Something From Nothing by Alison Roman

In the interest of full disclosure, I have Alison Roman's first three cookbooks, and while I am not often opening Sweet Nothing, the other two are in regular rotation for me, especially Nothing Fancy, which has a number of salad recipes that are outstanding--they easily scale up for a crowd, allow you to have a varied looking array of vegetable side dishes that are quite easy to make. My most recent child who got married had my spouse and I do the food for both the groom's dinner (130 guests) and the wedding (200+ guests) and I did several of her recipes. The prep can be done ahead of time and the salad assembled right before with surprisingly delicious and beautiful results. So that is a long way around saying I am a big fan. This cookbook, which is all about assembling a casual yet stylish table of food using mostly things that you have in your "pantry"--which includes refrigerator, shelf, and freezer--things that you should have on hand, not necessarily what you actually have on hand. The recipes are inspired, especially if you like anchovies, and this approach to eating is quite timely what with the rising cost of basic food in the United States. She emphasizes things that are available year round--celery is one of her favorites--and that are not high cost. Lastly, this is a fun read, and I recommend what I did--read it cover to cover.

The Thursday Murder Club (2025)

If you are not acquainted with the popular murder mystery series written by Richard Osman, well, they are great fun and you should be. The movie adheres closely to the characters, and the casting for them is top notch. The action takes place in the poshest of retirement communities called Cooper's Chase. It is converted supposedly from a convent, but the nun's were not living an abtemious life--the accomodations are palatial, as are the grounds. But there isn't much action and a club to solve cold murder cases was started by D.I. Penny Gray, a retired police officer who now lies in the hospice wing in a coma, watched over by her husband. Elizabeth and Penny were dear friends, so Elizabeth has kept the club going. Elizabeth herself is driven and steely-eyed, coming up with the club’s plan of attack and handing out assignments. She drops hints suggesting she was probably pretty high up in MI6. Being a “little old lady” gives her a great cover. It’s useful to be underestimated. Ron is a former trade unionist, a rabble-rousing and energetic figure, and Ibrahim, a former psychiatrist, adds psychological nuance to their investigations. Joyce is a newcomer to the club, eager to help out and make some new friends. We first see them investigating a head-scratcher of a cold case from 1973, but this is derailed by the real-life murder of Tony Curran who owns the place. I know there was some grumbling from long time fans of the books, but we thoroughly enjoyed this, and hope it goes the way of the Knives Out series and becomes a repeat.

A Gentlemans's Gentleman by T.J. Alexander

This made it on to the 100 Notable Books of 2025 list by the New York Times--I like this list because it is robust. One hundred books is a lot of books, more than most people read in a year, and so it gets away from being too reductive. This is a romance, but with a few twists. Lord Christopher Eden is a a man of unusual habits for someone of his class: he prefers to live in the countryside, and would rather have the comfortable company of his childhood cook and his aged butler than a swarm of servants. His pleasant, if lonely, life is upended when he receives word from his lawyers that, according to his late father’s will, he must find a wife by his next birthday if he intends to keep his family’s fortune and the Eden estate. Christopher is appalled-- he isn’t attracted to women, his chances of making a wife happy are slim. Furthermore, if his quest to marry has any hope of succeeding, he must move to London posthaste and acquire some more suitable staff. Enter James Harding, Christopher’s new, distractingly handsome—if rigidly traditional—valet. After a rocky start, the two strike up a fragile friendship and make their choices.

Sacred Deer of Nara, Japan

These deer are everywhere. I wondered about getting off the city bus we took from the metro station when I saw the first ones, but we perservered and took it to the furthest destination, which was a very good move because there are lots of deer everywhere. There is no missing them.

The Nara Park deer are wild animals inhabited the area for over 1,300 years. They have long been regarded as divine envoys of the kami (Gods) of Kasugataisha Shrine and have, therefore, been carefully protected. The deer of the Nara Park are the same species as the Japanese Sika found in other places, but they have inherited DNA from ancient deer species and are designated natural monuments of Japan. Genetic analysis conducted by Fukushima University revealed that the deer around Kasugataisha Shrine probably branched off from an ancestral group during the Asuka period (592-710) and have survived as a lineage with a unique genetic type for a long time. As a result, this unique genetic type has been maintained without interaction with other deer populations. The World Heritage Site, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, is said to have been founded in 768, roughly overlapping with the period when the deer in Nara Park branched off as a unique lineage. It has become clear that these deer are extraordinary creatures protected by people for over 1,000 years and are considered living cultural assets.

The South by Tash Aw

This was long listed for the 2025 Booker Prize, and as so often happens, I liked it better than some of the books that made it to the short list. It is also highly evocative of nominees for this particular prize, which is that the excellence of the prose outweighs the execution of the plot. In this case, maybe there is a reason this doesn't wind up quite as neatly, because it is the first of a quartet of novels about Malaysia. This is an ambitious portrayal of a family navigating profound transformation and the complexities of identity and belonging within Malaysia’s rich and challenging political context of the late 1990s. Following his grandfather’s passing, sixteen-year-old Jay ventures southward with his family to inspect their inherited failing farm. Blighted trees and drought-stricken fields greet them upon arrival. There are stories that are interwoven throughout the book of Jay and his family, as well as Chuan, who he meets in the south, and Chuan's family--one review likened the narrative of Jay's internal life with that of Jay Gatsby, and there is something to that as I think back. There is an awareness of historical and social fault lines that shine a light on what’s broken, what needs healing and how that affects each of them. Cultural displacement, the ambiguity of belonging, and unspoken wounds passed down through generations are central themes that echo throughout the novel.

