Summer Reading

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Memorial Day is the traditional kickoff of summer in the U.S. Schools are (mostly) out, pools are open, vacations are planned. And for us bookish people, it's the time of year when we are inundated with ads for SUMMER READS!!! We talked about "beach reads" on the blog the other day, so I'm wondering if we can differentiate a "summer read" from a "beach read?" (I love, by the way, that SUMMER READING is the title of our Jenn McKinlay's wonderful novel from last year–and if you somehow missed it, add it to your list!) I am taking a stance on this and saying that "beach read" is a sub category of "summer read!)

Either way, heres a start on summer reads from Bookbub, with a lovely shout out to our Jenn's LOVE AT FIRST BOOK!

And here's another Bookbub list--this one designated "beach reads--several of which are already in my to-read pile. A glut of riches!

So do those of us not actually going on vacations still get to have "summer reads?" (The closest I ever get to vacation reading is on my trips to England, when I get to read whenever I want, for as long as I want–sometimes even into the wee hours of the morning, a luxury I seldom get at home.) I certainly don't want to feel left out, so here are a few books that I've earmarked for some special summer time.

I've bought all four of Liz Williams' Fallow Sisters novels, starting with COMET WEATHER. This series is described by Paul Cornell as "...a golden slice of British rural fantasy…" which I adore, and I've been saving them for a time when I could clear the decks a little.

Also, Susan Coll's BOOKISH PEOPLE, which is described as a "quirky gem" and sounded just the thing to enjoy while having a cup of tea in the garden.

And Nancy Thayer's THE SUMMER WE STARTED OVER, which I think, as it's set on Nantucket in the summer, crosses over into beach read category, but I'm fine with that.

Oh, adding two more on the British front!! Sara Nisha Adams' (author of THE READING LIST) THE TWILIGHT GARDEN, and David Nicholls' (author of the fabulous ONE DAY) YOU ARE HERE!

What have you saved for summer reading, dear Reds? And how are you all spending Memorial Day?

JENN McKINLAY: Thanks for the nod, Debs. SUMMER READING was so much fun to write! 

As for what i’m reading this summer, I am trying to catch up to all of the recent cozy fantasy books since I’m stepping into that genre, so my beach reads are mostly in that vein with A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING by T. Kingfisher, HALF A SOUL by Olivia Atwater, and THAT TIME I GOT DRUNK AND SAVED A DEMON by Kimberly Lemming. You can tell by the titles, I’m in for a good summer!

LUCY BURDETTE: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, Jenn??? That sounds irresistible though I don’t think I’ve ever read cozy fantasy. I started LOVE AT FIRST BOOK yesterday and I’m trying so hard to read slowly so it doesn’t go by too quickly. I love being in Ireland with you and your characters. And I love this line: “Don’t talk.” I held up my hand as I took another spoonful of the chowder. “I’m having a moment with my food.”

I think next up will be Ruth Reichl’s The Paris Novel. I certainly won’t go to Paris this summer with the Olympics happening, so I can go on the page. I’m trying to save the paperbacks for a long plane ride…

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m listening to Meryl Streep reading TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett. Harmonious mother and daughters, my favorite subjects. It’s a little confusing the way it moves back and forth in time… something that would NOT be confusing if I were reading the printed page. Just one of the many differences between reading/reading and listening/reading. 

RHYS BOWEN:  I loved the WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING, Jenn. So different! And I’ve read Nancy’s Nantucket book–having had a lovely lunch with her there last year I feel a special affinity!  I’ve just had a rather busy week (British understatement) with two lots of copy edits and one proposal plus three chapters all due at the same time, but I have been sneaking a few minutes each day for Jenn’s LOVE AT FIRST BOOK and nearly finished it but I don’t want to.  Next up is Harini’s NEST OF VIPERS. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I am so happy that I get to read Ruth Ware’s new  ONE PERFECT COUPLE –it takes place on an island, so THAT’s summer, right?

And in preparation to interview him, Chris Whittakers’ new ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, a big fat book–and that’s summer too, right? The perfect time for epic drama.

And for another interview–something completely different—Kristy Woodson Harvey’s A HAPPIER LIFE . It has a beach chair and a floppy hat and the beach on the cover–so that’s summer, too! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Put me down as another Nancy Thayer fan - summer doesn’t start until I’ve read her most recent Nantucket novel. I’m a reader who likes her books in season, which means from June through August, I want to read mysteries, thrillers, romances and adult fiction set in expensive summer resorts or on east coast beaches, or at a tropical island. 

For the first, Lucy Foley’s latest: THE MIDNIGHT FEAST. If you’re a fan (I am) you know you’re going to get a luxurious, isolated setting, a Clue-like list of victims guests, and rich people behaving Very Badly. The fact the murder occurs on the summer solstice is just the chef’s kiss for this book.

JACKPOT SUMMER (Elyssa Freidman) scratches the second itch, as four siblings gather on the Jersey Shore to pack up their widowed father’s house - oh, and to win millions on a Powerball ticket. Will sudden wealth solve all their problems, or tear the family apart?

Finally, THE DESIGN OF US (Sajni Patel) coming out in July, presses all my rom-com buttons: fake dating, enemies-to-lovers, raincloud meets sunny-side-up-egg PLUS an Indian wedding, all set on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Oh, and bonus goodie: LIES AND WEDDINGS by Kevin Kwan, author of CRAZY RICH ASIANS. It’s a pastiche of Anthony Trollope’s DOCTOR THORNE, with lots more money, travel, and sexy men!      

