The Awkward Age

The Awkward Age by Francesca Segal is about the problematic years of adolescence.  Hormones are raging and the teenager is confused, moody and self centered.  We have all gone through it and many of us have parented some teens through it also.  This book brings back memories of both those times, you as the teen and you as the parent.  Interestingly, Segal writes the story from different character viewpoints along the way.  As the reader you get to see into the thoughts of parents and the children living through the angst of growing up.

This novel brings us the newly joined families of Julie Alden and her daughter Gwen.  Since the passing of Gwen's father, Daniel,  Julie as the single parent has tried to make Gwen's life happy indulging her every whim.  They have been a team for years, alone against the world.  They are also close with Daniel's parents, who have thought that Julie should move on and find a new relationship. Recently Philip Alden the father-in-law has introduced Julie to James a fellow doctor, who now moves in with Julie and Gwen bringing along his children from a previous marriage.  James' daughter is off at university but Nathan, an angry teenage son joins the household.

How do you blend two families into a one happy household all living under the same roof?  Segal does a fabulous job of getting inside every one's head.  She is able to explain the psychology of what each person would be feeling as they try to change pre-established patterns they each created to fit into the world.  Teenagers trying your patience, as parents try to work on a new loving relationship.
Parents loving their children and wanting to defend them against angry thoughts from the other parent.

Gwen has the family over a barrel, she wants her mother's undivided attention back and to be the center of attention.  She goes to extreme lengths to be the focal point of the family.

The night Nathan graduates from high school everyone is waiting for him to come home to celebrate, but he lets the family down and goes out with friends.  Both James and Julie are on edge as they try to not fight, "An edge to her voice made James stop.  'Of course she needs a break. There's no competition. We're never going to play that game, baby, let's not start.  There's only one team here.'  He dragged the chair over and sat and faced her, looking serious. 'it's been awful and they both need a break. Thankfully it's not Gwen's style to go out drinking like a frat boy, and my son - every now and again he gets the urge to behave like the dumb teenage boy that he is."

This story analyzes relationships on so many levels.  The give and take between the new couple, Julie and James, the interaction between James and his first wife, the interaction between Julie and in-laws. What it is like to be parenting someone else's child.  Even the unusual relationship between Philip and Iris Alden.  They are divorced but seem to care about each other and spend time together.

Mort Ziff Is Not Dead

Cary Fagan grew up in the 1960s, during the height of the Borscht Belt comedians and Jewish comics who were famous for their stand up acts in restaurants making jokes about themselves and their family relationships.  Looking back at a memorable vacation to Miami Beach with his siblings and parents in 1964, Fagan creates a wonderful novel about growing up, working together with your siblings and a legendary comedian.

Mort Ziff Is Not Dead is the story told in the first person by the son of a Canadian Jewish family, Norman Fishbein.  His older siblings, Marcus and Larry always give him a hard time until he wins a contest and with the money decides to take his family a free trip to Miami Beach. His mother loves that new singing sensation, The Beatles. 
"Mom really liked the Beatles; in fact, she had cut a picture of them out of the newspaper a year ago and it was still on the fridge....The words underneath said that The Beatles had come to Miami Beach for their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and that had liked the place so much they decided to stay a week.  ....They looked like they were in Paradise.  And then I knew.  I really did. I knew the perfect thing to do with the money."

As the author describes the airplane trip to Florida, adult readers will be reminded of how different air travel was and children will learn how their parents traveled when they were children.   Reminiscent of comedians like, Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles and Milton Berle.   Mort Ziff is an old performer who has seen more popular times.  In the face of the new more exciting young performers his job is in jeopardy until Norman and his new found friend Amy work together with their siblings to re energize Ziff's act and his career.  They learn how to work together, helping each other instead of fighting as they save the career of the outdated comic.

