Book Review: Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber

 

Midnight at the Blackbird Café

by Heather Webber

When Anna Kate’s grandmother, Zee, passes away, she has no choice but to return to Wicklow, Alabama and work the Blackbird Café for two months in order to receive her inheritance. But there’s a reason her mama, Eden, left Wicklow when Anna Kate was little. Anna Kate is bound for medical school in August but first she is going to have to face these old ghosts, and the birds.

There’s something special about the birds that give The Blackbird Café its name. The legend has it that the women in Anna Kate’s family have to listen to the birds and then when people eat the pie they bake, they will dream of messages from deceased loved ones.

Birders descend on the town, having heard about the blackbirds, rare enough in Alabama. Rarer still is that the birds only appear from midnight to one am to sing.

Anna Kate doesn’t have any immediate family left. Her father died in a car crash when her mother was still pregnant. Her mother passed just a few years ago, and now her grandmother has died. But there is more family out there for her, if she can bridge the divide.

Anna Kate’s paternal family, The Lindens, includes her grandfather, Doc Linden, grandmother, Seelie, and an Aunt Natalie who is not all that much older than Anna Kate herself.

Natalie has had some trauma of her own. Her husband died under less than clear circumstances and she has a three-year-old daughter to raise on her own now so she moved back home for help, though she and her mother, Seelie, don’t see eye to eye.

“If my mother knew where I was going, she’d undoubtedly clutch her signature double strand of pearls, purse her lips, and vociferously question the heavens above as to where she had gone wrong raising her only daughter.”

Anna Kate’s grandmother, and Natalie’s mother, Seelie Linden, is an old-fashioned proper southern belle who was dead set against her son marrying Eden, and when A.J. died in a car accident, she blamed Eden.

This book is filled with wonderful characters. The ones who are no longer living are often as intriguing as the ones Anna Kate comes in contact with. It is a huge cast but each person feels real and individual in their own right.

There’s Faylene, a town busybody who means well and actually knows a lot. She quickly volunteers to babysit for Natalie while she takes care of her own granddaughter. Gordon was Zee’s lawyer and lives next door to the café. He seems sweet on Anna Kate and she is more than a little interested, but it’s all VERY restrained. Mr. Lazenby requires his daily piece of pie in order to dream of his deceased wife. Aubin Pavageau was Anna Kate’s father’s best friend growing up. He’s friendly but suffering from his own trauma after his wife died a few years before in a car accident. Then there’s a mysterious bird with a broken wing about town, and a ragged old gray cat that acts like it understands far more than any cat has a right to.

 This is a book as full of flavor as any of the pies Anna Kate serves in the Blackbird Café. I highly recommend.

Book Review: Death in Provence by Serena Kent

 

Penelope Kite is a divorced British woman who left the coroner’s office when her boss retired. After a difficult Christmas with her stepchildren, she decides to take an extended vacation for a couple weeks in Provence. She finds herself looking at potential properties.

“Perhaps she shouldn’t have drunk all that delicious rose. It had made her bold.”

Boldness is decidedly what she will need, as she purchases a property that needs a good deal of TLC to bring it back to life. There are wasps, and crumbling plaster, villagers who greet her with some reservation, along with a dead body in the clogged pool.

But Le Chant d’Eau has marvelous views, old stones, and beautiful atmosphere. Penny is not going to be run off easily, not by a difficult “Chef de Police” or a movie star handsome mayor.

One dead body isn’t that much of a problem. Call the police, have it removed, and have a service clean out the pool and make sure it is sound.

The problems, however, don’t quite end there, and as fast as Penny meets people who become friendly in the village, there are also mounting dangers.

As a former employee of a genius coroner, Penny is not without a certain amount of knowledge in investigations, even if she is an amateur. She definitely has “le courage.” Will it be enough? It must, because this is a cozy mystery. But how will we get to the satisfactory conclusion? What twists and turns will we find along the way? That is the joy of a cozy mystery and it is well accomplished here, along with a healthy dose of armchair travel to Provence. I highly recommend this one.

I find it interesting that Serena Kent is actually the pen name for a husband and wife writing team, much like on of my favorite fantasy authors, Ilona Andrews. I’ve also enjoyed humorous adventure books written by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. These male/female writing teams bring something special to the page that I really enjoy. If you’re looking for some more reading, check them out.

Book Review: Ready Player Two

 

Ready Player Two

by Ernest Cline

There were many things I enjoyed in this book, but I can’t say that the first 30% of the book held any of them.

I realize that the author was giving the story that happened between the first book and the current one, building the bridge, but it felt like the story didn’t even begin until 30% of the way in. From my perspective, the first thirty percent of the book could have been seriously condensed, at least in half. And, honestly, there seemed a lot more telling than showing throughout the book. It just didn’t seem as immediate or make me feel invested.

