seen the adaptation on Amazon, you know that the plot is somewhat convoluted. A taxi accident outside of Tiffany’s results in a mix-up of two shopping bags, resulting in a surprise engagement for one character and a disappointing Christmas morning for another. While the movie scores points for simplifying the resolution, the book takes delight in prolonging the inevitable with the added bonus of being set in Ireland.

A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin

Fans of Jane Austen and Daisy Goodwin take note. Kitty Talbot is left in charge of her four younger sisters, and mountains of debt, when her parents die. Her solution is to embark upon London during the “Season” to find a wealthy husband. Her plan almost succeeds until she’s foiled by the older brother, Lord Radcliffe, who discovers the scandal of her family’s past. Rather than admit defeat, Kitty agrees to leave the family alone in exchange for Lord Radcliffe’s insider knowledge to help land her next target. You’ll dive in for the period details and stay for the cute repartee between Kitty and her foe.  

"good strong words"

Rewatching many of my teen favorites, I find myself now identifying more with the parents than the teen protagonist. However, despite my age, whenever I watch any version of this movie I still identify with Jo. Until I discovered these two titles which tell the familiar story from the point of view of the parents.

 March by Geraldine Brooks

Marmee by Sarah Miller

In both, we get a better sense of the toll of the Civil War and the ardent abolitionist beliefs of both the father and mother. In the first we glimpse the horrors of battle and slavery firsthand. In the second, Margaret March’s diary entries tell the familiar stories pierced with a deeper layer of worry, doubt and love of her family. Both Brooks and Miller flesh out the lives of the secondary characters and expand the narrative from the domestic to the economic, social, and moral issues of the day.

"Slam it shut or fling it open. The rest is amateur.”

In the mood for a musical last night after reading When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord, I watched Better Nate Than Ever on Disney+. Usually, I lean towards the page rather than the screen, but in this case, maybe because Tim Federle wrote both, the movie captured all the charm of the novel while getting to show us the choreography and music.

Here’s what I had to say about the novel and its sequel in 2017.

Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle was a book we enjoyed listening to in the car last summer, so I was excited for the next book in the series Five, Six, Seven, Nate!

In the first book, middle schooler Nate Foster travels to New York by himself to audition for a Broadway show. After several mishaps, Nate lands a spot in a new show called E.T. The Musical. 

The second book opens with Nate saying goodbye to his best friend Libby as he packs for rehearsals. Back in New York, his Aunt Heidi gives him both a place to stay and an appreciation of his dream – which is all but nonexistent at home.

Awkward and simultaneously self-conscious and confident, Nate stands out in the cast of polished, experienced child actors. Nate soon finds support from the dance coach and a seasoned actress playing the understudy to E.T. She recognizes Nate’s gift of a photographic mind that not only remembers lines, but whole scenes of blocking. While he tries to stay out of way of the show’s star Elliott, played by his hometown nemesis Jordan, he is comforted by the gifts left by a secret admirer.

Even though the director, who has only worked on video games, can’t remember his name, he will soon have to rely on Nate in ways he never expected.

Narrated by Nate, the novel is funny, snarky, and sweet. Nate never shies away from voicing his unique perspective of the theater, his fellow middle schoolers, and his own view of himself. As he commits the musical to heart, he becomes a star – both on stage and off. 

 

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. 

"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. 

#vanlife

Thanks to Instagram, my daughter wants to live in a van when she grows up. Turns out it's in her genes.

To educate myself more about her aspirations, I sought out Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland. The book follows several van and RV dwellers through temp jobs , caravans, and conventions.

Many in the nomad community support themselves through seasonal jobs. Amazon actively recruits this demographic to work in their warehouses, bending, lifting, and doing repetitive, mind-numbing work, for around $13 an hour. Another popular option is working as a camp host at campgrounds around the country cleaning latrines, picking up trash, and policing noise.

Between gigs they gather in the desert of Arizona with like minded folks, swapping goods, advising the newbies, making treks to Mexico for cheap dental work and prescriptions, and figuring out how to rig their ride to cook, shower, or pee more efficiently.

In a sense, this lifestyle offers freedom from debt, cutting ties from property ownership, taxes, and storage units. For some this is a choice, but for many others in the book, it’s a last resort solution. As Bruder writes, “The last free place in America is a parking spot.”

Home foreclosures, lost jobs, divorces have set them on this path. For others, affording an apartment near their workplace is impossible. Some have retired, selling their home to fund the first leg of their journey.

Although I haven’t seen the movie inspired by the book, I would like to watch it with my daughter. Either the difficulties of the lifestyle will dissuade her, or its joys will entice her even more. Regardless, this book will be required summer reading.

