Travel – Finding My Wings

On the road again: Cincinnati to Louisville Day 2

Continuing our journey, with Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad as our soundtrack, we left Cincinnati, crossing the Ohio River into Covington, Kentucky. If Cincinnati has a bit of a southern vibe, the minute you cross into Kentucky somehow you ARE in the South.

We were a bit short on time but had an ambitious agenda for the day. A must stop was Carmichael’s Bookstore, the oldest independent bookstore in Louisville and it opens at 8 a.m. on Sunday! The staff was well informed and welcoming. When I asked about a local writer or title I was directed to a book I’d been eyeing for months. Southernmost by Silas House is a story of grappling with tragedy and truth, tolerance and forgiveness. It’s published by Algonquin Books, an independent press dedicated to literary fiction and nonfiction that gets people talking.

No trip to Louisville would be complete without a pilgrimage to Churchill Downs where Triple Crown dreams are born. In the upper 90’s, the weather wasn’t suitable for (wo)man nor beast and there was no racing scheduled for a while. Nevertheless, the museum has great displays about the horses, jockeys, owners, and trainers that make the Kentucky Derby an annual American classic. There is a breath-taking film shown on a racetrack-shaped surround screen that brings that captures a day in the life of Churchill Downs.

There are several tours of Churchill Downs offered. Our walking tour took us through all the spectator levels overlooking the historic track. Information about the architectural and requirements to maintain the facility was interesting, the multiple pricing scales to see the Derby, less so. At the tour’s end, a visit to the jockey area where the silks are kept, the weigh-in occurs, and the jockeys relax when not racing really was the highlight.

Our last must-see of the day was for the baseball-lover in me. Louisville Slugger has been the best-known manufacturer of baseball bats for over a century. A desire to help a slumping Louisville ballplayer has turned into a company known worldwide. Though not the only manufacturer of bats for major leaguers, they are the largest and count the many of the biggest stars as their customers. For each, they maintain very specific measurements and offer the choice of ash or maple and special stains and paints. Small escorted tours take visitors through the manufacturing process, without phones or cameras, of course, where staff members answer any and all questions. Time is well spent in the exhibit area where game-used bats from many of the historic greats of baseball history can be seen. The evolution of baseball is seen in a historical context. Before we left, there was the chance to hold game-used bats from Hall of Famers as well as current stars. I choose Hank Aaron and Ryan Zimmerman.

At the suggestion of a long-time friend, our one night in Louisville was spent at The Brown Hotel, where Southern hospitality is the only language spoken. For almost a century, the hotel has been a landmark in the city. We only scratched the surface of the sights in Louisville, a fine reason to return. Next stop: NASHVILLE!

On the road again! Nashville bound – Day 1

Before the era of total connectivity taking a vacation had a very different meaning. There was no phone or laptop to leave at home if you wanted to truly disconnect. On the flip side, having access to one’s work and other obligations from the road can make it possible to be away from home or work longer without being out of the loop. And you can get great ice cream recommendations from friends while on the road – more about that later!

There are large swaths of the US I have never visited. Among the top spots on my list was Nashville, so Dan indulged me by crafting our annual DC=> Hilton Head, SC, summer trip via Music City. None of this shortest distance/least time route as calculated by Waze for us! No, our goal is to take the opportunity to explore places that we have not seen.

STOP 1 – Cincinnati, OH: After a ~~dinner~~ pizza break in Breezewood, PA, we continued on and spent the night near the West Virginia line. Driving through Wheeling early in the morning brought a lovely sight. The soundtrack to the drive was Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, the terrain a reminder of the difficult miles that slaves seeking freedom and settlers had to traverse to find home. Shortly before noon, we arrived at the American Sign Museum. Out in an industrial area of Cincinnati, it is a true gem. They have gathered advertising signs from all eras of American industry, with wonderful audio descriptions. Thanks to the staff of the museum, we headed to Findlay Market, the oldest municipal market in Ohio, to find lunch. Wandering through the outdoor stalls, we came upon a familiar face, Teeny Morris, owner of Teeny Pies, one of our daughter’s housemates during their time in Chicago. It is very good to know a top-notch baker!