DEBS: How will we ever squeeze in a fraction of these??? I have to admit that I started Liz Williams' COMET WEATHER and it is absolutely delicious!! So glad today is a holiday and I can indulge myself a bit because I don't want to put it down!

Readers (at least our American set) how are you spending Memorial Day? And what are you cooking?     

 

What We Are Writing: Rhys Bowen on Suitable for Memorial Day

RHYS BOWEN: For once I don't have to think about a suitable post for what I am writing. I saw so many powerful images of Memorial Day, I saw a tank museum on TV and learned that the life expectancy of a tank member during WWII was twenty nine minutes after they went into battle. Imagine knowing that and yet doing your duty anyway. I also so a photo last week of a landing craft, heading for Dunkirk. The men looking up for the camera, some giving cheeky grins, others innocent stares. About ninety percent of them would be dead within an hour. So senseless. So many young lives lost needlessly. And yet most believed WWII was necessary. They volunteered to do their part to stop evil from swallowing the world.

I write about a similar scenario in my next stand-alone novel set in the East of England during the war. My heroine is evacuated from a bombed house in London to the countryside, and finds herself next to a bomber command base. Every night those planes set off for Germany and every morning some don't return. Fifty percent of bomber crew did not survive. Fifty percent. Think about it. You eat in the mess hall and look at the man next to you and think "will it be you or me not sitting here tomorrow?" but they still did it. They still climbed into planes and flew off into the darkness ahead.

Here is a small scene near when Josie arrives in Lincolnshire:

The hot water bottle made her bed bearably warm but Josie awoke the next morning to find her window completely covered in patterns of frost. When she cleared some of it away she looked out on a sparkling world. A red sun hung over the Eastern horizon. Snow covered fields seemed to go on forever, divided by dykes and canals that glowed pink in the rising sun. After the narrowness and confinement of a big city all her life this landscape took Josie’s breath away. She had never imagined such an enormous sky.

 As she watched she heard the muffled roar of a plane and saw two aircraft coming in to land. Two bombers, heavy, unwieldy. She noticed that one of them was pitching and shuddering like a wounded insect, and then she saw the reason—part of one wing had been destroyed. She watched the unscathed plane lower its wheels and dip behind the line of the trees, then the damaged plane dipped too. Suddenly there was an explosion, a fireball rose over the trees and she realized that the plane had crashed trying to land. She turned away, feeling sick.  The enchanted sparkling landscape now had a new dimension—it was a place of danger.

I think we now appreciate books about WWII because we have all lived in a place of danger for the past year. We have now been in a position when we never feel completely safe. We might have taken every precaution but opening the door to a stranger, bumping into someone in a supermarket might mean our death. And now we can actually feel what it was like to live in a time when bombing was a regular occurrence , when invasion a possibility, when most of Europe was invaded by the enemy.

And yet people got on with their lives. They did what they were supposed to, they snatched happiness wherever they could and didn't think beyond tomorrow.

We honor them all now. Not just those who went out to fight but those who stayed at home and kept going amidst bombed out homes and lost love ones.

About Memorial Day

RHYS BOWEN:  I had forgotten it was Memorial Day! I mean who hasn’t mixed up days recently when Monday seems a lot like Saturday. Any other year Memorial Day would mean the official start of summer. School is out for many students. It would mean picnics and barbecues, beaches and hot dogs without a thought for what the day is actually about.


But this year is different. This year we are all too aware of senseless death, loss and grief. Almost a hundred thousand of our brothers and sisters lost, many unnecessarily.  I read that this number is more than all those killed in every war our country has fought. Can that be true?

And so our thoughts turn to the reason for Memorial Day: founded to commemorate those lost in the Civil War--as senseless a loss of life as there ever was. All wars are horrible. Most are for the wrong reasons. But a civil war--brother against brother--is the worst kind. And it is still having repercussions today, isn’t it? How many Confederate flags are flying recently? It must be the only war in which the losing side has never admitted defeat. It still divides our nation after one and a half centuries.Was it necessary? Abraham Lincoln thought there was no alternative. Slaves were freed. Some good came of it. But at what price?


And every war since, except for WWII, which I think everyone believes was necessary and just, has been colored in shades of gray. Were we right to go into Korea? Vietnam? Iraq? For each there were justifications at the time, especially among politicians, but weighed against the cost of human life?


So this Memorial Day is a perfect time for reflection. Let us think of those rows of headstones in Arlington National Cemetery, each one representing a mother or a sweetheart who stood, weeping, and found themselves wondering what their loved one had been fighting for.


And on this particular Memorial Day, one we will never forget, let us remind ourselves that every life is precious and each one of those souls lost to this virus is a loss to our country and to humanity.


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Amen.


DEBORAH CROMBIE: Perfectly and eloquently said, Rhys.


HALLIE EPHRON: Exactly.


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING:  Poignant and true. Thank you, Rhys.

Memorial Day Parades

JENN McKINLAY: First, let's take a moment to think of those who lost their lives in service to our country. I do not believe there is any greater sacrifice a person, or their loved ones, can make than
to die defending the freedoms that we Americans hold dear in our hearts. Bless them, each and every one.