Wake up Dead Man (2025)

Speaking of the Knives Out sereis, as I was just a few days earlier, there is a new installment and it is just as fun as the first one. Benoir Blanc is back, called in to solve a locked room murder mystery. The suspect is Reverend Jud Dupenticy, a young priest who is sent to a troubled New York parish after he punches a deacon--with justification, but a change of scenery was necessary. Jud ends up working with the irascible Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, a monster of a man who believes in ruling with anger instead of hope. He preaches from a pulpit of fire, using tools like shame and guilt to keep people under control. He argues with Jud that their very faith is under attack, and the only way to stay relevant is to fight back. Jud disagrees but obstacles are placed in his way at every turn, and so when the Monsignor is stabbed, he is the natural suspect. This is a star studded cast, with Daniel Craig playing the Poirot like detective to perfection, and if you were disappointed by the second installment in this series, give this one a chance. Your faith may be restored.

The Land In Winter by Andrew Miller

This was short listed for the Booker Prize in 2025, and while I did not love this book, there is a air of tragedy about it that is hard to create. It hangs over the book like a cloak of gloom--think Claire Keegan. To magnify that atmosphere, the events take place in the winter of 1962, which was a particularly harsh and brutal winter in real life, the coldest known in England in the 20th century. The book opens with a suicide, not related to what happens thereafter, but it is in keeping with the dark tone and mood that follows. The book centers on 4 people and follows two couples in their uneasy marriages as they endure physical and emotional isolation that none of them is quite used to. Eric and Irene are better off: Eric as a doctor and Irene a devoted homemaker. Bill and Rita run a small farm and come from more colorful upbringings: Bill, the child of an immigrant, and Rita, a former showgirl. Both wives are pregnant, and both feel the impending change that will inevitably bring about. Bill is more of a dreamer, distanced from his family and while he has big hopes for the future, he is not naturally talented as a farmer. There is a profound lack of communication that pervades the book, and the coldness of the weather is a reflection of some lack of warmth interpersonally. The events roll out slowly, almost methodically. Not a lot of action, and a lot is left to the reader to unravel.

Izakaya Hamagumi, Kanazawa, Japan

We arrived at the restaurant about 10 minutes before it opened and there were two parites waiting ahead of us--this is a popular place, and reservations would be recommended. We sat at the bar and had a good view into the kitchen--this was a common theme on this trip, and for me it definitely added to the fun. I had the best saki of the trip here, and enjoyed watching them prepare carafes for other tables as well. To begin we had pickles a raw shrimp dish, an octopus amuse bouche, and small whole shrimp tempura that I failed to photograph but loved best of all. A close second was the collar of yellow tail--I love this dish, because it is fish on the bone that is easily managed and also not to much food.

This restaurant was in the samurai district in Kanazawa, which was noticably old architecturally and also distinct from the districts we had been in up to then. It's historical value lies in its unusual state of preservation. It has escaped large-scale fires, including the firebombing that damaged other large cities such as Tokyo and Osaka during World War II. Accordingly, it retains many features from the Edo period: narrow streets, a drainage and water supply system that remains in use, and restored samurai houses. Many of these residences maintain their original earthen walls (tsuchi-kabe), which are still covered in the winter with straw mats to protect them from frost and subsequent cracking

The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemeri

This book, named one of the five best works of fiction from 2025 by the New York Times, tells two interwoven stories. One is the fictional one that centers on the three titular siblings—Ina, Evelyn, and Anastasia Mikkola. They have a Swedish father who is not in the picture and a Tunisian mother who travels a lot and sells rugs. She tells the sisters and they believe they are cursed, and in a lot of ways that drives some of what they do, Anastasia in particular. Then there is the other story, one about a writer named Jonas, who is drawn to these sisters before he eventually meets them, as a child, in a park in Stockholm. In an interview with the writer, who is also a Tunisian Swede who is writing his first book in English, he says that part of the story is his story, the one that he is trying to off load and understand, and part of it is theirs. The sisters grew up speaking English and they are like the proverbial trio of monkeys but with a twist. Ina sees no evil, no matter what kind of trouble her sisters get into she ignores it and figures out how to get them out. Evelyn hears evil but ignores it--she moves forward no matter what, and Anastasia runs headlong into evil, she speaks it freely and tries to unravel the origin of the curse on her family. Set in Sweden, Tunisia, and the United States, the novel follows its viewpoint characters’ interwoven Tunisian-Swedish histories between 2000 and 2035. It is chaotic, meandering and mesmerizing at the same time.

Kenroku-en Garden, Kanazawa, Japan

The top three gardens in Japan are the Kenroku-en Garden in Kanazawa, Kōraku-en Garden in Okayama, and Kairaku-en Garden in Mito. Collectively known as the "Three Great Gardens of Japan" or Nihon Sanmeien, they were all created by feudal lords during the Edo period and are renowned for their beauty and historical significance. We are not getting to the last two so spent some type absorbing the Kenroku-en.

It is Known as the "Garden which combines six characteristics," it is celebrated for its spaciousness, serenity, and scenic views. It is especially famous for its picturesque snow-covered landscapes in winter, which we are unable to verify. The Kanazawa Castle has been slowly and faithfully restored. Many features of the castle including the original castle tower were destroyed in two major fires over its long history, and many of them have been rebuilt. Two of its longest lasting features are the Ishikawa-mon Gate, which was rebuilt in 1788, and the Sanjikken Nagaya which was rebuilt in 1858. Reconstruction continues.

Stuck Up and Stupid by Angourie and Karen Rice

I read broadly. Not a week goes by where I do not read some or all of a murder mystery--I hesitate to say daily, because sometimes I am flying, or sick, but really, while I read award winning fiction and non-fiction, I also read across the spectrum of what is available in written form. I point this out because rarely do I rate a book at 2-stars, and that is my assessment of this book. I also have read more than half of Reese Witherspoon's monthly picks--as celebrity book clubs go, hers is far and away my favorite, and I picked this because it is one of her picks. For me it fell flat. This is a modern-day Australian take on Pride & Prejudice--for me, this is one of the issues with the book, that it adheres too closely to the original, which you might think would be an advantage, but for me at least it made some of the events seem oddly out of place and the ending abrupt and unsupported by what happened before it.

