Educated by Tara Westover

I’m late to the party on this one. It seems everyone has read this gripping memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, escapes her survivalist family, goes on to college and eventually earns degrees from Harvard and Cambridge. Ms. Westover has been interviewed by all the major press and television outlets and Educated was on the bestseller list for many, many weeks.

Tara’s father, Gene Westover is a self-appointed prophet, with a psychotic nature, as well as revolutionary religious beliefs. He traumatizes his family both emotionally and physically. His children are indentured workers for his scrap metal business — and they suffer burns, head injuries, and deep wounds. No medical intervention was allowed, so these dreadful injuries are treated at home with the mother’s homemade collection of herbs, tinctures, and salves. The children and their mother are manipulated and controlled by Gene who demands loyalty at all costs.

On the highway below, the school bus rolls past without stopping. I am only 7, but I understand that it is this fact more than any other that makes my family different. We don’t go to school. Dad worries that the government will force us to go, but it can’t because it doesn’t know about us. Four of my parents’ seven children don’t have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we’ve never set foot in a classroom.

I kept having to put Educated aside, not because of the writing — no, no — Ms. Westover writes beautifully — but because this book is so very hard. This is no sugar coated story – this is grim reality and I needed many breaks from this mesmerizing but cruel account.

I no longer needed breaks once Tara strikes out on her own and surmounts many, many hurdles — from passing the testing required to get into Brigham Young, to interacting with the outside world. She makes friends, gains mentors and discovers just how much she doesn’t know. This second half of the book tells of her struggle to be ‘educated’ and her pursuits to pass the next course, the next level, the next requirement which takes her eventually to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.

During this time Tara goes back home to try and help her sister in law (married to Tara’s abusive brother) and then again to nurse her father after a horrific burn accident. Each visit leaves her with a new perspective that even this craziest of upbringing was, in her child’s view — normal.

Not knowing for certain, but refusing to give way to those who claim certainty, was a privilege I had never allowed myself. My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.

Having grown up loving school and education, I found the notion of being deprived even the basic education just heartbreaking. I finished Educated feeling wrung out, yet I still must recommend this incredible memoir. Educated is beautifully written, heartrendingly insightful, and uplifting.

So if you think your New Year’s resolutions are insurmountable – read Educated – getting back to the gym will seem like a cake walk.

A digital review copy was kindly provided by Random House via Netgalley.

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap

Wendy Welch and her Scottish husband, Jack Beck, impulsively bought a huge Victorian home in the town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, with the intent of transforming it into a used bookstore.

Unfortunately, they had much working against them. Big Stone Gap is not exactly welcoming to strangers and its economically depressed state does not make it an ideal business location. Additionally it didn’t help that they lacked a business plan or even any books to start with. 

The couple remained undaunted and The Little Bookstore recounts their struggles and experiences as they build their beloved used bookstore and a readers’ community around the store.

I’ve dreamed of it — My Very Own Bookstore, and appropriately, this book has lived on my shelf for years. I grabbed it to re-read, as I’m currently traveling in the area, and their Big Stone Gap, Virginia bookstore — called Lonesome Pine Used Books — is on my itinerary.  (Have convinced Husband it will be a nice drive, we can stop for a nice lunch, and it’s really not at all out of the way.  Husband nodded and remained silent — after 40 years, he’s on to me.)

But back to the book, The Little Bookstore is a pleasant, breezy memoir of opening a bookstore in a small town and working really hard, learning on the fly, and caring enough about books and people to go from newcomers (or ‘Come-from-Aways’) to an integral part of a community.

The author writes about the economically depressed area, the isolation of the community and especially how becoming part of such a community is sometimes hard work and sometimes serendipity. 

Yet upon re-reading, I noticed that while Ms. Welch obviously has great heart — she loves her store, her books, and the many cats and dogs she rescues — yet, she sometimes treads into meanness with passive-aggressive observations about Big Stone Gap’s sometimes small-minded inhabitants.  Perhaps this is due to the endless struggle the couple face as they try to make the bookstore a success both financially and socially.

That little niggle aside, this charming book is chocked full of little treasures of humor, social insight, literary observations, and an over-arching love of books and book people. Certainly a must-read memoir for anyone who ever dreamed of running a bookstore or just loves them.

 

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My plans to visit Lonesome Pine Books, are in shatters.  Sadly, Wendy and Jack closed it down in July.  Sighh ~~here’s  photo of the now-closed shop:

You can read more about Wendy, Jack and the bookstore on their blog HERE.

Another tidbit, Big Stone Gap is the hometown of the author, Adriana Trigiani, whose first novel novel of the same name was made into a film back in 2015. The bookstore makes a cameo appearance– Trailer HERE.

Library score…

 

I woke up to a beautiful morning, made even better by the notice that my latest hold was ready at my local library branch – Score!  I was out the door, walking over as their doors opened.

Longtime Book Barmy followers may have noticed this is the first year I haven’t been able to preview Louise Penny’s latest installment.

