Dolly Parton Songteller Book Review

There’s never been a more wonderful time to be a Dolly Parton fan, y’all. All of a sudden, the whole world is figuring out what some of us have known for years, which is that Dolly Rebecca Parton of Sevier County, Tennessee is The Actual Queen of All The Things. She’s celebrated as an icon and a philanthropist and a businesswoman. She’s been on TV and Netflix and a quirky little podcast. And it looks like she might just save our lives.

Whatever your conception of Dolly — her over-the-top appearance, her amazing capacity for kindness, her rather newly-anointed status as America’s Patron Saint — her original role is as a songwriter. In Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, Dolly notes that, no matter her accomplishments as an actress and performer, she thinks of herself primarily as a songwriter.

Songteller is a celebration of Dolly’s career as a songwriter, which has spanned over six decades. The book showcases dozens of her most popular and memorable songs, with Dolly providing memories and backstory to each song. The result is a fascinating and visually stunning look at Dolly’s amazing career as a performer and storyteller.

The hardcover coffee table book is a must-have for serious fans of Dolly or of country music. The book features well-known stories like the inspirations behind Jolene or I Will Always Love You, but also dives into stories that may be new even to devotees. (I particularly loved the story of Merle Haggard’s unrequited crush on Dolly!) The Audible version of the book brings an intimacy to the stories, as you actually hear Miss Dolly recalling each song, while the book provides stunning visual accompaniment. Both hardback and audio versions are a fascinating experience for anyone who loves Dolly Parton, Appalachian culture, country music, or just heartwarming and wholesome stories of good music. Both the hardcover and audio versions are 5/5 must-reads!!

The Best Summer Read of 2020

Lilly Pulitzer Tunic

(This book review contains commissionable affiliate links to Bookshop.org, an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. Bookshop.org allows you the convenience of direct online ordering while providing financial support to America’s local bookstores. HerKentucky, LLC will receive a nominal profit from every purchase you make through these affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. Visit the HerKentucky Bookshop.org shop for my latest book suggestions.)

About this book:

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

Pub: Atria Books, May 5, 2020

HerKentucky Rating: 4.5 / 5 stars

It’s really crazy to think that 2020 is the summer that we’ll be reading beach books without actually visiting the beach! Even with the weird state of travel (or lack thereof) in the world right now, Jennifer Weiner’s Big Summer is the summer beach read you won’t be able to put down this summer!

Big Summer is the story of Phoebe Berg and Drue Cavanaugh. middle school frenemies who attempt to patch up their relationship in the weeks leading up to Drue’s dream wedding on Cape Cod. Daphne, a plus-sized Instagram influencer, works to forgive heiress Drue’s mean girl antics, while they both make sure to take plenty selfies for their social media accounts. A murder, a reality show bachelor, and a handsome stranger who might be covering up his past make the beach wedding unforgettable.

In the hands of a lesser author, this story could, of course, be tedious or vacuous. The brilliance of Ms. Weiner — a Princeton alumna who’s been publishing chick-lit-with-a-twist novels for nearly twenty years now — is that every character has a memorable spin, and every pop culture reference comes with wry social commentary. More importantly, it’s always wildly entertaining. Ms. Weiner addresses the current phenomena of social media influencer culture, reality dating shows, and “true crime” obsession, while making the characters complex and sympathetic. The book is poignant, romantic and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. It’s quite a feat, really.

Another sizable feat is to publish a blockbuster beach read type of book during the summer when very few Americans are actually visiting a beach. In a fantastic podcast interview with my friend (and fellow Louisvillian!) Anne Bogel, Ms. Weiner notes that she and her publishing company made the decision to move the book’s publication date up a couple of weeks due to COVID-19 projections, after having dismissed a later date. Ms. Weiner says the conversation took the turn that “We could try to move it to the fall, although selling a book called Big Summer in September maybe not the easiest thing.” Even listening to the audiobook on my porch was an escape — I could at least imagine Drue’s champagne-and-oysters wedding! Ms. Weiner’s attention to detail — no matter how minute or outlandish — provided the perfect distraction.

Big Summer is a must-read if you loved Ms. Weiner’s previous works, are pining for the beach, or if you’re fascinated by the Spon-Con world of Instagram Influencers. Check out my constantly-growing list of Summer Book suggestions on the Bookshop.org HerKentucky Shop. Happy Reading, y’all!