Now as a kid the greater meaning of Memorial Day was lost on me. Primarily because whenever Memorial Day came around, there was a parade to be marched in. I started as a baton twirler. That
didn't last very long. A few clonks on the head with the metal baton and not even the sparkly unitard could lure me back into the fold. 

Then, it was marching with the girl scouts, the bicentennial bicycle brigade, and riding on the library float. In high school, I was in marching band so every Memorial Day was parade day. I have so many fond memories of being in the parades that to this day I still love them! Weirdo, I know.

Parada del Sol - AZ

In Scottsdale, it's a tad hot for Memorial Day parades, so in February we have the Parada del Sol, the largest horse centric parade in the country, and we attend every year and cheer on all of the war veterans who ride in antique cars or on the back of flatbed trucks. Our boys have marched with the middle school band and the high school band every year for the past six years. It's always a special moment. I love it. Hub not so much (because people) but he's a good sport (mostly) about it.

What about you, Reds? Do you love a parade?

HALLIE EPHRON: I love parades but I hate crowds. You see the problem.

Our town has a Memorial Day parade which my older daughter dreaded because, as flute player in her high school band, she was expected to march to the cemetery and play at the service. I'm afraid the meaning of the event was lost on her as well, especially when it rained. But our beautiful local cemetery (established in 1672) blooms with Veteran's flags on Memorial Day, and on the Boston Common thousands of flags are planted on a hillside.  It makes me stop and reflect and, yes, give thanks.

Remember the movie Easter Parade? I remember being so disappointed when I moved to NYC and could actually go to Fifth Avenue on Easter, come to find out that the parade was just a lot of people swanning about in funny hats. Not sure what I was expecting. Maybe Judy Garland swinging down from the top of Rockefeller Center.


RHYS BOWEN: I'm a sucker for parades, for pomp and circumstance in general. My heart quickens at the sound of an approaching marching band. Tears trickle down my cheeks when the graduates march in to the Elgar piece that we know in England as Land of Hope and Glory. But small town parades are my favorite. When we lived in Corte Madera, in Marin County they had a 4th of July parade, decorated bicycles, the mayor in an open topped car, very low key, but everyone knew everyoneI  and waved as they went past. My daughter has the same sort of thing in Sonoma.. I think that deep in the American pysche there is a longing for pagentry and lost royalty.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: You'll think I'm silly, but parades make me cry. The veterans, all proud and in their uniforms. The marching bands, with the teenagers playing earnestly, and the cacophonous brass, the weird arrangements of popular music morphed into being unidentifiable. I used to be in a band, and I know how hard iti s to march and play at the same time. (I was a majorette, too, briefly, an utter and absolute failure, who the band director assigned to be in the middle of the back row so no one could tell how terrible I was. But I loved the boots.)  I grew up in Zionsville, Indiana, and EVERYONE got to march in the Fourth of July parade, seemed like there were more people on the street than in on the sidewalk--brigades of goofy dogs, and the quilting ladies, and the kids with sheep, and there was a group  who marched with shopping carts. And endless ponies, and the 4-h exhibitors. And kids pulling little red  wagons with whatever in them, usually littler kids.  Beauty queens in convertibles, either too hot in the broiling heat or too cold but determined not to cover up their dresses and sashes. And flags, millions of flags.
I still makes me cry. The participation, and the community, and the proud timelessness of it.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Jenn, still giggling over you getting conked in the head with the metal baton... Those things hurt! I had one as a kid, although I was never coordinated enough to march in anything. Didn't play in band, either, which I now really regret. But I LOVE parades, especially when there are horses! And I love high school bands. Those make me teary. However, I don't like standing out in the heat and the sun. But, luckily, our Memorial Day parade should start at my daughter's house and end up passing ours, so hopefully I'll get to stand in the shade--or even take out a folding chair--and watch it coming and going!

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm lucky to live in two towns that love parades--Madison and Key West. Along with other vets, John will be marching in the parade on Monday, which is a smaller, more somber affair with stops to memorialize local heroes. On the fourth of July, all stops are pulled out--small town fun at its best! In Key West, everything is an excuse for a parade and we love them all...

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Small town parades are, without a doubt, the best. For years we've been going to the local Saco/Biddeford Memorial Day Parade (the two towns are "sister cities" divided by the Saco River, whose mills used to provide a living for everyone in the area.) The Saco Middle School Band will march, as will the Biddeford Tigers. The American Legion is out in full force, and local organizations and often a politician or two - marching in a parade seems the very definition of retail politics to me! Antique cars, an antique fire truck, and an antique police car, followed by a real squad car to close out the parade.

Like the rest of you, I'm a watering can when I see Old Glory and the proud old (and not-so-old, these days) veterans marching by. Ross, a vet himself, would always brace and uncover, with his hand over his heart. Thinking about this years' parade without him and with the Sailor on duty in the Persian Gulf - ugh, I get weepy just thinking about it. I'll have to find a red, white and blue handkerchief to bring with me.

All right, Readers, how about you? Are you a parade person or no?

