The BookFetish Blog

Another non-book post. Sorry. The book reviews are coming back soon, I promise.  But I want to talk about 9/11.  I’ve never been able to talk about it easily, without it taking me to a very dark place, and I was thousands of miles from it.

There will be plenty of “I remember where I was when I heard” discussions today, and I could tell you mine. I can see the room, remember it so clearly.  But that is not the part of 9/11 I want to talk about.

I want to talk about the part of 9/11 that haunts me, that I cannot think about too much, that can bring me to tears if I think on it for more than a few minutes. Flight 93.  Perhaps it’s because a large part of my professional life has involved airplanes, but it has always been so easy for me to imagine the humanity on that plane.

The people who had heard what had happened in New York, and knew what was about to happen on their plane.  To know that there would be no happy ending but deciding to do what they could anyway.  Making last minute calls to tell people what was going on. To say goodbye to loved ones. To be on the other end of the phone and suddenly hear only silence and know what that meant.  To hope beyond hope that the ending could be anything else, but knowing it couldn’t be.

That kind of courage. That brings me to my knees and makes me hope that if I am ever faced with any similar sort of situation, I’m  brave enough to do what the passengers and crew of Flight 93 did. To never be on the other end of that phone call, feeling so helpless but knowing that perhaps you’re giving someone a bit of comfort in their last moments.

We are far from a perfect country, but we rose to our best on that day. Hopefully the day will come when we honor the victims and survivors of 9/11 of being that best every day.

This post is about Cecil the Lion and my thoughts around this occurrence. The circumstances around Cecil’s death have made me sad and  sick to my stomach.  Stop reading now if you don’t want to know more. I’m recounting the details as I have read them, and they are disgusting to say the least.

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Cecil the Lion.  By all accounts a gentle giant doing his Lion thing in Zimbabwe.  A tourist attraction bringing in far more than the $55,00 it is speculated that an American paid for the chance to hunt Cecil.  Although hunt isn’t exactly what I would call it.

Baited.  Lured from his preserve.

Shot with a Crossbow.  At night.

Tracked for 40 hours as he weakened.

Beheaded.

Skinned.

His corpse left to rot.

All for “sport”.  Illegal.  His six male cubs will likely now also face death as an adult male seeks dominance of the Pride.

This “big game hunter” is allegedly a dentist form Minnesota who has paid for this “privilege” before.  I don’t understand it.  Please, someone explain it to me.

I have many family members who hunt, and who process their game.  Although I don’t hunt, I can understand this.  I cannot fathom situations like Cecil. And countless other animals poached for sport.  It makes me sick and sad, and if someone can explain the appeal to me, I’d at least listen.  But,  to me,  it seems a pretty cowardly way to prove your prowess.

Jed Ringel’s memoir, Stuck in the Passing Lane provides a brutally honest look at dating for a middle-aged man coming out of a twenty-three year marriage.

Dating has changed a lot in those twenty-three years. Online dating alone is a whole different animal. Jed is trying to not repeat the mistakes of his marriage. His teenaged daughters freely express their thoughts about Jed and his dating. And in his efforts to find the “right” woman, Jed dates every type of woman- an intellectual elitist from Moscow; a barely literate Chinese massage parlor queen, among others.

The challenge for Jed, as he’s looking for his soulmate, is Jed. He’s his own worst enemy,at least at the beginning.  His drinking is out of control; he’s truly in a downward spiral.  I’ll admit, I didn’t much care for this Jed.  Thankfully, he catches himself and begins AA, and the “real” Jed begins to emerge.

What starts out as merely a dating memoir begins to delve into what makes us the people  we are, the choices we make in relationships. What we look for into relationships, and what we bring to relationships.  Against the backdrop of dating, Jed is able to explore his upbringing and begins to understand what has shaped him into the person he is.

I was a bit skeptical when I began reading Stuck in the Passing Lane.  I had a different expectation of it when I started reading it.  What I got was something deeper than I originally expected, and I ended up rooting for Jed to find happiness.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Fifth in my vacation reads series is Wendy Wax’s new release, A Week at the Lake. A week at the beach was the perfect setting to read this women’s fiction piece, although I certainly didn’t need a whole week to read the book.