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles and The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis Book Reviews

{Disclaimer: This review contains affiliate links to Amazon.com. I will be compensated a very small amount per book purchased through the links contained in this post, at no additional charge to you.}

I’ve been in the car a lot recently — three trips to Lexington in two weeks — so I’ve had a lot of time to listen to audiobooks on Audible. I listened to Rules of Civility and The Masterpiece and, while I didn’t intentionally choose a “theme” for these days of listening to fiction, I started to realize that the two books have several similarities. Both are romantic and impeccably researched stories of money and manners in Manhattan of the 1920s and ‘30s, and both are strongly influenced by modern art —each making direct reference to the work of Stuart Davis — and the NYC jazz club scene. (When I type it all out like that, in fact, it seems hard to believe that I didn’t see the similarities immediately.)

I chose Rules of Civility first. Y’all, I just love this book. In fact, I listened to it for a second time last week, having first listened to it audiobook back in the spring, when I discovered author Amor Towles through his stunning novel A Gentleman in Moscow and immediately had to read his earlier work.) Rules of Civility is a smart, sophisticated, fast-paced novel of manners and social status in 1930s New York; it reads like The Great Gatsby if Nick Carraway had actually been one of the bright young things, rather than a judgmental and detached observer. It’s delightful and tragic and it’s one of the few novels I’ve ever read in which a male author successfully writes through the lens of a female narrator. Rules of Civility tells the story of Katey Kontent, the orphaned daughter of Russian immigrant parents. As a young legal secretary in 1937 New York, Katey finds herself in a dramatic romantic triangle alongside her roommate, Indiana-born beauty Evelyn Ross, and a mysterious, WASPy young banker named Tinker Gray. Towles’ work is delicate and complex — a world of wealth and beauty hanging by the thinnest of threads — and nobody is quite who they seem. After listening twice on Audible, I still find myself wanting more.

The Masterpiece, the most recent work by Fiona Davis, tells the story of Virginia Clay, a 1970s divorcee and breast cancer survivor who finds herself working at the information booth in Grand Central Station to support herself and her recent-college-dropout daughter. As Virginia learns to rely on herself, she also uncovers the secret world of the Grand Central Art School, which was housed in the train station nearly fifty years earlier and finds herself at the heart of the fight to retain Grand Central Station as a historical landmark. It’s a fascinating story for anyone who loves the history of New York, modern art (especially abstract expressionism), or vintage fashion illustration. Characters are based on Arshile Gorky and Helen Dryden, if you want to research those artists before reading or listening.

Both Rules of Civility and The Masterpiece are compelling stories of Jazz Age New York, filled with engaging and unique characters. I loved listening to both of these in Audible audiobook format.

I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel Book Review

{Disclaimer: This review contains affiliate links to Amazon.com. I will be compensated a very small amount per book purchased through the links contained in this post, at no additional charge to you. I was provided an advance copy of the book by the author; all opinions are my own.}

My friend Anne Bogel's book of bookish essays came out a couple of weeks ago and y'all, it is so good.

Anne is the blogger behind Modern Mrs. Darcy and the podcaster behind What Should I Read Next? and, as her internet ventures' names would suggest, she really knows books. She also knows people, and human nature. She's a smart, kind, and funny lady who's spent a lot of time reflecting on personality types, reading styles, and all sorts of meta/ intellectual things. And she manages to write about these things in an accessible, warm, and funny style.

I’d Rather Be Reading is a collection of brief, lovely essays about the delights and obstacles encountered by those of us who really know and love books. There are musings on how many copies of a title you should own (If you find yourself in possession of multiples, you should own three. Two, it seems, is an oversight; three is a collection), reflections on reading the right books at the right time, and a charming story about how different the dream of working as a bookseller is from the job’s reality.

Louisville natives will recognize the St Matthews Eline Library as the “library next door” which Anne visited daily when her children were young, as well as Carmichael’s Bookstore and the late, lamented Hawley-Cooke Booksellers. Anyone who loves books will appreciate her quest to read as often as possible.

