Underfoot in Show Business by Helene Hanff

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

 

I first encountered Helene Hanff’s writing in the delightful 84, Charing Cross Road which was composed of letters she wrote to a bookseller in London and his responses.  They formed a fast friendship, one that was later portrayed in the movie of the same title and starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft. (I can’t resist adding that I was not the only one charmed by the book.  Anne Bancroft loved it, and so her husband Mel Brooks bought the screen rights for her as a birthday gift.)

 

While that is by far her best-known book, she did write others including Underfoot in Show Business. I love this book for many different reasons.

 

First and foremost, Hanff has a wonderful way of telling a story.  As the book opens, it’s the end of the Great Depression. Helene has had to drop out of college and go to work as a typist in the basement of a diesel-engine school for twelve dollars a week “and all the grease I could carry home on me.” She wants desperately to become a playwright, so she writes plays in her spare time. She enters a contest for young authors with a $1500 fellowship as a prize, and ends up moving to New York where she writes plays, takes odd jobs, and scratches out a living among all the other aspiring actors and playwrights. Helene budgets very carefully, figuring out not only rent but the prospect of attending functions where free food is available.  And, of course, cigarettes.

 

What could have been a dreary tale is instead a comedic adventure in Hanff’s capable hands. Her first garret turns out to a be in a red light district, a fact she discovers only when a man knocks on her door at 1 a.m. and asks if she’s open for business. Her second apartment is more respectable but caters to elderly women.  This means one needs to get used to seeing men carry out black body bags at regular intervals.  On the plus side, it also means that there’s a steady flow of merchandise for sale, cheap.

 

This book let me learn a bit more about the ultra-private Helene, as well as giving me insight into the way theatre works. It’s not all opening nights and reviews, but hard work behind the scenes for plays that may be a hit or a flop. When Helene does find lucrative work, it’s in the new medium of television where she writes and edits scripts for some of TV’s Golden Age shows. She drops some famous names but she’s no gossip; she guards their privacy as she does her own.

 

This may be one of my favorite books of the year.

Cat’s Claw by Dolores Hitchens

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Rachel Murdock is an apple-cheeked, white-haired little old lady who lives with her prim sister Jennifer in Los Angeles. You’d think these elderly ladies would be quiet and staid, and in Miss Jennifer’s case you’d be right.  Miss Rachel, however, has become quite the fan of crime solving, much to her sister’s mortification. 

 

When a man is hit by a car nearby and the incident is not reported, Miss Rachel contacts the police—namely, her friend Lt. Mayhew—to investigate.  The people living in the rented house next door have vanished, leaving behind few clues except for the painting of a mountain in California marked San Cayetano.

 

Miss Rachel, being Miss Rachel, decides that she’s going to take a little vacation. 

 

In San Cayetano.

 

This is not a series to everyone’s taste, but I love it.  The books were written in the 1940s and 50s (this title came out in 1943) and haven’t been edited to suit modern tastes. Miss Jennifer turns positively pink at the mention of “petticoats” or (gasp!) any other undergarments. Samantha, the black cat of the title, has to be let out at intervals because the invention of cat litter is still a few years in the future. And despite the elderly protagonist, the crimes aren’t genteel at all.

 

Miss Rachel is a movie fan and, for me, the books read like one of those old black and white detective tales.  I can see Lt. Mayhew in his broad shouldered coat and the pale blonde of a woman’s hair.  Some of the scenes are theatrical indeed, and again I can see those play out as if in a movie.  World War II is firmly in the background, though there are mentions of men enlisting or going to work in war-related industries, which again reflects the escapism of the time.

 

For some readers, Miss Rachel is just a nosey old woman who ought to mind her own business.  I see Miss Rachel as someone who is determined to live life while she can and who enjoys the excitement. She’s also very independent, and while she gets herself into some scrapes, she also gets herself out of them.

 

The series doesn’t need to be read in order, but the first book is The Cat Saw Murder. There were twelve titles in the series, originally written under the more masculine  name D.B. Olsen, but which are now being reprinted under the author’s real name.

Nevermore: March 10

 What Nevermore is Reading

Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: The Story of Schitt's Creek by Daniel Levy 

The Little Book of Secret Societies 50 of the World's Most Notorious Organizations and How to Join Them by Joel Levy

 

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases by Lydia Kang

The Lower River by Paul Theroux

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 

The Devil's Bones by Jefferson Bass

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Chemistry and Other Stories by Ron Rash 

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue

Six Feet Deep Dish by Mindy Quigley

 

NEW BOOKS

  

Let's Call Her Barbie:  A Novel by Renée Rosen 

The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum by Valerie Wilson Wesley 

Wolf Hour by Jo Nesbo 

Before It's Gone: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America by Jonathan Vigliotti

The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy by Susan Wise Bauer

Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters by Edward J. Larson

100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

After the initial reaction of “Wait, what?” I found this to be a clever and engaging book.  Jennings, best known for his gig as host of Jeopardy!, has compiled many, many different versions of an afterlife from many different sources. Of course, mythology and religion lead the list, with Jennings describing many different beliefs from Native American to Norse, but he moves on to other versions of the afterlife as depicted in books, films, television, music, and more.

It’s a fun book to dip into at any point, though a handy index is provided in case you’d like to find out what the afterlife is like in, oh, Marvel Comics or the movie Beetlejuice. Books include not only Dante’s The Divine Comedy but The Five People You Meet in Heaven  and The Lovely Bones. Visions of the afterlife are also depicted in shows like The Twilight Zone  and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Jennings even remembers My Mother the Car.