 

 

Sadly, I am no longer one of Ms. Penny’s advanced readers.  I was denied an early copy of this, her newest book,  A Better Man.

I’m trying to be a grown up about this and must come to grips with the obvious —  Ms. Penny’s books are immediate best-sellers without the support of my little Barmy book blog.

Husband gamely tried to cheer me up by pointing out that I did come up quickly on the long waiting list for the library book – but I’m still pouting ~~

 

 

 

 

 

You all understand — don’t you??

 

I’m sure to cheer up when I start reading A Better Man tonight…

 

p.s. It probably wouldn’t have killed me to actually purchase a copy

Kitchen Yarns by Ann Hood

If you’ve not read Ann Hood, you’re missing out on an author with insight and humor.  Kitchen Yarns – Notes on Life, Love, and Food is a great place to start.

This is not your normal (often pedantic) genre of culinary literature, this is a heartfelt memoir of Ms. Hood’s life told through twenty-seven essays, each accompanied by a recipe.  From a happy childhood, through failed marriages, then a happy one, and two tragic deaths — each essay is told through the context of a favorite dish or meal.

Ms. Hood’s essays feel as if you were chatting with a friend and you are sharing her memories, her beloved family, her funny stories, and of course her favorite recipes.

Within the pages of Kitchen Yarns, you’ll find antidotes of joy and sometimes of great sadness, but there’s always the comfort and import of family and friends gathered together with good food prepared and shared with love.

I knew I was in simpatico when Ms. Hood makes references to her friend Laurie Colwin one of my favorite foodie writers and novelist — as well as, the Silver Palate Cookbook — still one of my favorites – from the 80’s.

Did I mention that these essays are often fun?   In Carbonara Quest, she experiments with variations of this seemingly simple, but deviously difficult dish in an effort to fill her lonely nights as a flight attendant.

When she writes about her daughter who died suddenly at age 5, it wasn’t maudlin, but so truthful and full of love that I had to make the recipe for Grace’s Cheesy Potatoes that very night.

There is one tiny drawback.  Many of these essays had appeared in other publications, such as Gourmet magazine, and this makes for an sometimes stilted structure/flow.  Mentions of family members, recipes, and parts of Ms. Hood’s past were introduced and re-introduced throughout. We read about her Mama Rose’s meatballs several times and the description of Ann’s brothers passing is repeated almost verbatim in a later essay.

Again a small criticism, as I found this a warm and easy book to sink into.  Kitchen Yarns is filled with beautiful language and comforting descriptions of food.

Yes, I do plan to try some of her recipes in my kitchen:  including, but not limited to – Peach Pie, Green Herb Sauce, the above mentioned Cheesy Potatoes and Laurie Colwin’s Tomato pie.

An advanced readers copy was kindly provided by W. W. Norton & Co.

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If you’re not a foodie, you could also try Ms. Hood’s lovely memoir on reading and books Morningstar: Growing Up with Books.

I also recommend her amazing first novel Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

I’m a fan of Ruth Reichl – from her restaurant reviews, to her time as editor of Gourmet magazine, to her memoirs and cookbooks – I’ve read most everything she’s done.  So I was highly excited to read her latest memoir mostly because it gives more insight into the great, late lamented magazine  — Gourmet  (I subscribed for many, many years and miss to this day).

Save Me the Plums opens as an 8-year-old Ruth finds an old Gourmet Magazine in a used bookstore while accompanying her father on errands. She is transported by its descriptions of foreign lands, exotic foods and ingredients. She begins to collect the magazines and starts cooking.  Her cooking skills expand as her mother brings home strange new foods and her father takes her through different ethnic neighborhoods to  search for ingredients.

Forty years later and Ms. Reichl, now the restaurant critic for the NY Times, gets an unexpected offer from Condé Nast to run Gourmet Magazine. There are many adjustments in this new career, one of which is her delight to once again cook and eat at home rather than reviewing  restaurants most every night.   She is excited but also intimidated and overwhelmed during her first few weeks as editor of Gourmet Magazine. 

She’s suddenly thrust into the role of highly paid executive, flying and traveling first class, having a limousine and driver, and most astonishingly, having a clothing allowance.  Ms. Reichl is surprised how quickly she adapts to the monied, glitzy world of Condé Nast –her portrayals of the lavish Gourmet parties are some of her best food writing.  She also gleefully sprinkles in snide and sometimes snarky gossips about the staff . 

There’s a chapter on a business trip to Paris that made me clench my teeth with unseemly envy.  Ms. Reichl travels in Condé Nast style, with lunch at at the famed Pierre Gagnaire , a suite at Le Meurice hotel and a shopping trip to the original kitchenware emporium E.Dehillerin where the staff loads up on copper pans. This wild trip results in one the best selling Gourmet issues on Paris (an issue I saved and still have).

In one of my favorite parts — she opens the door to reveal the famous Gourmet test kitchen(s) – and from her description they are (whoops were) everything I imagined.  She writes of 9/11 and how in those same test kitchens the staff at Gourmet cooked for the first responders and firefighters.

