The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Books & Banter book club)
In 1972 skeletal remains are found in an old well in a formerly Jewish and Black neighborhood in Pennsylvania. Before the police can really investigate, a hurricane blows in the next day and destroys all the evidence and most of the area. But if we go back to 1936, we find out who ended up in that well and why. The whole story builds around Chona Ludlow and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store she runs with her husband Moshe. Chona is disabled from polio but is not shy about speaking her mind and running the store the way she wants. Instead of moving away like other Jewish families have, she wants to stay in the predominately Black neighborhood and is friends with many of her customers. When a young Black child, who is deaf, needs to be hidden from authorities, Chona immediately agrees to help him. The few weeks they spend together are a highlight for both of them. But sadly, the situation also brings about a terrible situation that drastically changes things for both Chona and Dodo. There is also a colorful cast of characters that flow in and out of Chona's story and show the true nature, both good and bad, of the neighborhood.
I wasn't sure what to expect with this one because I'd had several people tell me they didn't like it or had a really hard time getting through it. I really liked it. I loved Chona and her spunk and how she wasn't afraid to stand up for what was right and important to her. I also loved Dodo and was so happy that his story didn't have the terrible ending it could have. I also loved Nate - he reminded me in some ways of Ray Carney in Harlem Shuffle. Several reviews I read complained that there were too many characters and storylines, back stories, etc. But I think they are missing the point. Chona was the center of the neighborhood and the whole cast of characters were there to show the history and culture - both the good and the bad - of the neighborhood. I thought it was clever and well written. It was also odd. They "mystery" aspect that starts the book with finding a skeleton in a well was pretty light - nobody missed that guy so there wasn't a mystery to solve. It was more of a long-running revenge/karma/comeuppance that again tied back to Chona. Is this the best book I ever read? No. Will I be thinking about these characters for a long time? Yes.
A quote I liked:
"They were a lost nation spread across the American countryside, bewildered, their yeshiva education useless, their proud history ignored, as the clankety-clank of American industry churned around them, their proud past as watchmakers and tailors, scholars and historians, musicians and artists, gone, wasted. Americans cared about money. And power. And government. Jews had none of those things; their job was to tread lightly in the land of milk and honey and be thankful that they were free to walk the land without getting their duffs kicked - or worse. Life in America was hard, but it was free, and if you worked hard, you might gain some opportunity, maybe even open a shop or business of some kind." (p. 62)
The Mango Tree: a memoir of fruit, Florida, and felony by Annabelle Tometich
This book starts with Annabelle Tometich going to court after her mother faces charges for shooting at a man who was stealing mangoes from her tree. This surprises no one who knows Jo Tometich - and after reading this book I'm surprised it hadn't happened before. Annabelle's mother, Jo, is from the Philippines and her father, Lou, was from Cape Cod, Massachusetts and they met in Florida. Jo was a driven immigrant who was desperate to make it in the US and help her family. Lou came from money and never seemed to find the motivation for a career even after he married Jo and they had children. To say the Tometich household was volatile would be a huge understatement. Annabelle grew up between two worlds - never feeling White enough and also never feeling Filipino enough. Her escape from the chaos at home was to do well in school and try to fit in any way she could. After her father's accidental death the family really struggles. As Annabelle goes off to college, then marries and has her own children she re-evaluates her mother's experiences. With her own much less dysfunctional new family, she finally has the family she always wanted. But she still has her family of origin and can finally embrace them for who they are - even if that means going to court to support her mother when she shot at someone (with a BB gun) who was stealing her beloved mangoes. As the subtitle says, "a memoir of fruit, Florida, and felony."