There were two more major events planned for Cincinnati. Once we dropped our bags off at the hotel, formerly the Cincinnati Enquirer Building, we walked to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Open since 2004, the museum tells the story of the search for freedom from the arrival of slaves on our shores until today, worldwide. It is an ambitious effort and the targetted exhibits are well done. Its location looking across the Ohio River to Kentucky is echoed in a film of abolitionists aiding fleeing slaves leaving Kentucky.

I am a big baseball fan. The Cincinnati Reds were hosting the Milwaukee Brewers for a late afternoon game, so off we went. As practiced fans, we beat the heat by choosing seats in the shade and were lucky enough to score Rosie the Red bobbleheads! The Great American Ballpark is very roomy with great sightlines and wide concourses. It also has two huge screens with different player info and more advertising than I’ve seen at any other park.

Daughter #2 had been in Cincinnati recently on business and sent us to Nada for dinner, noteworthy for people in our area because they are expanding to Pike & Rose very soon. And then we took our Facebook friends’ recommendations and found Graeter’s ice cream nearby on Fountain Square, listened to live music and chatted with some Milwaukee Brewers fans before calling it a night.

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Not All ‘Enchanted Islands’ Are Paradise

Enchanted Islands by Allison Amend (Doubleday), 2016
In 40 words or less: Loosely based on a woman who lived with her husband on the Galapagos Islands prior to WWII, a novel of a woman striving to overcome the poverty of an immigrant home, using her skills and life-long secretiveness to become a US spy.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Locale: Duluth, Chicago, San Francisco, Galapagos Islands
Time: 1890-1964
Readers who enjoy exotic settings will find the descriptions of life on the islands fascinating. The lives of the fictional Frances and Ainslie Conway are far more complicated than just their intelligence mission and likely than their real lives.

Allison Amend had taken a lovely nugget, two memoirs of Frances Conway’s experience in the Galapagos Islands, and used it as a springboard for this novel of hardship, transformation, and love. Amend imagined Frances as one of seven children born to Polish-Jewish immigrants to Duluth in the 1880s. The early portions of the novel contrast her family life with that of her friend Rosalie, the only child of educated German immigrants. Despite the relative comforts of Rosalie’s home, dark secrets propel the two to leave for Chicago at fifteen.Woven into the plot are historical details about the roles young women on their own could take at the turn of the 20th century. Franny and Rosalie sought out the Jewish community to provide a lifeline as they first arrived in Chicago but had no interest in assimilating into that life. In the course of her secretarial work, Franny also becomes involved in the surreptitious publication of early Zionist newsletters, not out of interest but rather through happenstance.

Franny and Rosalie take differing paths to securing their futures. After a blow-up with Rosalie, Frances heads west, initially to live on a farm, later to California as a secretary in military intelligence. These experiences become the qualifications she needs to enter into an arranged marriage with an intelligence officer who is to be posted to the Galapagos Islands to keep an eye on the German residents suspected of providing information to the growing Reich. Before leaving San Francisco, Franny and Rosalie reunite. Rosalie is now a wealthy society matron, involved in the civic and Jewish community, living a life she’d like to share with Franny, her oldest and only true friend.

Franny’s marriage to Ainslie Conway is a creation of spycraft. Neither had been married or expected to. The cover story for “going native” was to remove Ainslie from the temptations of alcohol, apparently one of the facts this story hangs on. As the narrator, Franny’s vulnerability and desire for all levels of intimacy are revealed. Reading with 21st-century sensibilities, the challenges to their marriage are clear.

Amend does a wonderful job of describing the daily challenges that the rough terrain, limited supplies, and communications cause during their time in the Galapagos. On an island with less than a dozen residents, most of whom were German, privacy was highly valued and there was little cushion between basic survival and potential disaster. Medical care and any other services from more populated areas were days, if not weeks, away. Given the intelligence operations, using the hidden military radio was limited to specific purposes. As the war approached, US naval vessels periodically approached the island for reconnaissance purposes.

