Brief Reviews of Finished and Unfinished Books

My book reviewing interferes with personal reading so that some books take me years to read since I only read them now and then. Sometimes I read them on my phone in a waiting room.

I also pick up books and decide not to read them.

Here are some brief reviews of books that fall into these categories.

Unfinished Books and Still Reading

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, WIlliam Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin

How could I NOT have finished this yet? I loved the early section about the childhood, marriages, and early careers of Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft. Then, I got bogged down on McClure's magazine and Ida Tarbell, and then there was...well, so much more. I am on page 722, the last section, and expect to finish it sometime this year. Gift ebook.

John Quincy Adams Militant Spirit by James Traub
I am 41% into this biography, for several years I have been reading it now and then in waiting rooms and such times. Having read numerous biographies of JQA I have not been impelled to read this one, although it has increased my understanding. The ebook was a gift.

Beyond the Horizon by Ella Carey is historical fiction about a woman who was a pilot during WWII but has kept her past a secret. I have picked it up several times and have read 30 pages. "Meg's grace seemed so small and helpless" stopped me the last time. I am puzzled over anthropomorphizing a grave. It has over 4 stars on Goodreads. Must be me. Amazon Kindle book.

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
I love love love the Masterpiece Theater series The Durrells of Corfu. And I need something to read that makes me laugh when the darker books I prefer get me down. This one does the trick. Lovely nature writing, hilarious characters. I am 41% in and don't expect to finish it soon. I don't want to. Like medicine, I save it for when I am sick at heart. Purchased ebook.

The Last Bathing Beauty by Amy Sue Nathan
A woman remembers her last summer of girlhood in South Haven, Michigan, before she accepted a marriage of convenience. I am 22% in. I have nothing against the novel, but romances are not my meat and potatoes so I may nibble on it now and then when I need to rest my brain. From Amazon Prime.


Miss Grief and Other Stories by Constance Fenimore Woolson
After reading Anne Boyd Rioux's terrific biography of Constance Fenimore Woolson I picked up this collection of stories, edited by Rioux. I have read about half the book. I have reread the story St. Clair Flats for its description of how the St. Clair River appeared before we dredged it for our convenience. Wonderful stories. I purchased an ibook.

My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper
Being pop culture ignorant, I don't know Kemper although I do recall seeing an episode of The Office with my son....years ago...I have read nearly a quarter of the memoir. Entertaining enough. I will likely return and read a chapter now and then.
A Simon & Schuster free Glose ebook

I have been reading The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson since early February. I read a few poems several nights a week. It is interesting to read her poetry in order. I see how her themes and images progress as life changes. I am in 1862, the time of her greatest creativity. I am reading a paperback purchased forty years ago.

Finished Book

Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time by Stephen Fried
I had this book on Kindle before I read Fried's masterful biography Benjamin Rush. I quickly read Part One over a summer, then slowly read Part Two over another year.  The entertaining book tells a story of an immigrant who builds an empire and changes the American landscape. Fred Harvey was "the father of the American service industry," building a chain of restaurants and hotels on the burgeoning railroads that opened up the West. It touches on many aspects of American history and society. Purchased ebook.

WIP and a New Sewing Space and Books on the Shelf

I finished this quilt top four years ago before we moved. This January I took it to the long arm quilter along with others, knowing I was not going to get all my tops hand quilted in this lifetime.

I made the quilt with three shirts that had belonged to my father-in-law, Herman Bekofske. It is a simple star pattern which I have made before.

I found a photo of Herman in one of the shirts which I scanned and printed onto fabric for the label.

We moved my sewing area into the finished basement. We will upgrade the unfinished area, beginning with improved electric upgrades. 

 I bought a new seweing table, too.

And have one design wall up. I have another moveable one but I needed a bigger piece of flannel.

Meanwhile, we are working on the sitting area on the other side. We bought two chairs at a warehouse sale from local retailer Leon & Lulu.

I am making a quilt with the Kathy Schmitz embroidery patterns from her book Stitches from the Harvest. I paired the patterns with a fat quarter fabric pack that I liked, Born Wild by Anna Davis.

And still enjoying making hexie flowers...while finally watching Downton Abbey!

Our local library had a mini-sale and a friend made these fantastic bookmarks which the library sold for $1.

I found some music-related books, a paperback copy of Etta and Otto and Russell and James, a biography of Nellie Bly's life, and the Three Tenors CD.

 I purchased a signed edition of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Anne Rioux Boyd.