When Southern Women Cook: history, lore, and 300 recipes with contributions from 70 women writers by America's Test Kitchen
"Throughout history, food and cooking have sustained women as they have carved out a place for themselves in society and their communities. This is particularly poignant when you listen to women's stories in the American South; in this book, we highlight those stories, exploring how food has enabled women to overcome adversity, provide for themselves and their families, advance society, exercise their creativity, and claim their identities." (p. x) This first few sentences in the Introduction of this comprehensive cookbook/Southern women's food history book perfectly sums up what you're about to read. This is a cookbook. But it is much more than a cookbook as well. Their are 14 chapters of recipes, but each chapter also includes LOTS of other information either about the food/recipes, historical women, and/or current women working in food in the South. The recipes are created by America's Test Kitchen but using both historical and current recipes to find either the best combination or an easier home cook recipe. This is one I will definitely buy. There are several recipes I'd like to try and I could definitely see this being a cookbook you turn to regularly.
A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko
Kevin Fedarko worked as a river rafting guide on the Colorado River that runs through the Grand Canyon. Fedarko makes his living as a writer, something he could do around the river guide work. His friend Pete McBride is a photographer and approaches Fedarko with an idea for them to do a thru-hike the length of the Grand Canyon and write about/photograph their journey. Even though only a handful of people have successfully done this (and many people die in the Canyon every year doing lesser hikes) Fedarko agrees. For the first segment they tag along with Rich Rudow and 3 of his friends. Rudow is an extremely experienced hiker specifically in the Grand Canyon. Yet still in that first section hike, McBride almost dies and both men realize they are in WAY over their heads. They find a group of more experienced hikers to help them both on the hikes and to prepare and eventually do complete their hike the length of the Grand Canyon.
I liked Fedarko's writing and I did want to know what happened and about their hike. He also gives a lot of background especially about historical people who first explored and/or thru-hiked the Grand Canyon. He also gave a lot of information about the Native people who call the land in and around the Grand Canyon their historical home. I've been to the Grand Canyon but have not hiked into it, so sometimes it was hard to picture the level of detail he was describing. There are a lot of pictures included in the book and that does help. Pete McBride also published a coffee table photography book from this trip so I'd like to see that to really get a feel for what they saw.
A couple takeaways: 1) I NEVER want to hike like this. Seriously, Pete almost DIED. Like a doctor told him after the fact that he was probably 1-2 hours away from going into a coma and dying. Even though he was drinking water, his electrolyte levels got too low from not replenishing the salt his body was losing through sweating. I don't know that I would have continued on after that. 2) It's just a different kind of person who enjoys pushing their body and mind to the limit like this for fun. I love being outside and seeing nature and I'd love to see some of the places they described in person. But my idea of fun is not narrowly escaping death during my "fun" times. 3) Fedarko was 38 when he started working with whitewater companies in unpaid positions during the summer - and, according to him, he sucked at it. I don't know if it was a midlife crisis or what but starting something like that at 38 seemed pretty crazy and then even more so deciding in your mid-40s to do this brutal thru-hike and being shocked at how hard it was, seemed even more crazy.
Overall, I did like the book. Some of the technical aspects of the hiking descriptions and very detailed information about the areas they hiked through did get a little old. But it was definitely an interesting book and Fedarko is now one of the small number of people who have successfully hiked the length of the Grand Canyon, which is a huge accomplishment.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
Ina Garten grew up in a very unhappy home. Her parents never really wanted to be parents and had rigid expectations for their children. There was no love or affection shown to or by anyone in the household. While she was still in high school she met her future husband Jeffrey when she and her parents went to visit her brother at Darmouth. It was love at first sight for both of them. Ina's relationship with Jeffrey changed her life for the better. He believed in her and encouraged her to try new things or work in different fields to find something that suited her. Getting married in the early 1970s Ina wasn't taught to have ambitions or work toward anything other than getting married and being a housewife. Food was something Ina was always interested in, so when she saw an ad for a specialty food store for sale in the Hamptons she went to check it out just out of curiosity. As soon as she walked into the Barefoot Contessa store she knew this was it. She and Jeffery made it work even though they were working in different states (and even different countries) for awhile. Eventually she sold the store and started writing cookbooks, then caught the eye of Food Network people and got into cooking on TV. A saying Jeffrey often said was "you don't know your good breaks from your bad breaks," basically meaning somethings things don't work out that you want but it ends up that something better is down the road. Ina never had 5-year-plans and her career trajectory worked out - she just went along was tried to Be Ready When the Luck Happens.