Holiday in Santa Fe (2021)

This is very standard holiday made for TV fare, maybe a little less charming than you might hope for, and chock full of fake things about Santa Fe. That said, first of all, it is is fluff and romance centering on family, art, and the holidays, so when you really need a diversion this is just right in terms of lightness. After all, the President of the United State did just say this week that the brutal murder of a Hollywood legend and his wife was because he critisized him and basically got what he deserved--so low brow and yet completely on brand that a movie with this little to think about hits the spot. It is all sweetness and light. Not a thing about Santa Fe is correct, other than its gorgeous plaza. No one eats traditional New Mexican food, and the Winter Fest is complete fiction. But the bottom line is that we are about to start watching a series of movies short listed for the Oscars, and the bulk of them will be serious--interspersed with the Visual Effects films, which are pure action and eye candy--and something this phony is a welcome diversion before we get down tot the serious business of seeing everything that is wrong with the world.

The Antidote by Karen Russell

This is a novel of fiction with a tincture of magical realism, but built upon a foundation of history, also known as historical fiction. The book has four protagonists, all with some connection to uncanny powers. It takes place in 1930s Nebraska, amidst a terrifying Dust Bowl wreaking havoc on hundreds of rural communities. One of these communities is Uz, a small agrarian town , where a prairie witch who calls herself “The Antidote” does business. Prairie witches serve as a kind of memory ‘vault,‘ taking in the weight of people’s memories, good or bad, in exchange for a feeling of lightness and hope. When The Antidote loses her memory deposits in a dust storm on Black Sunday, she fears for her safety yet cannot leave the dying town of Uz, as she awaits her long-lost son stolen from her in infancy. Then there is Harp Oletsky is a farmer who finds his land is miraculously spared from the catastrophic “Black Sunday” dust storm; in its wake, the sky is blue over his fields alone, and they fill with healthy wheat. His teenage niece, Dell, is dealing with the murder of her mother by obsessively playing basketball and apprenticing herself to the Antidote as a trainee witch. Cleo Allfrey is a black photographer, sent to Nebraska by the New Deal’s Resettlement Administration to document the suffering of farmers. She buys a camera in a local pawn shop that turns out to have uncanny powers of its own: its photographs show scenes from potential futures and forgotten pasts. The novel also has brief sections from the perspectives of a haunted scarecrow and a stray cat. The story is a bit of a meander, but it cannot be denied that this book is wholly unique and thought provoking. As there is an effort at the national government level to white wash our history, there will be powerful voices reminding us of it.

Kanazawa, Japan

During the Edo Period (1603-1868), Kanazawa (金沢) served as the seat of the Maeda Clan, the second most powerful feudal clan after the Tokugawa in terms of rice production and fief size. Accordingly, Kanazawa grew to become a town of great cultural achievements, rivaling Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo). During World War Two, Kanazawa was Japan's second largest city (after Kyoto) to escape destruction by air raids. Higashi Chaya District is located in the Higashiyama area of Kanazawa, adjacent to the Asano River. It is the largest among three well-preserved historical geisha districts in Kanazawa along with Nishichayagai. We walked through on Cultural Day.

Big city Japan is very nice, but this much smaller town (half a million) was our favorite--yes, it had some large roads and modern buildings, but it had lots of small neighborhoods--including the small boutique hotel we stayed at--and lots of charm. It does not have a metro, but we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go, so we didn't even try to decipher the buses, but would have managed that if need be.

Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela

This is a novel about polyamory and in this one at least it is poly-problematic, as one reviewer coined. In my professional experience this is almost always the case. The push you-pull me of what each person in the relationship wants and needs is hard when there are only 2 people in the mix, and the complications multiply when 3 or 4 people are involved. This novel is told in epistolary form through the narrator’s unsent emails and it opens in the immediate aftermath of a breakup. The breakup, like the relationship, was complicated. He is happily married to his husband, has two children (one of whom is nonbinary), lives in Brooklyn, has an active social life, and works as a public health researcher and professor. Until recently, he was also in a polyamorous relationship with Ben. A whirlwind romance that deepened quickly into love, their relationship was great until the moment Ben dumped the narrator unceremoniously. Nearly swallowed by grief, he fills his overwhelmingly vulnerable letters with sorrow, pining, obsessive thoughts, anxiety, tangents, gay history, therapy speak, pop-culture diatribes, and everything in between. We see very little of the husband's experience--he is pained by how devastatingly heartbroken his spouse is to lose the relationship with Ben but he is equally clear that he is happy enough to see the end of it. The narrator is not down with his spouse seeing another man--that has happened in the past and it did not go well--so there is a lot of polyamory that is left unplumbed in this, but it is a good window into that world if you yourself don't get how it might work.

Yakitori Tsukada, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

We tried a lot of different types of places our first couple of days in Tokyo—a tendon place, a ramen place, a yakiniku place—all costing about $10 per person. We did a fancer meal our last night at Yakitori Tsukada, a yakitori place specializing in chicken, and really enjoyed it! The other thing to point out is that there is a lot of fish and beef in Japan, and it is nice to have another option altogether when you are eating out each and every day.

I love skewers, but the meal started with something I plan to try to make at home--potato leek miso soup. We managed to score quite a few different types of miso when we were in Osaka, and I think it would be possible. The fortune cookie style chicken cut out stuffed with chicken liver is not on that list, but we did pick up some persimmons at home because we had so many good ones, including here. Every part of fowl was offered, including some grilled quail eggs, duck breast, and even a chicken meatball to dip in a raw egg! My favorite was that, and my spouse liked the chicken shoulder best, but really, everything was delicious and I would recommend it.

