Finally Friday - Shake Down the Stars

 Shake Down the  Stars by Frances Donnelly is a deep immersion into England 1939 to 1945 and three young women. It's a turbulent time, six dramatic  years that shaped these women, friends, families, and lovers. 

At a village garden party, we meet Virginia Musgrave - gorgeous, spoiled. Lucy Hallett - sensible, compassionate. Beattie Blythe, intelligent and  lovely. Also the Musgrave's gardener's daughter.   Everyone knows their place in  this village hierarchy of wealth and privilege. 

Then war turns each woman's life upside down. No debut for Virginia - instead life is rationing, real work, and casual affairs. She's a classic bitch. 

Beattie - her first lover proves to be a bad decision. She's obsessed and that proves to  be trouble. 

Lucy - a sudden war bride, volunteer work that immerses her. She's a backbone to  the Virginia and Beattie story. 

Donnelly's work intertwines these women against the backdrop of war and strong airmen who fly each night and confront death.  This is not a frothy read. You will truly feel the struggles of  these women as they find their way. The emotions are real, the dialogue does deep, and you will be surprised at  some decisions.  Shake  Down the Stars kept  me engaged and intrigued, mad and annoyed. I felt  like  I knew these  women and I wanted to give my opinion on their lives.  Great writing!  

Whatever Wednesday - Going Dutch

We don't have to "go dutch" at the Kimbell Art Museum. I can treat you with my membership guest privileges.  A friend, Trish, and  I enjoyed a lovely hour or so visiting this new exhibit - Dutch Art in a Global Age.  

Artists with bold strokes showed the  power of  the seas as ships transported goods. The  swirling skies  and rough waters are presented in dramatic  renderings. 

The Netherlands, 1600s, was the world's marketplace.  The Dutch East India Company had trade routes to every exotic land. Commodities flowed. Money was made. Artists were fueled by Dutch society.  Hals, Rembrandt, Ruisdael - these artists commemorated their world with portraits, landscapes, seascapes, and rich silver and ceramic objects. 

This still life by Jan Davidsz de Heem shows the mastery.  The gleam of glass, the rich rare fruits, the realism.  From across the exhibit room, this painting positively glowed. 

Amsterdam was a cosmopolitan hub. Numerous  maps, paintings of homes and interiors, churches - all of the works demonstrated a rich and vibrant life.  This  exhibit brings home the power of  a small nation in a global economy. The Dutch had it all - tea, coffee, sugar, spices, tobacco, silks. One underlying issue is the slave trade that accompanied this  wealth.   There's always more to  the story. 

Well done Kimbell by way of Boston Museum of  Fine Arts. Start your year off right  and visit a museum.  Your eyes and brain will thank you.
 

Monday Moments - The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers

I loved The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers (as a debut  author).  This was a treat of a library find as I  browsed stacks  one day. 

Erin Connolly is reeling from a recent tragedy. She's trying  to shake up her life and cleans up her space.  She panics when she realizes she gave away her very annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird to a Book Swap box.   When it turns up a week  later, there are fresh notes in the margin and an invitation to Great Expectations.  

Sure enough, that book is in the Swap box and a conversation begins in the margins  of classics.  Who is the Mystery Man?  How are they so compatible?

cover blurb - But Erin and her pen  pal have a shared history that neither of them has guessed. Painful reminders of the past. No  forgiveness.  Erin finds  herself at a crossroads. One  that could change her life forever.  

This book is delightful, moving, touching, and very fresh. Twists and turns of life and feelings - all within a shared joy of books. 

Finally Friday - Learning to Talk by Hilary Mantel

 Learning to Talk by Hilary Mantel are loosely autobiographical stories.  back blurb: Her tales begin in the 1950s in an insular northern village "scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip tongues." With a deceptively light tough, Mantel illuminates the poignant experiences of childhood that leave each of us forever changed.

Her descriptions are just  so rich and fun to read. I am in awe of her writing. 

p. 51 It was a small gray car, like a jelly mold, out of which a giant might turn a foul jelly of profanity and grease. 

p. 63  In that one moment it seemed to me that the world was blighted, and that every adult throat bubbled, like a garbage pail in August, with the syrup of rotting lies.  

Whoa. A bit dark, but thought provoking. 

Whatever Wednesday - Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

 I LOVE Kevin Kwan.  He knows how to write a trashy, classy, funny, fluff novel.   His style is all his own and it's awesome.  Crazy Rich Asians had me hooked.  China Rich Girlfriend, Rich People Problems, and Sex and Vanity - all  warm ups for this cheesy gem of a story.  Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan will be tough to top. 

I  laughed out loud at his dialogue. I find his footnotes on style and ridiculous details hysterical.  I truly don't know if I can explain how spot on he is in describing lifestyles that are beyond our imagination. This book truly is extremely well written ridiculous fluff and it's perfect. 

cover  blurb - A forbidden affair erupts dramatically amid a decadent Hawaiian wedding in this hilarious, sophisticated, and thrillingly plotted story of love,  money, murder, sex - and the lies we tell  about all of them. 

Beautiful people (Rufus,  Eden, Bea, Arabella, Martha, and more)  A mix of old England and new  Asian.  Secret tragedy.  A once great earldom. 

Old money gone.  New  money that's insane.    Read Kevin Kwan and just enjoy the insanity. 

Mic drop.    Oh wait.....there's more champagne......  yeah, you get the idea......um.....yeah....now the private helicopter picks you up and takes you....________________fill in the blank with more champagne.   HA!       Enjoy this ridiculous book.  Trust me.  

Monday Moments - Rest a Spell

We need a bit of a rest on  a Monday.   This photo is from a little Saturday jaunt at our local YMCA on a Saturday morning.  It's a 3/4 mile  walk around a little lake. There's a small fountain.  Generally ducks are waddling about.  And then you get a bonus egret, or whatever this bird is...

Calming and  wonderful.  Take a walk  at your local park  and embrace the spirit.  Aaahhh.  You need this. 

A bonus chuckle for the day.  My friend, Joan's, grandson Theo for Halloween

 

Finally Friday - A Complete Unknown

 Yea, you know him now - Bob Dylan.  But in 1961, Robert (Bobby) Zimmerman arrived in New York  City ready to make his mark  on the  folk scene. 

 In the film, A Complete Unknown, Timothee Chamalet brings Bob Dylan onto the big screen and  tells his story. Here's this kid who seeks out the "biggies" - Pete Seeger (an excellent Edward Norton), Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) - and proceeds to wow them with his songwriting skills. 

He knows his history, is musically talented, and leaps from unknown to  girls screaming in  a few short years. He's playing small gigs and then moves up to the bigger venues, including the Newport  Folk Festival. That's huge.  But there's tradition in  folk  and  Dylan is squirming under the invoked  "rules" pressure. 

I'm not  "blowing  in  the wind here"...when he takes  the  Newport stage in 1965, and plugs in  his guitar along with his band...well the  "times are truly changing". 

This movie is fun, entertaining, informative, and musically wonderful.  I personally admire Dylan songs,  but was never keen on the man and his voice. Timothee Chalamet did  a super job and I appreciated the Dylan story and history that much more.  Thumbs up to  start movie review 2025.