Several reviews I read complained A LOT about how privileged and rich she was and that's why things worked out for her. But she never talked about her family having tons of money or helping them financially. I think it was more the time and place. She and Jeffery both worked for the White House - obviously you'll make some good/important connections there. It was also a time when a couple with or without a college education could buy a really nice house for $50,000. And Jeffery did work in some very well paying jobs - Lehman Brothers, a professor at Yale, etc. If she hadn't married Jeffery or they hadn't stayed together, her life would have been very different. I think that's a lot of what this book is about - their partnership. They worked together to make a life for themselves that was very atypical for the time and that's how she built her career into what it is now. I liked the book and I thought it was well written and interesting.
Some quotes I liked:
"I loved our return policy. Usually, when you return something to a store, you get some kind of resistance. I thought this was an opportunity to be different. Every person in the store knew what to do if someone returned any item. First, you got your money back, no questions asked. Once you had you money in your hand, we'd ask what you didn't like about the product. Finally, based on the answer - you don't like a dense chocolate cake, or the cake you got was overbaked - you got something free, such as a different chocolate cake or a new cake that wasn't overbaked. People were stunned! A serious problem turned into a happy customer for life, and the cost to us was minimal." (p. 149-50)
"A lot of celebrities spent time in the Hamptons, and several came to the store. I was never starstruck until the day I looked out the window and saw a familiar - no, an iconic - woman walking down the street. Long, swinging hair, aviator glasses...'Oh my God, that's Gloria Steinem!' I announced to the girls in the store. When their response was, 'Who's that?' I knew what I had to do...I ran outside and stopped her. 'I'm so sorry,' I apologized...'Would you mind coming in for a minute? I have all these young women who work for me, and they need to know who changed their lives.'...I told the girls what she had done - that she advanced feminism, campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, founded Ms. magazine. 'Your mothers didn't know they had options. I didn't know. Gloria Steinem changed all of that,' I explained, wanting them to know what a difference she'd made in the lives they could lead, in the choices they could make." (p. 156-57)
One Way Back by Christine Blasey Ford
This book was already on my TBR list but I recently watched the Anita Hill episode of United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper and decided to go ahead and read this one. What's so incredibly sad and frustrating is how little has really changed since the Clarence Thomas hearing in 1991 to the Brett Kavanaugh hearing in 2018. While I feel like woman are taken a little more seriously today, are there really any more consequences for the men in power? It feels like not really. While the women like Anita Hill and Christine Ford pay the real consequences for coming forward. One Way Back is Dr. Christine Ford's story of how she decided to come forward with her allegations against Brett Kavanaugh after finding out he was a nominee for the Supreme Court. She was never trying to testify in front of Congress, she just wanted to tell the right people what happened to her so that they had the full story of this nominee. The whole process was insane with lawyers initially encouraging her to tell her story and contact Congress, then saying she shouldn't go forward, Congressmen acting like they cared about her then throwing her under the bus at the hearings, etc. She and her family had to go into hiding and hire 24/7 security during the time leading up to the hearings and she continues to get death threats to this day. And for what? Kavanaugh was still confirmed and while he did have protestors and threats as well, he's on the Supreme Court for life. Dr. Ford basically had the rug pulled out from under her and is still trying to recover.
The book was a pretty quick read but it wasn't a good time. It's depressing to see how ridiculously hard this process was and how women continue to be the ones with the worst repercussions for trying to do the right thing. It was also very sad that her immediate family wasn't very supportive of her. Her dad sent Kavanaugh's father an email congratulating him on Brett's appointment! And her brother basically quit speaking to her after this. Wow. Is is any wonder women don't come forward?! Dr. Ford had plenty of supporters and people continue to reach out to her today with their support and their own stories of assault. This is not a happy ending book but definitely worth reading. Maybe someday the tide will turn more and men in power who do bad things will actually have to face the consequences.
