Author: Jenn

Jenn Reads: Fried Green Tomatoes At the Whistle Stop Cafe

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You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Wow! This is an oldie!” And yes, I suppose

Fried Green Tomatoes At the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

at this point, Fried Green Tomatoes At the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg could be considered a modern classic. This was a July pick for the girlfriend’s book club I run outside of the library.

Fried Green Tomatoes At the Whistle Stop Cafe tells the joint stories of Mrs. Threadgood and Evelyn in the 1980’s and Idgie and her friend Ruth starting in the 1920’s. There is a good deal of time jumping in this book, so pay close attention to who is telling what, when.

Evelyn is a middle-aged housewife who raised two grown children and waits on her working husband hand and foot. Every Sunday they take a visit to the nursing home to visit her husband’s mother. One Sunday she is sitting eating a candy bar (a common occurrence in this book) and an elderly lady sits down and starts talking to her. Mrs. Threadgood, a former resident of Whistle Stop, Alabama, tells Evelyn the story of her family and friends.

Idgie and Ruth open a diner called Fried Green Tomatoes, the only restaurant in the entire train town (population is less than 250) and are the care-takers of the homeless, the refugees, the workers, the despondent, and the African-American population. The “n” word does appear a lot in this book, just as a warning, but it is important to remember the time and place this storyline is set in. Ruth and Idgie are women ahead of their time, colorblind, independent, and accepting.

There are too many stories for me to list here, but you can expect murders, spousal abuse, racial issues, sexuality issues, the KKK, and much more. There were a couple of things that stood out to me however. First, it is never too late to change your life. Evelyn is deeply unhappy with her current state- she is unfulfilled in every aspect of her life. Through Mrs. Threadgood’s stories, companionship, and friendship, Evelyn learns she is not just a housewife, she’s a woman.

Second, the power of friendship. If you want to believe that Ruth and Idgie are just good friends (which they are not), you can see how important it is to have someone to have your back, stand up for you, support you, and be there when the going gets rough. Oftentimes family disappoints and abandons you, and friends become family.

If you read my posts, you know I listen to many books on audio. This book I actually read! I enjoyed it and thought it was an appropriate book not only for the time of year, but for our book club as well. Books that celebrate friendship and women are perfect picks for book clubs made up of girlfriends! I recommend reading this book and then watching the movie, which is pretty close to the book.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

See you in the stacks,

Jenn 🙂

On Our Shelves: New DVDs

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I love it when a new DVD order comes in. For those who love watching movies, it’s like Christmas multiple times in a year. There were several in this batch which I was interested in and had been anticipating their release.

1. Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren. Hopkins may not look an awful lot like the late Alfred Hitchcock, but boy, does he have his mannerisms down. My husband was interested in watching this movie, which seemed to fly under the radar. Hitchcock follows the pre-production and filming of Hitchcock’s greatest film: Psycho. Scarlett Johannsen shines in her role and Mirren is as always spot on. 

2. Identity Thief, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. First, let me start by saying that I love Melissa McCarthy. I thought she was charming on Gilmore Girls and hilarious on Mike and Molly. Who can forget her epic movie moment of going to the bathroom in the sink in Bridesmaids? Identity Thief started out with an excellent premise: McCarthy steals people’s identities, and you truly hate her for a lot of the movie. There are a lot of laughs, especially when Bateman and McCarthy are verbally dueling, but like Bridesmaids, it loses the funny 2/3 way through and becomes serious. I want to watch a comedy and laugh the whole way through, not learn a lesson.

3. Boy, starring Taika Waititi and James Rolleston. A Sundance Film Festival selection, Boy takes place in Australia in 1984. “Boy” idolizes both Michael Jackson and his father, who is a distant memory to him. “Boy” envisions him as a deep sea diver, war hero, and even Michael Jackson himself. His father returns home after spending seven years in jail and “Boy” has to confront the role model he imagined and the real man.

4. The Borgias, Seasons 2 and 3, starring Jeremy Irons and Holliday Grainger. All good things must come to an end, and the third season of the Borgias is the final season. But fear not! The original crime family (Mario Puzo based The Godfather on the Borgia family) has plenty in store for you in these seasons. We’ve seen the devious path Lucretiza is going down and the inner politicking Pope Alexander, AKA Rodrigo Borgia has been up to.

5. The Devil’s Backbone. This Spanish foreign-film, directed by Guillermo del Torro, deals with a personal subject for the director. Set during the final week of the Spanish Civil War, a ten year old boy is sent to a haunted orphanage after his freedom-fighting father is killed. This is a gothic ghost story, murder mystery, and historical melodrama done only in the style del Torro can do.

See you in the stacks,

Jenn

Jenn Reads: One Mississippi by Mark Childress

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One Mississippi was a book club pick for the book club I run with girlfriends outside of the library.

One mississippi, two mississippi…

Imagine: It’s 1973. Your favorite television program is The Sonny and Cher

One Mississippi by Mark Childress

Show. Desegregation has just happened in your school. You’re moving to a new home, in a new state, for the upteenth time. And you’re a junior in high school. Could it get any worse?

It does.

Written by the author of Crazy in Alabama, One Mississippi is the story of Daniel Musgrove, a junior in high school in Minor, Mississippi. He’s moving with his family from Indiana (Yankee country, he believes) to Mississippi. The schools have just been integrated (seems a bit late to me) and they’re having their first interracial prom. Finding himself an outsider, Daniel gets a new best friend in Tim Cousins.

Things spiral quick out of control after the prom, when Arnita Beechman, is named prom queen, the first black prom queen in the school’s history, and she is involved in an accident. A small lie becomes a big lie and lives are forever changed.

