Verbatim

The best thing I read recently was House of Odysseus, the second book in Claire North's "Songs of Penelope" trilogy. I loved this one just as much as Ithaca! Whereas that one was told by Hera, goddess of women, this one is told by Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. It picks up right where the previous one left off and ends just before Odysseus finally comes home. I already bought the last one, The Last Song of Penelope, but am holding off on reading it for a bit because I just don't want it to end! North is a fantastic writer, and I just love her woman-centered take on this beloved story. Again, if you are at all an ancient Greek literature/mythology/history nut like me, definitely do this trilogy.

I am in love with the way Amor Towles writes, so I knew I'd be in for a treat with his collection of short stories, Table for Two. As with any story collection, some of these are stronger than others, but they're all worth reading just for the way Towles crafts every single sentence with such care. I laughed, I cried—you will too.

After Annie by Anna Quindlen begins like this: "Annie Brown died right before dinner. The mashed potatoes were still in the pot on the stove, the dented pot with the loose handle, but the meatloaf and the peas were already on the table. Two of the children were in their usual seats." So I'm not giving anything away by telling you that this is the story of life for the Brown family after Annie, the wife and mother, dies suddenly of a brain aneurysm. The book follows her husband Bill, their four kids (well, mostly just her daughter Ani and a little bit her oldest son Ant), and her best friend Annemarie. It's of course sad but not the kind where you're crying your eyes out, and in fact it's really very sweet too. 

When we went to Québec City last year, two friends separately asked if I'd read any of the Louise Penny mysteries set in Three Pines, a fictional village in Québec, and I said no, because I'm really not much into mysteries. Both insisted that these were not those kinds of mysteries and that it's a whole series where you really get to know all the different characters. So I found the first one, Still Life (since there is no way I'm starting a series midway through…), and really liked it! There is indeed a murder, but as my friends said, it's more about getting to know Three Pines and the people who live there. And mostly it's about Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who is called in to solve the case. I already have the next one, A Fatal Grace, on deck. This was Penny's first book, published in 2008, and I just love this bit from the acknowledgments, after she goes on at length to thank her family, friends, editors, etc.: "I went through a period in my life when I had no friends, when the phone never rang, when I thought I would die from loneliness. I know that the real blessing here isn't that I have a book published, but that I have so many people to thank." Lovely.

I hadn't read anything by Stephen McCauley in years, but I'm glad I picked up My Ex-Life. I always find his brand of humor to be right up my alley. As usual, it's about a gay man in some kind of complicated relationship. This time it's David, whose boyfriend has left him, and for a number of reasons he finds himself staying with his ex-wife Julie (who is divorced for the second time) and her daughter Mandy. Julie is trying to turn her house north of Boston into an Airbnb, and David is a college coach helping Mandy figure out what she wants to do. It's a good story with several very interesting relationships, and so so so funny. I kept giggling, which I do so rarely while reading that Andy even noticed.

I can't remember what else I read, but I also saw some movies! We realized we hadn't seen "The Gentlemen" even though we love Guy Ritchie, and this one did not disappoint. I generally can't stand Matthew McConaughey, but he was pretty good in this, and Colin Farrell was great. But the real scene-stealer was Hugh Grant—I couldn't get enough of his character. I won't give anything away, but as you'd expect, it's full of action and also absolutely hilarious. The pace reminded me of Ritchie's earlier movie "Snatch," which we had really liked, so we rewatched that one too—Brad Pitt, Benicio del Toro, Dennis Farina, and Jason Statham are in that one. But then we watched "The Covenant," which is also Guy Ritchie but nothing like those other two—no humor, no wacky gangsters, no nothing. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a soldier who goes back to Afghanistan to try to help get his interpreter and family out, and it's a good story, but it was way too long and got kind of boring. I'm also not a big fan of Gyllenhaal. The only hint of Ritchie came for a split second at the very beginning when we meet a character named Jack "Jack Jack" Jackson, but he dies right away, almost before I had finished laughing about his name.

This past weekend we watched Steven Soderbergh's "Black Bag," which was very entertaining. It stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, a married couple who are high-level officials in whatever is the UK version of the CIA or NSA. The term "black bag" is what they say to one another when they have to go on a mission but can't say where or why. (So of course now if I come home and Andy asks where I was, I have to say "Black bag!" and vice versa. We are easily amused.) Lots of clever banter and who's-good/who's-bad plot twists made this very enjoyable to watch.

Oh, and a while back we also watched "Conclave," in which we go behind the scenes to what happens after the Pope dies. Interestingly, this came out just before the real Pope died (but we didn't see it until afterward). There's a lot of political in-fighting over who should get the job (whether they want it or not). Ralph Fiennes is good as always, and we found it very interesting, but we thought that one particular plot twist was unnecessary—and felt it kind of took away from the rest of the drama. (If you've seen it, you now which one I mean!)

And you, what have you been reading and watching (and doing and eating) during this long, hot summer?