Leaving by Roxana Robinson

I read two books in a row that centered on the premise that the love one experiences in youth has an effect that lasts well into middle age. The idea is appealing, although not scientifically based as far as I can tell. The appealing part is that while some youthful relationships end because of incompatibility, others are affected by a change in geography that is unavoidable, and that it is "too soon" to commit for life. That is more or less what happens here. Sarah and Warren were in a relationship in college, and broke up, maybe based on enforced separation mixed with Sarah's uneasiness about Warren's life plans--they marry, they are not so much happy with their choices, Sarah divorces, Warren does not, and then they meet up again in their early 60's and find that they still have a passion for each other. The order with which they pursue that passion and how it eventually plays out are arguably sub-optimal, but the story is a fun one to read.

Maine Solar System Model

We were in Presque Isle this summer and discovered this wonderful model of the solar system as we drove northward from Houlton. The Maine Solar System—the largest scale model of the solar system in the western hemisphere, and the second largest such model in the world—stretches for nearly 100 miles along U.S. Route 1. The model, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, features nine planets (including Pluto, which was a planet when the model was first established), three dwarf planets (including Pluto, based on its current status and present location closer to the Sun), and seven associated large moons at Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto. Other dwarf planets, to be located north of the Sun at Lille and Madawaska, are planned. You could plan to see them all, but what happened to us is that we saw Saturn (which is hard to miss), then Jupiter, and then it was a question of where are all the rest? Lucky for us, because we were there for purposes other than site seeing, five of them are in and around Presque Isle, and the hard part is spotting them because the planets are all quite small, and then the sun, which is so huge you aren't sure if it is just a huge yellow arch or actually part of the model sun. One thing I will not forget is the scale (as well as the distance between them all), which drives home the scale of our solar system, and really, it was quite fun.

The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason

At it should be with all novels set in WWI, this one is full death and agony. It also has a heaping tablespoon of terrible luck. Just about everything goes wrong for Lucius, the young medical student at the center of this historical novel set during World War I. The scion of a wealthy family in Vienna, Lucius has disappointed his ambitious mother and his patriotic father by pursuing such a lowly career as medicine. When the war break out, they’re relieved that their son may finally have a chance to distinguish himself in the glories of battle. Lucius thwarts their best laid plans though, finding a hospital in a god forsaken place that is more like a dungeon than a house of healing, and he also finds a nurse who haunts him for years to come. The bleakness of the war is steeped in every chapter in an unrelenting way, and it is a quiet homage to those who put people back together rather than tear them apart. I am reminded of the recent pandemic, where health care workers put themselves in harms way and even died taking care of the sick. It is an homage, as well as a story of where you can find love in the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Origin Story: A Return to Presque Isle

In June we returned to what is really the origin of my family, the state of Maine. The occasion was the burial of my father, and while my parents are both from Aroostook County, we have rarely been since I left home almost 50 years ago. The burial of my three grandparents who died in my lifetime, and the 50th wedding anniversary of one of my great aunt and uncles is the sum total of my trips to what was once my family homeland. Maine is a product of the Ice Age. The last glacier was responsible for cutting what had been a relatively straight coastline into the hundreds of bays, inlets and picturesque harbors we know today. The receding ice sheet formed the 2,000 or so islands found off the Maine coast. The region's earliest inhabitants were descendants of Ice Age hunters. Little is known of these "Red Paint" people - so named because of the red clay with which they lined the graves of their dead - except that they flourished and hunted in Maine long before the coming of the Micmac and Abnaki Indian nations. Burial grounds for these earliest Maine dwellers are thought to date back to 3000 B.C. Huge oyster shell heaps on the Damariscotta estuary testify to the capacious appetites of Maine's aborigines. Colonization came to Maine as it did to much of North America in the 17th century--A number of English settlements were established along the Maine coast in the 1620s, although the rugged climate, deprivations and Indian attacks wiped out many of them over the years. As Maine entered the 18th century, Massachusetts had bought up most of the land claims in this wilderness territory, an arrangement which lasted until 1820 when Maine separated from Massachusetts to become a separate state. At that point in time that my folks relatives were there--and maybe that is a bit of where the French in my gene pool came from, with England and France jockeying for control of the region. So while I rarely return, it feels comfortable when I do.

Liliana's Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice, by Cristina Rivera Garza

Liliana Rivera Garza was many things — an insatiable reader and writer, a talented swimmer, a movie lover, a devoted friend, a budding architect and an absolute feminist who loved smoking cigarettes. She dreamed of traveling and collecting experiences on her own. When she was 20, she took the first steps toward fulfilling that dream, moving to Azcapotzalco, Mexico City, where she began studying architecture at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. On July 16, 1990, Liliana was found dead in her apartment. She was killed by an ex-boyfriend, who had stalked her for many years. By the time an arrest warrant was filed months later, he was nowhere to be found. Nearly 30 years later, her older sister, the writer Cristina Rivera Garza, set out to recover a record of her sister’s life — and death. The trail, such as it was, had mostly evaporated, but Garza was determined to capture her sister’s last months and days. This is not so much a crime novel, because we know from the beginning who killed Liliana--it is more of a memoir by the author, written to her sister and to women who are killed by men who stalk them in every corner of the globe.