While there were many moments of seriousness, there were moments of humor, wit, and “oh geez”. Childers wants us as readers, to remember what it was like to be in high school. We all had moments we’d like to forget, but we all also have moments we’d love to relive. A few of my favorites included Daniel and Tim meeting Sonny and Cher at a concert and Daniel’s house blowing up (you’ve got to read it!).

Unfortunately, Childers tries to stuff too many issues into 400 pages. There’s racism, teen sex, gay issues, bullying, Vietnam, etc, etc. As a group we felt if he had focused on just one issue, the book may have been more cohesive. Personally, I felt the storyline with Daniel’s brother Buddy, who goes off the Vietnam, was hugely ignored.

This is in no way a “teen” book, although it could be read by teenagers. And neither is it a book for those who lived in the 1970’s. My girlfriends and I, all in our mid-20’s enjoyed this book for a glimpse into life during that time period. While our own high school experiences were not as problematic as Daniel’s, we related and sympathized.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Jenn Reads: The Boy In the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberol and Agnette Friis

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The Boy In the Suitcase  by Lene Kaaberol and Agnette Friis was a mystery book club pick by one of our members.

The book starts off fast-paced and with a great premise: Nina Borg gets a

The Boy In the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberol and Agnette Friis

phone call from her friend Karin, who says that she needs to go immediately to a Copenhagen train station and open a public locker. She’s told she will find a suitcase in the locker, but to not open it while in the train station.

She finds a three year old boy, drugged but still alive, in the suitcase.

Surprise! Given the title, there’s no surprise in that bit of knowledge.

Many comments on Goodreads indicated how frustrated people were with the first 60 or so pages of the books, as the authors introduce characters who seemingly have nothing to do with each other. Hang in there! They do!

The action takes place over the span of two days and in several different countries, Denmark and Lithuania. After Nina finds the boy in the suitcase, the logical thing for her to do would have been to bring him to the police. But does she do that? No… she drags him around with her, leaving him in a hot car for a period of time, neglecting to feed him, and letting him see a dead woman.

Nina is supposedly a “do-gooder” but I find fault with that. She’s a terrible mother, wife, and caretaker of this small boy. Nina ignores her family for two whole days while she “takes care” of this boy. At one point, the police go to her house and talk with her husband, who believes her injured or in serious trouble. As indicated in the previous paragraph, she doesn’t take very good care of the little boy, providing him with the minimum of food, sleep, protection, and comfort. And she’s irresponsible! By the end of the book, I’d about had it with Nina Borg.

What I did enjoy in this book were the social issues the authors touched upon. Prostitution, sex slavery, child kidnapping, child trafficking, and the underbelly of Europe were exposed. And let me tell you- it ain’t pretty. Denmark in the past is said to have one of the highest standards of living and some of the happiest and fulfilled people in the world. A socialist nation, they get free healthcare, free college education, long maternity/paternity leave, child care, etc, etc- all of which sound pretty good to me. But, like in any culture, there are also the unsavory aspects of a nation.

A quick, easy, fast-paced read, I thought The Boy In the Suitcase was an excellent pick for this time of year. I listened to it on audio and thought the narrator was excellent. It was very helpful listening to it because I likely would have struggled with the pronunciations of the names, places, etc. The Boy In the Suitcase  is the first book in a series featuring Nina Borg, and while I liked this book, I won’t be continuing the series. Nina just drives me nuts.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Jenn Reads: “A” Is For Alibi

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“A” Is For Alibi by Sue Grafton was the July pick for our mystery book club, chosen by one of our members.

Here is another “Jenn Reads” that is not a newer book! I’m a huge fan of book

“A” Is For Alibi by Sue Grafton

clubs picking books that are not necessarily new, something every other book club in the world is reading (Can I tell you how many times I’ve seen Gone Girl or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Societyhas been read by book clubs?), and perhaps a little off the beaten path.

Grafton’s W Is For Wasted comes out in September, so it was appropriate that our member chose this title. Grafton started this series more than 30 years ago and has been plugging away at the alphabet ever since. Wonder how relieved she’s going to feel when she finishes this series and can start another?!

“A” Is For Alibi starts with the main character, Kinsey Millhone stating that she murdered someone just days before. Well! How about that for a setup! Makes you curious to know whom she killed. Kinsey, a private investigator, has been hired by Nikki Fife to investigate the murder of her husband, which she has just spent eight years in prison for.

Laurence Fife was a divorce lawyer, excellent at his job, but a scoundrel, adulterer, and abusive man. So there are many who would have liked to do him in. The story twists when it comes out that his accountant, Libby Glass, was killed in the same manner he was. It was suspected the two were having an affair.

Kinsey sets off on an investigation that takes her to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Most of the story takes place in Santa Theresa, California and Grafton does a fantastic job at describing the location. I could feel the California sunshine on my face as Kinsey went on her runs (which, by the way, I didn’t need to know every time she went for a run) and the sand at my feet as she visited her lover Charlie while he dog sat.

Kinsey displaces some very rookie moves for a season private investigator and former police officer, specially trusting people she shouldn’t trust. She wipes down her room in Las Vegas, thinking the police might tie her to a murder there, but forgets that she checked in and paid with a credit card.

What I do like about Kinsey is her doggedness, want to do right, and perseverance. Unlike Stephanie Plum, who is just terrible about being a bounty hunter and lucks into a lot of her leads, Kinsey actually sits down and does the work, and follows through.

I’ll probably continue with the series, as it is one of my mother’s favorites, and I’d like to see how Kinsey develops as a character. “A” Is For Alibi  is a good start to the series.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

See you in the stacks,

Jenn 🙂