Beach Read

Beach Read

By Emily Henry

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They're polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

Yet again, I was misled by a blurb and a cover.  Not that I mind! I actually liked the book this was more than the book I thought it would be (does that make sense? I was unsure about even reserving the book I thought it would be on my hold list).  But the jacket implies a frothy meet cute about two writers falling in love, whereas it's actually about two writers falling in love, but they've met before, and also both of them really need therapy. Now that I say that, I can see why they didn't go for that on the blurb.

We meet January holed up in a house in Michigan, which happens to be the previously unsuspected second home of her father who'd been having an affair.  Her struggles with that information (disclosed at his funeral, no less) are probably also the reason she can't write her next romance novel. Meanwhile, her new neighbor turns out to be an old college acquaintance from the same writing program, also struggling with writer's block about his next ("literary") novel.  We find out partway through that he's in the midst of a divorce, not to mention dealing with his traumatic childhood.

What with one thing and another, they decide to take each other out on expeditions to get the other out of their comfort zone (Gus takes January to interview previous cult members, January takes Gus to the state fair, basically).   And naturally, we find out Gus actually kind of pined for January when they were in school together - it's sweet.  Anyway, I thought it would be a lot more treacly than it was.  And honestly, there was a bunch more writing going on than I assumed there would be - ha, it feels like half the time, the characters' jobs are just background noise, but here they're front and center.  

It was very much not a "loll around on the beach and trade sunscreen tips while flirting" but more of a "you tell me what's bothering you and I'll tell you what's bothering me, and maybe we can both move past it" kind of book, and I liked that.  It felt very Midwestern summer (humidity and storms, Fourth of July pool parties, etc) and the romance between the two doesn't feel forced or shallow.  It probably helps that the book does take place over several months, and you do get that feeling of time passing (albeit hazily).  

I agree with other reviewers that the secondary characters are minimally fleshed out, but who needs secondary characters, anyway?  This is the rare "romance" book where I actually found myself highlighting quotes (for example, one about the enjoyment of reading) that I found particularly profound/poignant.  That was a rare quality, for me, and even if we got less lighthearted as the book went on, I still found it to be a good summer read, preferably when it's warm, but raining outside.  I wouldn't call it a beach read, but definitely the thing when your whole day is ahead of you and your only plans are to curl up and listen to the rain with the windows open. 

 

White Stallion of Lipizza

White Stallion of Lipizza

By Marguerite Henry

The magnificent white Lipizzan stallions, bred for hundreds of years to dance and delight emperors and kings, captivated Marquerite Henry when she saw them perform in the Spanish Court Riding School in Vienna.

Now she makes this unique spectacle the focal point in her story of Borina, one of the most famous stallions of this famous breed.  It was Borina who, at the height of his career, took a fling in the Viennese Grand Opera.  And it was Borina who, as a mature school stallion, helped train young apprentice riders, and thus became known as the four-footed professor.

One of his pupils was Hans, a baker's boy.  Day after day Hans had watched with longing eyes the parade of Lipizzaners as they crossed the street from their stables to the Palace Riding Hall.  Impossible as it seemed, Hans felt that he must become a part of that world. He must become a Riding Master.  

I was originally struggling with a book for this prompt, since I was trying to steer clear of books I've already read (unless explicitly required) and how would you know whether a book will inspire a certain feeling unless you've already read it?  But in looking over old books, I realized a good Marguerite Henry book would fit just fine - and this one more than most, since it reminds me not only of my horse-reading days, but also of my time in Vienna (even if I do now regret never making time for the Hofreitschule, whomp whomp, although I did get to the opera - which had no horses, but was crazy nonetheless).  Nowadays though, even the Lipizzaners are online for everyone's viewing pleasure, so it's not irredeemable.

My favorite Marguerite Henry book has always been King of the Wind, which may explain some of my predilections for heavy angst and happy endings.  (Although really, once Sham dies, Agba just goes back to Morocco?? After like, twenty years, and while he's mute [and I think mostly illiterate too]? How is he going to get a job again? Why can't he just stay with Sham's kids? Why do I care so much? AND THEY MADE A MOVIE I NEVER KNEW ABOUT UNTIL JUST NOW? And it stars Jenny Agutter? Mind blown!) I barely remember any of her Misty books, but Justin Morgan Had A Horse and Brighty of the Grand Canyon - oh I remember those.  

White Stallion is pretty classic Henry.  It follows a young boy (her protagonists are by historical necessity almost always male, although I do note that two young women were admitted to the Hofreitschule in 2008 for the first time in 436 years of operation, aye yi yi) in Vienna in the late 1930s, early 1940s (and let's unpack that later, shall we?) who dreams of riding Lipizzaners instead of delivering pastries. I mean, who wouldn't? We spend probably 80% of the book focused on him before he is even admitted to the riding school, and just a couple of chapters cover his training and time in the school.  The book is more focused on his dream and his relationship with Borina, who was apparently a real-life famous horse.  Which is how I know when the book was set.  By the way, although Henry obviously wanted to write about horses, there is NO WAY she wouldn't get blasted in reviews for writing a book about a kid in Vienna in 1940 and completely ignore the batshittery going on around him, namely, THE ONSET OF WORLD WAR II.  And yes, we know when this is, because Maestoso Borina was born in 1910, and he is thirty years old in the book. Don't even holler at me.  

I do think that the story of the Lipizzaners during WWII is an interesting one  (and clearly, I'm not alone, since they made a movie about Podhajsky and General Patton saving the Lipizzaners called Miracle of the White Stallion, which now I have to see)  - what place does beauty and art have in Nazi-held Austria, and what does it say about Hans that we know only about riding, and nothing about the terrors going on in the streets? Even the Lipizzaners themselves were caught under the reign (rein?) of the Nazi regime, subject to Nazi stud farms and starving refugees and soldiers.  Perhaps the end note omitting Hans' further activities is for good reason.  

And yet, even so, White Stallion is truly nostalgic, both of a time in history, and of a period in a child's life when you can be consumed wholly by your dream, and achieve it in every measure.  It was a pleasure to discover a Henry book I hadn't read, and the version I had (I don't know if they ever published a normal trade paperback version), which is quite large, with beautiful black and white and color illustrations, was exquisite.

I know this review is chock-full of factota but here's one more to leave you with: Marguerite Henry lived in Wayne, Illinois, which is now kind of a suburb of Chicago, but they did, and still do, host annual Fox Hunts!! Like, for real, they get on horses and chase fake fox smells through the suburban forests.  What the fuck did I just read.  Incredible.


02: Book That Makes You Nostalgic
Jan 5