Mock Grilled Ribs for Memorial Day

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: As promised, a Memorial Day recipe that fulfills my two requirements: it has to be something guests will expect to see at a cookout, but NOT have to go on a grill, because I am a woman and I don't know how to grill. There, I said it. I married Ross so I would never have to know anything about wine or about BBQ, and it's too late for me to learn no, especially when I have A) the wine guy at RSVP Beverages to tell me what's good and B) recipes like this.

These mock-grilled ribs are not my recipe, but come courtesy of my friend Celia Wakefield, who besides being a delightful commentor on Jungle Reds, was also a professional  caterer. Many of her meals which I've had the good fortune to share are wonders like this - three or four ingredients, a little magic, and they come out looking and tasting like... well, like you had a pro catering for you! Take it away, Celia!

Here is a quick prep recipe which works well with a gathering when you want to be with the party, not in the kitchen.

Ingredients:
2#+ rack of St. Louis spareribs -this will give 14# ribs so allow 3 ribs per person at least.

Spice mix:
Buy a good commercial one like Indian Curry Seasoning from Frontier Coop*, or make your own with:
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp cardamom
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp garlic powder NOT salt
1 tbsp chili (Trader Jo makes a great one called TJ Chili Lime seasoning blend)
Measure out and mix together. 

Heat oven to 325 degrees F

Use a baking sheet large enough to lay the ribs down in a single layer.

Tear a piece of heavy duty foil to enclose the ribs with extra to fold over to make a heat proof envelope.

Lay the ribs curved side up in the center of the foil, sprinkle generously with spices.

Turn over and sprinkle the other side. This side is ribs curving up.

Wrap tightly and put in the oven for 1.5 hours dependent on the meatiness of the ribs. More meat, longer cooking. 

Remove and unwrap carefully as the steam can burn!

Turn ribs over and put either under the grill or on the barbecue for a crisper finish.

*  If you can find a smoked mixed spice grab it as it will be wonderful and you can add additional spices to ‘spice’ up the flavor.

Serve by separating the ribs and serving with a rice pilaf or fries or a good baguette. 

JULIA: Do you have any fail-proof cookout recipes you'd like to share, dear readers? And please congratulate Celia, who's celebrating her 50th anniversary with her delightful husband Victor this week!

Fast Five for the Start of Summer

It's Memorial Day Weekend! We'll have some recipes that straddle the line between BBQ and a dinner party tomorrow, and on Monday, we'll reminisce about the Memorial Day parades we have known and loved. But we're all running around like mad today, so it's going to be a Fast Five Questions about the start of summer!


JULIA:
1. What's your fav dish to bring to a cookout?  My mom's potato salad recipe. Simple, cheap, and everybody loves it.

2. Are your feet ready for sandal season?  Heck, no. My feet look like they've just been released from a Siberian gulag. I desperately need a pedi.

3. What's your summer jam? Fishin' in the Dark by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

4. Are you going swimming, and where? I will, with God's help. (That's a joke for the Episcopalians out there.) If the temperatures manage to reach something resembling summer, I'll be dunking in Lake Arrowhead this weekend, otherwise, you can catch me swimming in the Saco River. In July, when it warms up.

5. Name one thing you always have at the ready in summer. A cardigan! Because you never know when it's going to get chilly here in Maine.



HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: 
 1. What's your fav dish to bring to a cookout?   Chilled Prosecco. Fresh fruit--blueberries, raspberries, peaches.  Peach pie!

2. Are your feet ready for sandal season?   Yes! I just got turquoise. I feel so radical.

3. What's your summer jam?  Basia--there's a song called ..ah, I will look it up. Time and Tide, I think. Girl from Ipanema.  Beach Boys!

4. Are you going swimming, and where?  Truro. But do I have to go into the water? We love to float in our back yard pool!  We get big puffy pool floats and books, and lemonade, and float. looking up at the blue blue sky and up through the giant sugar maples. It is glorious and inspirational and very very Zen.

5. Name one thing you always have at the ready in summer.        Sunscreen. A hat.  Sunglasses. (And I swoon at the fragrance of Coppertone and Bain de Soleil!


HALLIE EPHRON
1. What's your fav dish to bring to a cookout? Sesame noodles with mushrooms, and cucumbers. There's a Mark Bittman recipe for it that ran in the NY Times.

2. Are your feet ready for sandal season? I just bought myself sandals that cover my toes so I can put off addressing this very issue.

3. What's your summer jam? In the Summertime, when the weather is hot...

4. Are you going swimming, and where? I'll fully intend to and then usually never actually take the plunge. Peaks Island in Maine where the water is NOT hot.

5. Name one thing you always have at the ready in summer. Vodka and club soda and cranberry juice and lime. 



DEBS:
 1. What's your fav dish to bring to a cookout? Bottles of chilled rose and Sauvignon Blanc. Oooh, and my watermelon and feta salad.

2. Are your feet ready for sandal season? You betcha. This is Texas. I've been in sandals for two months. My toenails are a happy coral.

3. What's your summer jam? Roundabout, by Yes. Always makes me want to drive with the windows down and the sunroof open.

4. Are you going swimming, and where? Sure. If someone who has a pool invites me.

5. Name one thing you always have at the ready in summer. Mosquito repellent!


 
Jenn McKinlay:
 1. What's your fav dish to bring to a cookout? -- Deviled Eggs!!! Always.

