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I'm growing poppies in my garden. I've never grown them before, and they're doing so well. I love their vibrant color and wild nodding blooms. A pair of cardinals comes and visits them every day. I wonder if they're happy to see flowers with color akin to them.
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Scattered Showers (2022) is a collection of nine short stories by Rainbow Rowell. Several of the stories feature characters from the author’s other works.
Here are brief summaries of each of the short stories:
“Midnights” - This story spans the course of several New Year's Eves from 2011 to 2014. As the years pass, Mags and Noel's friendship develops into something more.
“Kindred Spirits” - Elena camps out to see Star Wars: Episode VII and bonds with Troy and Gabe in the line. At first, she doesn’t understand why Gabe is not talking to her at all. The title made me think of Anne of Green Gables.
“Winter Songs for Summer” - Summer grieves her break-up by lying on her dorm room floor and crying while listening to “Silent All These Years” by Tori Amos. Benji, the guy who lives immediately below Summer, helps Summer move on by giving her mix CDs and expanding her outlook. As a Tori Amos fan, I identified with this story.
“The Snow Ball” - Libby hangs out with Owen as he prepares to attend the high school Snow Ball. She's resentful that her best friend isn't spending the evening with her watching movies.
“If the Fates Allow” - Reagan (from the novel Fangirl) and her grandfather spend Christmas together in 2020 during the Covid pandemic. Both are cautious and decide to spend the holiday together and apart from the rest of their family. Reagan connects with her Grandfather’s neighbor Mason over Jell-O salad and their shared caution over covid. This was a nice story that captured the time period really well.
“The Prince and the Troll” - A man from the road brings Starbucks to a muddy troll under the bridge.
“Mixed Messages” - This story revisits Jennifer and Beth years after the novel Attachments took place. I was glad they were still close friends.
“Snow for Christmas” - Simon spends Christmas with Baz's family. I haven't read the Simon Snow trilogy yet, so i wasn't familiar with these characters.
“In Waiting” - An author's characters live in limbo before she writes them into a story. I thought this was a fascinating premise for a story.
The volume was a fun read and good mix of romantic stories that gave me a taste for Rowell’s other works.
Purchase and read books by Rainbow Rowell:
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Attachments (2011) by Rainbow Rowell is a story set in Omaha, Nebraska in 1999 and 2000. The novel begins after Lincoln has returned home to live with his mother after earning his second Masters degree. He gets a job in IT security at the city’s newspaper, but is stuck on the nightshift. His job ends up being a disappointment to him. There are no hackers to stop. Instead, he’s tasked with reading internal emails that are flagged as potentially inappropriate.
Lincoln begins reading the flagged emails between Beth Fremont, the newspaper’s film critic, and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder, the features copy editor. Jennifer is married to Mitch and terrified of getting pregnant. Beth has been in a long-term relationship with her college boyfriend, Chris, a guitarist in a rock band. Beth wants to get married, but Chris hasn’t proposed. Lincoln is amused by Jennifer and Beth’s email dialogue and can’t bring himself to send them warnings about their emails. Even though he knows it’s wrong, he continues reading their conversations.
In many ways, Lincoln is stuck. His first love Sam broke his heart in college, and though years have gone by, he’s never truly recovered from it. As he reads the emails between Beth and Jennifer, Lincoln begins falling for Beth, noting her humor, kindness, and way of expressing herself. Meanwhile, Beth notices Lincoln around the office and is infatuated with him. Beth begins emailing Jennifer about the new cute guy in the office, and eventually, Lincoln realizes she’s writing about him.
What should Lincoln do? He knows that he’s invaded Jennifer and Beth’s privacy. If Lincoln confesses the truth about reading their emails, will Beth forgive him, despite the weirdness of the situation? Does love before love at first sight exist?
The book has a fun premise with realistic characters. For instance, I liked that Lincoln played Dungeons & Dragons and enjoys pie at Village Inn. The pop culture references also struck a note with me and were skillfully used. I really loved the openness and intimacy in the email dialogue between Beth and Jennifer. So many people made deep connections online during this era, and their conversations reminded me of how much I loved writing emails during that time.
Purchase and read books by Rainbow Rowell:
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Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000) is a memoir by Anthony Bourdain about his career in the restaurant industry. As a child, during a vacation with his family in France, Bourdain ate a raw oyster, which ignited his passion for food. Bourdain describes his early escapades and experiences in kitchens and culinary school. He provides a first-hand account of how restaurants function.
I’ve wanted to read this book for many years, and wish I’d read it much earlier, prior to Bourdain’s death. Bourdain had such a sharp wit and sense of humor and a deep passion for life, travel, and food. His writings and words (in books and on television) allowed him to share his passion with the world and inspire us all to try new things and to be open to new experiences. It’s still hard to understand how a man with such joie de vivre was in such pain that he took his own life.
Purchase and read books by Anthony Bourdain:
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