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More than a half-million people know Kelly Oxford’s biting sense of humor via her Twitter account. Yet beyond the 140-character quips she shares with her followers is a gifted storyteller whose collection of essays is a vivid recounting of her unconventional 30-plus years of life.
This work, which is really a series of short essays, effectively tells the story of how a family copes when a parent develops dementia. Unfortunately, the author’s contemplative style sometimes leads the reader into a sort of peacefulness about the entire process.
STRANGER HERE: How Weight-Loss Surgery Transformed My Body and Messed with My Head
By Jen Larsen. Seal Press. 280 pages. $16
By Nona Nelson
nona.nelson@roanoke.com
Many people who are overweight exist in a holding pattern; the happy life they envision for themselves will begin as soon as they lose the excess pounds. Emotional peace, self-esteem and a feeling of normalcy are waiting at the end of the weight loss rainbow.
Jen Larsen lived most of her childhood and early adult life waiting for self-acceptance to arrive as soon as her extra weight disappeared.
Not that Larsen didn’t accomplish a great deal before she decided to have weight-loss surgery at age 32 and 318 pounds. After moving from Philadelphia to New York and then to San Francisco, the high school dropout had just finished the book that would earn her a master’s degree in creative writing. She had a comfortable-but-boring job working in a university library and she had a supportive-if-not-affectionate boyfriend.
But being morbidly obese made her resistant to social interactions beyond her circle of close friends, made navigating a hilly town such as San Francisco nearly impossible, and held her back from pursuing career opportunities. Her self-loathing kept her in a dysfunctional relationship because she felt that’s all she deserved. In the months leading up to her surgery, she ate with abandon to see how big she could really get. Read more »
THE LITTLE BOOKSTORE OF BIG STONE GAP: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book
By Wendy Welch. St. Martin’s Press. 304 pages. $25.
By Ralph Berrier Jr.
ralph.berrier@roanoke.com
For a small town in far Southwest Virginia’s coal country, Big Stone Gap sure has an outsized place on the literary landscape.
Novelist John Fox wrote numerous books when he lived there in the early 1900s, including the best-seller “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.” That novel inspired the long-running outdoor drama that is performed in town every summer, a play that likewise inspired Adriana Trigiani’s best-selling novel “Big Stone Gap” and other novels.
Big Stone Gap once again finds itself in a book title from a major publisher with the arrival of “The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap,” a memoir written by town resident Wendy Welch, who tells the story of the used bookstore she and her Scottish-born husband, Jack Beck, opened in the Wise County town (pop.: 5,600).
In a series of breezy chapters, Welch tells what at first seems like a familiar, fish-out-of-water story: married couple chucks the bright lights of the big city for the simple life in a small town, where they must navigate the unfamiliar local customs and rules in an effort to earn the trust of the local folks and fit in.
The couple follow their bliss and open the bookshop in a large Victorian house, a shop they named Tales of the Lonesome Pine, in tribute to the local literary tradition. Many folks are thrilled to have a bookstore in town, although many are secretly — and some not so secretly — betting that the shop won’t make it a year.
Compounding the normal struggles of running a small business, the owners had the unfortunate timing of opening a bookstore just as the economy tanked and just when the rise of e-books began to threaten the existence of the printed page. The townfolks’ hunches about the store’s dim future appeared to be coming true.
Thanks to an article in a good old-fashioned newspaper, the store finally gained the public’s attention and local folks began supporting the shop and the couple. The bookshop, and ultimately Welch’s book itself, becomes populated with characters who want to swap books, wheel and deal and help secure the shop as a local gathering spot.
Welch’s witty writing style enlivens the simple story of a married couple, books, cats, music and life in a small new town. The book evolves into a winning manifesto on the importance of the printed word, bookshops and a shared sense of community. Read more »
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is assailing publication of a book about the raid that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, saying the account by a former Navy SEAL could jeopardize future U.S. operations.
