The Books of August

I didn't have high hopes for August being a great reading month. There were a lot of things on the agenda. Part of the time I was home with appointments; then I was doing some online art workshop tutorials. They were only available for a short time, so I couldn't save them for a more convenient. And then there was company -- always good! But busy. And during art camp, I only read a night before bed, for the most part.

 

Surprisingly, I knocked off six books: three mysteries and three memoirs. And there wasn't a disappointment in the bunch! 

 "Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith" by Anne Lamott 

 

 Anne Lamott is someone I'd like to meet. She's smart, articulate, funny and divinely irreverent. "Traveling Mercies" is a memoir written about the time she was 40 and is more a series of essays than it is a chronological "autobiography." 

In the early chapters she tells about her youth and young adult years, growing up in California in the 1950s and '60s. Her semi-"hippie" parents were permissive and there was plenty of alcohol and drug use -- something that became, as she grew up, an addiction (and one she kicked). It was a time of loves lost, a child aborted and another born and a life and faith well lived and explored. 

As Lamott finds faith she also finds her feet in the world. She describes her journey, saying hers was a "patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus.” Eventually she settles into Christianity but continues to welcome the thoughts of all spiritual faiths into her journey. 

She's not without challenges but she rises to them, often with humor and more often with irreverence, sharing her conversations with God during challenging days. “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die,” she writes, at one point when anger was tearing at her.  

But people who think this is a religious book, or just a book about a woman finding Christianity are selling it short. There is nothing preachy here. She is not trying to convert you. (In fact, during college she was bat mitzvahed by her college friends). She makes no dispersion or judgment calls on others. It is simply a woman's story -- funny, smart, and filled with memorable characters you'll not soon forget. I was familiar with Lamott before and had rad some of her work, but thanks, Linda, for introducing me to this one. 

"The Blood Promise" by Mark Pryor 

 

I haven't read a good Hugo Marston book in quite some time and was happy to find "The Blood Promise" at my used store. This is the third book in Pryor's series about a former FBI profiler who now is in charge of security for the American Embassy in Paris. Though it's fair to say, he often gets more involved in other cases than those of his embassy.

This time, Marston is to accompany US Senator Charles Lake to a country estate in Paris owned by Henri de Tourville, where they will be part of a group discussing a potential treaty. The Senator is garrulous and anti-European, not the best combination for a treaty. Overnight he wakens Marston, telling him someone was in his room, leaning over him, but no one can be found.  

Meanwhile, we flash back to 1795 where a man writes a letter, hidden in a sailor's chest and delivered -- where? But when Marston sees the chest at the Chateau, and later learns it was stolen from another estate during which a woman was murdered, he is pulled into a police case that may -- or may not -- be connected the Tourville family. As Hugo juggles his embassy duties with the police investigation, yet another murder occurs.

I like Hugo Marston. He is thorough and thoughtful and, in a surprisingly touching moment, so darned human that you wish you knew him. The book features characters from previous mysteries -- reporter Claudia, his CIA friend Tom and French policeman Raul, along with a new continuing character, policewoman Camille Larens.

Adding to the well written plot is the beauty of Paris and France, which we "see" through Hugo's walks in the city and drives through the country. A satisfying read all the way around. 

"Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes

 

This is a memoir for anyone who loves Italy, dreams of fantastic Italian food and learning how to prepare it, or has had a yen to renovate an old home, preferably an old one abroad.  

Frances and her partner, Ed, have decided to buy a house in Cortona, Italy. Both professors at a San Francisco university, their plan is to spend their summers and holiday vacations in Italy. Their purchase is an old villa called Bramsole, which includes acres of olive and fruit trees and isn't exactly in the best of shape. Uninhabited for several decades, they clear out scorpions and spider nests and plenty of trash in their initial months, making a table out of an old hunk of marble propped up on support stands. Then come the renovations.

 

Workers are adding running water, heating, digging a new well (the only one goes dry, suddenly and unexpectedly.) There are septic issues, heating issues, and communicating with Italian workers when their knowledge of Italian is limited. And that's before getting down to the fun of decorating! Meanwhile, they are rehabilitating the orchards and gardens and the many terraces that are part of their property. It's exhausting and all consuming. But they are all in for the work, enthusiasm never waning.

 

They love it. 

 

As readers follow along, they turn the old pile into a lovely home, along the way making new friends of both the ex-pats who live nearby and the locals. Frances, always one who loved to cook, is in her element, buying the freshest of vegetables and meats and preparing wonderful pasta dishes. Meanwhile, Ed gets into the cooking too, along with absorbing other elements of the Italian lifestyle, including fast driving.

 

But this is more than a home reno memoir. The couple travel around Italy, in search of creating a wine cellar and along the way learn the deep history of the region, going back to the Etruscans, along with visiting churches large and small. Frances also shares many of her recipes for Italian food -- and I have to say, they sound very good and I may just have to try my hand at a few.

 

I should add that if you have seen the film of the same title, don't for a second think it remotely resembles the book. This is a memoir, not a rom-com or rom-dram story, as the film is. Why Mays let them take the name of her book and do that to the screenplay is beyond me. But then, restoring a villa and building up a vineyard and olive tree orchard is expensive and I probably would have bit the bullet and done the same. 

"The Dead of Jericho" by Colin Dexter

 

This may not have been the first Inspector Morse book Dexter wrote, but it was the first episode of the long-running television series. And, it's a good one.