2. Are your feet ready for sandal season? -- Yes, mostly because I just don't care (my, god, I love being over 50).

3. What's your summer jam? -- Lounging on the hammock on the porch of our summer house in Nova Scotia while reading and listening to the Grateful Dead. Bliss.

4. Are you going swimming, and where? -- Yes, in my pool in AZ when it's over 100 or in the Bay of Fundy, usually because I tipped my kayak over and have no choice.

5. Name one thing you always have at the ready in summer.  -- Sunscreen.





LUCY BURDETTE:
 1. What's your fav dish to bring to a cookout? Jenn got to the eggs before I did, but that's what I'm bringing too!

2. Are your feet ready for sandal season? Yes, pale pink toes:)

3. What's your summer jam? Under the Boardwalk (people walking above...)

4. Are you going swimming, and where? John's family reunion is in Cape Cod. Really hoping it's warm enough to swim in July--the kids will all be going in!

5. Name one thing you always have at the ready in summer. Rosé!


RHYS BOWEN:
1. What's your fav dish to bring to a cookout? How come everybody has already brought the deviled eggs? That's what we bring. Okay, secret recipe baked beans.

2. Are your feet ready for sandal season? Not exactly. Pedicure needed before I take off for Europe

3. What's your summer jam?  Anything Beach Boys. Barbara Ann.

4. Are you going swimming, and where? I swim year round at my health club and in the pool in Arizona and I'm seriously miffed that I won't have much chance to swim as we criss-cross Europe. Maybe I'll brave the ocean in Cornwall. But I'm a wimp. Brrrr.

5. Name one thing you always have at the ready in summer.: My bathing suit.



JULIA: What is Rhys's secret recipe for baked beans? Will anyone invite Debs to their pool? How many times will Jenn tip her kayak in the Bay of Fundy? Stay tuned for the answer to these and more questions as summer unfolds! Meanwhile, dear readers, you can copy and paste the questions, below, and add your Fast Five to the comments!

1. What's your fav dish to bring to a cookout?

2. Are your feet ready for sandal season?

3. What's your summer jam?

4. Are you going swimming, and where?

5. Name one thing you always have at the ready in summer.

Memorial Day

INGRID THOFT

It's easy, amidst the picnics and the cook-outs, to lose sight of the real purpose of Memorial Day.  My own experiences with the day include marching as a Girl Scout in the annual town parade, bringing colorful baskets of flowers to place on the graves of loved ones, and topping the day off with a backyard barbeque.  I imagine this is how most Americans spend the day, a mixture of solemn remembrance and happy celebration marking the start of summer. 


I did a little research to add to my meager knowledge about the day.  As many of us know, Memorial Day is always the last Monday in May and is the day Americans honor their fellow citizens who died while serving in the U.S. military.  What many people don't know is that the day didn't start out as Memorial Day.   In 1868, after the end of the Civil War, an organization of Union Veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic declared that May 30th was officially Decoration Day.  The birth of Decoration Day coincided with the establishment of national cemeteries, a necessity to accommodate the vast numbers of casualties sustained in the war.  Citizens would decorate the graves of those they lost in the war, and over time, cities and towns joined the remembrances.

Eventually, Decoration Day evolved into Memorial Day, and the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed by congress in 1968 and established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May.  They also declared the day a federal holiday, which took effect in 1971.  This created a three-day weekend for federal employees, and essentially, the rest of us.

So tell me:  How do you spend Memorial Day?  Visits to remember those who served?  Parades and boating?  And for those amongst us who aren't Americans, is there a similar tradition in your country?

Parading, picnicking, remembering

HALLIE EPHRON: Memorial Day. The day we honor those who died in the military and, on a lighter note, a day off from work that gives us a good excuse to parade and picnic.

In my town there's a parade. My daughter played the flute in her high school band, and every year she was mortified at having to get dressed in her red band jacket and bow tie and march. It was either beastly hot or raining. There'd be a flag raising (including the POW/MIA from the Vietnam War flag), pauses in front of our World War I and Civil War memorials, and a parade to the cemetery where the little ceremony was always heartfelt and moving.
Our town cemetery (photo by Bill Ilott) is beautiful. It has a  pond and winding paths, and the oldest part dates back to the early 1700s. On Memorial Day the dogwoods and cherry blossoms and tulips are blooming and the pond is teeming with geese and their goslings, and turtles jockey for position, sunning themselves on the rocks.

What happens on Memorial Day in your neck of the woods?
LUCY BURDETTE: We have a beautiful old cemetery in our town too, with stones as old as the 1700's. There's a small parade from downtown Madison to the cemetery and a lovely service.

This year John's and my wedding anniversary falls on Monday and we'll celebrating that, at least by eating something good:). Later on in June, we'll go to New York for the real celebration. We're already tussling about whether I can hit the same two places I like to go every time (the Strand Bookstore and Eataly), or whether I have to try something new:).

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I always cry at the parades. So emotional. We have no idea.  Boston Common is filled with American flags, one for each person from Massachusetts who's died in a war. It is a SEA of flags.

We'll be home, and I think one must have grilled-out hamburgers. I'll also be working, gotta do my words.  On that lighter note, we can now wear white pants, and have gins and tonics.

Happy Anniversary, Roberta and John!  What number?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, happy anniversary, Roberta and John! Love your description of the "sea of flags", Hank. It made me think of the time I went to the American Cemetery outside Cambridge (UK, not Boston!) It is a sea of white crosses on a curving sweep of green lawn. So beautiful, so moving.

