Best Books of 2024 – Epilogue

My daughter and son-in-law previously gave me for Christmas a non-fiction book about the 1927 Dole Derby, the Race to Hawaii by Jason Ryan.  This was a story I had never heard about and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  So, when I ran across this historical fiction novel about a female aviator who participated in the same race, I knew I had to read it.  It was also by an author I had previously read and whose books I had enjoyed.

Full disclosure, Olivia West (Livy) is a completely fictional character but just about everyone and everything else in the book are factual.  Livy, a young, accomplished flier takes on the role as navigator in the race since a field dominated at the time by males, would not accept the entry of a female pilot.  As the race unfolds, we learn that Livy takes on more significant activities.

Told in a dual timeline between 1927 and the late 1980s, we learn more and more about the outcome of the race as it occurs and sixty years later when a young woman runs across the untold story of Livy’s participation.  In the last 10% of the book, remarkable facts are revealed, and the climax of the book is most unexpected.  If you are not familiar with the Dole race to Hawaii, I would read Ryan’s book first to understand what actually happened and then read this really fun fictionalized version.

If you have previously read my annual book blogs, you know that to make up for missing out on reading classics in high school, I read one classic novel each year.  And in every case, there is always a story behind the selection I chose.  But this one has an even more intriguing genesis.

In May, my wife hosted her book club’s monthly meeting where her selected book for discussion was The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin.  If you are not familiar with this book, it tells the story of a group of 1950s high society ladies, known as swans, and how Truman Capote entered their circle and ultimately betrayed them.  For his part, once Capote became quite famous after the publishing of In Cold Blood, he hosted a Black and White Ball where attendees arrived masked.  Those attending included the rich and famous and even Frank Sinatra and his third wife, the former Mia Farrow, showed up.

At the time, I just so happened to be reading one of the two definitive books about Frank Sinatra, Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan and had just read about his marriage.  When my wife printed off some images from the ball to include in her room decor, I immediately recognized the two of them (in fact there was a photo of them at the Ball in the book as well).  To make for a more interesting night, my wife encouraged the book club attendees to dress as period swans, which explains her attire in the photo above.

The poster from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s was an additional part of her décor along with numerous glass swans she had purchased and placed throughout the room.  I mentioned to my wife as we were setting up the party room that I could not recall ever having seen the movie and suggested we watch it together sometime.  Afterwards, when I was researching how we could do just that, I discovered that the movie was actually based on the book of the same name by none other than Truman Capote.  With that realization and with so many individual stars aligning on the idea, I knew it had to be my classic for the year.

That is a lot of build up to what was to me, not a very enjoyable book.  The novella and movie are so well known, I won’t try to summarize the story.  In Capote’s own words, Holly Golightly is not a prostitute, but rather an American Geisha.  That may be a fine line between how Holly “befriends” wealthy men and what a true Geisha does.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, so I was a bit disappointed in it.  Even though it is a short book, while I was reading it, there was a lot going on in our lives and so I never got a chance to read long enough to really get into the story.  So, I decided to read it a second time and I’m glad I did as I much more enjoyed it a second time.  In fact, I came across some things in the book that I somehow totally missed in my first reading that made the story more complete.

After reading the book, I watched the movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a young and beautiful Audrey Hepburn playing the lead role.  While there are numerous details the same between the book and the movie, some important ones were left out in the movie and the ending was completely different.  I later learned for these reasons; Truman Capote hated the movie.  If you have never read the book, I would certainly encourage you to do so but I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to see the movie as well.

When I told my wife what book I was reading for my classic, she exclaimed I just had to read more than one a year.  As we were walking across the Ohio River while on our trip to Louisville, she said seeing the river reminded her of the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  When I told I had read neither, she said I just had to.

So, on our return to Memphis, I went to our local library and checked out this one.  At the time, I did not know that this was actually the second of the two books written by Mark Twain with the first being The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  As I read through the book, I could see how some of the adventures and misadventures of Huck and Jim would seem hilarious to a very young person.  But to a senior citizen, they just did not resonate with me.  And every time I came across the “N” word, I cringed even though I know at the time of its writing, the word was in common usage.

I was pleased with finishing the book and how the story ended but it did not inspire me to go back and read Twain’s first book.  But maybe next year, I will give it a try.

Well, I hope you have once again enjoyed reading my best of books for 2024.  If I have piqued your interest enough to read one, then my efforts have been worthwhile.  But if you read one and thoroughly enjoy it as much as I did, then my reading and sharing with you will have brought pleasure to both of us.  Because there is nothing better than a great book!