Flashlight by Susan Choi

The Booker Prize short list for 2025 had some real gems in it, this among them. Flesh was the winner, and while it wasn't my favorite, it was very good. The Audition was weirdly innovation, The Rest of Our Lives was excellent up to the ending, and The Loneliness of Sunny and Sonia was an excellent, long, messy saga that embraces both love and immigration. This one is also very good and quirky in it's story telling, which in the end I liked, although it took some time for me to get used to. Here goes. The the Kang family is damaged. Serk grows up an impoverished Korean in Japan. He immigrates to the US as a grad student after his family sets off for North Korea, lured by promises of socialist paradise. Anne has a child, Tobias, that she gave birth to at nineteen and signed away to her older lover and his wife. Her college plans are derailed, but she is able to find work as a transcriptionist for an eccentric academic, which is how she meets Serk. There is a mutual identification in their remoteness yet neither can figure out how to overcome it. Louisa—Serk and Anne’s only child—is not consciously aware of all that precedes her, but it is the water she swims in--nobody communicates. Anne welcomes Tobias back into her life without consulting Serk, and Serk takes an opportunity to relocate to Japan for a year without telling Anne of his primary goal: surreptitiously seeking out a path of return for his family. Louisa witnesses to shreds of each of her parents’ secrets and over time learns to nurture her own. So, yes, another messy family saga--I had the added luck to read it while I was vacationing in Japan, which added an extra layer to an already multi-level story.

Karate Kid Legends (2025)

What is it with the 1980's reboots? I watched this one on a long haul flight recently, and whil I did not like the other one I watched (one the critics and audiences alike did like), I enjoyed this--which was not true of the aforementioned critics and general audience. So proceed with caution. This is the sixth entry in the series, gives its intended audience—which is to say, anyone who enjoyed any part of the other movies—what they came looking for. No more, and for me at least, no less. Li Fong (ably played by Ben Fong, who is both acrobatic and charming, and I hope to see him again) is a teenager who moved from Beijing to New York City’s Chinatown because his doctor mom (Ming-Na Wen) got hired by a Manhattan hospital. Li is a character we haven’t seen before. There are early scenes at kung fu school where we see him being mentored by Mr. Han (Jackie Chan). Like every protagonist before him, Li gets bullied by unlikable thugs. They train at a dojo near his school. Their leader is karate prodigy Connor Day , two-time winner of the Five Boroughs tournament. Li’s school also happens to be near an independent pizzeria owned by former boxer Victor Lipani. Victor’s charming and witty teenage daughter Mia (Sadie Stanley) works the cash register. She and Li hit it off. Naturally, in order to turn the heat up, Mia was once Connor’s girlfriend. Connor’s father, who owns the dojo, is a mob-connected underworld figure who loaned Victor the money to open the pizzeria and expects to be paid back soon. You see where this is going, and this movie is all about nostalgia, so there are no surprises, although it was surprisingly nice to see the chemistry between Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio. Chan in particular remains the all-time best at getting laughs through martial artistry, and there’s ascene between him and Fong that wouldn’t look out of place in any other of Chan’s stuntwork ballets.

Inventing Japan by Ian Buruma

As you might suspect with a book that covers a hundred years of history and the core of a nation's identity in under 200 pages, there is some reductionism at work here. I read this in preparation for a tourism trip to Japan, and it reinforced other things that I had read, and seemed less anti-Asian than many other things I had read. Japan has been assiduous in its early days about isolation. The original opening of Japan came in the mid-1500s when European traders and Christian missionaries arrived. But the nation was closed back up at the start of the 17th century when the overt practice of Christianity was snuffed out and all trade reduced to Dutch sailors in Nagasaki. They didn't completely cut themselves off--Japanese intellectuals studied Western science and ideas — known as Dutch learning — in order to borrow what was useful. But the culture continued in seclusion until Commodore Matthew Perry appeared in Edo Bay on July 8, 1853, with four armed ships. This book covers the time from American Commodore Matthew Perry’s explosive appearance in Edo Bay to the end of the shogunate, the failed attempts at democracy that followed, the rise of militarization and colonialism, a war against Russia, a war against China and finally World War II, the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Douglas MacArthur as American overlord and a post-war commitment to an overheated economy with an emphasis on construction for the sake of construction. And in the epilogue the author takes the story even further with the boom of the Japanese economy and talk of a “Japanese Century” — and then the bursting of the bubble. There is so much more to the story, but this is a kind of Cliff Notes introduction.

Gardens in Tokyo

There are some huge beautiful green spaces in densely populated Tokyo, where you can sit on benches, listen to birds and get away from metros where you might on occasion have to shove yourself in backwards and hope the door closes—my close encounter involves having to stand n one foot initially because my other foot kept the door from closing. These were imperial grounds, shrines, and feudal gardens that remain today—and are free to roam. We visited two and it is amazing just how far from a busy city you feel in the The Imperial Palace East Gardens is a historical garden in the Tokyo Imperial Palace. The gardens were first used by the Tokugawa shogunate. The garden was built on the grounds of Edo Castle. Meiji Jingu Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Shibuya, Tokyo, that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. There are wide open spaces and on a weekend day there were dozens of couples and families fanned out over the lawn enjoying the peaceful surroundings.

Twist by Colum McCann

Here is the thing about this author. He is a very good writer, I enjoy the story mostly because the story teller is talented, but mostly I just do not care for the characters. The story starts off straight forward enough, but there is truth in advertising--the title lets you know that it is going to get messy. Anthony Fennell, an Irish writer down on his luck, gets an assignment from an online journal to write a piece on the undersea cables that carry the world’s data and the repair teams that patrol the oceans, fixing ruptures. He agrees to this because he has a bit of writer's block and he has an image of cruise ship rather than working ship and thinks he is going to get some time to write his own stuff as well. Fennell’s editor sends him to Cape Town, where he is to sign on with a repair ship and meet a man named Conway, who is in charge of operations. Conway is, and will remain an enigma: immediate and engaging at first, later aloof and noncommittal — and capable, as we’ll see, of extraordinary actions. Though they’ve just met, he straightaway asks Fennell to come meet his partner, Zanele, a South African-born stage actress. The three of them weave in and out of each other's stories throughout the book, all with an undercurrent of moving against the grain of society. It is a story well told.