The big Memorial Day thing in our town is a charity fund-raiser bike race on Friday. It's called Bike the Bricks and goes through our historic town square. There are food vendors and music and lots of fun activities, but unfortunately it was canceled this year due to our horrible weather. 

Today, I'm hoping for weather nice enough to cook hotdogs, and I'm thinking a big watermelon and some of Lucy's potato salad would make it perfect. And other than that, I, like everyone else, apparently, will be working...

RHYS BOWEN: I'll be missing Memorial Day this year. I'm in Tuscany, leading a writers' workshop. Back home my church choir is always asked to sing at a special service at a local cemetery, but I always find it superficial, somehow. What does move me is to walk through military cemeteries and see those names and the ages, 18, 19... Not much older than my grandson.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Happy anniversary, Roberta and John! I'll be working on my novel, THE PARIS SPY — but I'll be thinking especially of the men and women of the SOE, of the French Resistance. In particular, I'll be remembering Lieutenant Henri Karcher—his memorial was right outside my hotel in Paris and was the first thing I saw when I started my research. I took it as a good omen.

HALLIE: Let us know what Memorial Day is like in your neck of the woods, while we remember the soldiers who didn't come back and are grateful for the ones who did.

Sally Bell's Potato Salad for Memorial Day Picnics

LUCY BURDETTE:  Memorial Day is a day to honor those who died serving our country in times of war. Here's one of our favorite posts, in which the Reds talk about how war touched each of us personally.

But it's also become the weekend to celebrate the beginning of summer--and we do that so often by eating! When John and I drive to Florida in the fall, and back north in the spring, we have developed one must-stop lunch place. Sally Bell’s Kitchen is in downtown Richmond and when you walk in, you feel like you’ve fallen back to

an earlier time, with grandmothers in aprons and hairnets making you a Southern lunch. You choose your preferred sandwich and cupcake (strawberry in this case, though the caramel icing is killer,) and then potato salad, a deviled egg, and a Parmesan wafer are added. And the packaging is adorable—each lunch comes in a little white cardboard box, tied up with string.

We love everything about the lunch, but especially the potato salad. This is what I'll serve at a Memorial Day picnic. It's a little sweet, and lower-sodium, and we like it a lot.

Ingredients
Servings: 6-8

    2 1/2 pounds medium red-skinned potatoes, washed, with bad spots cut out (about 7-8)
    1  teaspoon BENTON’S TABLE TASTY (or 1/2 tsp salt if you don’t need low sodium)
    1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used Woodstock organic)
    3 tablespoons Rick’s pickle relish with juice (or other sweet, high-quality)
    1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (or Kozlik's Amazing Maple)
    1 teaspoon sugar
    1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more
    5 large hard-boiled eggs, just the yolks folks
    2 tablespoons chopped red onion
    2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
    Paprika

    Cut the potatoes into quarters, cover with water and simmer until tender when pierced with a knife, 20–30 minutes. Drain. Place potatoes in a large bowl and let cool slightly.

    Meanwhile, whisk mayonnaise, pickle relish, Dijon mustard, sugar, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and 1 tsp. Table Tasty in a small bowl for dressing.  Add onion and parsley.
    



Using a large wooden spoon or potato masher, coarsely smash potatoes.
    Add egg yolks to potatoes and coarsely smash them together. Then gently mix in the dressing. Cover and chill.
    
 Dust the top of the bowl with paprika.

 






What will you remember over this Memorial Day weekend? And what will you be eating?

Fashion Faux Pas

RHYS BOWEN:  I’ve been looking at my closet and planning what to wear for Left Coast Crime that is held this week in Phoenix. It’s going to be downright hot, according to the forecasts so those blazers and tailored slacks I had in mind might not work after all.  So I tried on a Southwestern style turquoise tunic with white pants…. And then I froze. Wait a minute. White pants? Before Memorial Day? What was I thinking.

Then I decided that the rules must be different if one lives in Arizona where it’s been over eighty for a couple of weeks. So am I allowed to break this fashion taboo? And then I started wondering whether other people still obey fashion rules or whether fashion rules have gone out of the window with what used to be fashion. Remember when we used to wait to see what Dior was doing with hemlines this spring? And full skirts? Straight sheaths? All instantly copied by the ready-to-wear houses and bought by the rest of us.
And the rules that went along with this. Handbag and shoes should match.  Certain colors should never be worn together. No black with brown. My mother used to say “Blue and green should never be seen.”  That’s a rule I broke long ago. I’ve always loved the look of certain blues with certain greens: peacock and emerald. Super!
Short boots would never have been worn with skirts until recently. Bare legs with skirts? Never!!!  I must be getting old because nothing that passes for fashion these days is something an ordinary person would wear. Would I ever pay hundreds of dollars for jeans with rips in them? I don’t think so. Most trendsetters look as if they’ve mugged a bag lady for her clothes. If I like something on Project Runway it’s instantly deemed too old and boring and the designer is sent home.
So I’m dying to know your feelings on fashion (or lack of it) Are there still rules that apply? Do you follow them? And most pressingly—can I wear white to Left Coast Crime this week?

