Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

I read this author's book Poet X--which is nothing like this--but this is her first book for adults. I am a fan of Young Adult fiction, so the fact that it does seem to sit on a fence between the two genres was not a deal breaker for me, but it probably helps if you are flexible about that. It begins with an oblique bit of magic--which is part of the family culture for this multi-generational Dominican family. Flor, who for her whole life has been able to predict when and how people will die, announces that she will be holding a living wake for herself, and all her siblings are invited (and their children, too). Whether Flor has predicted her own death—or anyone else’s—doesn’t become clear to either the reader or Flor’s family until later. In the meantime, we’re introduced to Flor’s sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila; her daughter, Ona; and her niece Yadi, many of whom have magical powers of their own. The differences that exist for immigrant families the further they get from their homeland and the more they make their new country their own are all on display here, as is the acceptance that magic exists and everything cannot be explained in the natural world.

Cimitiere Le Pere Lachaise, Paris, France

is where Jim Morrison, the Doors singer, is buried, but also numerous French statesmen, writers and singers. The Père Lachaise is located in the 20th arrondissement and was the first garden cemetery, as well as the first municipal cemetery in Paris. It is also the site of three World War I memorials—including one that wraps around the exterior wall, that lists names, Vietnam War memorial style, deaths by year, only the list is much longer. Like, 4 times as many French died in yhe Battle of the Somme as US soldiers died in the whole Vietnam War.

The cemetery of Père Lachaise opened in 1804 and takes its name from the confessor to Louis XIV, Père François de la Chaise (1624–1709), who lived in the Jesuit house rebuilt during 1682 on the site of the chapel. The property, situated on the hillside from which the king watched skirmishing between the armies of the Condé and Turenne during the Fronde, was bought by the city in 1804. Established as a cemetery by Napoleon during that year. It is a beautiful spot, but my spouse thinks the famous people should have been buried closer together.

Rouge by Mona Awad

I picked this book up because it was recommended as a 'summer read'. So to start off, no it does not fit that by my definition, which is something well written but light hearted, something that by definition you do not have to think too hard about. It is, however well worth reading, and does fit the 'well-written' half of a good summer read. Then I read that it was a horror story, which also doesn't quite fit (I am not a reader of that genre, to be sure, but it seems like being scared is at the heart of horror, and that just does not happen here). What Rouge is, though, is a dark, gothic fairytale that, at its core, offers a scathing satire of the contemporary beauty industry. The novel centers around Mirabelle, also called Mira by her friends and Belle by her family, a young woman with a pathological obsession for her skincare routines and skincare vlogs. The book begins in medias res after Belle’s mother’s funeral. We quickly come to understand the tense, troubled relationship Belle had with her mother, who was likewise obsessed with youth and beauty - achieving it, preserving it, comparing it, chasing it to whatever end. Belle begins to dig into the mysteries of her mother’s life and death, including her significant debt at the time of her death and seeming memory loss in the final weeks of her life. The mystery only thickens when Belle is led by a woman in a red dress from the funeral to a fancy spa on the cliffside of La Jolla, a spa her mother frequented. Belle descends - literally and figuratively - into the depths of the spa, lured into the cultish organization by the promise of life-changing beauty treatments. So there is satire, there is fun, there is a little bit of unwrapping of your own attitude towards all this, and it is well done.

Musée National Gustave Moreau, Paris, France

Gustave Moreau first rose to fame with the exhibition in the 1864 Salon of his Oedipe et le sphinx, though, from the 1880s onwards, he increasingly shrank from public exhibition. This enormous house in Nouvelle Athens with soaring ceilings, which had been his childhood home, became his increasing focus during this period of his life. In 1895, he commissioned the young architect Albert Lafon to convert it from hôtel particulier into a museum including a dedicated gallery space, private domestic quarters and studio. The latter extended over the second and third floor, connected by a small staircase, providing space for hundreds of paintings and thousands of drawings.

In 1897, Moreau decided to bequeath the house and its contents to the French nation, in the hope that its preservation in total would 'allow the public to appreciate the culmination of the artist's lifelong work and labour'. When it opened to the public in 1903, the Musée Moreau had in its collection some 14,000 works. The museum appears today much as it did then, and includes a major collection of paintings by Moreau. If you prefer architecture over paintings, all the more reason to tour this spectacular space.

