This past winter, instead of non-fiction, I read mostly novels.
To say I’m impressed with an author’s imagination, is an understatement.
Where do they come from, these woven tales to make the reader’s own imagination dance with possibility?
Hemingway said, when you sit down to write, your page a blank canvas, that’s when God picks up his pen.
That’s a good enough explanation for me.
It started with To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize novel after it opened on Broadway, realizing I had never read it. They sure don’t make men like Atticus Finch anymore, along with his daughter, Scout, its narrator, who crawls into your heart like a nestled kitten. It shows you, being a person of color in the south during The Great Depression, pretty much meant, you were dealt a bad hand.
This brings me to Winston Graham (1908-2003), an English novelist who penned the Poldark Series, 12 volumes starting with The Renegade (1945), ending with Bella Poldark (2002), and yes, I’ve read them all falling into practically a postpartum depression at their conclusion.
All taking place in Cornwall, England, starting in 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War, when Ross Poldark, presumed dead after fighting for the British, comes back to Nampara, his family home, finding his ladylove promised to a close cousin. He then meets the fiery Demelza, the true love of his life, the turbulent saga ending in 1820, when Bella, their youngest child, completes their epic story.
Neither me nor the BBC who made a series of it, can truly do it justice. All I know is, if Mr. Graham were still here, I’d be cooing at his feet.
I managed, in-between gallops through the Cornwall countryside, to read a few memoirs, three I especially enjoyed, all by food writer, Elissa Altman.
I read them backwards, finding Motherland (2019) on my library shelf like a beacon, reminding me, my mother wasn’t the only screwball on the planet, since, she too had one.
This led me to, Treyf (2016), Yiddish for unclean, in slang, meaning junk. You learn what it was like growing up in the 60s, Jewish, and gay, even if you didn’t know it yet, though you knew you weren’t quite like the other girls, with a dad who loved food, and a mom who never ate, which brings me to Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire and the Art of Simple Cooking (2013) that started it all. 
Altman’s candor, compassion and humor laced through, is like winning the trifecta of memoir.
Toil and Trouble…Augusten Burroughs (2019), bringing candor to a scary level, his latest share on growing up with a mother claiming to be a witch, a trait he now claims as his own. A little fanciful, yet entertaining, making me pick up his first tell-all, Running With Scissors (2002), that was so disturbing, my childhood seeming Amish in comparison.
The Year of the Monkey…Patti Smith (2019). Another candid creature whose recollection of the final days of playwright, Sam Shepherd, will have you weeping on both their behalves. His for bravely facing the perils of ALS without a complaint nor whimper, and hers having to helplessly watch her friend of so many years, stoically suffer, humility stalking every page.
Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge…Shelia Weller (2019). An intense biography of another type of suffering, this one wrapped firmly around the tentacles of mental illness. One of the most talented, accomplished women of our time, who just couldn’t beat her torment, much of it, being bipolar, out of her hands.
Notre Dame…Ken Follett (2019). On April 15th, 2019, a fire broke out at the 857 year-old Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France, almost destroying it. This short read gives a brief but compelling recap of its history, all proceeds going to its rebuilding. It’s humbling when you think, even God’s house isn’t necessarily safe.
The Liberation of Paris: How Eisenhower, de Gaulle, and Von Cholitz Saved the City of Light…Jean Edward Smith (2019). An author, who wrote a great book on U.S. Grant (2001), sweeps you through the last days of the Nazi Occupation before the allies come marching in. His prose is spare, no bogging down with dull data clouding what’s important, like how even some Germans knew, blowing up Paris to please their deranged fuhrer, was not the best idea. A great peek into the final stretch of World War II.
The Congressman Who Got Away With Murder…Nat Brandt (1991). On February 27, 1859, Daniel Edgar Sickles, in cold blood, killed Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key, in Washington D.C.’s Lafayette Park for having relations with his wife. It was the first case of Temporary Insanity ever tried in the United States putting it into law, Sickles being acquitted, represented by Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s future Secretary of War. Dan, redeeming himself during the Civil War fighting for the union, is buried at Arlington.
Brave Companions: Portraits in History…David McCullough (1992). The John Lennon of historians…17 essays spanning subjects from the building of the Panama Canal and Brooklyn Bridge, Teddy Roosevelt and the Old West, and a peek into Washington D.C., making you want to hop on the next train expecting John Quincy Adams there meet you. A literary swoon.