Lighting up the screen

I’ve been looking forward to several recent page to screen adaptations and, so far, haven’t been disappointed. The Hate U Give does justice to the YA novel of the same name by Angie Thomas. Coming later this year to HBO is an adaptation of You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz called The Undoing (fans of Big Little Lies get excited). And I’m currently mesmerized by the performances of Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in the Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere based on the book by Celeste. Ng.

Bill and Elena Richardson are raising four children in planned to perfection Shaker Heights, Ohio. Everything in Elena’s life appears to be going swimmingly:  successful husband, fulfilling career as a journalist for a small-town paper, and pride in her four above average children. Having inherited a small rental property in town that helps fund the family’s beach vacations, Elena also gets to play benevolent landlady. Her latest tenant is Mia Warren, a photographer who travels around the country seeking inspiration from each new locale.

Mia’s daughter Pearl soon becomes a fixture at the Richardson household, going shopping with the eldest Lexie, crushing on Trip, and hanging out with Moody. Meanwhile, the Richardson’s youngest daughter, Izzie, gravitates toward Mia as a role-model and, as a bonus, to piss off her mother.  

Although Ng explores a multitude of subplots, they all serve to coalesce around the dangers of best laid plans. Whether it is grappling with nascent mothering (unwanted pregnancies, infertility, surrogacy, adoption, abandonment) or adolescent parenting (curfews, friendship, rebellion, cynicism), Ng, like Mia, stages an intricate set of artifacts before burning it all down.

“I don’t dislike him, I just don’t like him. Which is quite different.”

Maybe, like me, you still haven’t seen The Movie. At this point, I’ve resigned myself to wait for it to stream. 

In the meantime, I’m revisiting some of the Downton-esque reads I created for this list compiled in October of 2015.

Atonement by Ian McEwan after multiple readings never disappoints.  Briony, age 13, misinterprets a brief scene she witnesses in the library and changes lives in ways even the impending war cannot.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton shifts between 1924 and 1999. When a modern filmmaker decides to make a movie about the Hartford sisters, she finds a primary source in former housemaid Grace Bradley. As Grace thinks back to her years in service, she remembers not the glamour of the times, but the craftily concealed deceit. 

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton opens in 1913 with a four-year-old wandering aboard a ship bound for Australia. The little girl grows up with her adopted family and decade after decade discovers another part of her mysterious past. When she dies, she bestows a house to her grieving granddaughter. Tracing her grandmother’s steps, she fits the pieces together for the reader.   

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters looks at a once stately household now fallen into disrepair. The Ayres family is befriended by a lonely country doctor. He soon discovers that their ailments are hauntingly difficult to diagnose.

"Chihulys are the pigeons of Seattle"

In honor of the movie that was recently released, I dusted off a review I originally posted in 2012.

A case of the blue meanies has interrupted these posts of late. Perhaps you've turned to other blogs in the meantime, but I hope you'll check back because a book called Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple has inspired me to start posting again.

Bee Branch, a Seattle eighth grader convinces her parents to take her on a cruise to Antarctica to celebrate her straight As. She is flummoxed, however, when her mother goes missing the day before the trip. When her mother doesn't return, her father, a Microsoft workaholic, decides to send Bee to boarding school a semester early. While at school, Bee receives an envelope filled with emails, magazine articles, and other documents leading up to her mother's disappearance. She immediately sits down at her PC (mocked by her Apple loving classmates) and begins writing her book. The book we've been reading.

I second Jonathan Franzen when he says on the front cover, "I tore through this book with heedless pleasure." A feeling I sort of vaguely remembered but welcomed anyway.

Hologram for the King

I first read Dave Egger’s Hologram for the King when it was published in 2012. After watching the movie, I went back and reread it. Aside from a few minor character changes and a couple of plot adjustments, the screenplay balances the humor and ennui portrayed in the book. 

Alan Clay travels to Saudi Arabia to sell a new teleconferencing system to the king.  On his first day, he misses the shuttle to King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) where the presentation is to take place. The hotel arranges a driver who introduces himself as “driver, guide, hero.”

Yousef is a bright spark of humor in an otherwise bleak novel about globalization’s effects on manufacturing and middle-aged executives. Paranoid that someone might blow up his car, Yousef stops to check under the hood before he starts the engine. For what? He’s not exactly sure. As he tells Alan, “I watch the same TV shows as you.”

Alan means well, but he is floundering. Divorced, he needs this deal to go through so he can afford to put his daughter back in college and get by until his house, long on the market, sells. He tries to advocate for his three young techies who have been relegated to a tent outside despite its proximity to a grand, air-conditioned, practically vacant office building. Day after day, the Saudi representative is unavailable. No one knows for sure when the King will appear.

Alan remains (ironically) optimistic. “Maybe if he was the sort of man who could eat someone else’s hash browns, who the hotel wanted to impress so much they sent him someone else’s breakfast, maybe then he was the sort of man who could get an audience with the King.”