The Divorcees by Rowan Beaird

This book is set in an almost forgotten part of history, when you couldn't easily divorce, and Nevada’s more liberal divorce laws in the mid-twentieth century spawned an industry whereby women who were seeking to end their marriages but looking for a "respectable" place to spend the six weeks required for residency without kicking up even more of a scandal than was already the case. It weaves all of this into a story about independence, trust and the restrictions on women at the time. It is built on that framework, but it takes it from there, and now that abortion rights are rolled back, contraception is on the chopping block, all aimed at controlling women's lives and their choices in the 21st century, this is a timely look back at what the future would hold if the misogynists could have their way. The main character is Lois, who wants a divorce from her husband because he is causing her to implode in on herself. When he hides her diaphragm, she starts to fear pregnancy, and realizes she has to escape before it is too late. She gets her period, tells her overbearing and controlling father that she needs to get our. She wants her own freedom, and the only way she can do that is through divorce. But in the 1950s, divorce is not as accepted so her father organizes for her to travel to Reno to reside for six weeks at a ‘divorce ranch’. There she will meet the laws for divorce in Nevada and the owner of the ranch can keep an eye on her as per her father’s instruction. At first, Lois stays in every night at her father’s request and doesn’t go out to the bars and casinos with the other women living at the ranch. They are all more wealthy and of a higher class and shun Lois somewhat. But when the exotic Greer arrives, all the women are enthralled by her mystery. Greer and Lois become friends and things get wilder – dares in bars and casinos until they plan the ultimate escape. It all goes terribly wrong--but only sort of, and while the story seems lackadaisical in it's pace, there is a lot of potent material contained within.

Aux 2 K, Paris, France

After a very pleasant train ride to Paris, we shed our luggage and headed to Aux 2 K for a late lunch. It is tiny—only 10 two person tables that can be strung together for a larger gathering and a bathroom so small the sink is atop the toilet tank and I was slightly concerned I wouldn’t be able to both be seated and close the door, but the food was delicious! The table settings are lovely, this tuna tartar was delicious, but my favorite dish was the pollack with a sorrel puree underneath and peas on top. The fish was the star and pairing well with the lemony sorrel. My spouse favored the duck breast with white asparagus (which I get is super fancy, a spring delicacy, and a pain to grow, but after this trip, I know for sure I prefer the green version—more flavor!), and the most buttery polenta I have ever had.

Here is what the Michelin site says about this Bib Gourmand restaurant: The two K's refer to Kagy (Samantha, chef) and Kinoshita (Kimiko, pastry chef), a pair who joined forces after gaining a wealth of experience in some prestigious establishments (Violon d'Ingres, L'Ours, Atelier Joël Robuchon, Taillevent). Their abundant technical skill is clearly demonstrated in dishes that are as delicious as their names are enticing. A few nods to the South-West of France are a reminder of the influence of Christian Constant. A culinary feat pulled off with great care and finesse, and at lunchtime, a set menu at an unbeatable price.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

This is well outside the realm of what my usual fiction read is about, and I read it because of it's enormous popularity. I really enjoyed it, and am eager to read the second book in the series, but find it a little puzzling that it is so widely loved. It seems a little too heavy on the romance for a fantasy fan, and light in that arena for a romance reader (although there are some bodice ripping scenes that might suffice for that crowd)--then again, maybe it is driven by people like me, who read neither genre. In any case, it is well worth the read. Here is a brief plot summary. Violet is the daughter of a powerful, dragon-riding general, but she always thought she’d follow her father’s footsteps and become a scribe--she is more bookish than brave, and her siblings have already followed the warrior path, so no real family pressure. They have kicked in. But her gentle father is dead and her ruthless mother has other plans. Unlike her renowned mother and siblings, Violet is no born dragon rider: she’s small and frail and would much rather read a detailed history of a war than fight in one. Despite this, out of a sense of familial legacy, she is sent to Basgiath, a war college where aspiring riders learn the ways of war. Basgiath has a famous body count (fully a third of entrants seem to die before graduation), but despite this and despite her own perceived weakness, Violet is determined to make it through, bond with a dragon, and become the rider no one thought she could become. And so the story goes, up to and including a dramatic ending that sets up the next book in the series well, and is in itself a satisfying ending.

Paris Reconsidered

We spent a little time in Paris our last trip to France. We are starting to love not having a connection in Europe, to fly to a city near where we want to end up and then get there by land. There are a lot of great things to say about that, but there is an issue with the end, where you need to be at least nearby to fly out. Last time we had a lovely late lunch just north of the Perigord, and then we arrived in the evening to stay at an airport hotel, which was fine, but definitely the least lovely part of the trip. This past time we spent two nights in Paris, and that was much better.