While this is a lighthearted book, I enjoyed a lot of the miscellaneous information Jennings tosses in, such as titles of several stories in which ghosts think they are still alive, or the origins of the image of death as a carriage ride. (Emily Dickinson I knew, but the Coen Brothers?) That’s the real delight of this book: the connections Jennings makes across centuries and genres. Well, that and his sense of humor.

This paperback edition comes with a bonus: the “Afterlife Planner,” a flowchart which starts “You have died.  Sorry for your loss.” Then you decide what you want to do next—stay on earth or move on? Each decision brings up more decisions, until you reach a destination page number that describes the afterlife you have chosen. For example, if you want to stay on earth but not in your old house, you have several choices from there. Pick-up baseball? You’ll find yourself in Iowa in Field of Dreams. Want to move on and face judgement? From whom? God or gods? Are you Klingon? Then go to page 234 for descriptions of Klingon afterlife in Sto-vo-kor or Gre’thor.

Whether you want just read selections or entire categories or play “Choose Your Own Afterlife Adventure,” this light-hearted book is a good way to spend an hour or maybe an eternity.

Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run by Paul McCartney, edited by Ted Widmer

 

Reviewed by Kristin

How many books have been written about The Beatles, individually or collectively, and/or about their post-Beatle musical collaborations? A quick Google search (scroll past the AI overview, because that is likely to be generalized and somewhat inaccurate…) tells me that it is at least thousands, and possibly tens of thousands.

I believe it, because I have read quite a few. Not a thousand, but I have at least 20 on a bookshelf at home. In fact, a friend just gave me a vintage book containing letters written to each Beatle in their heyday, appropriately titled Dear Beatles and compiled by Bill Adler. One I must count among my favorites is Mark Lewisohn’s first volume in his comprehensive trilogy, The Beatles: All These Years: Tune In, published in 2013. We’re still waiting for volume two. Since it took him over a decade to publish the first one, I’m holding out hope. Tune In is worth the read, all 932 pages.

The book I’ve just finished reading is a much shorter 550 pages; Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is told through a variety of voices as an oral history. Paul McCartney is prominent, of course, but every member of Wings and various people who knew them also have their words recorded. Linda McCartney, Paul’s late wife and Wings member, is quoted many times. Right after Ted Widmer’s editorial introduction, the “cast in alphabetical order” is listed. From photographers to sound engineers to other musicians to family and more, their thoughts are woven together to create a narrative about a band, well, in the famous words of Paul himself, a band on the run.

Interspersed between these voices are descriptions of projects and timelines placing Wings’ work amongst other major world events. Black and white photos are included throughout with a glossy color photo section in the middle. Appendices include band biographies, Wings’ discography, Wings’ gigography (a term I’d never heard, but loved seeing every public appearance Wings made from 1972-1979), and finally a Paul/Wings specific timeline from 1969-1981.

As you may have guessed, I really enjoyed this book. Another amusing thing that ran through my head while reading was my then two-year-old child singing “Band on the RUG” . . . repeatedly. At least we influence our kids’ musical tastes for a while.

Nevermore Books

 

Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee 

The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding by Joseph J. Ellis 

Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks by Ben Goldacre

Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings by Paul Theroux

 

The Librarian Spy: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 

Tangle All Around: Our Art, Our Journey by Alice Hendon

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai

 

The Award by Matthew Pearl 

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Near Witch by V. E. Schwab

 

A Death in the Family by James Agee 

The Amalfi Curse: A Bewitching Tale of Sunken Treasure, Forbidden Love, and Ancient Magic on the Amalfi Coast by Sarah Penner

 

Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: The Story of Schitt's Creek by Daniel Levy

 

NEW BOOKS

  

How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library: 11 Mini Structures You Can Build by Little Free Little Free Library

The Central Appalachians: Mountains of the Chesapeake by Mark Hendricks

99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them by Ashely Alker, M.D.

The Little Book of Secret Societies 50 of the World's Most Notorious Organizations and How to Join Them by Joel Levy

The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Haven’s father was a diver and a dreamer.  He never did quite get the big find he was always searching for, but he was close. His messages to Haven conveyed his excitement—but then he died suddenly.  Now Haven has come to Positano, an area known for its many shipwrecks, and the place where her father made his last dive. She’s working for a major company and has been allowed to assemble her own dive-team, all women. The goal is to map shipwrecks, but Haven is determined to find the treasure her father believed he had found.

Two hundred years earlier, Mari DeLuca is trying to escape Positano—not so much the village, but the sea that surrounds it.  Mari is one of the Strega del mare, sea witches who have have used their magic to keep Positano safe from invaders and prosperous enough to support their families. The sea is their ally, but because the sea took her mother and her sister, Mari learned to hate the sea.  And now she may have found a way to escape it.

Penner does a lovely job of mixing supernatural elements with the reality of diving and underwater research.  Haven and Mari are both strong, interesting characters who are motivated by love, both romantic and love of family.  When the storylines come together, it’s a beautiful thing.

I was especially intrigued by the descriptions of the Strega and the ocean; it’s a complex relationship, both beautiful and terrible as the sea gives and takes.  While I am not really a fan of dual timelines, it did work out in the end.

If you’re looking for a little light fantasy, romance, and an exotic location, give The Amalfi Curse a try.