Out & About – Page 139

Books Read in December 2020

Picture Books

I am Every Good Thing
Derrick Barnes
Read for Librarian Book Group

Lyrical and beautifully illustrated.

All He Knew
Helen Frost
Read for Librarian Book Group

Novel in verse with very evocative poems about Henry, a deaf boy who was sent to live at a home for feebleminded children.

I spent the first segment of the book hating it, due to how the children were treated by the attendants. If you are feeling the same do persist as the book takes a turn. It also has me curious to read Down in my Heart, William Stafford’s memoir about his time as a conscientious objector during World War II.

Middle Grade

Some Places More Than Others
Renée Watson

Watson is so great at emotion! Plus, often her books are set or partially set in Portland.

Amara gets intergenerational insights to her family’s relationships when she takes a trip to New York City with her father. Includes a list of things to see in Portland and in NYC, as well as prompts for readers to ask family members about their stories.

(I got this from a Little Free Library and am excited to pass it along to another reader.)

Young Adult

The Whitsun Girls
Carrie Mesrobian

The writing! So good! But this is a hard book to get into. There are two plots–one back in the day maybe mid-1800s? and one modern. The first chapter has five members of an extended family, plus another guy, plus an ex-boyfriend, plus a dead mother, plus a mention of a different guy, plus a reference to a different family, plus a dog named Rusty.

By the end of the first chapter, I had a rough sketch of all the people, but it was touch and go there for a bit. At any rate, Mesrobian, besides being a lyrical writer, is so good at portraying emerging female sexuality. I’d say it’s worth wading through.

The Truth Commission
Susan Juby

A family who revolves around the whims of one of their children. In this case, it’s a talented daughter who draws unflattering portrayals of her mother, father and younger sister, publishes them in graphic novel form and has become famous for them. But the same situation applies to families with a child who has a substance abuse problem, or one with a terminally ill child.

Juby is great at observation and also funny. Plus, there are footnotes.

Charming as a Verb
Ben Philippe

Henri has crafted a way to move through the word as a Black kid on scholarship at his New York City high school. He’s got his sights set on Columbia, runs a dog walking business, and nothing much fazes him until a fellow student and upstairs neighbor calls him out for not being what he seems.

Aside from amazing title, this book was fun on so many levels. At this point, I’m ready to pledge to read all of Ben Philippe’s novels. The first two have been so good!

Another Kind of Cowboy
Susan Juby

Alternating narrator novel about a boy who loves horses (specifically dressage) and a wealthy girl who like plastic horses more than the real thing.

Cemetery Boys
Aiden Thomas
Read for Librarian Book Group

There are parts of this book that scream FIRST NOVEL! Sometimes the writing was such that characters in the room seemed to disappear and reappear when needed, rather than staying present for the entire scene. Other times I wasn’t sure what was going on.

However! This story is an interesting insight into brujx culture (I had to google) and also has a trans Latino character. I’m all for representation, so have a look.

Before the Ever After
Jacqueline Woodson
Read for Librarian Book Group

Woodson is the queen of novels in verse and I suspect her mastery of language inspires a lot of other writers to try their hand at the format, with varying results.

This is a portrait of a family affected by chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Grownup Fiction

Passing
Nella Larson

Interesting story from 1929 (that I came by because of Jan Wilson’s Goodreads feed) about a Black woman who runs into a childhood friend who is passing for white.

I was reading this the same week I watched Bessie and a week before Ma Rainy’s Black Bottom was released on Netflix. These three things together were a great combo.

Also, read the introduction last to avoid spoilers.

The Golden State
Lydia Kiesling

The minutia of raising a toddler rendered in sparkly prose the likes of which made for enchanting reading.

My library copy was annotated by a previous reader who carefully crossed out both instances of “bring” and wrote “take” in a neat script. This amused me greatly as Kiesling’s style eschews series commas and dialog conventions. Apparently the incorrect usage bring/take was a step too far off the literary fiction grammar path.

Girl Gone Viral
Alisha Rai

Katrina is fine with lusting after her bodyguard while living a pleasant, secluded life she’s built. But then an innocent encounter in a café is turned into a viral series of inaccurate tweets and she escapes with the lusty bodyguard to his family peach farm.

I enjoyed these characters and also felt overall this was a book without a lot of obstacles, which made for pleasant reading.