Touched by the Sun…Carly Simon (2019), about her close friendship with Jackie Kennedy Onassis. I can never pass up a Kennedy book, and this one though short and sweet, gives you a glimpse of two women who simply liked each other, the one left, missing, the one, now gone. 
Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols as Remembered by 150 0f His Closest Friends…Ash Carter and Sam Kashner (2019). So many poignant stories and quotes spanning a career that will keep you in awe. Talk about a legacy, a man not only gifted, but truly loved. At the end, you’ll feel as if you too were a friend of Mike’s.
Elizabeth…J. Randy Taraborelli (2006). Elizabeth Taylor had a life that almost seems made up, starting with a stage mother who pushed her only daughter into stardom like a rocket launched from Cape Canaveral.
Toss in 8 husbands, illness upon illness, censored by the Vatican for a scandalous love affair with Richard Burton while both married, casually bankrupting 20th Century Fox for her wild extravagance during the making of the film, Cleopatra, and you’ll have a book you can’t put down.
Mr. Taraborelli, who penned Jackie, Janet and Lee (2018), and The Kennedy Heirs (2019), is a smooth, tell-all writer that makes it seem perfectly permissible being privy to someone’s dirty laundry, softening it with humanity. Don’t know how he does it.
This brings me to The Last Interview and Other Conversations Series…31 short, concise books containing the best and last words ever spoken by an illustrious group that includes, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, Nora Ephron, Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Hitchens, James Baldwin, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Frida Kahlo, David Bowie, Julia Child, Lou Reed and Martin Luther King.
You’ll cherish them, as if they came back to life, one last time.
Like being on a stamp, you have to be dead to be considered, but hey, there’s a downside to everything.
Reading…it’s right up there with a good canoodle, baseball and apple pie. 🙂
I hesitated posting this, but books can comfort us during this bewildering time.
Susannah
Your love of books shines like a beacon. Thank you for those lovely summaries.
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It’s long, I know, but it’s the one time I don’t edit myself too much. I let it rip, if you will, Anne. Reading is the new gin and tonic in my world. 🙂
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I’d drink to that if I were a drinker.
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High ball in the side pocket. 🙂
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Call me OLD FASHIONED, but I know beer made BUD WEISER.
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I know BUD, he’s a friend of SAMUEL ADAMS. 🙂
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Did you hear the shocking thing Barbie said to Ken? She said, “Show your HEINE, KEN.”
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She wanted Ken to Blue MOON her? Hope she doesn’t get a DRAFT.
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I don’t know about a draft, but did their friend MICHELe LOBe a ball over the net?
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Yes, it landed ON THE ROCKS. You’re Chrissy Evert on this one.
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LOVE it ALL! This is NEAT.
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NEAT with a TWIST.
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You have a DRY sense of humor. Tennis — wait till Chris Evert SELZER racket.
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Heard she was ALE-ing, taking EVERT day as it comes.
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There is plenty of time now for reading and new ideas are always appreciated. I’m going to start with The Last Interview. Last fall my aunt Sophie, 90 yrs, passed away. I visited her often and brought Polish food. My 5 yr old grandson didn’t go with me, but was aware of my visits and often asked about her.When I told him she had passed away, he surprised me by asking, “What were her last words?”
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It’s a wonderful series…120 words maybe, tops…some shorter, longer than others. The latest one coming out in May is Toni Morrison. They truly are, little jewels.
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Can’t wait to peruse them.
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Me too. Please report back. 🙂
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A toast to your joy for reading.
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Maybe something will flirt with your fancy.
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I’m not a big fiction reader. I do more online reading of “stuff on interest” than anything.
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I don’t normally read fiction either. The Poldark series had me going though. History and biography are more to my taste. Nice that you read Frank. Many people with the exception of their social media page, don’t. sigh
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I recall your live for history. 👍 … Last book I read was Doris Kearns Goodwin … Leadership During Turbulent Times
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I read that. She’s a great writer. Many of her tomes rest on my shelf. Have you ever read Wait Till Next Year, her memoir about her Dad, the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers, their rivalries in the 50s? Short and sweet. Her Dad’s name was Aloysius and taught all about our national pastime.