Naked Gun (2025)

I guess I should have thought twice before watching this movie on a recent Trans Pacific flight. If I thought the original was dumber, what made me think that this wouldn't be dumber? Don't let me dissuade you though, because reading through reviews, I am pretty much alone on this. Liam Neeson plays Det Lt Frank Drebin Jr, who is the son of the LA cop once played by Leslie Nielsen, and haunted in a rather Freudian way by his late father’s reputation. He is given to making yearning monologues addressed to Drebin Sr’s presence, begging him to send a sign that he is there in spirit if not in person. Paul Walter Hauser plays his stolid partner Capt Ed Hocken Jr, son of Drebin Sr’s partner who was once played by George Kennedy. The new Drebin (who is old, BTW) investigates the possible murder of a man found dead at the wheel of a hi-tech electric car, and must confront the sinister plutocrat who invented this vehicle (sound like anyone we know?). There is a love interest, which I will not go into because even though this harken's back to an earlier sensibility, it is exaggeratedly offensive--and no where near far enough back for the likes of the current autocratic misogynist administration would like to go--Make Suffregettes relevant again kind of stuff--it is still beyond the pale. The new Naked Gun has the look and feel of an 80s LA action movie, with sense-memories of Beverly Hills Cop and Terminator, but not in a good way, at least for me. It did make me think i should not rewatch Beverly Hills Cop but rather leave it safely in my memory as not nearly as offensive as this.

A Marriage At Sea by Sophie Elmhurst

I read this when it was on Obama's reading list, and it is now also on the New York Times 100 Notable books for 2025. This is a story that is almost unbelievable yet true. ​​On June 28, 1972, 40-year-old Maurice and 32-year-old Maralyn Bailey, newly married but with this long held plan, set sail aboard a 30-foot sailboat they named Auralyn on what they hoped would be a yearslong voyage from England to New Zealand. Their plan was to travel across the Bay of Biscay to Spain, then to Madeira and the Canary Islands, then 2,700 miles across the Atlantic Ocean through the Caribbean, Panama Canal, across the Pacific Ocean to the Galapagos. After that, they’d sail to the Marquesas Islands, the Tuamotu Islands and Fiji, and then their final destination. But on March 4, 1973, eight months into their expedition, a disaster happened: a 40-foot sperm whale slammed into their boat, creating a gash in its side. Within minutes — just enough time for the Baileys to grab their passports, a log book, a compass, Maralyn’s diary and a few other essentials, before jumping into their 4.5-foot-in-diameter life boat and attached dinghy — their boat sank about 300 miles from the Galapagos. Of note, they did not have a radio on board, so there was no way for anyone outside them to know where they were. They survived for 4 months and several ships passing by that did not see them before they were rescued. They were emaciated, ill, and in need of long term nursing back to health, he more than she--but then what happened? They set out to do it all over again. It is very reminiscent of the Shackleton story--not only was their marooning of note, their inability to survive on land was also quite impressive and for me, incomprehensible.

Sumida Hokusai Museum, Tokyo, Japan

I love the Japanese Edo era woodblook prints, as did the impressionists, who I also love. This museum has just the works of Katsushika Hokusai. He moved dozens of times, but he was born in now Sumida-ku now and spent much of his life there. He also wrote some pieces of ukiyo-e of this area. This museum has collected only works of the artist. He is most famous for his wave print, and I love his Mt. Fuji series, but we saw depictions of courtesan life. These were produced in huge numbers and were hugely popular during the Edo period (1615 – 1868). They are known as ukiyo-e, and depicted scenes from everyday Japan. Ukiyo-e literally means 'pictures of the floating world'. The 'floating world' referred to the licensed brothel and theatre districts of Japan's major cities during the Edo period. Inhabited by prostitutes and Kabuki actors (Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theatre), these were the playgrounds of the newly wealthy merchant class. Despite their low status in the strict social hierarchy of the time, actors and courtesans became the style icons of their day, and their fashions spread to the general population via inexpensive woodblock prints.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

This is a lot about what the immigrant experience is like--in this case it is immigrating to America, but I suspect there is overlap with immigrating to other places. The United States is a place with a rich and deep Native American culture that is largely unknown and ignored and otherwise it is a jumble of cultural influence that is shallow and often troubled. So imagine having familial ties in a place that has deep cultural roots and centuries of conflict over them? On the surface, this is a novel about the relationship between Sunny Bhatia and Sonia Shah, whose families are neighbors but not friends, and whose attempts to make a match begin their on-off liaison. Where Sunny dreams of journalistic success, Sonia’s heart and mind lie in writing fiction. The sheer exhaustion – mental, physical and artistic – caused by the constant need for self-invention and reinvention, whether individual, societal, national or global--it does seek to accurately and productively capture this yearning for gravitas. Yet just underneath the surface of what they say they want is a search for belonging and being valued. It leads them to be together and apart, in India and the United States and back again, and yes, it spans years and it messy and complicated.

The Christmas Contract (2018)

It is December, let the holiday movie season begin--right before the short lists for the 10 categories that are announced by the end of the month and the season of well respected documentaries and international movies begin. A little fluff before getting down to that more serious business. This is all too predictable, as a holiday movie should be, and yet I found it easy to watch. The story is this--Jolie is a New York website designer reluctantly heading home to Louisiana for a traditional family Christmas. She loves her family and their traditions around Christmas is a year-round job for them, they love it so much, but the problem is that her long-time former boyfriend, from the same home town and who recently broke up with her, will also be there and with a new girlfriend. Jolie would love to have a plus-one to save face, but thre is no one in the queue. He best friend Naomi suggests her brother Jack. He is a struggling freelance writer who had already stood up Jolie on their first date way back when. Jolie reluctantly says yes to the plan--she really doesn't have any other viable options and Jack is on board because he can research the Louisiana-set romance novel he's been asked to ghostwrite. Her family is charming, they embrace the two, and you basically know the rest. If 2025 has been rough for you and you enjoy this time of year, check this one out.