I was so excited to get this book, and maybe that’s part of the problem. Sometimes we hype things up in our mind, like a movie, then it simply can’t live up to our expectations. In the end I did enjoy the book, but it took a while to get into it.

There were MANY parts I did enjoy, such as the John Hughes films portion. This harkened back to the 80s nostalgia of the first book, as well as the planet of the artist formerly known as Prince. I really appreciated the development of Aech’s story there. The thread of Kira and Ogden Morrow’s love throughout the book was lovely.

I was a little surprised by the use of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, because it wasn’t an 80’s creation, but it was so incredibly important in the development of D&D and then the online gaming that grew out of that, that it really made sense.

If you enjoyed the first book, then this one is worth reading, but you may have to slog through the first part to get to the good stuff.

Book Review: Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan

 

Where the Past Begins

by Amy Tan

 

This was not quite the book I expected when I started reading, but it was fascinating, nevertheless.

The opening is more about Tan’s writing. I had to laugh out loud when her introduction included some very humorous asides from her editor, Daniel Halpern.

In talking about her work on the book, she says – Even so, I did not miss a deadline, except one. The last.

But Halpern adds – [ed. Note: Technically, she was always a day late, using the excuse of PST, to protest her PTSD.]

I had thought this was a memoir about Tan’s writing, but it’s more about where she came from, both the circumstances of her growing up years, the way her parents interacted with her, and going back farther, to the stories of her ancestors that sparked her imagination.

There are excerpts from journals and even from novels that never made it to culmination.

I have embarked on an impossible task. I will have fewer than a hundred pages, always fewer than a hundred, and they are all bad . . . This is not writer’s block. This is chaos with no way out.

But the book is weighted heavily in the story of her family, something that fascinates many of us. Where her mother came from, where her father came from to a lesser degree – who they were as people- how she felt about events that happened in her childhood then how her understanding of them progressed as she looked deeper into the letters and journals and other artifacts her family left behind.

She always looked for signs that her mother was going to explode, so she could get ready for it, but this time she forgot.

There is a great deal about the experiences of her grandmother, her mother’s mother, in China and how that affected her mother and thus Tan. Tan shares the view of this history from multiple points in her life, and thus multiple perspectives, especially when new information makes things more clear. These stories factor heavily in Tan’s novels.

The sad or difficult things she experienced in life, the fearful ones too, are included here. I won’t go into detail but Tan has lived through some very sad and scary experiences in her life, like the time she was in a car crash in Europe that could have turned out far worse than it did.

At first, I did not love the section of letters back and forth with her editor. Because there are dates in between, I felt like I was missing information, but even more, I felt like the third wheel – listening to two other people have an inside conversation without being able to participate. However, I began to appreciate the insight to her writing method and mental state before, during, and after creating a novel.

This was a very deep and thoughtful book that offered the opportunity for reflection. It was not something I could rush through reading, and even now, I am sure if I went back and read it again, I would learn many new things. It makes me think about keeping a journal of my own and exploring my own family history more. I would definitely recommend.

What I've Been Reading - 3/19/2021

 

What I’ve Been Reading

My intention was to read Amy Tan’s Where the Past Begins: Memory and Inspiration for this week’s blog but sometimes life has a way of intervening. I had the opportunity to get vaccinated against Covid-19 this week so I jumped at it and then spent the next day recuperating.

Plus, I haven’t been able to put down the mystery series I was reading and that has made it difficult to pick up the Amy Tan book.

I’m up to the fifth book in the Noodle House Mystery series from Vivien Chien. It’s a wonderful cozy mystery series with titles like Death by Dumpling, Dim Sum of all Fears, Murder Lo Mein, Wonton Terror, and Egg Drop Dead. They are funny and energetic, just a perfect cozy. I highly recommend them. Apparently, I have three more to go.

At the same time, I have made a start on Amy Tan’s memoir. I’m finding it fairly dense and a little more enjoyable as an audio book, with Amy Tan herself narrating. I found myself laughing out loud at the interjections by her editor during the introduction.

Tan: Even so, I did not miss a deadline, except one. The last.

Editor: Technically, she was always a day late, using the excuse of PST, to protest her PTSD.

Her description of the book as an “unintended memoir” filled with gleanings from her journals, anecdotal entries, she refers to as interludes and quirks, plus excerpts from abandoned novels, and letters she wrote to her editor, reminds me a little of Neil Gaiman’s collection, The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Non-fiction.

I am very much enjoying hearing it all in her voice and think I will stick with the audio book. I’ll be sure to share my full thoughts on it in the next post.

I feel it would be remiss not to mention Ms. Tan’s plea this week on Facebook, in the wake of the Atlanta spa shootings. For the full post, you can see her Facebook page, but here are her ideas for action, in her own words.