In a time of segregation the 1960s had separate hotels for Jews and Christians.  It was a time that separation allowed famous performers like, Louis Armstrong and Harry Belafonte to perform in a Miami Beach hotel but not to stay in a room at any of those resorts.  These topics are mentioned in passing in this novel to give the reader a true perspective of the time period.  But mainly this story focuses on the relationship between the brothers and how they all mature as they work together and get along on this important family vacation.

A fun novel written on levels that will appeal to both young readers and adults.  Children will relate to the kids in the story and their adventures, adults will have fun going down memory lane to a time of innocence.

Bone Box

Bone Box is amazingly Faye Kellerman's 24th mystery novel.  The Rina Lazarus and Peter Decker series of books that started in New York when a woman was attacked at a mikvah in the novel, Ritual Bath has traveled to California and now has returned to New York, now upstate.

Rina and Peter are happily married, with children and grandchildren, both from their previous marriages and together.  Rina still keeps Judaism a relevant and important constant in their ever chaotic lives.  Though they have traveled far from a Jewish neighborhood, and added "adopted"
step-children into their lives who are not Jewish, Rina continues to follow the rules of Shabbat and kashrut.

In this novel, the mystery plot has Rina discovering a long buried body on a nature trail in the small college community they live in.  This unearths disagreements and long buried relationships at the local colleges as Decker and his young sidekick, Tyler McAdams start re-interviewing students and professors that have been around for more than five years. Kellerman makes this storyline very current with discussions of homosexuality, transgender and the LBGTQ community.  Beyond trying to follow the who done it, the reader gets a chance to think about feelings and ideas surrounding the transgender issue.

Also in this novel Kellerman brings back all of Decker's friends and colleagues from the past.  It . is nice to see old friends.  With a possible missing person in California connected to the case, Peter's old partner, Marge Dunn, is brought onto the case.  As the case heats up at home in Greenbury, NY, Decker calls on both Chris Donatti and Scott Oliver to help keep Rina safe and out of trouble.

Incredibly, Kellerman has been able to sustain the characters, making them feel like old friends.  She has keep the plots interesting, fresh and diversified to make this reader coming back for each new mystery novel she delivers.  Also waiting patiently for the next one after not be able to put the current one down until the very last page.

Witch Summer Night's Dream

This is the third mystery novel in the Bewitched By Chocolate series, written by H. Y. Hanna.
Hanna is getting better and better at developing the characters in this sleepy, cozy mystery series.
Even though the reader does have to suspend belief to agree to the reality of magic, Hanna does not make the story too unbelievable.

The young woman Caitlyn has come to this small English village to find out about her birth parents and is now living with her Grandmother.  She is involved also with her aunt and cousin.  Her adopted cousin Pomona, who was the daughter of her adoptive mother's sister also plays an important role in her life.  Caitlyn seems a little bit immature though when she talks about her romantic interest in James Fitzroy, who is the Lord of the Manor in this small village.  Not only is he described as handsome but his family owns the businesses throughout the town.  So I understand if Caitlyn is a bit tongue tied in front of him at first but now their interactions are at a more in depth level and she should be more relaxed with him.  They both seem so naive about romantic interactions.

In this installment of the series, Caitlyn finds a young teen dead in the garden behind the Chocolate Shop.  It is almost Midsummer's Eve and Widow Mags has been making a chocolate sauce that seems to be like a love potion.  People cannot resist her chocolate covered strawberries.  There are three separate love stories going in this plot.  Caitlyn is trying to win over James, her cousin Evie has a crush on Chris Bottom, and even Ferdinand the bull on the neighboring farm is having trouble with the cows in the pasture.  Bringing in some tourists who are searching for the love potion, one who works for a rival chocolate company and a professor who is fascinated with Shakespeare's play, Midsummer Night's Dream.  There are many references to the famous Shakespeare play in the book.

A fun cozy mystery series that engages the reader in both the plot and the characters.  It is fun to come back again and again to see how characters that you watch grow are coming along in their fairy tale lives.