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

This somewhat sentimental and ultimately tense novel follows the interwoven lives of two married couples in the fictional town of Bonhomie, Ohio. One half of the first of these couples is Cal Jenkins, the sweet-tempered son of a gruff and traumatized first world war veteran, born in the spring of 1920 with one leg shorter than the other. This is a pivotal problem for Cal--he is marginalized because of it, is challenged romantically by it, and it keeps him out of WWII so he is home while others are away. He instead ends up spending his days in drudgery at the local concrete factory. As luck would have it, a chance meeting with Becky Hanover, a young woman with a dark bob and a loveably whimsical way about her, sees Cal and they are soon married. The second couple are the Salts--Margaret and Felix. Margaret grew up an orphan, never feeling safe or loved, so she can be forgiven for not understanding what was going on with Felix, but while he was away on a battleship in the Pacific, she begins an affair with Cal. That is how the couples become entangled with each other, and the rest of the story would be quite comfortable in a Faulkner novel--overdone a bit, but engrossing none the less. The book also takes us through racism, classism, and homophobia in mid-century America.

Nippori Fabric Town, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo has neighborhoods and Nippori Fabric Town lies in a quiet part of Nippori, just east of the Yamanote Line station and makes for just as exciting of an adventure for fabric aficionados, as it does for most of us non-connoisseurs. There are dozens of shops selling anything from fabrics, leather, buttons, zippers, beads - you name it - Nippori Fabric Town has established itself as a hotspot for Tokyo’s textile lovers over the past century and is an ideal place to get some inspiration for your next creative endeavor. Start your journey through Nippori Fabric Town by making your way up the central street (Chuo-dori) that runs towards the east of Nippori Station and you’ll soon notice the yellow signs that mark the beginning of textile heaven. Tomato is perhaps the neighbourhood’s most famous and easily most recognizable establishment, boasting several shops along the main street and a main building that stretches over a whopping five floors. Each of Tomato’s stores is dedicated to slightly different types of fabrics including textiles for interiors, a shop dedicated to sewing kits and even an outlet where can have your very own fabric designs printed. There is a lot of high quality Japanese fabric for very good prices, but if you are looking for kasuri or shibori, you need to go to a used kimono store to find that.

Looking For Smoke by K.A. Cobell

I read this for a Goodreads challenge and to celebrate Native American Heritage month. It is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick as well--and mirrors another one of her picks, a YA book called The Firekeeper's Daughter. It is also a novel where a teen girl has to figure out what is happening in her community. Mara Racette is a high school student who recently moved to the Blackfeet Rez in Browning, Montana. The book is told from a number of different viewpoints, and includes Loren Arnoux, whose older sister Rayanne went missing three months earlier, Brody Clark, who has a crush on Loren and the joker of their friend group, and Eli First Kill, whose biggest concern is his younger sister. During Indian Days weekend, Loren’s family honors the memory of her grandfather by doing a giveaway, and soon afterward Samantha White Tail, Loren’s best friend, is found murdered. The FBI gets involved because unlike with Rayanne’s disappearance, there is a body and a chance for the agent on the case to pretend like he cares. As happens all too frequently in real life, the tribal police are under-resourced, and the killing of native women goes un solved and unpunished.

A Paris Christmas Waltz (2023)

This movie should only be watched when you are doing a string of Xmas movies. It is Hallmark Christmas movie material (even though it is not, strictly speaking). It will be very satidfying if that is the urge you are looking to itch and the streeet scenes of Paris are an added bonus. Emma is enraptured watching classical dancing, and she finds Leo, a professional dance competitor, to be divine to watch. He is so inspiring that when friend gives her dance lessons, she takes a deep dive and gets pretty good for a beginner. Most importantly, she loves how it makes her feel and you can tell by looking at her. So when Leo, recovering from a broken heart and trying to recapture his love of dancing decides to enter a por-am competition--in Paris--he picks Emma and she accepts. Leo's old partner doesn't at all like the look of Emma or how Leo looks at her, and goes about spooking her AND getting in her head, which works up to the point that it doesn't and it ends exactly as you expect it will, which is okay, because that is what Christmas movies are supposed to deliver. Happy Holidays!!

History Lessons by Zoe Wallbrook

This is part murder mystery and part romance novel--I picked it out for a Goodreads challenge fulfillment and enjoyed it. Daphne is a Black woman in academia mobilizes her research skills to investigate the murder of an unlikable collogue who she is on the verge of accusing of plagiarism. She is a brainy junior professor at illustrious Harrison University, Daphne studies the history of Black families under French imperialism and has some very enjoyable best friends who keep her spirits up. When a fellow professor in the anthropology department, Sam, is killed, a last-minute text message from him subjects her to the perpetrator’s continued threats. With the encouragement of Rowan—a local bookseller, former police officer, and Daphne’s crush—and for self-preservation she investigates Sam’s death while uncovering the misogyny, racism, and lies of her college’s new dean. This is by no means ground breaking work, but it was an enjoyable read that ticked a lot of boxes for me.

Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo, Japan

Tsukiji Outer Market (築地場外市場, Tsukiji Jōgai Shijō) is a district adjacent to the site of the former Tsukiji Wholesale Market. It consists of a few blocks of wholesale and retail shops, as well as restaurants crowded along narrow lanes. Here you can find fresh and processed seafood and produce alongside food-related goods such as knives. A visit to Tsukiji Outer Market is best combined with a fresh sushi breakfast or lunch at one of the local restaurants, which typically open from 5:00 in the morning to around noon or early afternoon. Because most of the fish served and sold at Tsukiji Outer Market is delivered directly from Toyosu Market, it is one of the best places in Tokyo to enjoy fresh seafood. We were there before the sun came up and it was a good start to our Japan vacation.

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean

For some reason I was thinking this was more high brow literature than it ended up being, and so was maybe more disappointed than I would have been if I had been slightly better informed. The author is a romance writer, and for me, this book is deeply rooted in that tradition--you can see what is coming down the proverbial pike from a mile away. Although it turns out this was on the New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2025, so maybe it is just me. The senior Storm has died and left his prodigious estate in limbo. On the one hand everyone counted on getting their share of a sizable inheritance pie and on the other, what were they thinking? That their husband and father would not try to manipulate and control them beyond the grave? Alice is the black sheep of the family and our window into the family. She’s an outsider who used to be an insider, as she was exiled from the family by her father five years ago for rebelling against her father over a sexual harassment situation, so we are on her side in this — she is the only person who had ever stood up to him. There is so much hurt and pain amongst all the Storm siblings, as they have lived in the shadow of their larger-than-life father, and all of them, except Alice, have always done his bidding. The twists, turns, and layers of Storm dysfunctional family relationship dynamics are central to the story--if that sort of saga appeals to you, this would be good reading.

