fauxklore

It;s time for the quarterly assessment.

Books: Only 10 books this quarter, alas.

Dick Francis, To the Hilt. Dick Francis is always reliable when you want a strong plot with lots of action. This book starts with an artist who lives in a remote part of Scotland getting beaten up with no idea why. He then gets mixed up with a fraud at his stepfather’s brewery. There’s also a horse involved and some gold artifacts to keep track of before the hero can go back to his bothy to paint and play the bagpipes. Overall, a good read.
Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking. Written in the wake of her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack, this is Didion’s account of coming to grips with widowhood, as well as dealing with their daughter’s serious illness. I found her dependence on her husband not to be relatable. And I definitely had qualms about her level of privilege, which gave her access to top specialists for her daughter. Despite which, this was well enough written hat I didn’t mind those issues too much. I have heard that a lot of widows have found this book helpful, which I really can’t speak to.
Sophie Kinsella, The Undomestic Goddess. Kinsella writes predictable, but generally amusing, chick lit. In this novel, a high-powered lawyer makes a major error and runs away. She ends up working as a housekeeper for a nouveau riche couple - but first, she has to learn how to cook and clean. Along the way, she finds both love and community. It also turns out she was set up and hadn’t made a mistake at all. She has to choose between going back to the legal world and staying where she’s been. Come on, this is chick lit! Do you really think there’s a question about how she’ll decide? Overall, a fun diversion.
Ari Shapiro, The Best Strangers in the World. The NPR reporter’s memoir is largely focused on his career, though he does touch on his family (and, later on, his husband). I was particularly pleased that he included the story of visiting a Yazidi shrine, which I had heard him tell at his cabaret show in New York last year. What probably surprised me the most was his discussion of the radical faeries.
Alesandra Torre, The Ghostwriter. This was read for my book club. The story involves a romance writer who is dying of cancer and hires her chief rival to ghost write her last book, which is based on her own life. The story is full of surprises, making for a very satisfying and suspenseful read. Recommended.
Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Spinoza of Market Street. I am fairly sure I’d read some of the stories in this collection before, but the emphasis on the supernatural is definitely not my sort of thing. For example, “The Msn Who Came Back” involves someone who returns from the dead but becomes dishonest and rots from the inside.
Zadie Smith, Swing Time. I read this for my Crones and Tomes group (though I ended up missing he meeting where it was discussed). The story involves two brown girls in London (i.e. daughters of mixed-race marriages). One of them is a talented dancer but doesn’t get past the chorus line, while the other (who narrates the novel) gets a job as an assistant to a popular singer who funds a school in Africa. This should have been interesting, but I found it a total slog to read.
Kim van Alsende, Orphan #8. This novel follows a girl who is sent to an orphanage when her father accidentally kills her mother and runs away. She becomes a subject in a medical experiment, which leaves her with alopecia (and is the probably cause of her later breast cancer). When, as an adult, she is working as a nurse and has the opportunity to confront the doctor who experimented on her, she’s faced with a serious moral dilemma. This was fairly interesting, but there are a lot of side issues thrown in (e.g. the protagonists sexuality) that don’t really enhance the story.
Belva Plain, Eden Burning. Set on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Felice, this story follows two men. One is the product of the rape of a white teenage girl by a black servant, while the other is her legitimate son, the first child of the marriage she is forced into after giving the mixed-race son to her maid. The turbulent story of Caribbean independence (which includes racial conflict) is mixed in with this. I thought it was a pretty absorbing story, though much of the language is rather dated. And I was disappointed that not all of the characters learn the whole story at the end.
Diane Freeman, A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder. Francis Wynn, the Countess of Haleigh, is supposed to be sponsoring her younger sister’s first London season. But the social swirl is interrupted by an anonymous letter accusing her of having murdered her husband. Then there are the thefts going on at various balls and other events. How is she to find the time to investigate her sister’s suitors? This is fairly predictable and a bit silly, though the ending did have some surprises, which were marred by the “before I kill you Mr. Bond” approach to the denouement.

Movies:

Where the Crawdads Sing. Kya is the isolated young woman known locally as the marsh girl. She’s also a talented artist. She gets involved wth two men and, when one of them is found dead, she’s suspected of murdering him. I thought this movie started out rather slowly, but it got more interesting as it went on.
Blackberry. This movie is not quite a documentary, but is loosely based on the history of Research in Motion and the development of the Blackberry. I thought it was a good mix of suspense and humor. But I will note that you have to have a high tolerance for crude language because the environment at the company was classic bro culture. Recommended.
Weird: The Al Yankovich Story. I like Weird Al, but did not care for this movie at all. I was expecting a biopic, not a silly fictionalized crime story.
She Said. This movie tells the story of the New York Times breaking the story of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment cases, which led to the “me too” movement. I thought it was done well, but I can’t say that I really learned anything I didn’t already know.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. I have an on-going goal to see every Oscar winning best picture, so this was an obvious choice for what to watch on a recent flight. It’s a very weird movie and I found myself thinking “what on earth is going on?” through much of it. That isn’t actually a negative. Michelle Yeoh’s performance as a harried laundry owner dealing with family issues and her tax situation was brilliant. And Jamie Lee Curtis was perfect as her foil at the IRS. There is a lot going on and I’d probably have to watch it another three times to catch even half of it.

Goals:

So how much progress did I make on my goals for 2023? Let’s see

I’ve made no progress on the photos and slides from my parents. Sigh.
I’ve been keeping up on educational activities. In April I went to a talk at the Library of Congress about Jews and Pandemics. I also went to lecture (over zoom) by the New York Public Library on Yiddish New York in the 1900’s. There was also a Leading Jewish Minds at MIT talk.

In May there were lectures about American rivers and riverboats while I was on my cruise from Louisville to Cincinnati.

In June, I think I can count the lectures on my Svalbard cruise, which included ones on wildlife (e.g. one on birds, one on cetaceans) and a particularly good on one William Barentsz and the discovery of Svalbard.
I took a trip to Svalbard. And I have three more international trips booked this year.
I finished a cross-stitch project in April. I’ve been making good progress on the Tunisian crochet afghan I’ve been working on. And I have a smaller project I am planning to take with me on my travels.
I’ve read 25 books, so am behind the curve on my goal of 75 for the year.
I went to an Aberdeen Ironbirds game, so checked off one new ballpark. I have solid plans for one more. I think getting to a third one is doable.
As for museum exhibits, in April I went to an environmental art exhibit at The Reach (part of the Kennedy Center) and I went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture with a friend visiting from out of town.

During the Kentucky Derby cruise in May, I went to the Frasier History Museum in Louisville (Kentucky), a local history museum in Madison (Indiana), the Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville (Kentucky) , the Rosemary Clooney Museum in Augusta (Kentucky), and the William Howard Taft House in Cincinnati. Also in May, I went to the National Portrait Gallery. Pixelbloom at Arttechhouse probably also counts as a museum exhibit.

I went to two museums in Svalbard in June - one in Longyearbyen and one in Ny Alesund.
I’m still at just one national park for the year so far.
I remain inconsistent on getting housework done. Sometimes I do three or four hours. Sometimes I do about 30 seconds.