As is clear from the start, Franny and Rosalie are destined to reconnect again and the story comes full circle. Amend has an ambitious agenda with Enchanted Islands. She takes on the Jewish immigrant experience, the exploitation of young women, early feminism, spycraft and life in an exotic locale. Throughout it all, loyalty and friendship are key. While there is a lot to learn about life just before the war in the Galapagos, don’t expect to meet the real Frances, Ainslie or Rosalie. Knowing this up front is good enough for me.

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Sharing books with Mom

Regardless of where you sit on the family tree, there is likely a mother (daughter, sister, in-law, or you) in your life that is deserving of recognition. Just as I’ve shared suggestions of books for Dad in the past, mothers should have equal time.

For Mother’s Day, you want to give (or get) just the right thing. One thing likely has not changed from the days when a handmade macaroni necklace was perfect – it’s the thought you put into it that counts. There are more pluses to giving books than the obvious reasons.

When you select a book you are opening a conversation. Are you giving a book you’ve enjoyed or one that reminds you of a shared experience? Is it by Mom’s favorite author or takes place in a city she loves? Whether it becomes her new favorite or not, talking books is usually interesting, often more so if you disagree about merits of a title.

Before I give some of my picks, I’d suggest you think about those titles that you’d read again, either because they entertained or informed you. They may be a perfect choice for gift giving. Please share your picks in the comments.

Here are some titles and authors my mother may see if she hasn’t already. Titles with links have my reviews:

Helen Simonson’s The Summer Before the War or Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. Two novels of English small town life with endearing characters, the first WWI-era and the second contemporary.
The Girls of Atomic City is a fascinating look at the integral secret role women played in the development of the atomic bomb. Oak Ridge was created almost overnight from nothing and was at the forefront of research (and social engineering) during the latter days of WWII. By Denise Kiernan.
Geraldine Brooks really does have something for every Mom! My favorites are Year of Wonders, a fictional account of a real community that isolated itself during the plague, and Foreign Correspondence, her memoir of her beginnings as an Australian schoolgirl whose pen pals set the stage for her career as a journalist and author. March and People of the Book are also great choices!
Israeli novels in translation are a favorite of mine. Three picks are The English Teacher by Yiftach Reicher Atir, a novel about the high personal price of life in the intelligence service, and The Hilltop by Assaf Gavron, a contemporary story of the complexities and absurdities of life in an Israeli settlement. Lastly, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi is a novel about life in Palestine/Israel at the end of WWII and the beginnings of the State told in the rare voices of generations of a Sephardi family. This view has made it a huge bestseller in Israel. My review will appear soon.
Three very different historical fiction stories of strong women are The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes (19th/21st century), The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi (20th/21st century), and The Widow’s War by Sally Gunning (18th century).
Start her on Louise Penny’s Three Pines/Inspector Gamache mysteries and she will have books to keep her busy for months. A Great Reckoning was just released in paperback, or start at the beginning with Still Life. Rich characters that deal with life’s big issues in a setting you wish you could visit. There are many reasons her fan base is so loyal.
Perla, Carolina deRobertis’s magical novel about seeking identity during Argentina’s “Dirty War” will send her searching for information about the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, the women who demonstrated and sought out information about their children and grandchildren “disappeared” by the government.
For something totally unexpected, share one of these stories about the American West immediately after the Civil War. News of the World is a beautiful small book by Paulette Jiles about a newsreader and a young girl rescued from Indian captors. Epitaph, Mary Doria Russell’s novel about the legendary Earp brothers and Doc Holliday, has just been optioned for a movie. I’d stand in line to see either on the screen.
Speaking of the screen, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Smoot and The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman are wonderful nonfiction titles have been adapted recently.
I love Venice and I’m a sucker for detective stories. Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti keeps me coming back to explore that wondrous city. There are now 26 titles in the series. While the principals have aged some since the beginning, it is not critical to read them in order.
If you, or the mother in your life, enjoys short stories, travel, and mysteries, check out the Akashic Noir series of titles. There are books for cities from Baltimore to Belfast to Beirut and beyond, each with stories written by local authors.
Finally, some “drop everything and read” titles that are perfect for getting away. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney is a new gem, based in part on the life of the top female advertising copywriter in the first half of the 20th century. The Truth According to Us is Annie Barrow’s story of long-held family secrets wrapped up with lots of information about the National Writer’s Project which employed writers to tell the histories of small-town America during the Depression. Before Me Before You, Jojo Moyes penned The Girl You Left Behind, a novel of life in the French countryside during WWI, a painting, and questions of its ownership almost a century later.

