Books to enjoy (or maybe to give as gifts for the holidays)

Posted 12/8/15

It was the summer of the book for me; but, I was busy this fall and the books piled up. I also read some sequels and books in series that were just so-so.

But, below are some I liked (and I might give a few for holiday gifts).

What …

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Books to enjoy (or maybe to give as gifts for the holidays)

Posted

It was the summer of the book for me; but, I was busy this fall and the books piled up. I also read some sequels and books in series that were just so-so.

But, below are some I liked (and I might give a few for holiday gifts).

What I’m really enjoying these days are the Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny that are set in Canada. The fourth, “The Cruelest Month,” was just as good as the first three. I think they’re so popular because everyone wishes Three Pines existed. It’s worth reading the village scenes for the food descriptions alone. If you’re not familiar with this series, it’s great and the Sûreté inspector is such an appealing character. Start at the beginning with “Still Life.”

“Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” (2014) by Atul Gawande is the most important book you will ever read on aging and dying in this country, and I can’t recommend it enough. As people move into the autumn of their years, they fear what’s to come and with good reason. Dr. Gawande, an author and surgeon in Boston, writes about creative alternatives popping up around the country to the typical nursing homes and assisted living centers.

While the topic sounds like a downer, the book is uplifting in tone. Medicine has come such a long way in the last hundred years, but we can’t let it overtake our quality of life to achieve longevity at any cost. This book should be required reading for every health professional in the country.

“Fin & Lady” (2013) by Cathleen Schine is a smart, funny coming-of-age story about Fin Hadley and his half-sister Lady. As a child, he hears snippets about this mysterious sister, which are instantly hushed when he is nearby. He first meets Lady in Italy, where Fin’s father chases the runaway bride to earth.

But, the real story begins when Fin is 11, his mother dies and he is left in the charge of the beautiful, colorful, exotic Lady. She takes him from his grandparents’ Connecticut farm to New York City and a new life lived through the turbulent ’60s that travels from Greenwich Village to the isle of Capri. In this new world, it becomes clear to Fin that they will have to take care of each other. Schine wrote “The Three Weissmanns of Westport,” a modern “Sense and Sensibility” set in Connecticut, which I also enjoyed.

“The Uninvited Guests” (2013) by Sadie Jones. Jones is an incredibly talented writer and I doubt you’ve ever read a book quite like this one. There are elements of other genres (she says she was playing with a drawing room comedy and 19th-century morality tales among others). But, what she has is a unique look at class, manners and morality. I don’t want to give too much away. (If you read it, don’t read the interview with Jones in the back until after you’re finished.)

Emerald and Clovis Torrington are unhappy residents of Sterne, their family home in England. They’re also unhappy because their mother remarried after their father’s death. The Step, as they call him, has headed to town to try for a loan to save Sterne. Left at home with their mother, younger sister and two servants, they will celebrate Emerald’s 20th birthday with an elegant dinner party. But, a bad train accident nearby throws the evening into disarray when a bunch of survivors are sent to Sterne for shelter. It’s a drama and mystery with a touch of comedy and romance thrown in.

“Life After Life” (2013) by Kate Atkinson is almost impossible to categorize. I had never read any of her books (most of them award-winning). Atkinson, when asked, said “Life After Life” is about being English; but, then admitted that’s what most of her books are about. It’s really the story of Ursula Todd and her family and their life from 1910 through both world wars into the 1960s. But, it’s also so much more.

Ursula is taken through multiple versions of her life and dies multiple times. She is brought to a psychiatrist as a child because of her déjà vu moments, survives the Blitz, which is horrifying in its realistic portrayal, lives an alternate life in Germany during World War II, and so much more. I hate to give too much away. But, it’s a sweeping look at how life is a series of chances and choices and what we make of them. It’s a fascinating book. And, I’m going right out to find another of Atkinson’s books.

“The Botany of Desire” (2001) by Michael Pollan will change how you see life on this planet and the symbiotic relationship between people, insects and plants. It’s divided into four sections — on sweetness (the apple), beauty (the tulip), intoxication (marijuana) and control (potatoes). The apple section just blew me away with the truth about John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) and the apple orchards he seeded in the West. Tulipomania in Holland in the 1600s is a fascinating look at speculation and “the greater fool theory,” which still exists today.

The marijuana chapter is a wide-ranging look at intoxication from medieval gardens full of plants that healed, intoxicated and poisoned to the high-tech indoor, hydroponic cannabis-growing operations that came out of the misguided drug war. It would be interesting to see him updated this chapter after all the changes in marijuana laws.

The potato chapter looks at the horrifying results of monoculture — the Irish potato famine, the worst catastrophe in European history after the Black Death. With corporations increasingly controlling how large farms grow our food with chemicals, new disease-resistant plants, and sterile seeds, it’s pretty scary. I’ll certainly never look at my garden (or the produce section at the market) the same way again.

Visit Lynda Rego on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lynda.rego where she shares tips on cooking, books, gardening, genealogy and other topics. Click on Like and share ideas for upcoming stories.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.