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Of course. White to LCC? With pride. It's Arizona.
You can wear anything you want, whenever you want.
Now. Fashion-fashion? Is a different deal. No "beige" panty hose.  If you are covering your legs, tights. Otherwise,  bare legs. Yeesh. But I do it.
No baggy jeans. No sweats out of the house. Flip-flops only at the beach. My skirts and jackets don't ever match any more--no suits. "Matchy" anything is not fashion. There's a too-long  too-dowdy skirt--I know it when I see it. There's a too-short skirt--I know it when I see it.
Short boots with skirts are SO difficult. I have TRIED but I cannot pull it off.
I wear black with brown all the time. And black with navy. But I don't wear gold jewelry with black clothing. Shrugging. Unless it works.
My mother use to say "no colors not found in nature." She was adamantly opposed to cobalt blue and lavender. (I mean--separately. Or together. Whatever.)
And have you seen the "new" fashion-y shoes? Chunky boxy heels--straight out of the sixties. And the "new" "Prairie-boho"  look? Fringe and peasant blouses Been there, hated that.
I am boring when it comes to clothes, I really am. Jacket, skirt, tights, heels, pearls. So, I'm old.

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  Ditto what Hank said, Rhys. Of course you can wear white. All year round. White jeans with boots even. How do I know these things, you may ask? Because I have a fashionista daughter. I don't know where she got this talent because it wasn't from me... She's always put together, trendy but not TOO trendy. She says it's not innate (I disagree) but that her sense of style is due to using Pinterest and organizing her outfits before work.

She Pins things for me, too, so I sort of know what's in and what's not, but that doesn't mean I can pull it off... And then you have to deal with the whole "age appropriate" thing. Ack!

Hank, I didn't know you weren't supposed to wear gold jewelry with black!!! That's a rule I never learned--not that it would matter much to me because I am allergic to gold.

I do, however, know that this year wearing different denims together (which used to be a huge fashion NO NO) is now IN. Who decides these things??

HALLIE EPHRON: Rhys, you look spectacular in white, a Phoenix is a different planet from where those rules were codified. Different denims are ok? Who knew!

In the old days, I remember the rules. No white or pastels or patent leather after Memorial Day. Now no one wears patent leather, ever, which probably means it's due for a comeback. Remember how we obsessed over having our purses match our shoes? These days I pretty much live in black year round. Even my bathing suit is black. I splurge on the occasional Eileen Fisher dress or jacket or pants when they're half-priced and haven't regretted a single purchase, though her asymmetrical hems (what a terrible idea) put me off last year.

I'm happy to see roomy trousers are back. Though I know perfectly well it's a ruse to get us to abandon our collections of leggings.

LUCY BURDETTE: In general I'm hopeless when it comes to fashion--this is because I value comfort so much more highly than looks. I end up wearing the same things over and over--Key West is casual, yes, but I am right there in yoga pants and t-shirts with the bottom-feeders:). My mother was the same way. She's wearing green checkered shorts, a white shirt, and Hushpuppies with white socks on in 75% of old photos. There is one small clothing store in Connecticut that can often help spiff me up for an appearance:).

Speaking of fringe...I saw a young woman wearing a short sheath-like dress the other day, but there was fringe hanging from mid thigh to mid calf--same fabric as the dress. I was dumbstruck.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I am also the beneficiary of fashion-forward daughters to give me advice (or at least not let me leave the house looking hopeless.) As I get older I find, like many of you, I default to a uniform that I know looks good, feels comfortable and keeps me warm (winter) or cool (summer.) Heavy turtleneck and a pashmina with jeans-style pants in cold weather. Bean boots, of course. Talbots sleeveless shirts, cotton cardies and crops in summer. I have a whole basket of flip-flops that get me from May through September. I still do no white after Labor Day, in part because it just looks WRONG in northern New England.

I was thinking about the way no one seems to wear pantyhose anymore. On one hand, it's a look that clearly only benefits the young, unless I'm the only middle-aged woman with scars, spots and uneven skin tone on her legs. On the other, when I think back to my days working in DC, when I HAD to wear pantyhose no matter the 85 degree-85 per cent humidity...! And always, always running them and having to pop into the drug store for a new pair. Remember when you had extra unopened pantyhose stashed in your desk, or your glove compartment, or your purse? I notice men never "

RHYS: The white jacket I'm wearing in the picture above was in a boutique in Santa Monica where Cara Black and I were browsing between events last spring (before Memorial Day)/ I loved it and was so tempted until I saw the price ($2500). Luckily it was one size too small but you can see my attraction to white, can't you? Perhaps it's my innate purity coming through? Or maybe not.

So, dear Readers, do you have fashion rules or wear what you like, when you like?

WAR STORIES: Memorial Day Made Personal

 
LUCY BURDETTE: I hate war and I won't watch war movies and I cannot imagine psychologically surviving the horror of any of it. 
But I used to make myself watch the honor roll of soldiers that the PBS Newshour ran at the end of their program every week during the heyday of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--so I wouldn't forget that the deaths we were hearing  about were real people with real families. And so too we shouldn't let Memorial Day pass by without thinking of the folks who sacrificed for us.

My father was a WWII veteran. (That's him, above, in Wales.) We have paperwork that documents how he went down to the recruiting station in New Jersey and signed up. But then his mother (a VERY strong personality), marched him back down to rescind his application. He signed up again the following year (1943?) and served in the Army corps of engineers in England and France. 