We Are the ARK by Mary Reynolds
Mary Reynolds wants to encourage people to do two things 1) re-wild their property (if you have some) and 2) grow some of your own food. I can get behind both of those ideas. She started the organization We are the ARK to promote planting of native plants, re-wilding areas, and growing organic food on a smaller scale. ARK stands for Acts of Restorative Kindness - these acts are to help the earth heal and nature thrive. She gives lots of tips for any size property and even to people who live in apartments or in urban areas of how they can encourage re-wilding and create ARKs in their areas. The book is beautifully illustrated but I wish there had been some pictures included of the author's ARK areas and others that she mentions. I had a hard time picturing some of the ideas she included in the book. Even though she is in Ireland, she makes a point to gives resources for the UK, US, and Canada. Overall, it was an encouraging book but it was slightly repetitive and like I said before I think some pages with photos of ARKs would add a lot to the book.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Books & Banter book club)
Damon Fields was born to a teenage mother who grew up in foster care and was an alcoholic. His father died before he was born and his mother struggled with both her sobriety and finding a decent paying job. Damon's father was of Melungeon heritage, and Damon inherited his bright red hair and darker complexion - it also earned him the nickname Demon Copperhead. Things are fine for Demon growing up even though they are poor until his mother meets Stoner when he's 10. Stoner isn't wild about dealing with Demon and after an altercation at home Demon ends up in foster care. While in his second foster home, Demon's mom dies of an overdose - one of the first wave of oxy deaths in their area. He eventually connects with his paternal grandmother who helps find him a more suitable home. But when Damon is fifteen he is injured playing football and prescribed opioid painkillers. Even taking them as prescribed he's hooked by the time the prescriptions run out. Luckily for him there are any number of ways to keep accessing pills. After more heartache and death than the average 80 year old sees in their lifetime, Damon starts to dig his way out of addiction in his late teens/early 20's. What the future holds is anyone's guess, but by the end of the book Demon's story has taken a hopeful turn for a change.
Barbara Kingsolver's retelling of David Copperfield by way of Appalachia and the opioid epidemic is brilliant. I can't think of a better written character than Demon. Literally every other page is such a brilliant line from Demon that if you marked them all the whole book would be marked up. In her book Unsheltered, I felt like Kingsolver was VERY heavy handed with her message. This is the opposite. Through Demon you see the struggles of rural, poor Appalachia, but you also see the warmth, resilience, and pride of the people of this region. She also does a great job of showing how areas like this were targeted by Perdue Pharma and how Appalachia became the first wave of the opioid tsunami. I read a LOT and this is one of the best books I've ever read. Demon and the other characters here will stay with me for a long time.
Just a couple extra great quotes:
"I had to do the harder English, which was a time suck, reading books. Some of them though, I finished without meaning to...Likewise the Charles Dickens one, seriously old guy, dead and a foreigner, but Christ Jesus did he get the picture on kids and orphans getting screwed over and nobody giving a rat's ass. You'd think he was from around here." (p. 374)
"I made him a miner, with a pick, overalls, the hard hat with the light on the front. I gave him a red bandanna like the old badass strikers that had their war. No cape, he doesn't fly, just super strong and fast, running over the mountaintops in leaps and bounds. This guy is old-school...I named my strip Red Neck. Signed, Anonymous." (p. 419)
"Is it the hardest thing I've ever done? No. Just the hardest one I had any choice about." (p. 509)
"Everything I looked at made my eyes water. It felt like being in love with somebody that's married. I could never have this. Staying here, alone and sober, was beyond my powers. And I still wanted it with all my hungry parts." (p. 530)