All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin Book Review

{This book review contains Amazon Affiliate links. I receive a small compensation for books purchased through the links in this post.}

Emily Giffin is an author with whose work I have a complex relationship. I think she's an amazing storyteller and that she has a knack for compelling dialogue and "smart lady soap opera" fiction. I often can't wait to read her books and have them delivered via Amazon Prime on the day of publication. I devour each new book in a day or so. I can't put Ms. Giffin's books down. And yet I often find myself highly conflicted. Something a character says doesn't hit me right, or a plot point seems... not quite right. 

I preordered Ms. Giffin's latest, All We Ever Wanted, as soon as I learned that it was set in Nashville. Now y'all know that Nashville is my happy place. I travel there as frequently as possible to recharge my creative batteries. I especially love the neighborhoods in the southern/ southwestern end of town; several of the main characters live in this area, in the exclusive Belle Meade neighborhood. I've made many fun trips to the East Nashville area for meals and festivals and events; this neighborhood plays a prominent role in the work as well. So, I kind of braced myself. Ms. Giffin grew up in suburban Illinois, practiced law in NYC and wrote in London before settling in Atlanta with her husband and kids. I always wonder if she has a bit of disdain for the South; the main character in Love the One You're With -- an otherwise highly compelling novel -- seemed to delight in subtly disparaging the South in a way that made me cringe. So, when I picked up a novel set in my favorite city by an author whom I know to be a compelling storyteller, I still had guarded expectations.

Let me just start off by saying that, from a storytelling perspective, All We Ever Wanted is fantastic. The book tells the story of two Nashville families, the Volpes and the Brownings. The wealthy Brownings, Kirk, Nina, and their son Finch, are firmly ensconced in Nashville's elite Belle Meade circles, while single father and carpenter Tom Volpe raises his daughter Lyla in a blue collar East Nashville setting. Finch and Lyla are classmates at a prestigious private school; their worlds are changed forever when a drunken photo of Lyla is posted to Finn's social media. The story is a fast-paced and heart-wrenching story of parental guilt, hidden secrets, and long-ago pain. Nina finds her small-town morals at to be at odds with her husband's desire to protect their son's Princeton admission at any cost, and she begins to address a long-suppressed assault that has impacted her entire adult life. Tom must confront his own class biases and the scars left by his tumultuous relationship with Lyla's mother, an alcoholic who abandoned them when Lyla was a toddler. This story plays out as every mother's nightmare: "How did my little baby become this person?" becomes "Is my child a psychopath?" in fairly short order. The work forces readers to think about the impact of class and privilege, the slippery slope between alcohol use and abuse, and the often-terrifying landscape of sexual consent and assault. It's a timely, nuanced, and tight narrative about the damage we can inflict on others and on ourselves, and it's a fantastic pool read.

And yet -- y'all knew there'd be a yet -- there were problems. Readers, I think I have to confess to y'all that the problem was with me and not with the book. I couldn't get past weird little details like "You send your kids to single sex-high schools like MBA or Harpeth if you live in Nashville" or "Nobody splits a glass of wine at Husk" or "A Methodist cop who's lived his entire life in Bristol would never drive home after drinking even a single beer." I didn't love the broad-sweeping message that you're kind of inherently vapid and materialistic if you live in Belle Meade and that you're in touch with core values if you hail from East Nashville; I've definitely met plenty whofolks who defy each of these stereotypes. And yet, as a writer and a serious reader, I know better than to allow myself to get mired in these little details. I know that if I set a novel anywhere other than the places I've lived -- Lexington, Louisville, Nashville, or the holler -- I couldn't pass this test. If I set a piece of fiction, the author of this work could likely find just as many nitpicking details that I got wrong. Ms. Giffin has been painstaking in her research of the city. So many things seem perfectly right, like pastries from Sweet 16th, which makes the best red velvet cake in East Nashville, or possibly anywhere in the world. Ultimately, she gets more "Luke Bryant popups in the Gulch" and "Buying jeans at Imogene + Willie" stories right than wrong, these little details make me sound like a pedantic malcontent, and the book is the best piece of chick lit that's been published so far in 2018.

I recommend All We Ever Wanted for anyone who loves Big Little Lies, Something Borrowed, or the early seasons of Nashville. Please chime in if you've read the book and have an opinion on the story, or if you've ever found yourself derailed by an author's tiny missteps in regard to locale and local customs!