On my NetGalley TBR pile are these books:

Wasn't That a Time by Jesse Jarnow about the Weavers
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne who wrote The Heart's Invisible Furies
Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg is a follow up to The Story of Arthur Truluv
Unhold Land by Lavie Tidhar; I read his Central Station last year.
Surrendering my Ordination by J. Philip Wogaman, a United Methodist pastor

From Edelweiss I have:
Learning to See by Elsie Hooper, historical fiction about photographer Dorothea Langue
The Splendid Sampler 2 by Pat Sloan; read about The Splendid Sampler 1 here
Red & White Quilts from That Patchwork Place

And on Kindle I am reading:

A Beautiful Place to Die, short stories by Samuel Bigglesworth
Death in Paris by Emilia Bernhard, a cozy mystery
and looking over
A Divided Life by Robert Cecil about a British spy

Plus...I am still working on Doris Kearns Godwin's The Bully Pulpit and Militant Spirit on John Quincy Adams. Still.

Books next to my bed include:
The Splintering of the American Mind by William Eggerton
Ahab's Return by Jeffry Ford
Killer of the Flower Moon by David Grann, a gift from a Goodreads friend

And in the mail are coming:
Fly Girls by Keith O'Brien from LibraryThing giveaways
Laurentine Divide by Sarah Stonich from Bookish First

I just finished:
Wanamaker's Temple by Nicole C. Kirk
Guilty Thing a Life of Thomas De Quincy by Frances Wilson

And for book club, I am reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, whose The Good People I read last year.

Scheduled Fall book reviews include:

Rush: The Forgotten Founding Father by Stephen Fried
Adrift, a true story of a shipwreck, by Brian Murphy
Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris
Frank & Al  about FDR and Al Smith by Terry Golway
The Ancient Nine a mystery by Ian Smith
Hard Cider, Michigan-based fiction by Barbara Stark-Nemon
Transcription, a WWII set spy novel, by Kate Atkinson
Virgil Wander, a sweet story set on Lake Superior by Leif Enger
The Flame by Leonard Cohen, the book he was preparing when he died
A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl by Jean Thompson, about three generations of women
The Library Book by Susan Orlean, whose book on Rin Tin Tin I read
The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel by Charles J. Shields is on John Williams, author of Stoner
Lessons from Lucy by Dave Barry
The Rain Watcher by Tatiana De Rosnay, whose biography of Daphne Du Maurier, Manderley Forever, I read
White Darkness by David Grann is about Henry Worsley's Antarctic expeditions

I have completed 138 books so far this year.

And for fun I have been sharing selections from my vintage sheet music collection!

Another UFO Put to Rest & Book News

I finished a 2015 Row by Row into a table topper. Small strides...

We have been redecorating a bedroom to become a home office--Hooray! I won't have to write in the family room or kitchen! It's a north facing room and I wanted a warm color. I decided on a deep orange.

The room has white trim and cellular shades. I am searching for drape fabric, preferably a MCM print on a white ground.

My blog has reached over 191,000 hits! Book review readership has skyrocketed!

Scheduled book reviews include:

January
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney: a once famous MAD woman recalls her life

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough: a Domestic Noir thriller with a twisted ending

The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker: a story of enduring female friendship 

February

The Refugees by Viet Thanh Ngyun: moving stories of the refugee experience in America

Hit Makers by Derek Thompson: the science of popularity and success

The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis: a debut family drama, insightful and beautifully written

High Noon, The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glen Frankel

The Typewriter's Tale by Michiel Heyns: Henry James' typist tells all

March

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan: a history of ecological peril

Like Death by Guy de Mausppant: a classic story of obsession

Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar: often funny, often wise debut novel of redemption

Whereas, poems by Stephen Dunn

Peggy Seeger by Jean R. Freedman: the life of folk musician and activist sister of Pete Seeger

April

Over the Hill and Far Away: A Life of Beatrix Potter by Mathew Dennison

A $500 House in Detroit by Drew Philp: seeking a new way of living in a resurrecting city

May

The Reminders by Val Emmerich: a charming tale of friendship

Galleys I have on my shelf include:

Ice Ghosts by Paul Watson about the ongoing search for the Franklin Expedition of 1845

Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker, a retelling of Jane Eyre from a new view point

Grief Cottage by National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin

The Physics of Everyday Things by James Kakalios

We Shall Not Sleep by Estep Nagy, a debute family drama set in Maine

Manderley Forever by Tatiana de Rosnay, a biography of Daphne du Maurier

and Madame President by Helen Cooper about the first female president of Liberia

And the spring titles are just showing up for review requests!

Works in Process--Books to Come

I have the corner appliqué to finish on these new 1857 Album blocks from Sentimental Stitches. I will do the embroidery on all of the blocks when the blocks are all finished. I am so enjoying these blocks.

Since making my William Shakespeare portrait I want to make more poet portrait quilts. Next up is Edgar Allan Poe. He was quite a craftsman as a writer. You can read how he wrote The Raven in his Philosophy of Composition here.