This lengthy listing barely touches on the possibilities. I specifically avoided WWII/Holocaust historical fiction. There are many, many wonderful and well-promoted books in this genre. Cookbooks and food memoirs with rich stories would be great for foodies but they are specific to individual tastes (excuse the pun!) Short story collections are making a big comeback, as are narrative nonfiction titles. While a few biographies or memoirs have been included, an entire list could be made of this genre. Still looking for something else? There are many recommendations on the website.

Reading local, Cape Cod style

The Widow’s War by Sally Gunning (William Morrow, 2007)
In 40 words or less: Lyddie Berry, widowed after a whaling mishap, asserts her rights to one-third of her husband’s estate. Though legal, this decision has harsh consequences within her family and community. Gunning provides a detailed portrayal of the difficult life in mid-eighteenth century Cape Cod.
Genre: Historical fiction
Locale: Satucket, MA
Time: 1760s
Read this to see the hardships of life in colonial America and the tremendous strictures of the society.

On my recent vacation to Cape Cod and the Berkshires, I visited Eight Cousins bookshop in Falmouth. As is my custom, I asked the bookseller for suggestions on a fiction title by a local author with a local feel. Her recommendation of The Widow’s War was right on target. Sally Gunning’s love for the Cape and its history comes through from page one. What differs in this novel from many others is the focus on the legally subservient role of women in the colonies and the prejudice against Indians living among the settlers.

Lyddie Berry is a strong woman who has run a household for months at a time while her husband, Edward, was at sea. Theirs was a loving relationship despite the strains of multiple miscarriages and the deaths of all but one of their children in infancy. Mehitable, their daughter, recently married a respected widower in the community and was establishing her own household.

When whales are spotted in the bay, the ships leave in a flurry and all the men return safely except for Edward. Their neighbor and friend, Sam Cowett, an Indian, makes every effort to save him but is unsuccessful. Now the Widow Berry, Lyddie is forced to recast her life.

Edward’s will provided for Lyddie as best possible at that time. The home and all properties go to the nearest male relative, Mehitable’s husband Mr. Clarke, with Lyddie to be given life tenancy to a third of the home plus support to come from the proceeds of the legacy. Edward’s solicitor, Mr. Freeman was a fierce advocate for Lyddie’s rights which Mr. Clarke sought to subvert. To support herself, Lyddie nursed Sam Cowett’s ailing wife and served as his housekeeper for a period after her death. As an Indian, Sam was an outsider in the community and her alignment with him damages Lyddie’s reputation. Day to day survival overtakes her observance of the Sabbath which further estranges her.

The strengths of this novel are the detailed descriptions of daily life and the societal hierarchy within the community. Using the conflicts within the Berry/Clarke family as the background, the roles of wives, mothers and widows are clear. Gunning carefully portrays the shrinking of the Indian presence in the local area as the consequence of selling land for supplies. Sam Cowett remained the lone reminder of the Indian landholders and his friendship/partnership with Edward Berry a thorn in the side of the community.

Whether your interest is in colonial America, whaling in Cape Cod, feminism in early America or just a good story, The Widow’s War holds its own.

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