The Family Plan (2025)

I read a review that basically said that this is a decently entertaining action movie, and I would agree. Mark Wahlberg is the perfect actor to pull off a character who is now changing diapers but used to be a paid assasin, and when his cover is blown, he needs to not rile up his family too much but also to keep them safe they need to be on the run--they are making their way to Vegas to get their fake. After fending off assassins all the way from New York to Nevada, but always in a way that everyone but the baby misses, the Morgans finally get to the City of Sin, and while I’m willing to suspend some disbelief to help a dumb comedy like this work, Dan leaving his kids, including the baby, to go out to a nice dinner with Jessica, is literally insane. Of course, the Morgans get separated, McCaffrey finds them, and everyone learns the truth. I watched this on a trans Pacific flight--in other words, the perfect setting to tolerate an utterly unbelievable plot that is helped along by an amiable and likable lead actor, and enjoyed it way more than the critics apparently did.

Plunder by Menachim Kaiser

I read a review of this book which had a quote from the book that more or less sums it up. "Family stories are poor preservers of history: they’re fragmented, badly documented, warped by hearsay, conjecture, legend — of course errors are going to creep in. This seems somehow wrong, even blasphemous, at odds with the private sacredness we impute to our origin stories. But most stories in most families aren’t meant or relied on as preservation of hard information, they’re meant and relied on as preservation of soft information, of sentiment, narrative, identity, of who someone was and, subsequently, who you are." The author is the grandson of someone whose property in Poland was seized when the family was sent to a concentration camp and all the rest of them died. It was by family lore a modest property--they were middle class not wealthy and when he decides to try to get it back, he knows that it is a long shot and that there isn't much bang for the buck, in that he is going to spend time and money on this project, and that it is not the destination so much as the journey. There are a lot of surprises for him along the way, and the book takes us through it in an almost thrilling sense, that we quickly learn that there are many corners to turn on this adventure, and that there are quite a few interesting people who get involved as well. I would recommend this for many reasons, because many of us know our histories only through stories, and some of those stories might very well have surprise endings too.

Organic Shapes with Carolina Oneto

First off let me say that the Modern QUilting world is a big and generous world. I was able to participate in this virtual workshop with a teacher who is living in Buenos Aires with a quilt guild in Rochester, all while I am in yet another location, and it worked out great. I have not been able to get a class in person with Carolina at QuiltCon, and so the chance to do this was too good not to take. She has had some really gorgeous quilts in that show, and while I did not have a need to learn this technique--I already have so many UFO's that I have joined not one but in 2026 will be adding another one to be able to stay on task and quilt more, so that I can continue to get inspired and do more and work my way through my truely impressive stash of fabric. Oh, and also so that I might have way to much to do that when I retire I am relieved to be able to spend more time in this hobby. The class we all took was an improv round shapes class. Think building cairns with stones, but they are more colorful, and do not have to balance on each other. The thing I like about this expereince beyond the actual learning and expanding my ideas and skill set is that it is so convivial to be with strangers in a virtual environment and create together. My own quilt guild, which I am deeply invovled with and invested in, is in a city I do not live in--so I know most of the members virtually. I do meet up with some people IRL on occasion, but most of it is while I am in my parlor or my dining room at home, and I feel connected and that I know them. As a non-gamer, this is a new experience for me, and my creativity has been expanded exponentially through this. Can't wait to do another course like this!

Black Moses by Caleb Gayle

This was recommended by Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming, and of course also by the National Book Award as well. It is about Edward Preston McCabe, who was born free to free parents, and who appears to be a classic success story of the Reconstruction period. In 1878, after stints as a clerk in New York and Chicago, he arrived at the forlorn town of Nicodemus, Kansas, and took over the local government. He enticed more settlers and helped to foster the town’s increasing prosperity. After two terms as state auditor, McCabe then lit out for the Oklahoma Territory, where he co-founded the town of Langston, played a prominent role in the founding of Langston University and served as the territory’s assistant auditor. In 1890, he met President Benjamin Harrison in the White House, where he angled for an appointment as territorial governor. But McCabe was a Black man in Jim Crow America, and while he appeared to have a lot of things going for him, the reach of his dreams of a place for black Americans to be in charge, to command their own fate, became too great a liability for white Americans. Racism shaped the contours of his ambition, and then it crushed him. The retelling of his life is one way for him to live on, which makes it extra important to read and know about.

Thunderbolts (2025)

Ok, finally a Marvel movie that I can follow. Admittedly, I watched it on a plane (so not on the big screen by any means, but also with an eye towards passing the time. In my mind, this is the very best conditions to view marvel under because I am giving it more attention than I would at home but I am satisfied with so much less because of where I am). In any case, I agree with one review I read--this is the best Marvel movie in quite some time, and for an impressive stretch, it actually looks and feels like a real movie, with solid action, vivid emotional stakes and characters memorable enough that you won't mind seeing them again in the inevitable sequel. Part of the attraction is that the star is the terrific Florence Pugh, who was introduced several movies back as Yelena Belova, the younger sister of Scarlett Johansson's now-deceased Natasha Romanoff. Like Natasha, Yelena is the product of a top-secret Russian program that turned innocent children into spies and assassins. Years later, Yelena still can't shake off the grim memories of her indoctrination, or her grief over Natasha's death. Yelena now works as undercover muscle for the malevolent CIA director, Valentina, who is bad news, and before long, Yelena is betrayed and trapped in a deadly lair in the middle of nowhere. To get out alive, she must join forces with a few other similarly betrayed and trapped operatives, some of whom have special powers. Basically, you know the rest, but it is good fun.

Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee

This was a Parnassus Books Friday "If You Haven't Read It It Is New To You", which is mostly made up of books that are not new at all but you might have missed, but shouldn't have. I love this featured weekly video, even though it would be quite challenging to keep up with their recommendations if you had read none of them. This is once again about the American immigrant experience, and in this version, how one’s mastery of the English language affects everything. Henry Park, born in the United States to Korean parents, has spent much of his life attempting to overcome the legacy of his parents’ language. He sees perfect English as an avenue to success, and though his English is, in fact, very American, he finds himself lacking. The book focuses on Henry--as a boy, where he has a fraught relationship with his father and his mother dies when he is young. Then as a husband, with his white wife, and finally his employer, who pay him and other first generation immigrants who have a foot in both camps, the old and the new, to be an undercover spy. Glimmer & Company keeps tabs on labor organizers, radical students and the like. Henry's job, on behalf of an unnamed client, is to infiltrate the organization of John Kwang, a city councilman from Queens whose progressive rainbow-coalition appeal is gaining prominence on the New York political landscape. All these roles flesh out who Henry is and it is a very interesting psychological profile of the first generation American experience.

Red Lentil Soup

As we get nearer to Thanksgiving, I am thinking of comforting food, and trying to lean into the immigrant history of America--once the holiday is upon us I will be thinking of native food that helped sustain my relatives in those early days in New England four hundred years ago. This is a keeper. Very easy, start to finish, and I gifted a quart to one of my kids when he was picking up his dog, and my DIL had finished it before it was even cooled down--that good! Ingredients 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 large onion, chopped fine Salt and pepper ¾ teaspoon ground coriander ½ teaspoon ground cumin ¼ teaspoon ground ginger ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon Pinch cayenne--or I used sliced jalapenos 1 tablespoon tomato paste 1 garlic clove, minced 4 cups chicken broth 2 cups water 10 ½ ounces (1 ½ cups) red lentils, picked over and rinsed 2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus extra for seasoning 1 ½ teaspoons dried mint, crumbled 1 teaspoon paprika ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and some salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add coriander, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, and pepper and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in broth, water, and lentils and bring to simmer. Simmer vigorously, stirring occasionally, until lentils are soft and about half are broken down. Whisk soup vigorously until it is coarsely pureed. Stir in lemon juice and season with salt and extra lemon juice to taste. Thin with water as needed.

Who Is Government? by Michael Lewis

This is one of the efforts to push back on the 2025 administration's denigration of what the government does, and it made it to Obama's 2025 Summer Reading list, so pay attention, this is important. The author did this during Donald Trump’s first administration with profiles of a handful of unknown federal government employees in order to valorize what Trump scorned and highlight the cost of breaking it. His point again in this book is that if you could lift the lid on any department you would find a similar treasure trove of stories: people you’ve never heard of, doing work whose importance you’ve never understood. Last year, Lewis assembled a crack team of long-form writers to uncover more of these stories for the Washington Post, and those articles are collected here. The gods have yet again smiled on him, if not his country, because the timing is horrendously perfect. One of the many people who doesn’t understand how the US government works has somehow been permitted to take it down to the studs in the name of “efficiency”. Elon Musk’s Doge has only been running for a few weeks but Americans will be suffering the consequences of his ignorant vandalism for many years to come, in health, national security, disaster preparation and more. It would not be surprising to learn that some of the people interviewed here have already been laid off, or their work defunded. At any rate, Musk’s demolition derby makes this kind of journalism feel, more than ever, like a civic duty.

Love In The Villa (2022)

The more the politics in my country deteriorates, so goes the movies that I watch. I become less interested in something that teaches me something and more interested in well worn tropes that can be found in Made For Cable movies, something that will never make it to the big screen. Hence we have this--a romantic comedy set in Verona, a city that Shakespeare reportedly never visited, but none the less made famous by setting his tragic play Romeo and Juliet there. The good news is that the bulk of the filming actually occurred in Verona so if you are like me, have it on your hope to see life list, then you will get a glimpse and see if it is for you. Julie is a grammar school teacher who is in love with Romeo and Juliet--she still sees it as a tragic love story rather than one of parents screwing up their kids lives. This is a dream trip for her up to the point where her long time boyfriend dumped her, and she decided to go anyway. Charlie is there for a wine expo and is hoping to score a great deal on a little known wine that has great potential--which seems possible in Italy. They are double booked in to the same Airbnb and because of the wine expo, there is not a room to be had in Verona. The first half of the movie is pretty unbearable as they try to get the other to vacate the premises, but once they declare a truce, it is and enjoyable ride the rest of the way. And the scenery!!

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

This is a creepy bit of historical fiction. I had the same anxiousness reading it that I had when watching the 2024 movie Zone of Interest, which depicts seemingly innocuous family life--but right next to a concentration camp. A review noted that the book has all the darkness, shapeshifting ambiguity and glittering unease of a modern Grimms' fairytale. Couldn't agree more. The true life character who is fictionally depicted here is Georg Wilhelm Pabst. He was one of the most influential film directors in Weimar Germany, probably best known on the international stage for discovering Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks. His radical approach earned him the nickname of “Red Pabst”, and when Hitler was elected to power in 1933, Pabst reacted by taking his family to the United States--where he struggled to be at home. He intended to emigrate permanently, but what was supposed to have been a brief trip back to Austria to visit his sick mother saw Pabst detained inside the Third Reich for the duration of the second world war. He was conscripted as a film maker. Pabst himself seeks refuge in work, taking on subjects that are “German enough” not to offend the censor. The films he creates offer their own coded criticisms of the regime, though his resistance is too clever, too artistic to be easily discerned. The novel’s denouement takes us finally to the film set of his last film, relocated to Prague in order to escape the allied bombing. Pabst is determined to finish the film by whatever means necessary, even as more and more of his support staff are forcibly drafted and sent to the front. The really difficult part is that, much like in America in 2025, the people who are the most racist, the most vile, and the least needed are the ones who have the upper hand and they openly grind down those they hate in the most despicable ways.