Although in ordinary life he was a kindhearted, peace-loving guy, I am certain that serving in the Army was one of the most powerful experiences of his life. He always felt connected to his fellow soldiers--they had yearly reunions until they got too old to travel. 
One of them hobbled up to visit him in the nursing facility just months before he died. 

When he sat down to hand write his memoirs, most of the vignettes were about the war and his friends from those years--so much for our childlike perspective that we kids took top honors in his life.
 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: We try not to be too political here, so let's not argue wars or where which troops are fighting which other troops.

But on Memorial Day, how can we not think about it? I think about my father, at age 18 or so, being sent from high school in Indiana overseas to fight in World War II. You have to know my Dad is the most thoughtful, artistic, tolerant, poetic, gentle person you could ever met. A musician. A writer. I simply cannot picture him with a weapon, a member of the army infantry fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and taken prisoner and marched barefoot through the snow and put in a Nazi prison camp. But that's what happened.
He got a purple heart. My little dad.

If I've told you this story, forgive me. But on Memorial Day, the goal is to remember. So it's important to tell and re-tell and make sure the memories aren't lost.

A few years ago, Dad and his wife Juliet (now both retired from the foreign service) rented a house, as usual, in western Massachusetts (near Tanglewood) for part of the summer. Jonathan and I went to visit for awhile. And in the library of the house they rented, Dad found a tattered and worn book of poetry, one of those paperback Untermeyer anthologies.

He pulled it out of the shelf, and tears came to his eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked.
"This is the same edition I carried with me throughout the war," he said. (He NEVER talks about the war. Won't.)

"You carried a book of poetry in the war?" I was trying to figure that out.
"Yes," he said. "To remind myself there is beauty in the world."




RHYS BOWEN: My dad was in World War II, in the desert fighting Rommel. He fought at El Alamein, but from what he told us, he actually enjoyed some things about it--the camaraderie of men together. He was a great athlete and played cricket for his battalion. He also picked up a lot of Arabic and years later he and my mother went on holiday to Tunisia and the hotel staff were amazed he could speak to them. They got wonderful service.

My brother was in a very different sort of war. In the RAF he was sent to Aden, South Yemen. Very like Iraq today. They'd go out on patrol and a sniper would kill the man in front of him. Not good for the nerves. Both he and my dad are gentle people. My brother is about to be ordained an Anglican priest!

War is so stupid. As the song says "When will they ever learn?"

DEBORAH CROMBIE: What lovely stories, Lucy and Hank. And Rhys, there always seemed something slightly glamorous about the British campaign in North Africa--maybe it was the movies...

My father was in his mid-thirties when the US entered WWII, with a business and a toddler (my older brother) so wasn't called up. And he was such a gentle man--I think the experience would have destroyed him if he'd survived.

HANK: Debs, there's a line for a book...
    
DEBS: I had two uncles who served in the Navy. One was stationed in New Zealand for at least part of the war, and could never afterwards bear the smell of lamb. Neither of them ever talked about their wars.

I've been fascinated since I was a child (Anglophile that I am) by the British experiences in WWI and WWII, particularly as they affected the British at home. One of my books centers around children who were evacuated from London during the Blitz, another around a Jewish couple who come to London as refugees from Nazi Germany.

HALLIE EPHRON: These are wonderful stories. My dad never

served -- I think it was because he'd had rheumatic fever as a kid, or maybe it was his flat feet. I wish he was around to ask. Instead he and my mom wrote their first screenplay in 1944, "Bride by Mistake," a frothy romantic comedy with a rich woman looking for a soldier who doesn't want to marry her for her money.

My husband's father worked in a Providence shipyard for his service, and came away with no fond memories of Providence and a lifelong aversion to cold.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Lucy, I am a member of "one of those families" you mentioned. My father, Lt. Melvin Spencer, served during a different conflict - the Cold War. He was an Air Force pilot, assigned to a Strategic Air Command bomber wing at Plattsburgh AFB when he met and married my mother, who was a coed at the State University there.


Tensions between the USSR and the United States were at a peak in the early 60's, and the USAF was at the front line of defense. Bombers stood fueled and ready on the flight line apron round the clock, with crews rotating in and out of specially connected staging areas so that the enormous planes could be airborne and on their way to Russia within a matter of minutes. The day I was born my father was in "the bullpen." His replacement pilot arrived in time for him to get to the base hospital, but he was still in full fight gear the first time he held his baby girl.

The crews trained constantly over the huge, sparsely populated reaches of the Adirondack mountains, making practice bombing runs. About six months after I was born, my father suited up and left for a pre-dawn training flight. He never returned. One of the B-48's systems - radio? Electrical? - malfunctioned. Flying in the dark, in a snowstorm, the four-man crew never realized they were below altitude. The remains of the ship were found strewn across the face of Mount Wright, the second highest peak in the Adirondacks. This is the memorial placed at the crash site.

I think it's enormously important to be aware to the cost of war to those who pay the ultimate price. But it's also important to remember that for every name on the casualty list, there are a score of others whose lives will never be the same - parents and siblings, husbands or wives, children and friends.

HANK: Julia. I am speechless. And So grateful to know you all.  So what about you, Reds? War stories? This is the day to tell them...and to say thank you.