I had done all the classic Paris things when we were there with our kids. We saw the Eiffel Tower, went though the Louvre, climbed to the top of the I had done all the classic Paris things when we were there with our kids. We saw the Eiffel Tower, went though the Louvre, climbed to the top of the Arc se Triomphe. We had even done things that perhaps were less classic, like Napoleon's tomb and the catacombs. None of that sold me. This time, in addition to spectacular food, which really, you can get almost anywhere in France, it was the city itself. First of all, like my adopted home town, a river runs through it. The majestic River Seine winds its way through the heart of the city and its banks are a proven pathway to explore Paris on foot. The history of Paris is uniquely tied to the river, as it is one of the oldest trade routes navigated through the centuries by migrating tribes, Romans, and Vikings. The bridges themselves are beautiful to behold. Then there is walking about. Paris is actually quite easy to navigate. We can thank the visionary Georges-Eugène Haussmann for this, as it was his responsibility to reorganize and renovate the city; a huge task that started in 1853 and ended in 1870. Because of his ordered grand scheme, there are twenty arrondissements and you can always tell which one you’re in because most street signs clearly indicate the number. Public transit is a breeze, and overall, while I am not going to spend much time here, I would do the same next trip, a pause in the city of light before heading home.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

This second book by a mesmerizing author is just as fabulous as her first book was. The book is told from several perspectives over two time periods, both in the past and ten years apart. She has created a breathtaking story steeped in Hispanic folklore, magical realism, and art history while examining the physical and emotional domestic abuse that men perpetrate upon women. One of them, Anita, details the life of someone consumed by abuse and other is on a journey to reclaim themselves and their purpose--perhaps a subtle depiction of the slow but clear forward momentum for women (despite the hard right movement to strip women of their personhood). The story follows the abusive relationships of two beautiful Latino women, one, Anita, an orphaned Cuban immigrant, the other, Raquel, born to an immigrant single mother. In 1985 Anita, a successful artist in her own right, struggles for autonomy over her life and career as she navigates her contentious relationship with her renowned artist husband, Jack Martin. In 1998, art history student, Raquel, works on her final thesis. In the process, she discovers the work of Anita De Monte. Raquel becomes obsessed with understanding the mystery surrounding Anita’s death. Ironically, Raquel and Anita share similar stories as Latinas’ attempting to find acceptance in a homogenous academic and art society, while their relationships with their narcissistic entitled partners exile them from loved ones. Anita remains a vibrant character, even in death, and as such, is able to be a part of the story from the grave. There seems to be a vaguely autobiographical aspect of this, as part of it is set at Brown University and the author herself went there herself at the time Raquel was, both Latina women in a place where fitting in would seem like a lot of work. I feel a connection to this, as a Brown graduate and a long time resident of the community where González got her MFA in writing. Mostly though, it is just a wonderful telling of what is largely an old story of men and power and control over women.

The Donut King (2024)

This is a documentary about the story of donuts in California, where it turns out that a large portion of those doughnuts are made by Cambodian refugees and their families. And that’s because of one man: Ben Tek “Ted” Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee who made millions through his doughnut shops, helped hundreds of Cambodian families fleeing Pol Pot’s murderous regime. It took six months between Ngoy landing in a US refugee camp in 1975 to him being handed the keys to his first doughnut store. He worked almost 24 hours a day to achieve it, juggling three jobs and a young family, but focused on the idea of being somebody. As he says, “When you’re poor, you’ll do anything.” By 1979 he would own 25 doughnut shops and go on to sponsor more than 100 more Cambodian families fleeing the war. It wasn’t just pure selflessness, of course, he saw these families as providing even more business opportunities and money. It is a rags to riches story, withe the inevitable fall from grace that so often happens, and where Cambodian families start to be able to own their own shops as a result. I would say that the story could have been told more succinctly, with fewer donuts in the mix, but somehow, this sat just about right with me, and if I hadn't been on a plane when I saw it I might have gone out to get a donut myself.