Photo from the Past

My friend S. North gave me this photo of use taken on the porch of the Leverett, Massachusetts house she was living in in the mid-90s. I’d lived with her and one other roommate (most likely the person who took this photo) for a summer and came back to visit that winter. We lived on 868 N. Pleasant St., though. She had moved by this time.

There are things I love about this picture. The fact that we both now live in Portland and see each other regularly. That I’m still overly reliant on one sweater-type object, bright in color, to keep me warm. (That’s my famous green sweater in the picture. It was given to me by friend Sara because her Great Aunt Hazel died and she knew I would love Great Aunt Hazel’s sweater.) I love that S. North still wears caps like that. That porch sitting was very fun.

However, this is what I wrote on Instagram:

Back in my green-sweater-wearing, porch-sitting days.

The truth behind this photo is that this was one of the hardest times in my life. My connections were few and felt tenuous and it was tough to get through every single day. I’m lucky to still be here.

There were respites, like this trip, and I’m glad to have had those days of light.

Mental health issues are tough. Hard to spot, hard to get treatment for in our health delivery system, and hard to overcome. It’s been a few decades since I’ve felt this way and I still do daily work to keep from sliding back.

While I do pine for parts of that time in my life I know I’ve traded it for something more solid and happier.

If right now is a dark time for you, keep reaching out, keep trying to get help, keep trying different things to make you feel better. The world can seem crappy and not worth sticking around for, but it is. Really

Roadside America

There are times when a somewhat innocuous newspaper mention knocks the breath out of me. So it was when I read in passing that Olivia Goldsmith, author of many best selling novels including The First Wives Club, had died while undergoing cosmetic surgery. I was on the bus at the time, and there was no one to remark to.

So it was with this paragraph which spends a little more time on the subject of Roadside America’s closing then the passing mention of Goldsmith’s death did. It still caused that catch in my breathing.

When I moved from Somerville to Portland in 2001, my friend flew out to make the trip with me. I had purchased a guidebook called Roadside America, which directed us to the quirky things along the way. Of the sites we saw, the one that surprised me the most was the Roadside America attraction the author mentions.

In my memory, it was a sprawling setup. Miniatures of America that stretched through several stitched together buildings. It was, essentially, a huge model railroad, but when you neared the end of the winding path, the lights dimmed as if the sun had set over the landscape, an American flag was projected, and “America the Beautiful” played. I found myself surprised at the tears that sprung from my eyes.

There were a lot of things that could have fed into that feeling. It wasn’t yet two months after 9/11; I was making a huge move to a place I’d visited regularly, but never lived; my time in Massachusetts hadn’t been the greatest. But somehow that simple (and also complex, what with the lights and the projected flag and the music) picture of the sun going down over a miniature American landscape stirred up a lot inside me.

My visit to Roadside America was probably going to be my only visit. I don’t see myself making my way back to Pennsylvania in this lifetime. But it was a perfect visit.

Let Them All Talk: Three Great Actors and a Luxury Liner

Let Them All Talk

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Written by Deborah Eisenberg

The review:

A Soderbergh movie written by a woman, starring three women I love to watch* that’s a bunch of talking while on a luxury liner? Yes, please.** Overall, this is an amusing frippery that I won’t remember much of in a few years’ time, but man was it good going down.***

The verdict: Good

Cost: HBO Max monthly cost (12.99)****
Where watched: at home

Further sentences:

*Plus Lucas Hedges
**You have no idea how much all of those things thrilled me.
***Though I adore Dianne Wiest (she who imprinted on me in Footloose) it was Candice Bergen who was the most fun to watch.
****We have it for a month due to treating ourselves so we could watch Wonder Woman 84.

Questions:

Which of the three women would you have liked to be?
If your friend from long ago offered to take you on a cruise, would you go?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

For the most part paying Queen Mary 2 passengers were unaware of the film being shot. Signs were placed around live shooting locations. They were met with mostly indifference.

Other reviews of Let Them All Talk:

Karen Gordon, Original CIN
Karen Han, Slate

Orange background with a white frame. Text: When I read this novel, it's impossible for me not to think what a miracle it is That the universe emerged, what a miracle it is that consciousness emerged. And what a miracle it is that Blodwyn Pugh, her thoughts and experiences, that they could reach across time and reach into my consciousness. That's a miracle. —Let Them All Talk. Read the three sentence movie reivew. 3SMReviews.com

Apparently, He Wasn’t the Christmas Ham

Spotted on my walk today was this little friend grazing in a side yard.

