Onedia In The Ozarks

Back in April I posted this tag for some of my friends

If you could spend an entire day with any five people who are now living*

• who would they be
• why would you choose each person in the group
• how would you like to spend the day with them
• where would you like to spend the day with them

with the promise to post my after they posted theirs.

Life on a Hill gave us this

Desperately Seeking Serenity had this to say

Life on a Beach was first off the block with this response to his FIRST ever tag

eve’s lungs gave us this

So, I guess it is time for my response with an open invitation for anyone else who would like to do the same tag. When I wrote the tag, I wanted to have some fun but I had my own idea of who I would choose. They were lofty and well known. Since then, I “decided my mind” (a favorite expression of my brother when he was a wee boy) in a different direction.

I would choose to spend the day with five of my favorite authors who have inspired, informed, entertained, and taken me away on awesome adventures.

Anne Perry
Isabelle Allende
Barbara Kingsolver
Donna Leon
Katherine Neville

Why these women?

I first read Anne Perry after seeing her first novel, The Cater Street Hangman, as a BBC production. She writes series historical detective novels with continuing cast of characters that becomes familiar as they change and grow.. No light English whodunits, her novels are set in early and late Victorian England and WWI. Her novels present the dark sides of both upper and lower classes and the facades that mask the deepest secrets. Her books also address themes that are relevant today: war, hunger, disease, prejudice, violence, child abuse, and almost any current issue. Her WWI novels are a read for everyone who thinks war is noble. She is prolific and has her own vivid past including a conviction for murder as a teen.

I did not read Isabelle Allende until I first listened to an audio of Daughter of Fortune. I was captivated by the way she combines history, myth, magic, and tales of very strong women into thrilling adventures and life stories. I loved her recent telling of the early years of Zorro. She is one of the most important Latin American writers of our time. Her own life is an interesting history connected to the Allende family of Chile and includes the tragedy of lost loved ones and a hasty flight from her country to save her life. She lives in the United States now.

I was in the hospital when a friend brought Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, to me. I was miserable but could not put the book down. I read every novel she had to offer after that. The Bean Trees has women in it who speak with the tones and words of my grandmothers and their contemporaries, using rural, blue collar words like poke (a bag or sack) with country wisdom for the present. Her books are filled with self-discovery and manage to inform and delight. Her The Poisonwood Bible came to me at a time that I was exorcising some of the persistent demons of mid-twentieth century Southern fundamentalism and presented an over-the-top picture of righteous hubris that continues to ring true.

I first read Donna Leon’s Death in a Strange Country when we were planning a trip to Venice, Italy. All her books are set in and around Venice. As the protagonist, police commissioner, Guido Brunetti, goes about solving crimes he walks the ancient streets of Venice, interacts with his family, and shows a wonderful insight into the daily ways of Venice. Leon, an American, knows Venice well as she has lived there for many years. Her critics give mixed reviews of the books, some claiming stereotypes, but you can bet that when we were in Venice the city seemed so much more familiar for having read her books. If you have read A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi you would probably disagree about the stereotypes.

If you enjoyed The DaVinci Code you will be blown away by Katherine Neville’s The Eight , published in 1988. It is a book far more complex with all the plots, chess, historical intrigues (the book is set in the 1980s and the 1790s ) for the most demanding. When I read her third book, The Magic Circle, I finally had to start a chart of characters and their connections on a chalk board in my office to keep it all straight. Her books are treasures for people who like a large dose of history with their mystery plus more intrigues than Dan Brown could dream up. Her books are extensively researched and informed with her own varied interests and career experience.

Where and How to spend our Day.

With such a worldly group the one place I can imagine is a place that I know well, love, and would enjoy sharing with them, Portland, Oregon. I would walk the city with them in spring with the trees blossoming and covering the walks with a snowfall of white and pink flowers. There are parks, sculpture, museums, The Japanese Garden, the Waterfront Park, Powells Bookstore, food that is an art form using Northwest ingredients, coffee and tea of the gods, local wines and microbrews, seasoned with an independent spirit found no where else. We would talk, they would answer my questions and tell me about their next books (it is my day after all) and we would end the day with drinks and piano/jazz at The Heathman Hotel Tea Court where I always imagine Bogart and Bacall will walk in at any
moment.

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