The Six by Loren Grush

More than 45 years ago, NASA announced a new class of astronauts, the first chosen for the shuttle era. Those 35 people included, famously, NASA’s first six women selected to the astronaut corps, who became instant celebrities as they made history, subject to countless articles, news stories, and other accounts over the decades since their selection. This book offers a well balanced portraits of the six women selected in that class—Anna Fisher, Shannon Lucid, Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Rhea Seddon, and Kathy Sullivan—and their individual approaches to becoming astronauts and eventually flying in space while also working with, and sometimes competing against, one another at NASA. All six follow separate paths to becoming part of that historic astronaut class, then being thrown together to face both internal and external challenges towards flying to space. They did work together, particularly when dealing with some of the rampant sexism that, with the hindsight of history, looks extraordinarily awful. That cooperation included impromptu debriefs with each other when doing media interviews after their selection, exchanging intelligence in the privacy of the women’s restroom on who was asking what kinds of questions. There is nothing sensationalist about this, and much like other accounts of women's firsts it chronicles extraordinary women who overcame inordinate odds that were tipped not in their favor to achieve their dreams.

La Ribaudière, Bourg Charente, Cognac, France.

Our late spring trip to France featured a number of restaurants that have a Michelin star and this was one of them--it was my husband's favorite meal of the trip. The , chefs Thierry and Julien Verrat (father and son) create fine cuisine where invention goes hand in hand with La Ribaudière’s natural surroundings. The owner of a vineyard and a truffle field, Verrat is passionate about the Charentais region, which is a real land of plenty. Here, he creates dishes that bring out the best of his excellent ingredients with delicacy and conviction, using the full panoply of local produce, ranging from Cognac and Pineau des Charentes to wild snails and fish from the nearby Atlantic.

Practically by default it has become the go-to place for VIPs that are in the area visiting the Cognac houses. La Ribaudière encompasses a main dining room, terrace, private salon and a bar that offers its own menu of reasonably priced bistro dishes at lunch. The outdoor seating, and the tables near the floor-to-ceiling windows, present views of the pastoral countryside and the Charente River, which was a bathing spot of the beloved King Francois I. Inside, touches of whimsy are added to the mostly white décor via colorful glassware and a chime decoration made from kitchen utensils.

Then there was the food. It was explosively flavorful and also thematic. My spouse's favorite course was the duck course, which featured a smoked duck egg custard, a duck neck stuffed with fois gras, cured duck, dried duck and so on. As we neared the end we got one of our favorites, the cheese selection, and of course we had cognac. When we return we will have to do some additional tasting of that and then bring some home to share.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Himenez

In 1996, Ruthy Ramirez disappeared without a trace. The Staten Island 13-year-old had gone to school and then to track practice, but never made it home. The family searched for her and sought the help of cops. But their efforts to find Ruthy were unsuccessful, and the years stretched on. The Ramirez women—youngest sister Nina, eldest sister Jessica, and their mother, Dolores—continue on, despite the heavy question of Ruthy’s whereabouts hanging over them. 12 years later, when Jessica sees who she thinks is Ruthy on Catfight, a vulgar reality show that pits women against one another. Could this woman—alive, breathing and whose way of speaking is eerily familiar—be their long-missing sister? This does not shy away from heavy subjects: generational violence, trauma, and the long-reaching effects of colonialism on the Puerto Rican diaspora are some of the themes addressed in the book. It asks more than it answers, and is a good read for young adults.

Les Lapidiales de Port d'Envaux, France

Here’s a cool thing—since we were already going to Saintes, Joel looked in the France Rough Guide for other things in the area and found this sculpture site, which is open 24/7 and no fee. It is an old limestone quarry that has dozens of sculptures over a very walkable site with loads of parking. I was reading recently that with the advent of lots of free content on the internet it was thought that the age of the guidebook was over, and maybe it is for some, but not so for me. I get them electronically now (the search funtion has really improved, and I have stopped carrying any sort of paper when I travel to lighten my load) but I love them, and spend a lot of time with them before we go, planning out the trip locations to visit.

Here is what they have to say for themselves: The white limestone cliff walls and underground chambers where the rock was once quarried are covered in sculptures in styles ranging from abstract to figurative. For twelve years, the Lapidiales site has offered a unique residency to contemporary sculptors of all nationalities who come to carve new works into the stone. The artists are free to build fantastic stone sculptures with a view to giving future generations a work from which to be inspired, creating a perpetually growing art space. The project was started by actor, director, designer, and sculptor Alain Tenenbaum who still oversees the space. The open air art quarry is free and open year round just waiting for visitors to come and find their own. It is truly spectacular!