Christmas Present: A Movie!

In the normal world, I don’t go to the movies on Christmas, because I wouldn’t want to go to work in Christmas Day and I don’t think my actions should support other people having to go to work on that day. But this is a pandemic, all the theaters are closed, and Wonder Woman 1984 is opening on HBO Max on Christmas Day!

So we bought our selves a one-month subscription to the channel, and prepped for a Christmas Day treat.

I made a cheesy pizza roll appetizer I’d had my eye on for years, Matt broke out the cheese from the gift basket his uncle sent, I mixed up a colorful cocktail, and we settled in for the next Wonder Woman installment! Here’s my review.

Wonder Woman 1984: A Fun Outing

Wonder Woman 1984

Directed by Patty Jenkins
Written by Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, and Dave Callaham

The review:

The great moments in Wonder Woman 1984 are the bits that come along with being female in the world that are highlighted in passing* as the story unfolds.** Overall, there are two stories here, one with a pyramid scheme guy and one with a antiquities specialist and I enjoyed the latter more than the former.*** But that is not to say that I didn’t enjoy this movie, it was a fun outing.****

The verdict: Good

Cost: HBOMax monthly fee ($14.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*From the joy of young Diana trying to beat the course to the catcalls and unrelenting attention of the grown Diana (and Barbara Minerva) it’s a low and high thing.
**Also joyful? Chris Pine’s clothes modeling scene which mimicked Diana’s exasperation with WWI-era clothes in the previous movie.
***Also, I didn’t recognize Pedro Pascal and spent the film wondering if that was Nathan Fillion with a prosthetic nose, which was a little distracting.
****It’s also the longest Matt and I have gone without watching a new superhero film in more than a decade. Our last one together was Spider-Man: Far From Home in July of 2019! (Though Matt did see Birds of Prey earlier this year)

Questions:

Lotta flight in this film. Necessary?
What was your favorite Wonder Woman moment?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

As first reported by Variety, actress Gal Gadot was paid $10 million for this film (which she also produces)—33 times more than what she made on the first film, Wonder Woman (2017) ($300,000).

(To which both Matt and I said, “$300,000? She was the star of that film!”)

Other reviews of Wonder Woman 1984:

Molly Freeman, ScreenRant
Kate Erbland, IndieWire

Orange background with a white frame. Text: Nothing good is born from lies. And greatness is not what you think. —Wonder Woman 1984. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

Christmas Morning

This year, due to quarantine, the fam met briefly in my Aunt Pat’s garage so we could do stockings. This year, that meant putting things in a “stocking” that was really a bag with a name written on it. Then we brought our stockings home to unpack.

There were a lot of goodies in the stocking!

Plus, I had a fun present to open, so here’s another view of the spoils.

The stationary says, “Nobody writes letters anymore.” I love it!

These were my winners!

And check out this situation:

Though brief, it was nice to see everyone for a stocking exchange.

Christmas Dinner

Since all the Christmas traditions were up in the air, I decided that 2020 was the year to try a Tofuky. Even in my vegetarian years, I never shelled out the money. Back in those days, it came with a tempeh drumstick, so I guess I should have sampled the product then.

Here’s the Tofurky, ready to go into the pot. I followed the instructions on the label and made a soy sauce/olive oil concoction for the broccoli and tofurky to roast in.

And here’s our final product, dusted with sage. I also made mashed potatoes, because I don’t like to pass up a chance to eat mashed potatoes.

The verdict? Very salty. The broccoli tasted amazing, through, having roasted in that soy sauce/olive oil concoction. I skipped the gravy (because I almost always skip the gravy) and the potatoes were delicious!

While I wouldn’t turn down a slice of tofuky, if one is offered to me, this was probably a one-and-done experience.

The Santas

Since we are quarantining this year, Matt and I will not be doing the usual, which is going to Aunt Carol’s house for dinner and stockings. Instead, we went to find the Bakelite Santas that Chris Willis (@ChrisWillis) has been installing in various Portland locales for 10 years. We pondered the clue he gave us and set out for Westmoreland where we wandered about until we saw a faint pink glow coming from an empty building.