September 2019

“The Ditch” is a complex story about life, family, different cultures, love, revenge, aging, illness and the intersection of it all.

The story revolves around “Robert”, the mayor of Amsterdam and his wife “Sylvia”. Robert is the narrator and the names are aliases, because the real names “would only confuse things. People make all kinds of assumptions when it comes to names.” Robert is from Holland and Sylvia is from a different unnamed country and her physical appearance makes it clear that she is not from Holland. They have a daughter “Diana”.

During a reception, Robert observes Sylvia talking and laughing with Alderman Martens Van Hoogstraten. Robert becomes obsessed, based solely on that one event, that Sylvia and the Alderman are having a romantic relationship. If Sylvia is acting normal, that is suspicious. “…it was precisely the absence of any visible sign or signal that should confirm my worst suspicions. The completely normal way my wife was acting…could be a deliberate tactic.” “They were acting like nothing was going on which meant something was going on.” Of course, when Sylvia is acting peculiar, that is suspicious.
Continue Reading The Ditch – by Herman Koch

Eleanor Oliphant“I suppose one of the reasons we’re all able to continue to exist for our allotted span in this green and blue veil of tears is that there is always, however remote it may seem, the possibility of change.”

Now I realize that this quote may not make you want to read this book (and maybe you shouldn’t), dreary as it seems. But the novel, Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, is about a person’s ability to make even the most dreadful life better—through change.

Eleanor Oliphant is a peculiar, 31 year old office worker, with a university degree in classics and what we learn was a miserable upbringing. She describes herself as a woman with “Long, straight, light brown hair that runs all the way down to my waist, pale skin, my face a scarred palimpsest of fire.” Her face, specifically, has “ridged, white contours of scar tissue that slither across my right cheek, starting at my temple and running all the way down to my chin.”

Eleanor has no friends and the people at work, a graphics design company, make fun of her behind her back. Her weekends are spent at home alone, with vodka, pizza and books. She has a weekly telephone call with her “Mummy”, who appears to be institutionalized and is extraordinarily cruel to Eleanor.
Continue Reading Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine – by Gail Honeyman

ThreadsIt’s time for a change of pace. Let’s talk music. Some of you may not know this but during my junior and senior years in college I was part of a group that brought in and promoted concerts. We had Elton John and Jimmy Buffet and Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, just to name a few. I miss those days!

But this blog is not about me. It’s about this amazing new album released from Sheryl Crow called Threads. This album reminds me of those days of anticipation for the new release from a favorite artist, of impatience to hear the next track to learn if it is as good as the one before. This album is everything you expect but dare not hope for from your favorite musician.

First, there is the generosity of 17 tracks and more than 70 minutes of music. Second, each song includes one or more great musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, Joe Walsh, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson, Sting, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and James Taylor.  Third, there is a wide diversity of sound.
Continue Reading Threads – by Sheryl Crow

Chances Are“Chances Are” is a mystery, a love story and a buddy story all wrapped together. It is engaging, captivating, well written and 100% pure Richard Russo.

Lincoln Moser, Teddy Novak and Mickey Girardi are 66 year old college buddies who get together for a reunion at Lincoln’s vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. Each come from very different backgrounds and met as college students at Minerva College in Connecticut, where they were scholarship students. They worked in the kitchen at the Theta House as “hashers”, where Lincoln met Anita, who became his wife and all three were close friends with and secretly in love with Jacy Rockafellow.

The novel tells the story of Lincoln, Teddy, Mickey and Jacy, and the details of their lives that the others do not know. The reunion in Martha’s Vineyard is difficult, because it was this exact house, forty plus years earlier, where they last saw Jacy. After college graduation, the four decided to have a last get together at the home previously owned by Lincoln’s mother. Jacy snuck out early on the last day and was never heard from or seen again.
Continue Reading Chances Are – by Richard Russo