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

I should start off by saying that I am not a fan of true crime fiction--in fact, I am the opposite of that, and so while this is a thinly veiled story revolving around the Ted Bundy murders of young women, it does not name or focus on him. Instead it focuses on the women who survived the loss of his victims. Multiple timelines, POVs, and relationships collide as these characters struggle to come to terms with the gruesome tragedies wrought against them by a small, average man inaccurately portrayed by the media at the time as some kind of charismatic Casanova brainiac. The author manages to (I think) accurately criticize the real-life true crime content machine that focuses on the perpetrator — the focus of the novel stays on the women, who are at its center, making it abundantly clear that though their murderer might be the cause of the story, he isn’t the story itself. He is only important in that he sets this tragedy in motion. There's nothing remotely special about him, or IRL ‘celebrity’ serial killers like him — it's the complex, talented, and smart women whose lives he cut short who have actually been the exceptional ones all along.

Saintes, France

Saintes was originally a prosperous settlement in the area of the Santones, a Gallic tribe, and the town became the chief centre of the district later known as the Saintonge. After the Roman conquest it became known as Mediolanum Santonum and was the capital of the Roman Empire in Gaul. The town’s most noteworthy Roman remains are a ruined 1st-century amphitheatre and an arch that had been transferred from a Roman bridge, known as the Arch of Germanicus.

Germanicus is my favorite post-Caesar Roman Emperor until Trajan. The details of his career are known from the Annals of the Roman historian Tacitus, who portrayed him as a champion of republican principles and played him off in his historical chronicles against Tiberius, whom he depicted as an autocratic villain. Through his mother, Antonia, Germanicus was grandnephew of the emperor Augustus and his father was Tiberius’s brother. He was wildly popular--a Quaestor at the age of 21, Germanicus served under Tiberius in Illyricum (7–9 CE) and then on the Rhine (11 CE). As consul in the year 12, he was appointed to command Gaul and the two Rhine armies. His personal popularity enabled him to quell the mutiny that broke out in his legions after Augustus’s death (14). Although pressed to claim the empire for himself, Germanicus remained firmly loyal to Tiberius. In three successive campaigns (14–16), he crossed the Rhine to engage the German tribes, inflicting several defeats in an ultimately inconclusive struggle. Finally, having aroused the jealousy and fears of Tiberius, he was recalled to Rome. Later he met his death, like many related to Tiberius, by poisoning. I spent 4 years shadowing a Classics major which furthered a love of seeing ancient ruins wherever they are. So we swooped in—we came, we saw, we left.

James by Percival Everett

My habit of reading the Booker Prize long list for bringing this author to my attention--his work is nothing short of brilliant and thrilling, and also deeply thought and expressed, and, it seems to be, also satirical. So I am not entirely new to him, and yet the masterful telling of the Huckleberry Finn story through Jim's eyes still managed to astound me. It is breath-taking, and while the Cliff notes version would be that it is a retelling of a complicated classic that has fared more poorly in the estimation of people the further we move from the Civil War, that would sell it short, because it is also a meditation on what racial identity is and how we arrived at a deeply hypocritical constructed view of race, as well as what I see as the author's pervasive use of satire to hold a mirror up to our own inconsistencies when it comes to race. I think it is likely that if you do a more-or-less direct comparison between the "original" and this that there will be fruitful discussions forevermore, but for me it is the highlighting of the widespread practice of white slaveowning men raping black women to produce offspring that were in every way their children, whom they explicitely produced for the purpose of enslaving them. There is absolutely no way to sugar coat that which was a pre-Civil War cultural norm and one that the south was so intent on preserving. The very definition of what is deeply wrong and hypocritical about white supremacy: white men creating children they then treated as subservient. Bravo, this is almost certainly the book of the year.

Fall Guy (2024)

This is a lovely confection that combines action with romance, with a heavy theme--someone is dead and someone else is missing--and a light hearted undertone. I love both Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling--this is not the deepest characters they have played, but then again, they came off a year of promoting Barbenhiemer, and maybe they just needed a break. It is a movie designed to entertain above all else. It stands out from the crowd as a movie where you don't need to take notes or have seen the ones that came before it. Ryan Gosling plays Colt Seavers, a stunt double who had a bad accident and retreated into himself--until he was called back into action by "the one who got away" (turns out it wasn't her, but that's for you to find out when you see it). Gosling has such an easy-going charm that makes it hard not to smile when he is on screen. I read a review that accentuated this point, that when he was watching the Oscars and Gosling was singing “I’m Just Ken”, the man sitting next to him said, “I’m almost annoyed at how that guy can do anything.” Yes. That is it, and this movie is all about how fun that can feel. A lot goes wrong before it goes right, there are tons of stunts, because Colt is a stunt man, and so is the director, and it all gets wrapped up in a neat bow at the end. Not one for the ages, but a crowd pleaser for both genders.