Morro Bay, California

I had an arduous birthday in 2023, when my friend and I bakes all the cakes for one of my sons wedding, all while my spouse was gone for the week attending a professional meeting. My friends, who truly does the lion's share of the baking and all the cake frosting and assembly, was laid up a bit with an ankle injury, so I was the legs of the operation. It was so grueling! I was walking 20,000 steps a day and I never left the property. The great news is that we finished the cakes, we didn't even want for freezer space, and the cakes at the wedding were truly fantastic!The bad news is that I was in a really bad mood about my extreme lack of a celebration.

Never fear! I spent the whole month of May this year making up for it, and one of those trips was to fabulous Morro Bay, with the same friend and her spouse so that the three of us could spend some times taking leisurely walks and bird watching. It is a spectacularly beautiful place that hosts a great bird festival in February, but is replete with shore birds year round. It was such a relaxing long weekend, and I would go back in a second.

The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen

This is set in the far north in 19th-century Scandinavia and it pits the indigenous Sámi people who live there against European settlers trying to impose their religion and values. In a village near the Arctic Circle, the charismatic Lutheran minister Lars Levi Laestadius tries valiantly to turn his congregation away from alcohol and towards salvation. His flock includes Finns and Swedes, but also a few Sámi, nomadic reindeer herders who's wealth and standing within the community depends on their skills as herders. He manages to convert Biettar, a Sámi leader, into the fold where he becomes a disciple of sorts, spending his time learning this new religion, leaving the care of his ever-dwindling herd of reindeer to his son, Ivvár. But while the minister gains a new parishioner, his daughter, Willa, becomes infatuated with Ivvár. As the young Sámi struggles to maintain the herd on his own, a task never intended for one person, the two grow closer. With the spring migration approaching, a custom that has been practiced by the tribe for generations, Willa prepares to join them, defying her father’s control. So it is a classic tale set in the frozen tundra when the world was changing rapidly.

Gaya Pierre Gagnaire, Paris, France

This was our last lunch of the trip (which has been a stellar food trip, no doubt about it). I like to have a lot of things from the ocean when I travel to places that abutt the sea, and this was an especially accommodating menu for that goal. The Michelin website says: Chef Pierre Gagnaire has a focus on good food in a bid to cater to modern French sensibilities with a seafaring slant (carpaccio of seabream, pink radishes and grapefruit; giant langoustine, cream of Paimpol beans, scallion onions) and a fondness for veggies.

The seafood platter for deux. There are about 40 tiny cockles sprinkled throughout that with some difficulty and a little finesse we were able to use the red topped toothpicks to get out the innards. One of my favorites—teeny tiny flavorful morsels! We really enjoyed this as the show stopping part of the meal, but there was much to love about this restaurant from start to finish.

Night Watch by Jayne Ann Phillips

The premise of this book is survival and the time period is in the aftermath of the Civil War. It is 1874, and the United States is still reeling from the horrors of the Civil War. ConaLee and her mother, Eliza, alone on their family property when ConaLee’s father didn’t return from the war, havebeen repeatedly victimized by one of the roving veterans who survives merely by taking from those he encounters. This period during and after the war was especially dangerous for women and children left alone on their homesteads where even vigilance wasn’t enough to prevent an attack. When this stranger inserts himself into their lives, Eliza withdraws into herself and becomes little more than a ghost in her own home, wordless and numb. ConaLee does her best to care for her mother. When the cruel man has finally had enough, he loads ConaLee and Eliza on a wagon and delivers them to the steps of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. There, using false identities, they make a home for themselves and Eliza slowly begins to return to her former self under the care and protection of the people they meet. Unfortunately, peace and security rarely ever last. It does not go 100% as planned and it highlights a little written about aspect of the war.

Paris 1874 Inventing impressionism, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

150 years ago, on April 15, 1874, the first impressionist exhibition opened in Paris. “Hungry for independence”, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne finally decided to free themselves from the rules by holding their own exhibition, outside official channels: impressionism was born. To celebrate this anniversary, Musée d’Orsay presented some 130 works and bringing a fresh eye to bear on this key date, regarded as the day that launched the avant-gardes. It was stunning, so beautiful as to be almost overwhelming, and when the museum emailed me several says after I returned home with the question "did you see everything?" (wanting me to consider museum membership as a means of rectifying that) my reply was that I saw almost none of it, I just saw this amazing feast of color and talent.

In the museum's own words: What exactly happened in Paris in that spring of 1874, and what sense should we make today of an exhibition that has become legendary? “Paris 1874. The Impressionist Moment” seeks to trace the advent of an artistic movement that emerged in a rapidly changing world. “Paris 1874” reviews the circumstances that led these 31 artists (only seven of whom are well-known across the world today) to join forces and exhibit their works together. The period in question had a post-war climate, following two conflicts: the Franco-German War of 1870, and then a violent civil war. In this context of crisis, artists began to rethink their art and explore new directions. A little “clan of rebels” painted scenes of modern life, and landscapes sketched in the open air, in pale hues and with the lightest of touches. As one observer noted, “What they seem above all to be aiming at is an impression”.