WWW.WEDNESDAY

 

 

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? In the Best Families by Rex Stout. After a pair of biographies, I have fled back to Nero Wolfe's brownstone. Mrs. Sarah Rackham is a millionairess (and back in 1950, a million dollars was still a very big deal). She had a troubled relationship with her dad and a painful first marriage, leaving her with low self esteem and a distrust of men. So it's not really surprising that she would hire an investigator to check up on her younger, handsome second husband. Since she's quite rich, it's not surprising she'd turn to the best, Nero Wolfe.

Wolfe accepts what looks like a rather straightforward case of domestic surveillance but turns out to be anything but. Sarah's husband is involved with some very bad people, and now it includes murder, arson and kidnapping.

There's more tension and action in this one that I'm accustomed to in Nero Wolfe mysteries. Do I think this is a good thing? I don't know yet.

 
2. What did you recently finish reading? The American Duchess: The Real Wallis Simpson by Anna Pasternak. I've come across the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in books and articles all my life. Yet I knew little about them. Now I do. And here's my verdict: what sad, empty lives they led.

King Edward VIII comes off as shallow and impulsive. Spoiled and uninterested in the world around him. I think Wallis did the UK a huge favor by getting him off the throne before WWII. 

She's more complex and interesting. Some say she a social climber who, like the dog who caught the car, didn't know what to do when she won her prize, the heart of the world's most eligible bachelor. I came away believing she always loved Ernest Simpson and thought when the King dumped her for a "suitable" bride – like Charles would supplant Camilla for Diana – she would return to the safety of that marriage. I don't think she expected or desired the attention of the world and the enmity of Great Britain. 

During WWII, Edward was made Governor of the Bahamas, where many soldiers were stationed and the injured went to recover, and Wallis did good work. But there are few similar episodes of altruism. How sad that the Duke and Duchess had decades media attention and the power that came with it and did so little good in world. Say what you will about Diana, but she worked to make lives better.

This was an interesting if not always pleasant book. I'm glad I read it.

 
3. What will you read next? Maybe something Christmas-y.

 

 

Teaser Tuesday

Here's how to play.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

This is from The Real Wallis Simpson by Anna Pasternak. I only knew the bare bones of her story but am shocked by how many echoes of Diana, Camilla, and Meghan I hear. With all the volumes, and volumes, and volumes written about The Royals, I wonder if they themselves know their own history, because it just keeps repeating. 

Wallis was vilified for generations. blamed for plunging the British Empire into crisis, so I found this quote of hers touching:

"Any woman who has been loved as I have been loved, and who, too, has loved, has experienced life in its fullness."

 

 

Sunday Stealing

 BOOKS

1. Has reading a book ever changed your life? There's one that taught me that, no matter how a life looks from the outside, you don't know how it feels on the inside. JFK: Reckless Youth by Nigel Hamilton takes the future President from birth to age 35. There are lots of Kennedy books available, and I've read many, but this one had a real impact on me. It's revelatory about how his childhood – the unending illnesses that plagued him, his parents' loveless marriage, brutal sibling rivalry with his idealized older brother – shaped him. I read this 30 years ago and have never been able to look at a photo of JFK without thinking of the pain, courage and loneliness behind the facade, and this book has made me more compassionate to others.

2. Do you prefer to read fiction or nonfiction? I bounce back and forth.

3. If you could be a character in any novel you've read, who would you be? Lily Rowan. She's a supporting character in the Nero Wolfe mystery series. Yes, she's an heiress and glitters in 1940s New York cafe society. But that's not why I want to be her. She's detective Archie Goodwin's best girl and I have a massive crush on him. Even better, Nero Wolfe actually likes her and lets her hang with the guys. I've always fantasized about life in Wolfe's brownstone – with its gourmet meals and orchid greenhouse on the top floor.

4. Has reading a book ever made you cry? Which one and why? Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larsen. She's the Kennedy who was lobotomized, which is tragic in and of itself. But in the many tellings of her often lurid saga, the thing that gets lost is that she was much loved by her three famous brothers. The book ends with a chapter titled "Rosemary Made the Difference," and includes all the laws that were shaped and passed by John, Robert and Ted Kennedy. I was on my evening commute when I got to it and tears were streaming down my face. We're all the better for her and she was never able to know or understand that.

 

5. How many books do you read a year? Between 35 and 50. Depends on how many really long books I pick up. This year, I plowed through both Streisand's memoir and Gone with the Wind and they were over 1,000 pages a piece. They each took me a month. (But I enjoyed them both.)

6. Name a book you had to read but hated. Moby Dick.

 

7. Why did you hate it? It's dense and dopey. Please don't come near me with that book ever again.

8. If someone wrote a book about your life, what would it be called? The Thing Of It Is. I'm told I say that a lot. Of course, one of my favorite authors, William Goldman, already wrote a book by that name. But whatever.

9. Have you ever written (or started to write) a book? Oh, I always have novel and short story ideas ping-ponging in my head. But I write fiction for myself and don't care if it's published or read. I was an advertising writer for 43 years. I don't need to write for public consumption anymore.

10. If you could pick a book you've read to make into a movie, what would it be? Siracusa by Delia Ephron. It's about two couples who take an ill-fated vacation to Italy. It's got a glamorous setting, the right number of main characters, and legit tension. Netflix, get on this!

11. What was your favorite book as a child? Abraham Lincoln by Ingri d'Aulaire and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. When I was 6 years old, my family took a weekend trip down to Springfield to walk where Abe walked and I chose this as my souvenir. I read it over and over on the way home in the car and reread it for a book report. The illustrations are gorgeous and the stories made me feel like was Abe was my friend. (What better friend could you have?)

12. What are you reading right now? At this very moment, nothing. Yesterday I finished a biography of the Duchess of Windsor called The Real Wallis Simpson. I think next I'll grab a mystery. Let's see what the library has for me!