Miles Off Course

Miles Off Course is the third installment in the Rowland Sinclair mystery series.  What a fun series of mystery novels written by Sulari Gentill.  Though referring to these novels as mysteries is misleading.   Each of these books is based on some historical facts and characters, then a story of Rowland Sinclair, a wealthy country gentleman who is uncomfortable with his family's wealth and position has found a group of flamboyant friends who are living in the family home with him.  Milton, a frustrated poet, Clyde, starving artist and Edna the sculptor, with whom Rowland is in love, go on adventures to solve murders and expose the underbelly of crime in Australia. Rowland and his friends are on the political left and Wilfred Sinclair, Rowland's brother is on the right.  There is always a dust up between the two brothers that creates some intrigue.

This time one of the Sinclair's favorite employees has disappeared and Rowley volunteers at the urging of his brother to look into the situation.  taking along his companions they set off into the mountains outside Sydney and get into all kinds of trouble.  While it looks like they are just stumbling along, in the end all the discounted pieces fall in place and they always get their man.  That is what makes these mystery plots unique.  There is never a formula plot of the mystery to these novels.  Rowley and his friends just seem to be living their everyday extraordinary lives when things go wrong and suddenly there is a mystery to solve.  But it is not always a body, at least not int he beginning.

This time though there is a missing person and they think it could be a corpse they are looking for, when they find their employee, it leads to another mystery and even when they come across a dead body and it looks like that wraps up the case, it is not the end.  In the end it all is neatly packaged in a financial dilemma.

I still really enjoy the descriptions of Australian countryside and the colorful characters  The writing style and the wonderful way the author sets the scene for the 1930s time period brings the story to life for me.  I am getting attached to the characters with each new narrative.

The Course of Love

Alain De Botton writes what seems to be both a novel and a self help book here, in The Course of Love.   We are drawn in by the story of Rabih and Kirstein as they negotiate their meeting, courtship and eventual marriage and family.  But as we read about their relationship, in all its intimate details, there is also a running commentary interspersed throughout the storyline.  This could almost be the voice of a therapist interjecting a narrative of how each person is contributing to the interactions. How their personal interpretations of each action feed both the good and bad parts of the relationship.

As you read this book you cannot help but put yourself into each situation.  You will see yourself siding with or recognizing similarities with one of the two, Rabih or Kerstein.  Then you will read the italic commentary and see how if one of the two or both had said what was really going through their minds at the time the conversation could take a different direction or tone.  You will wonder if that is possible in your personal relationships.  Does this theory work in real life.  Can each partner open up and trust their partner with such honesty?  Can you even really know yourself to understand what experiences from your past have led you to this moment and reaction in this situation?

Rabih and Kerstein enter into this established practice we call marriage.  You meet someone that is attractive to you and you don't want to loose them or be alone anymore so you propose marriage. Botton tells us that marriage is, "a hopeful, generous, infinitely kind gamble taken by two people who don't know yet who they are or who the other might be, binding themselves to a future they cannot conceive of and have carefully omitted to investigate."

While reading the book the reader can relate to the thoughts and feelings this couple expounds while dating and then entering marriage.  They have disagreements over the temperature in the bedroom at night.  Whether the window should be open or closed.   Then they go to IKEA to pick out drinking glasses and cannot agree on the style.  At each of these turns the narrator/therapist examines the words not said, the feelings not explored and explains how the discussions would be different if each partner trusted the other enough to be able to share their real feelings and thoughts.  The conversations would have a different outcome, the relationship would change.

So in reading The Course of Love, you are reading a novel about two people living life, with all the ups and downs that every marriage with children goes through.   You can also read the commentary about love and marriage as if you are in a "course on love", trying to take home the positive lessons to improve your own personal relationship.

All Grown Up

"Growing up is hard to do."  When do you recognize that you are a grown up?  Is it when you move out and get your own apartment, when you get your first job and start supporting yourself?  In this novel,
All Grown Up, by Jami Attenberg wrestles with this very problem.  Andrea Bern is the protagonist in this novel about growing up.  She is a 39 year old, single woman living alone in an apartment in New York City.  She dropped out of art school years ago and took a job to pay the rent.  She has a series of roommates, lovers and friends who at different times in her life, marry, have children and move on.

