Summer reading

While I have not been blogging this summer, I have been reading furiously and widely, so I have a “something for everyone” kind of book report for you. In fact, it’s a smorgasbord, from history to mystery …Let’s get started. 

Eric Larson takes on the Civil War

Almost twenty years ago my then bookclub read Eric Larson’s Devil in the White City. It was a perfect read for us. We were living in metropolitan Chicago, and the book is based on events surrounding the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, focusing on two major characters: Daniel Burnham, a legendary Chicago architect charged with designing and building the fair venue; and H. H, Holmes, a criminal believed to have been the first serial killer in the country. For a lifelong Chicagoan, the streets and people who crossed paths, especially with Burnham, the story really came alive. 

Larson writes about historical events with what i think of as a novelist’s voice; he’s a great storyteller. Each if his works is factual and documented in an extensive appendix. If you like fiction and history, his work is the best of all possible worlds. I have since read Dead Wake, capturing the last ocean crossing of the Lusitania; In the Garden of the Beasts, the story of the American Ambassador to Germany and his family in Berlin from 1933-37 when the city was falling under the spell of Hitler. I also read The Splendid and the Vile, recounting Winston Churchill’s first year as prime minister amidst the initial horror of WWII.

Larson’s most recent book, The Demon of Unrest, details the tensions between North and South in the weeks following Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter the following April. This book does not have quite the same pseudo-story quality to it. It reads more like a history book, albeit a well-researched one, Demon was a tougher read for me. It focused on the key military players at Fort Sumter as well as in the new Confederacy. Perhaps it was just me, but I had a hard time keeping the various officers and military installations straight. Larson zeroed in on the chivalric code of the South Carolina gentlemen/plantation owners who led the secession charge. (A new angle on the Civil War for me).) Mary Chestnut, a devoted diarist from Charleston who documented much of the activity of the time is the only female with a recurring role.  So, yes, this book suited my nerdy history bent and I’m glad I read it. But I don’t think it stacks up to many of his other titles. 

Ruth Reichl as novelist 

Ruth Reichl is a well-known food writer and was the restaurant critic for the New York Times for several years, I first discovered her when I read Save Me the Plums, a biography of her nine-year tenure as editor of Gourmet magazine. Published in the early 2000’s, when my interest in cooking — beyond feeding a family or presenting an appropriate party spread — was seriously piqued. Plums was a fun read, about the challenges of balancing family and career (very familiar) and editing (how I was in fact making a living). I knew she had written other books and I should look them up, but you know how that goes — there’s always another book to read. 

However, earlier this summer, I discovered Reichl’s latest book, The Paris Novel. It sounded light and perhaps a bit fluffy, but the Paris setting intrigued me and after Demon of Unrest I needed something lighter. I downloaded it to my Kindle and promptly devoured it (Pun intended). It was full of familiar Paris landmarks (the heroine lives for a time at Shakespeare and Company!), yummy food, legendary restaurants. It also has an appropriate amount of intrigue, hints of romance and a cast of quirky characters. 

That was so much fun that I staked out an earlier Reichl novel, Delicious!, published in 2014. In it the main character, Wilhemina “Billie” Breslin, takes a  job as assistant to the editor of a prestigious cooking magazine, (Again, food and publishing.) Delicious! (a.k.a. Gourmet? Who knows!) with a quirky staff and housed in a legendary New York mansion. It’s a charming setting until the owners decide to cease publication, fire the staff, and sell the mansion. While the former staff are left to nurse their wounds and find their professional way, Billie is charged with shutting down the substantial archive and library before the building is sold. Along the way she solves a mystery, finds love, and discovers her own food talent. Yes, it’s light and fluffy and what I suspect Reichl does best as a novelist, but like The Paris Novel, it’s wonderful story telling and the food is glorious! 

Have you met the Thursday Murder Club? 

I’m currently working my way through Richard Osman’s four-book (so far) series of mysteries solved by a quartet of septugenarians living in a senior community outside London. The fun begins when four otherwise unlikely friends begin meeting weekly to discuss unsolved crimes and how they would solve them. They are a decidedly quirky group led by the charming Elizabeth, long-since retired from Britain’s famed MI6. Then, a developer working on the expansion of their community is found dead, and the Thursday Murder Club sets out to find the killer. They drag reluctant family members and a local police detective into their quest.

I’ve finished book two (a diamond heist) and am well into book 3. Caution: You really need to start with book one and read them in order. Characters come and go at this age, relationships blossom and fade.. 

Reading this I realize that I have gone from an historic book (or paper weight depending on how you view it) to romance to a totally unexpected group of mostly amateur sleuths. Something for the many moods of a reader.   And I that’s one of the joys of reading — there is always something appropriate to your mood or the moment.

I hope your summer is ending on a note of grace; I’ll be happy with cooler temperatures. Thank you for reading this “book report.” I’ll see you again next time!