Every Living Thing by Jason Roberts

This book is best when it sticks to it's opening subject, the way that science changed in the 18th century, before the inevitability of evolution was articulated. It traces the lives and careers of two 18th-century naturalists whose opposing perspectives made them, and their followers, rivals: Carl Linnaeus, a misogynist self-promoter and holder of a low brow medical degree who was a terrible student but an observant botanist. He invented binary nomenclature and a classification system that assigned plants and animals into kingdoms, classes, orders, families, and species. George-Louis de Buffon, an aristocratic natural historian in charge of France’s royal gardens, saw the natural world as thrillingly complex, and the two were at odds to get the upper hand. Linnaeus believed that life on Earth was unchanged from the moment of God’s creation. De Buffon, on the other hand, believed all such systematic approaches were reductionist and flawed, and that of Linnaeus, “the least sensible and the most monstrous.” Species, he posited, changed by adapting to their environments. Both men defended their views in widely read tracts: De Buffon’s 35-volume Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particuliere reflected his own minute investigations; Linnaeus, author of continual revisions to his Systema Naturae, sent acolytes to conduct research in the field, where they sometimes perished. Because of his was the more easily grasped classification system, which included racist classifications of humans, Linnaeus prevailed, while de Buffon’s reputation plummeted. Roberts examines the men’s legacies as natural philosophy became science, and science branched into biology, zoology, and genetics. Linnaeus’ systems were complicated by the discovery of microscopic life and blooming biodiversity; towering figures confronted the stark evidence of evolution. This is a fascinating back story to set the stage for Darwin's magnum opus.

Le Patio, Arcachon, France

We had lunch in Aranchon at Chef Thierry Reno’s Le Patio. This restaurant near the port has made it its mission to showcase the best produce from the Aquitaine region: asparagus from the Landes, lamb from Pauillac, oysters from the bay—the sources get their own page in the menu. We opted for the lengthiest menu, which is chef’s choice. Joel liked but did not love this and I loved it—everything I love that is seasonally spring: asparagus, peas, carrots, radishes, wild garlic, morels, spring onions, strawberries and rhubarb was represented. The restaurant has one Michelin star.

I loved the patio setting, which is a feeling of being outdoors while you are very much indoors--we were there on a cold and rainy day, and yet inside under the skylit dining room, it felt like a bright and sunny day. I loved the table ware--the serving dishes were as gorgeous as the food, and while it wasn't all successful--no, I did not care for the spring pea ice cream--it was innovative and seasonal. My spouse was less enthusiastic, but I loved it.

The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez

This is a book set in Panama at the time that the Panama Canal is being built--ironically the canal that connect two oceans and changed ocean navigation is imperiled by changing climate and conditions, but here we go back to it's inception, which is gritty but also a predictable colonial New World story. The year is 1907 and Ada Bunting has bravely set off alone from her home in Barbados for Panama, hoping to find work that will earn her enough money to pay for the surgery her sister desperately needs. While she’s heard that wages are high in the bustling company towns erected to support the building of the massive canal, she quickly learns there’s an order here—Gold for the Americans, Silver for everyone else—one of many divides that rest largely on the color of your skin. Omar Aquino has also sought work on the canal. He’s one of the few native Panamanians employed there and has joined the digging not for the money but to escape the loneliness of a life spent watching his fisherman father sail out each morning. And so he finds himself in a throng of men opening the earth. This gives rise to the second divide in the novel, between Omar and his father, who has refused to speak to his son since he began work in the Cut. A chance encounter between these two leads Ada into the employ of John Oswald, who has come to Panama with the grand ambition of curing malaria and finds himself in need of a nurse girl to care for his ailing wife. Ironically, Marian Oswald is not suffering from the malaria that her husband hopes to use to secure his legacy, but common pneumonia, a disease she might’ve just as easily contracted back home in the Smokey Mountains. In John and Marian’s marriage another divide emerges, as Marian’s own scientific ambitions and passion for botany slowly disappear in her husband’s shadow. Within these three life stories we learn how it was for those living in Panama during this epic build, the haves and the have nots, and what some of their stories might have been.

Arcachon, France

We spent the day driving around the coast near Bordeaux. Arachon is popular for beaches, but we were there because it is where oysters are farmed. You can see the appeal. Cap Ferret, which is directly across the bay from Arcachon, is a spit that separates the bay from the Atlantic Ocean. I have not spent much time in French beach towns, but the architecture here is different from any French town I have been in before.