In a CBS interview broadcast Tuesday, Panetta stops short of accusing the author of revealing classified information, but says Pentagon officials want to determine “what is classified and what isn’t, and where those lines are.”
Panetta says the book written under the pseudonym of Mark Owen raises troubling national security questions. He says, quote, “Well, I think when somebody talks about the particulars of how those operations are conducted, it tells our enemies, essentially, how we operate and what we do to go after them.”
The author eventually was identified in various news accounts as Matt Bissonnette.
–Associated Press
What do you think about the book “No Easy Day”? Planning to read it? (Here’s a link to the New York Times review.)
YES, CHEF
By Marcus Samuelsson.
Random House. 336 pages. $27
Reviewed by Charles Shea LeMone
CHARLES SHEA LEMONE is an author who lives in Ferrum.
“Yes, Chef,” a memoir, is akin to a sumptuous, unforgettable four-star restaurant meal that excites all the senses. From the very first page, the author’s words are vivid and layered with strong physical details and incorporate raw as well as subtle emotions of honesty and depth.
Marcus Samuelsson was born in a small farming village in Ethiopia. Although he has never seen a photograph of his mother, the cooking herbs and spices used in that region will always be his link to visualize her.
When his mother desperately needed medical attention he was too young to make the long trek on foot to the nearest hospital with her. Holding his older sister’s hand, and carrying young Marcus, his mother undertook the long journey on the last full day of her life. He was 3 years old when a couple from Sweden adopted the two orphans and became their loving and dedicated parents.
Among other valuable life lessons, Samuelsson learned fishing from his father and tenderness from his mother. However, it was time spent with his maternal grandmother, helping her prepare big meals from scratch, that he cherished most.
His other love was soccer. After competing as a starter for a couple of seasons he was cut from the local team, not for a lack of talent but for lack of adequate size. He soon put that disappointment behind him when he chose to attend a culinary school. There he embraced a new goal in life, to become a world-class chef.
From one part of the globe to another, Samuelsson survived working for several renowned chefs. He recounts how novices, and even seasoned cooks, were sometimes fired at an alarming rate; and how the kitchen hierarchy was rigidly fixed with work ethic expectations more demanding than a military boot camp.
All the while his steadfast focus, the abuse he endured, the notes he meticulously took, the mentors he beseeched, the experiments he made, were all about learning to prepare and serve quality dishes of the highest order in his quest to open his own restaurant.
Former President Bill Clinton can attest to the fact that The Red Rooster, in Harlem, is the culmination of Samuelsson’s goal.
This memoir is certain to inspire readers to put more creative thought and time into the meals they prepare.
But I must warn everyone, do not delve into any section of this book on an empty stomach.
RURALLY SCREWED: MY LIFE OFF THE GRID WITH THE COWBOY I LOVE
By Jessie Knadler. Berkley Hardcover. 336 pages.
Reviewed by Lindsey Nair / The Roanoke Times
At first, it might be tempting for country folks to take offense at Jessie Knadler’s new memoir about moving from the Big Apple to Rockbridge County. For starters, the book is titled “Rurally Screwed: My Life off the Grid with the Cowboy I Love.”
It is the tale of a New York City magazine editor who falls in love with a bull-riding cowboy and leaves her “Glamour”-ous life for rural adventure on eight rambling acres outside Lexington. With acerbic wit, Knadler chronicles the ensuing culture shock she feels as she is forced to assimilate rebel flags, moonshine, Walmart, and her new hubby’s maddening infatuation with trucks and tools.
But before you bristle, know this: “Rurally Screwed” is really about trying to define ourselves, and how that experience can make us feel authentic and synthetic all at once. Knadler articulates her journey in a manner so self-deprecating and hilarious that it doesn’t take long to realize she isn’t ridiculing rural Virginia, she’s analyzing her own place in it.