She is the child of a feminist mother who works as an activist and a father who died of a drug overdose.  Her brother gets married and has a child and moves to New Hampshire.  Her mother follows her brother to Vermont to help out with the baby and Andrea feels deserted.

Attenberg writes this book in what seem like connected short stories.  It is hard at times to see how they are interconnected.  This is a book for the Gen X generation.  Maybe a chance for young women to see that the idea of equality between the sexes, sleeping around without commitment does not really work out in the end.  Andrea never really seem to find happiness.  She is an an example of all the worst behaviors of the youth.  Drinking, drugs and free love.  Taking a mediocre job to pay the bills and never trying to make a career with her art.  She is also very self centered, not being there for her brother and sister-in-law when they need her, and bemoaning the fact that her mother has moved out of the city to New Hampshire.

In the end this reader thinks the message not to be self centered.  Being single is different than being unattached.  You need other people in your life, you cannot live a happy life all on your own.  you also need to extend yourself to others, it cannot be all about you.  Andrea is an example of all that can go wrong with a self centered attitude and that is not being grown up.

The Weight of Ink

The Weight of Ink, written by Rachel Kadish is a story within a story.  Though the book itself is weighty the plot moves along at a quick pace so the reader never feels dragged down by the volume.
The story is test of love and the ability to understand yourself knowing when and how to accept love otherwise you are left with loneliness.  There are many messages in this novel, of understanding yourself, being able to give yourself to someone and not feel you have forsaken your individuality and of being able to accept love.

The story is written across centuries.  Helen Watts is a senior professor at the local college in London when she receives a phone call from an former student.  He and his wife are renovating an old house and come across some ancient documents that seem to be written in Hebrew and Aramaic.  The University Library purchases the papers and as the librarians work to preserve the precious parchment and ink,  Helen and her assistant Aaron Levy, an American  graduate student begin to translate the letters and other papers.  They are working to uncover information about the author and time period of the work.  Their discoveries are incredible and they can hardly believe what they have found.  They are translating the writings of a 17th century woman, who is recording the Jewish diaspora from the horrific Spanish Inquisition to the Jews in the city of Amsterdam, who escape to the safety of London.  We follow the thoughts and correspondence of  Ester Velasquez, as she writes about her life in the 17th century, being a woman and a scholar.  She has been orphaned and rescued by elderly Rabbi Moseh HaCohen Mendes.  He was blinded during the Inquisition and has also escaped to London, where Ester is his scribe, a position unheard of in this time period, who to engage with the brilliant men of her time writes under an assumed pen name. She tries to communicate with the scholars and the shunned including Baruch de Spinoza.

The novel takes the reader back and forth between Helen and Aaron translating the letters and working to figure out who is writing them and what their positions were.  They also are working through their own awkward relationship with each other and their individual interpersonal relationships.  Both Helen and Aaron are unlucky at love.  Helen let the love of her life get away many years ago.  Aaron is at risk of loosing at love because he is unsure of his feelings.  Across the century, Ester and her friend Mary are also struggling with feelings of love and marriage.  Ester has sworn never to fall in love, Mary is anxious to find true love.  Mary asks Ester whether she thinks love is real, "I mean", Mary continued slowly, ignoring Ester;s laughter, "do you think love can be made to happen with whichever man our minds choose - so it's a thing a lady may direct as she pleases?"  Ester replies, "Outside control, and so folly to seek."  Mary disagrees and says that though it is our of her control, love is not folly but good.  Ester says, "It's a danger to a woman even to feel love."

Kadish delivers a weighty novel full of intrigue, historical references and a love story with parallels because relationships have so much in common even centuries apart.  Following all the characters and conversations can be complicated, but the reward is sweet.