Arcachonnaise is the local name for an Arcachon villa, which is the architectural style of many of the older houses built in France. It is a type of Victorian architecture. These fantastical homes are equipped with balconies with chiseled additions, turrets, colonnades, neo-classical facades, extravagant roofs, singular stairs, verandas and exotic gardens.

Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham

This is categorized as a memoir by my library, which it is and is not at the same time. I came across it when I was doing what I always do when I am traveling to a new country, which is reading a lot of literature--both non-fiction and fiction--around that trip. I am a lover of the deep dive, and I read this as part of that. This is technically a bike-across-the Pacific-Rim-and-find-yourself book with the added wrinkle that his journey takes him back to the Vietnam his family escaped as boat people when he was 10 years old. As a result of this emotionally complicated aspect, the book progresses in a linear fashion related to his current day journey interspersed with flashbacks back to things that happened to he and his family after they fled. Only by going back, by staring in the face what happened to his family and their country, can he begin to understand what he now is, and what his transsexual sister, Chi, used to be, before she was driven to suicide. It is a memoir with a mission, and I would definitely recommend it if you are thinking of a trip to Vietnam. It is a country with a complex past that is well worth exploring and thinking about, even if you are not sure you want to go there.

Restaurant Le Tertre, Saint-Émillion, France

This is a Michelin selected restaurant in Saint Emilion which is situated mid-way up a street with about a 25% grade and a railing in the middle to help haul yourself up or prevent tumbling down, depending upon your direction (see menu cover—true depiction). We were seated in a small nook street-side, where we could both watch people of various skill levels navigate the terrain and also to be observed and commented upon ourselves. The meal was spectacular and well worth the 1/2 hour trian ride from Bordeaux.

We opened the meal with a squid dish and followed it with hake wrapped in seaweed with a ponzu sauce, a side of seaweed, radish slices, wasabi topped with teeny tiny mushrooms, and flowers! There was a cheese course at the end that was quite good, alongside a dessert featuring fresh strawberries, but the langostines (a favorite of mine) atop a spring carrot mash, in a pea broth was, in my opinion, the best dish. My spouse would argue that the duck was excellent, and he would be right about that.

Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen

Maybe it is the memoirs that I choose, but there is a theme of broken homes, abusive marriages, and taking some sort of refuge in food that runs through them that is on the one hand heartbreaking, and on the other it makes me wonder both just how pervasive this situation is and how much I might be missing it in my work as a mental health professional. How many abusive and controlling men are there out there? The author has a father who severely beat her mother until she left him--and then after that. Her subsequent husbands made for a cold home and failed marriages that she escaped, almost, but not quite, because while she successfully left home, she did not leave what happened behind. Trauma begets all sorts of things that are not something to be proud of, but at least she did not pass it on to another generation. She will hopefully find peace at some point, but it doesn't happen in this volume, and to my ear, the food is an add on at the end, not something that is deeply tied to the story. It is sad all around.

Saint-Émillion, Bordeaux, France

St. Emilion is a medieval era town in terms of architecture, but has been continually inhabited since about 35,000 BCE. The Romans planted vineyards in what was to become Saint-Émilion as early as the 2nd century. In the 4th century, the Latin poet Ausonius lauded the fruit of the bountiful vine. The Grand Cru appellation was added in 1954, and the whole town and wine growing region was given a UNESCO World Heritage site status in 1999.

It is a beautiful town built into a hill with spectacular views, and with 800 vinyards in the surrounding area (67% of land is planted in grape vines). The town is perfect for aging wine at the perfect temperature--there are loads of underground tunnels under the town. It is easy to taste a lot of great to magnificent wine, but wow, we were by no means the first people to discover this jewel, and the tourists outnumber the inhabitants on the streets 20:1. Plan accordingly!

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Life is a tangled web that we weave, and this book breaks it down for us in almost minute detail. The story is centered around the many, seemingly miniscule exchanges of money and power in a 2017 University of Arkansas dormitory building. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant (RA) at Belgrade Dormitory, is focused on graduating with a job and house until she meets Agatha Paul, a visiting professor hoping to find her next great book idea in Millie’s residence hall. So while Millie attempts to juggle her side jobs, Agatha goes about seducing Millie with this agenda in mind, and tensions at the dorm morph from petty gossip to life-altering mistakes. The author creates a diverse and interesting cast of characters and the multitude of messy, interactions interactions between them that are at once believable, intense, and occasionally comical. While the college and dormitory environment has a complex web of relationships, she manages to lays it out in a surprisingly straightforward manner. From the start we see it plainly. Agatha arrives at Belgrade to be greeted by Millie, who has gathered three of her residents to be interviewed. As the novel goes on, we can see leaves on branches — Kennedy, a junior transfer student who has come to the University of Arkansas in the hopes of enrolling in Agatha’s creative writing class; Colette, Millie’s co-resident assistant; and Robin, Agatha’s dancer ex-girlfriend. The story unfolds in a tense way but at a relaxing pace, and we are all eased into the final unfolding of what will be will be. Que sera, sera. Quietly amazing.