“I encourage people to join in solidarity to denounce anti-Asian messages and violence. Many AAPI organizations are helping with this effort. One is AAPI Advocacy Fund, based in Georgia. I supported them during the Georgia run-off, and their GOTV activities made a huge difference in electing Warnock and Ossoff. You can donate or join in efforts or simply give a thumbs up on their Facebook page.

Another important organization is #TheAsianPacificFund based in San Francisco. They are like the United Way of many AAPI non-profits serving the AAPI community. I have been involved with them for many years. They have created a Solidarity Fund. Their actions and proposals have received national attention. Their approach to combatting anti-Asian hate ranges from providing psychological support for victims to recruiting businesses to voice intolerance to anti-AAPI hatelAnother facet is of elect more AAPI in state, local and national governments. And we especially need to look at how we pursue both social justice and criminal justice.

Other organizations: #AsiaSociety and #Goldhouse.

What you can do to show concern:

-Share this post, your own or those of others addressing AAPI hate

-Express solidarity and support the organizations I mentioned or others you know of—and please indicate what those organizations are.

- Visit the facebook pages of businesses expressing solidarity, and give them a thumbs up. e.g., Monterey Bay Aquarium.

-If you own a business, please consider voicing solidarity.

-If you work for a company, please consider asking that the business join in solidarity.

Thank you so much.”

 

Book Review: All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps

 

All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps

Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps

This book is a wonderful, short collection of stories about love in many of its incarnations, sharing the stories of people from every age and many different walks of life.  They are true stories, transcribed from conversations recorded by StoryCorps, which records 40-minute interviews between family members and friends.

I first learned about StoryCorps when they helped facilitate the recording of stories surrounding the flooding of the city in which I work, back in the seventies, during the 50^th anniversary.

You can listen to some of the stories they have recorded here - https://storycorps.org/stories/

There are three parts to this book – Found, Lost, and Found at Last. The first part is very sweet – stories of how people found their partner, whether they are young or old.

There are stories of people who courted through cassette recordings, mailed to each other and played on a Walkman, and people who met because of misaddressed emails. It’s the stories that parents and grandparents tell their children and grandchildren about how they met. Sweet, simple, and heartwarming.

The second part of this book was so hard to read because my eyes were often filled with tears. It’s about love that has been lost. Sometimes the partner has died, from cancer or simply old age, and sometimes they just aren’t who they used to be, because of Alzheimer’s or something else. It’s beautiful and yet so difficult to read.

One woman said, “People talk about closure. There is no closure when you lose a loved one. I don’t care how you lost them, your heart is always open.”

The third part is more about how love was put on hold and then found once again, either because of circumstances or mindsets. It’s the fairy tale ending.

One of my favorite is Gwendolyn Diaz and Henry Flores. Henry says, when he saw Gwendolyn for the first time, “I saw a flash of ankle, and I saw these beautiful green eyes, and I saw this blond hair, and I went, Wow! And then I went smack dab into the wall.”

These are good stories, little snippets of people’s lives, beautiful. I highly recommend it.

 

Book Review: Death by Dumpling (A Noodle Shop Mystery) by Vivien Chien

 

Death by Dumpling

A Noodle Shop Mystery

by Vivien Chien

Sometimes, when life is a little hard, you just need a nice cozy murder mystery to relax with. They’re safe, predictable, somewhat, and you know the hero/heroine is going to win in the end because he or she has to. They just do. (You can’t start a book series by killing off your main character.)

That doesn’t mean they don’t have to suffer a little along the way. But I really like it when they have a healthy sense of humor about it all.

“You know in the movies, where someone says ‘You can’t fire me, I quit!’ . . . maybe don’t do that in real life. Unless you don’t mind working as a server in your parents’ Chinese restaurant for the rest of your life.”

Lana Lee is in her late twenties, recently broken up with her boyfriend, sharing an apartment with her best friend Megan, has quit her job, and gone back to work at her parent’s restaurant, the Ho-Lee Noodle House in Cleveland, Ohio.

“I’m half English, half Taiwanese, and no, I don’t know Karate. I’m definitely not good at math and I don’t know how to spell your name in Chinese.”

Reading about Lana is like meeting your next best friend and bonding, or reminiscing about your twenty-something years – post college, short on money, living in an apartment, meeting new guys who “might” be of interest, sister annoying the heck out of you, etc.

She even has the cutest little dog, a black pug named Kikkoman. (Awww.)

Of course, into every cozy murder mystery, there must be added a murder, and this one is no different. Lana delivers lunch to an older family friend who manages the plaza their restaurant is in. Hours later he is dead.

Who did it? How? Why?

There are a few suspects and Lana finds herself on that list, along with her old friend Peter.

Obviously, she needs to clear their names, right?

This is a perfect light, fast-paced cozy mystery and I am thoroughly enjoying the series.