Morse has been to a gathering where he meets the younger and vivacious Anne Scott, a woman who shares his intellectual and literary interests. Despite the potential for romance, he doesn't follow through. Some six months later, before an event in the Oxford area known as Jericho, and in a neighborhood he knows is hers, he knocks on her door, with no answer. Later, at the event, he hears sirens and following his nose, he ends up back at her house, where she is found hanging in the kitchen. 

Inspector Bell is convinced it is suicide. Morse isn't so sure and begins his own investigation, later taking over the case with dependable Sergeant Lewis at his side.

This is a tightly, well written mystery that really brings out the characters of Morse and Lewis (who doesn't appear till the latter third of the book). Morse may do his best work at the pub but he does it well. It's a good one.

"Murder in Mesopotamia" by Agatha Christie

 

This month's Aggie re-read (practically new, since I read it in the late 1960s or early '70s; the original price of my edition was 45 cents!) came to my attention through Caroline Crampton's "Shedunit" newsletter and podcast. (Thanks, Shari, for telling me about Crampton's things -- this book is one of her favorites.

This is a Hercule Poirot offering, as told by Nurse Amy Letheran, who is asked to recount her experience at an archaeological dig in Mesopotamia. She is asked to be a companion to the wife of Dr. Leidner, the dig's leader, who has had frequent, erratic and upsetting nervous behavior. All the members of the dig team live in the same enclosed compound, and Nurse Letheran notes that there is a distinct air of unease about the group. In her summary, she describes each individual, from the respected Dr. Leidner and his wife to Father Levigney, a French monk who transcribes any language found in the dig; Mr. and Mrs. Mercado (she is a thoroughly unpleasant creature); the devoted archaeologist Anne Johnson, and the younger gentlemen workers-- Mr. Coleman, Mr. Carey, Mr. Reiter and Mr. Emmott, among other characters.

When Mrs. Leidner is found dead in her locked room, no one wants to believe that one of the group could be a suspect. But when Hercule Poirot is brought in to investigate, three theories are possible -- but the most possible is that the murder was done by one of the members of the dig.

Christie follows Poirot (who takes Nurse Leatheran with him on his rounds) as he questions the various dig members and eventually draws together the various clues related to motive, means and opportunity. The conclusion is a pretty darned tricky one. Even if you guess the murderer (and it will be a wild guess from the myriad of suspects, all with perfect alibis), I bet you won't be able to figure out the backstory and motive! 

"Becoming Duchess Goldblatt" by Anonymous

First of all, this is non-fiction. In fact, it's a memoir. Not that your brain doesn't struggle to remember that. Nor, is it about some woman who becomes a duchess -- literally. Duchess Goldblatt is a fictional character, brought to life in what was then Twitter posts, to hundreds, perhaps thousands of followers. We don't know the name of Anonymous, who tells her own story about developing this character (just for the fun of it, and perhaps because following her traumatic divorce she needed a diversion). Nor do we know quite how she developed her following (except, as we all know, that once something goes viral, all bets are off!).

But, as the book progresses, we follow her through her life -- her divorce and love for her four-year-old son, whose life has been uprooted as well. Her need for something to occupy her time when laid off from her job as a journalist, was critical. She explains how becoming Duchess Goldblatt online was an extension of her own unique, witty self. (And perhaps that's something many of us bloggers can relate to.)

Our heroine creates the Duchess as an 81-year old woman, philanthropist and writer, who lives in the fictional town of Crooked Tree, NY. Her name is that of a friend's dog and the maiden name of her mother, picked delightfully at random. She supports charitable causes and offbeat events, such as a dog show, where her followers send in their entries. Her (also fictional) daughter, Hacienda, is in a Mexican prison for crimes against humanity. (What they are is somewhat unknown.) Her profile photo is a painting by Franz Hals that shows a portly woman in black, a white ruff around her neck, and a half smile on her face. 

It's not long before the Duchess picks up a few followers, who appreciate her wit and brief but delightful posts, knowing full well she is "fictional" and not a "real" duchess. Soon, others follow (over 25,000), forming almost a cult where they might meet up (wearing ruffs, of course). Many send her gifts -- mugs with her photo on it, among others. She offers the Goldblatt Prize for Literary Fiction to followers who write (well known authors are the recipients, but they must be followers). She may give advice when directly replying to her readers, but it is supportive, kind, affirming, witty and often, just plain nice.

And, she speaks to her readers as though she were right with them: "I want you all to stop asking invasive questions. They spread their seeds everywhere and make it even harder for native questions to survive," she writes in one post. In another: "I come to you today with your reminder that a double chin is God's glorious promise of abundance made manifest." 

Most touching of all is her relationship with singer Lyle Lovett. Admittedly a fan-girl, she captures the attention of Lovett, who begins to follow her posts and eventually asks her to attend his concert and meet him backstage. She does, and it is the start of a friendship that involves countless correspondences and meet-ups, built on tremendous respect and the joy, kindness and love that the Duchess shares in her posts.

In becoming the Duchess, our real-life writer, bruised from life, withdrawn and unable to trust, begins to find her new space in the world. It's a story of healing, of love, of rebirth. This is a beautiful book and a fun one too. It's a strong contender for my top ten of the year. (Note: If you like, you can follow @duchessgoldblatt.bsky.social on Blue Sky.)

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