Canelés de Bordeaux

When it comes to pastry, you cannot get more evocative of Bordeaux" cannelés (pronounced "can-eh-lay"), also spelled canelés. They are a regional pride, and you see them everywhere. They are surprisingly simple pastries, needing only basic ingredients–milk, flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and vanilla. But baking them at high heat in ridged fluted molds transforms them from a liquid batter to deep golden brown treasures. The outer shell is crunchy and crisp while the inside is delicious custard. Cannelés are still rather rare outside of France unless you are lucky enough to have a bakery around that sells the (my SIL is able to get them at a weekly Farmer's Market in Baltimore, lucky her). The task is left up to passionate home bakers to make them. The copper molds are the key--and we bought some in the shop pictured to try our hand at them at home.

Wild New World by Dan Forbes

I read this because it was a "the community reads" book (which in the era of the electronic book means that there are unlimited copies available for a short period of time, so all of us are reading at the same time rather than within the same year). This is what the author calls "Big History", which I never heard before and am not sure that I completely understand, but it is the idea that you go back to the beginning of time and look for patterns and trends that explains or helps to understand what has happened over time--it specifically avoids specialized approaches and instead looks for universal patterns and trends. So, we go back to when tectonic plates were forming North America, then through a brief history of early life on the new continent. The author explains how the Chicxulub asteroid crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago, setting the stage for this story by making it possible for mammals to survive, evolve, and spread across the continent and world. Following this, he describes what is known about how humans arrived, and then how the Clovis people spread across North America, hunting and killing animals like mammoths and other large mammals that had not encountered humans before and did not fear them. The result — the Pleistocene extinctions caused by human predation and the beginning of the North American assault on wildlife. The idea is that while we are accelerating the change than humans wreck on the planet and it's other inhabitants, this is consistent with a longstanding pattern, where damage has been pretty reckless and often not in the service of survival, and where we have tried to reverse those trends and what has happened in some of those cases. It is overall pretty bleak and entirely believable.

La Tupina, Bourdeux, France

We ate here for a late lunch/early dinner on a Sunday, a day where the open restaurants are limited. It is a Michelin noted restaurant and it serves very traditional French country food. A genuine institution, it champions dishes of yesteryear--such as Sanguette (blood pudding), macaronade (pasta with beef and tomato sauce), chips fried in duck fat (which we had alongside our roast chicken). I also loved how the plates and the woven linens had matching patterns.

The other aspect is that local produce is promoted with conviction in hearty dishes from South-West France, but also seasonal vegetables and meat roasted in the hearth. The fine produce on the counter certainly whets the appetite. We had the white asparagus because it was in season and on offer--I discovered that I really do prefer what for me is the more flavorful green variety, but that was only made possible by trying both side by side during this meal. The people watching was exceptional--several multi-generational French families, who were having uber-traditional meals as well. This is not my favorite French food, but this was a godd experience, especially on a day when there were few options.

The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer

This is called a memoir, and it is on one level--the author has led a full life that has been full of travel and seeking new places, new experiences, and new learning. He is quite remarkable in that way, but this is more about seeking peace and enlightenment, finding the beauty in sitting still. has always been in thrall to clouds of unknowing, prizing glimpses of the ethereal in remote corners, clocking up air miles and epiphanies. He spent some time with Leonard Cohen in the five years he was a Zen Buddhist monk at Mount Baldy, near Los Angeles. He has been a friend and confidant of the Dalai Lama since they met at Dharamshala in 1974. He has often given the impression of a peripatetic personal Buddhism, without too much of the suffering. This particular quest – in search of the idea of paradise in the midst of political complication – is something of a summation of that roving life. It begins in Iran. Thoughts of ancient Persia return Iyer to some of the most mystical moments of his own life – it reminds him of the words of the Sufi poet Rumi, that if heaven is within, then “one leaf is worth more than all of Paradise” and moves on from there. Unfortunately, for all this richness of experience, both within himself and his extensive exposure to cultures and people who could shed light on his quest for a paradise of sorts, there is not much in the way of guidance in this book.