Save Me the Plums presents a different Ruth Reichl, once a Berkeley hippie who palled around with Alice Waters seeing the beginnings of the slow food movement — this Ruth Reichl is now a sophisticated publishing executive who, for ten years thrived on everything Gourmet both gave her and demanded of her.

At a small Paris restaurant Ms. Reichl re-encounters a well-known-in-French-society widower, and when she expresses her surprise to see him ‘slumming’, he responds:

When you attain my age you will understand one of life’s great secrets: Luxury is best appreciated in small portions. When it becomes routine it loses its allure.

In Save Me the Plums Ms. Reichl gives us a rich portion — a glimpse into the luxurious world of magazine publishing, and shares her decade at the helm of Gourmet with warmth, candor, and humor. 

And for dessert, she even includes a few of her favorite recipes.

 

 

 

An Advanced Readers Copy was kindly provided by Random House

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Also recommended:   My Kitchen Year and any of Ms. Reichl’s memoirs.

Escape From Winter

Look out your window…is this your view?

What if, instead, I could give you this view?   Or this?

 

Here are three books certain to whisk you away to warmer climes  ~~ perhaps not physically, but in your imagination.

So make yourself some cool lemonade and come with me, let’s escape  winter for a bit.

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The Olive Farm

A Memoir of Life, Love and Olive Oil in the South of France

by Carol Drinkwater

 

Carol Drinkwater is the actress best known for her portrayal of Helen Herriot in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small.

When Ms. Drinkwater and her fiancé (later husband) Michel, are given the opportunity to purchase ten acres of an abandoned olive farm in the South of France, they find the region’s splendor impossible to resist. Using their entire savings as a down payment, the couple embark on an adventure that brings them in contact with the beautiful countryside of Provence, its neighbors personalities, petty bureaucracies, bug infestations and unexpected wildlife. This warm and funny memoir takes the reader from the glamour of Cannes to the sunny charm of  their small plot of land, which they back breakingly transform from overgrown weeds into a thriving olive farm producing some of the finest olive oil in Provence.  While at times pedantic when it comes to the history of the olive and olive oil production — The Olive Farm will make wipe your brow in sympathy as they work their land and guaranteed you want to upgrade whatever mediocre olive oil lurks in your cupboard.

 

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My Twenty-Five Years in Provence

Reflections on Then and Now

by Peter Mayle

 

You may remember my earlier post about Peter Mayle who died a year ago.  Here is his final volume of essays – containing all new pieces which offer his warm and vivid recollections from twenty-five years in the South of France–lessons learned, culinary delights enjoyed, and changes observed.

Twenty-five years ago, Peter Mayle and his wife, Jennie, were rained out of a planned two weeks on the Côte d’Azur. In search of sunlight, they set off for Aix-en-Provence; enchanted by the world and life they found there, they soon decided to uproot their lives in England and settle in Provence. They never looked back and when Mr. Mayle’s books became bestsellers, the inspired a whole lot of Brits to follow in their footsteps.

In this volume, his 25 years in Provence have made him wiser and a bit cynical, but no less in love with the area.  A cup of café might may now cost three euros–but that price still buys you a front-row seat to the charming and indelible parade of village life. After the coffee, you might drive to see a lavender field that has bloomed every year for centuries, or stroll through the ancient history that coexists alongside Marseille’s metropolitan bustle. Modern life may have seeped into sleepy Provence, but this volume reminds us that its magic remains.

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Summer’s Lease

by John Mortimer

 

And now a novel.  But not just any novel, a Book Barmy favorite  I have re-read Summer’s Lease several times — usually in the midst of cold and damp weather.

Just to refresh your memory John Mortimer is the author of the famous Rumpole series which was adapted into a very fine BBC series ages ago.

With Summer’s Lease, Mr. Mortimer veers away from the dusty London chambers into far different surroundings – namely a hot summer in the Tuscany region of Italy.

Molly Pargeter, the mother of three girls and the dissatisfied wife of a barrister uses her own inherited money to bring the family to a dream vacation rental house in Chianti.  Her father Haverford Downs — played by John Gielgud in the 1989 television adaptation —  joins the vacationing family and is loud, pompous and embarrassing and quite frankly one of the best things in this 1988 comic novel.

Molly strives to enjoy the lush Tuscan atmosphere of “La Felicita” (the Pargeters’ rental house) and immerse herself in the sun, people and the famous ‘Piero della Francesca’ paintings nearby.

Molly is also curious about the owner of the house they are  renting, having made the arrangements by mail – never meeting in person. She encounters a number of British expats whom seem to know and respect the owner of La Felicita, but give few details of the shadowy landlord. Molly soon finds herself involved in a greater mystery concerning the disappearance of water at rented villas, plus a suspicious death or two. She solves all the mysteries, but also learns the consequences of prying into the lives of others.

A mystery, a farce, a romance, and a tale of self discovery, Summers Lease is a warm (there’s that word again) vacation-like escape into the verdant and sunny climes of Italy.

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So there you go some reading escape to take your mind off those endless layers of clothes, wet boots, and snow shoveling.