From the publisher’s summary:

Twenty years ago, Emma Michaels, Mackenzie Hayes, and Serena Stockton bonded over their New York City dreams. Then, each summer, they solidified their friendship by spending one week at the lake together, solving their problems over bottles of wine and gallons of ice cream. They kept the tradition for years, until jealousy, lies, and life’s disappointments made them drift apart.

It’s been five years since Emma has seen her friends, an absence designed to keep them from discovering a long-ago betrayal. Now she’s in desperate need of their support. The time has come to reveal her secrets—and hopefully rekindle their connection.

But when a terrible accident keeps Emma from saying her piece, Serena and Mackenzie begin to learn about the past on their own. Now, to heal their friendship and their broken lives, the three women will have to return to the lake that once united them, and discover which relationships are worth holding on to . . .

I reviewed Wax’s The Accidental Bestseller the year I started this blog, but I hadn’t taken the time to read another of her books until now.  And after reading A Week at the Lake, I bought another of Wax’s books on my recent trip to the bookstore, because I was reminded that I really like her writing style.

There are people you stop everything for- people you are just there for, no matter what else might be going on in your life. And that is what happens at the beginning of A Week at the Lake. Despite not being a part of each other’s lives for a while, Serena and Mackenzie step in to support Emma when she needs it most.  The old resentments  seem inconsequential at this point. And isn’t that often the case when tragedy strikes? We forget – or place on the back burner- the old hurts and focus instead on the things that are really important.

The issue here is that Emma’s betrayal is a big one. And while I saw it coming, that didn’t lessen the impact it had on the relationships between Serena, Mackenzie, and Emma. Each woman must do some deep soul searching to see if she can find forgiveness in her heart and rebuild a friendship.

There was one part of the book that I felt could have used some additional fleshing out regarding Emma, but I don’t want to say anything more about that now because I don’t want to spoil anything.  I can’t decide if I think it is really important that it doesn’t have a more prominent focus or if it truly should be secondary and really not matter to the rest of the story.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this one, and was glad to be reminded of Wax’s storytelling ability.  It should be noted that I read an uncorrected proof of the book, in exchange for an honest review, and it is possible that there are changes to the published version.

Another of my vacation reads this summer was Autumn Crush, by Andrew Eustace Anselmi.

From the book summary:

Guy Bennett was one of America’s post-World War II success stories. Born of Italian immigrants during the Depression, he became a captain of industry, with a skyscraper in New York City and a son in the United States Senate. The applause mutes and friends grow scarce, however, when Guy stands before the court in 1989 accused of the double murder of his business partner, Vito Petrozzini, and Petrozzini’s wife. District Attorney Thomas Straid, still licking his wounds from his senatorial defeat to Guy’s son, believes he has all the evidence that he needs to throw away the key on Guy. The defense spans the globe and reaches back generations in search of an acquittal, unearthing a family secret that reveals the cold and devastating truth. In the end, a diminished yet renewed Bennett family gathers for their annual rite of making wine, which they call The Autumn Crush. The book is not only a murder mystery and family saga, but also a probe of the incipient cultural tensions and narcissism of the late twentieth century that are now part of the new American fabric.

This book told me more of the Italian immigrant story than I had ever really read before, giving me an appreciation for how difficult it would be to give up everything you know in search of a better life.

Guy Bennett truly is a success story. He adores his family and wants the best for them. He’s worked hard for his wealth but still feels a bit the outsider.  While he wants happiness and success for his children, he also strives to hold onto some of the old Italian traditions.  I enjoyed reading about Guy’s father’s journey to America and how he built a life for himself despite not knowing the language and having to work terribly hard for anything he wanted.

And while they aren’t perfect, I like Guy and Marie’s children. They’re trying to find the right balance of modern Americans against the Old Ways. That inevitably leads to conflicts within the family.  Add in the murder trial, and it’s a good mix of conflicts on multiple levels.

It took me a bit to get into the novel, and sometimes following the broken English was tedious. But upon reflection, that is important. It gives you a perspective on how difficult it is for someone who isn’t a native speaker. The opera background knowledge was something new as well.  So while this one started with a slow burn, I did enjoy the story and the resolution of the mystery.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.