Next up is an adaptation of Egger’s The Circle. Will it be as successful an adaptation? We can only wait. And see. 

Women In Revolt

When I began working for a new college this year, I was sent the familiar email from HR informing me that I must complete the online training courses for privacy, safety, and sexual harassment. Although such trainings are routine these days, we are only about a generation out from those women who first stood up in the workplace and said enough, already, when it comes to sexism in the workplace.

Enter The Good Girls Revolt by Lynn Povich. Povich worked for Newsweek magazine in the 1960s. At the time, most women were relegated to the pool or researchers while men with the same education and experience were assigned writer positions. In March of 1970, when Newsweek published a cover story on the feminist movement, a group of women employees from Newsweek women sued the magazine for discrimination. Following their lead, women at other major news publications and outlets soon followed suit.

Povich recounts the excitement and trepidation of early attempts to organize, the fears of being fired, and the initial agreements with management that were subsequently ignored.  In frustration, the ACLU was consulted again and another round of negotiations began. By the mid 1970s, after management finally began to hire more women writers, the magazine also began promoting women to editor positions.

Despite their victory, the book opens with the story of young women journalists in the 2000s who are still fighting for equality in salary and promotions. The need for training persists.

If you like the book, you might check out the series being developed from the Newsweek women’s story. 

Mr. (and Mrs.) Holmes

You’ve seen the movies and shows. The haunting but jaunty violin music that follows Benedict Cumberbatch all over modern London. The signature intense cuts of Guy Ritchie. The unforgettable stained glass knight. Joan Watson.

While you are waiting for Season 4 of Sherlock, read the original series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

Or look for these other modern spin-offs.

Anthony Horowitz sends Sherlock and Watson on a new case in The House of Silk. He follows it up with Moriarty which explores what happened to Sherlock and Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. Although it’s more graphic (ummm much more graphic) than the original mysteries, the suspense is just as thrilling.

Laurie R. King focuses the plot around Holmes’ wife Mary Russell. King explains how they met with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. If you find yourself hooked, find the complete series list (in order) here. The star in these books is the exotic locale which varies in each book.

Julian Barnes sets the stage around Sherlock’s creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in Arthur and George as he sets off to solve a mystery in “real” life. 

The Eyes Have It

This week’s challenge was to read a book that was adapted into a movie and then watch the movie. I went about this challenge backwards since the movies showed up on the reserve shelf at the library before the books were available. This may have skewed the results, but in both cases the visual images from the movies stuck with me long after I had finished reading the printed page.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

The HBO adaptation wins out partly due to the Maine scenery and the kitsch of the seventies (and later) set pieces, but mostly due to the strong performances by actors Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins as Olive and Henry.  Zoe Kazan is also mesmerizing as shop girl Denise Thibodeau who works in Henry’s pharmacy. Reading the book, it’s interesting to note which characters made it into the script and which were left as background players. Most regretfully is Angela who has a sizable backstory in the novel, but merely shows up as a lounge singer in the miniseries.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

In the movie version of this book, the um, movies, make it all worthwhile. High school students Greg and Earl spend their free time making parodies of classic movies. When Greg’s mom asks him to befriend a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer, Greg reluctantly agrees. Where other story lines would turn this scenario into a romantic comedy, Greg wryly notes, Greg and Rachel simply become friends. When Greg is asked to make a movie for Rachel, he balks, stalls, and even gnashes his teeth, but ends up making a beautiful piece he shows Rachel in her final moments. Apart from the movies within a movie, one of my favorite scenes is Greg’s discovery after Rachel’s death of her whimsical creations. 

Oh my, it’s fruitcake weather

Originally posted on December 24, 2008. Of the seven years I've been writing this blog, this is still one of my favorite posts (and stories). 

 With her Texas twang, my aunt does a perfect rendition of that line from Truman Capote's “A Christmas Memory.” After first watching the movie version at her house, several years later I encountered the audio version on a long car ride to Arkansas. It wasn’t until I bought a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s at a church book sale that I read the print version. It’s always with a sense of delight tempered with melancholy that I turn to the story, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, to follow Buddy and his friend as they buy whiskey from Mr. Ha Ha Jones, send fruitcakes to the White House, and craft homemade kites for Christmas morning.

 Every year different details in the story stand out. The year my mom made homemade fruitcake, I could taste the citron as I read their recipe. Last year, when my daughter was infatuated with dolls, I could picture exactly the wicker buggy with wobbly wheels they use to haul pecans. This year, I noticed the prices of things in the Depression era story – two dollars for a quart of whiskey, fifty cents for a Christmas tree, a dime for a picture show.

 This story sates that yen you had for something rich and sweet and Christmasy, and like fruitcake, endures December after December. So after you've set up the Advent wreath, made the gingerbread cookies, and assembled some 15-odd nativity sets, it’s time to curl up with a hot mug of cider and “A Christmas Memory.”