When the story begins, Knadler is living the party life of a single 30-year-old in the big city. But she spends her days at work “feigning enthusiasm over earnest story ideas like ‘10 Reasons Why Funny Women ARE Sexy’.” Emotionally, she is too paralyzed to leave her weird, perverted boyfriend. Read more »
CONFESSIONS OF A SCARY MOMMY
By Jill Smokler. Simon & Schuster. 168 pages. $15
By Nona Nelson
nona.nelson@roanoke.com
There is a lot about being a mother that is gratifying; there is also a huge portion of the job description that is genuinely scary. The little bundles of endless energy and perpetual need don’t come with any kind of user’s manual.
Even if you are lucky enough to navigate your little darlings all the way to adulthood (count me in that crowd) you find it’s a job from which there is never a retirement. Motherhood is a lifetime commitment.
For those women in the midst of raising youngsters, or those of us who managed to survive that challenge only slightly battle-scarred, there are many head-nodding, “oh-hell-yes” moments to be found in Baltimore-area blogger Jill Smokler’s book, “Confessions of a Scary Mommy.”
The book is part memoir and part tidbits gleaned from Smokler’s blog, www.scarymommy.com, where she features an anonymous confessional where readers can post their deepest, and sometimes darkest, revelations about family life — a postsecret.com for the carpool-lane-and-diaper-bag set.
Smokler is a talented writer who can summarize the joys and pitfalls of motherhood in a funny, frank and unsentimental voice. This is a woman who loves her children and husband but maintains a realistic perspective on the frustrations of family life. Read more »
By Nona Nelson
nona.nelson@roanoke.com
It’s springtime in Paris and it seems that publishers are anxious to remind this poorly traveled book reviewer that she has yet to experience it firsthand. Three books about life and travel in France have landed on my desk since late April, inspiring me to dig out my barely used passport, make excellent use of the English-to-French translate function on Google and spend hours daydreaming about jumping on the next plane bound for Charles De Gaulle.
First on my reading list was a memoir, “Paris I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” by Rosecrans Baldwin about the 18 months that he spent living in the City of Light, toiling for an advertising agency by day while working on his first novel by night.
Baldwin is lifelong Francophile who did not hesitate to accept a job as a copywriter in Paris despite barely speaking the language and never having worked in advertising. In 2007, he and his wife Rachel sold their belongings in Brooklyn, packed 10 duffle bags and began a life of sweat-inducing anxiety caused by the constant construction around their apartment, the high cost of living and the crude, politically incorrect coworkers at Baldwin’s office.
The biggest impediment they encountered in Paris was the couple’s lack of language skills. While polite with tourists, it seems the French have little patience for resident foreigners who cannot converse in their native tongue. It also seems they harbor great disdain for Canadians who speak fluent French with a twangy accent.
Baldwin retells his expat experience in a series of essays that gives an American perspective on life as a Parisian. The French are hard workers, even if they are not very results-oriented. Baldwin’s first assignment was to create brochures about infant nutrition and, despite putting in long hours on research and writing, when the deadline for six completed pamphlets arrives, the first one was still unfinished. Many of his pitches to clients, holders of accounts that are worth millions of euros to his firm, were rejected out of hand. His bosses didn’t seem to mind.
Lunch is an art form in France and they even eat American fast food in courses that can take more than an hour to complete — first course is McNuggets, followed by fries, a burger or two, salad and finally, a melted fudge sundae. Much time is spent debating President Nicolas Sarkozy’s divorce, his jogging and his third marriage to Italian supermodel Carla Bruni. Bureaucracy, Baldwin maintains, is France’s number one sport — he was ticketed for using a metro pass without the proper French-issued identification card, even though no one asked for identification when he purchased the metro pass.
Baldwin is a vibrant and keenly observant writer, and this charming diary is both tender and funny. He writes about what was often a frustrating experience without ever becoming whiny or judgmental. The book gives readers an inside view of a complex society and presents a realistic appreciation of the city for both its beauty and its flaws. My takeaway from this often hilarious, often poignant tale is that is Paris can be a wonderful experience for an extended visit, even if it may not be the ideal place for the typical American to live and work.