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Oh wow .. Didn’t know about that one. Will write it down for when libraries reopen. Thanks.
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If you have a Kindle, I gather would be a very cheap download since it was written in 1988.
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Good idea … My wife an avid reader
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Good to hear.
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… Has an old one.
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It still holds up.
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As long as as it works.
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An excellent list, Susannah. I admire your choices.
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I’m not surprised being the writer and reader that you are.
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😊 I just finished the essay on Humbolt last night. Can you imagine hoofing it off into the wilderness like that? Amazing.
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I have one left. I’ve savored them, only allowing myself one a night. I’m about to read one of my favorites, Simon Willard’s Clock.
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Enjoy. I’m reading about Louis Agassiz (Chapter Two) tonight.
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They’re all really great. He’s a wonderful writer.
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I’m so glad you didn’t let your hesitation rule your decision to post this! I am always in awe of people who can read in such vast quantities (forgetting, I, too, was such a one). It gives me a push in the patootie to make more time for books.
I’m so glad to see I actually read some of your choices! Woot! I’m not a Neanderthal after all!. I definitely want to get into “The Last Interview” and a few others you have listed.
Thank you for posting this!!
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I’m sure my few readers are tired of my mewling over what’s going on. Distraction is what we need, and what’s better than a good book. That series, like I told Skinny, is amazing, and one leads to another. My first was Anthony Bourdain, the only one I’ve bought after seeing it at a book store by the register. When I inquired about the series at the library. WHOA..WHO KNEW? That had them all, What a find, like pearls on the beach. 🙂
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I’m sure everyone is tired of everyone’s mewling – not that it’s gonna stop any time soon so yes, distraction is key!
And this was a wonderful distraction, to be sure. I am going to look into this series though I won’t hold my breath that we’ll have it here. I might sign up again for the Amazon book club that costs something like $10/month and you can borrow books for nothing – well, nothing more.
IF I see I am picking up my reading time – which I have determined to do.
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I like that idea. 10 bucks a month. But you never know, they could have one or two at your library. Make sure to ask, if your lib is still open. Mine’s closed indefinitely. sigh
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No. Mine is closed and besides, I live in a very French town. The English section is smaller than my bathroom (which is puny)
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I’m sorry to hear that. sigh
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Nah… I make do. Maybe one day I’ll move to Montreal and then have accept to the beautiful and huge Westmount library…
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That sounds like a place I’d like to roam around in. 🙂
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You would ADORE it… plus they have an attached greenhouse that you can roam through.
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Yes, that’s right up my verdant, literary alley alright.
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🙂
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Yay to books! I love reading them (okay, I’m a certified bookworm …). I love writing them. I love everything about them! 🙂
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I’m happy for you. It’s a wonderful way to be.
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It is, it is! 🙂 I wouldn’t wanna change that for the world. 🙂 Keep well, friend!
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You too, fellow bibliophile. 🙂
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Glad to see you’re immersing yourself in a true passion during this crazy time, SB. 🙂
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It’s the only way to fly, so to speak.
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Western Airlines. I had to look up that familiar line. 😉
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Isn’t Google grand?
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It’s one of the few times I love the idea of tech being at the ready.
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Me too. Always amazing how it’s all there. Scary
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Scary yes. I guess it’s one of those “too much of a good thing” situations.
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Like an open bar. 🙂
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Perfect analogy.
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Them were the days.
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I feel like a stranger in a very strange land, SB. More so every day, in fact.
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Come to New York and you’ll think you’re in the Twilight Zone.
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The images are powerful enough
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Sad but true. I feel like I’m at Gettysburg on the third day.
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Hang in there SB
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I’ll stop mewling.
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You ain’t gotta stop nuthin. Mewl away, SB.
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Isn’t that a great word that shouldn’t only belong to calves and goats. 🙂
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Yeah anyway! How’d they score the rights to it?
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Some great books here, Susannah. I’ve only read To Kill a Mockingbird and two of the Last Interview ones, but I’ll see if I can find some of the others to read.
-David
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I never answered this, and I’m very sorry. Must have slipped through the cracks. I just finished the Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was great. As you know, they are simply done with no excess. Like watching a tennis game, but in print. Leah would probably love the Poldark books, her love of English history and all. Your fellow reader.
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