A long visit is exactly what travel writer and artist Vivian Swift enjoyed on her 28-day honeymoon trek through France with her husband, James Stone, in 2005. She chronicled their journey in her book “Le Road Trip: A Traveler’s Journal of Love and France.”
The couple visited Paris, Normandy and Bordeaux with many stops along the way. Swift starts her illustrated book making clear what it will not do: provide hotel phone numbers and addresses, recommendations for fine dining, nor a game plan for seeing all the typical tourist sites. Swift aims to inspire the reader to find his or her own French adventure, and indeed she does this by encasing solid travel tips in whimsical anecdotes placed among vivid watercolors.
“Every road trip has its ups and downs, just like a love affair or the stock market,” Swift writes. “But more like a love affair.”
“Le Road Trip” is like a delightful picture postcard loaded with practical advice for navigating France (or almost anywhere, actually): Expect that there will be tension even among the most devoted and loving couple while road-tripping. Plan to pack for a month in one carry-on size roller bag. Beware of unexpected holidays that can leave a traveler stranded without mass transit or access to a bank.
It can take up to three hours waiting in line to spend only a few seconds gazing at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Decide accordingly whether it’s really worth the investment of your vacation time. (My answer would be no.)
Swift shares a touching story of a Scottish immigrant (the father of her neighbor in Long Island) who gave his life as a U.S. soldier fighting the Nazis on June 16, 1944. While the lights of Paris and the vineyards of Bordeaux are something I definitely want to see, a visit to Normandy is a tribute I now feel compelled to make.
While “Le Road Trip” awakened my vagabond heart and made me restless to wander, “The French Dog” appealed to my other loves in life: dogs and photography. This gorgeous book from photographer Rachel Hale is loaded with pictures of a variety of pooches (only one poodle) in French castles, cottages and countryside.
The photos are stunning: some with crisp definition and precise composition, where the lens truly captures the soul of the dog. Others are soft and fuzzy as fur, reminding me of an Impressionist-era painting.
My only gripe is in the text, in which Hale waxes poetic about the nobility and unparalleled excellence of French dogs, reminding me of the thesis of a recent best-seller that promoted French children as the very model of good manners and proper behavior. While I am sure Hale encountered many well-behaved dogs in her travels through France, I think every country has its share of gentle and sweet — as well as mean and cranky — canines. Somehow I doubt the French have cornered the market on great dogs.
Now pardon me while I pack my camera bag, start perusing the Internet for bargain fares, and dive into my next book, “French for Dummies.”
IMPERFECT. An Improbable Life. Jim Abbott and Tim Brown. Ballantine Books. 283 pages. $26.00.
Reviewed by Michael L. Ramsey
Those that have endured some misfortune will always be set apart but that it is just that misfortune which is their gift and which is their strength and they must make their way back into the common enterprise of man for without they do so it cannot go forward and they will never wither into bitterness. ~ Cormac McCarthy
The Bronx,New York, September 4, 1993 — New York Yankee Pitcher Jim Abbott threw a no-hitter at his home stadium leading his team to victory over the Cleveland Indians. Abbott was born without a right hand.
Jim Abbott’s no-hitter is the genesis for this remarkable story, but the essence of the story is only tangentially connected to baseball.
This is a story in which baseball is one of many aspects of a life well lived – and the lives of people who are possessed of an expectation of success and accomplishment.
Abbott begins his story on Career Day at his daughter Ella’s preschool when she was five years old.
Ella asked her father, “Dad, do you like your little hand?”
As Abbott tells the story of his life, we learn how his parents developed his expectations for success. Their expectations were typical of parents in Flint,Michigan, and other American towns and cities where the children of World War II veterans struggled with achieving the drams of success that typified the two decades following the war.
Jim Abbott was born in 1967, the year before baseball’s “year of the pitcher” — a year when Michiganders rallied to the support of the Detroit Tigers and their flamboyant pitcher, Denny McLain.