I want to drape a 'purple curtain' over the quilt because of the beautiful lines in the Raven: "And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain/Thrilled me-- filled me, with fantastic terror never felt before."

Little Hazel by Esther Alui is sadly being neglected. I failed at machine piecing this block and started hand sewing it. I dislike hand sewing (although I like hand appliqué--go figure) and this is as far as I have gotten...a quarter of a block.

I finally started hand quilting my Austen Family Album by Barbara Brackman, finished a year ago. I expect it will take me a year of quilting to finish!

Quilt Books news:

I will be reviewing Suzie Parron's Following the Barn Quilt Trail from Ohio U Press! They are sending me the book. Perfect timing since last month Suzi was at my quilt guild and I took her workshop.

I have Bill Volckening's new book Modern Roots--Today's Quilts from Yesterday's Inspiration from C&T Publications to review. Bill has an amazing quilt collection. You can see his quilts shared on his blog Wonkyworld.

And the Schiffer Publication's books Inspired By The National Parks and Hmong Story Cloths are on my NetGally shelf.

Also, my review of Thomas Knauer's The Quilt Design Coloring Book will come out in August.

Fiction & Nonfiction

I was happy when St. Martin's Press reached out to offer me Lisa Scottoline's new book Damaged. Apparently they liked my review of Corrupted shared on Amazon. Having lived in Philly for 15 years my hubby and I appreciate Scottoline's books for the setting and enjoy her characters and stories.

I am currently reading Mad Enchantment about Monet and his water lily series and the novel Lucky Boy through NetGalley, and from Blogging for Books The Apache War.

Scheduled reviews to come include the Antarctic love story My Last Continent by Midge Raymond; David Abram's Iraqi war novel Fobbit; the Taming of the Shrew re-imagined in the Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler; Larry Tye's new biography of Bobby Kennedy; an exploration of race in Absalom's Daughters by Suzanne Feldman;  Angels of Detroit by Christopher Hebert; Rae Meadow's Dust Bowl novel I Will Send Rain; the time spanning Mr. Eternity by Aaron Thier; first published in 1864 The Female Detective; The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore (soon to be a movie); The Illustrated Book of Sayings from around the world; and Tara Clancy's memoir The Clancys of Queens.

My NetGalley shelf also holds Victoria:The Queen by Julia Baird; Candace Millard's Hero of the Empire about Churchill during the Boer War; Alice Hoffman's Faithful; The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City by Margaret Creighton about Buffalo, NY during the 1901 Pan American Exhibition; and The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinbourough called "A beautiful book, honestly told" by Neil Gaiman.

Whew! 

Lady Fall, Pumpkin Pie Complete, and Book Reviews to Come

Lady Fall

When Lady Fall makes her debut,

Jack Frost in adoration

Tints trees and vines with every hue,

Adorns the whole creation.

Bids ripened nuts fall down to earth,

Gives grapes an added flavor,

Bids welcoming fires illume the hearth, And all to win her favor.

from A Year With the Fairies, Anna M. Scott, 1914

It is Autumn, once my favorite season of the year due to the glorious colors of the changing leaves.
At my age, it is a bittersweet reminder of the coming winter, with all its hazards that keep me inside. I haven't been sewing much. I'd rather be near the window listening to the birds and seeing the daylight and feeling the cooling air. I can spend my time under artificial light later when the skies are cloudy and dark.

*****

I finished my Pumpkin Pie quilt and it adorns the living room wall. It is from Bunny Hill and such a cute pattern!

My walking foot is defunct. I was not happy sewing on the borders and binding without one. I know better, but was lazy and didn't take my time. And I didn't quilt the polka-dot border either. I may go back later and take it apart and fix it. I should have ironed it, as already it creased from sitting folded on a chair for a few days.

I am lazy because yesterday my husband underwent his second cataract surgery; both were successful and he can see again. I am still recovering, lol, unused to being on the road at 7:30 am to drive in rush hour traffic. It's been many a long year since I had to do that. And my Suki wakes me up every night about midnight. Our apple trees produced hundreds of apples again this year, and all the critters in the neighborhood come to feed. Suki knows they are out there and needs to check things out.

*****

I have been reading and reviewing like crazy. I asked, and received, loads of ARCs. Coming up are:

September

Seven Women and the Secret of Their Greatness by Eric Mataxes

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

October

A Place We Knew Well by Susan Carol McCarthy

The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks by Tracey Goessel

Wilkie Collins by Peter Ackroyd

The Rilke of Ruth Speirs

The Magic of Beverly Sills by Nancy Guy

Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline

The Year of Lear by James Shapiro

Brand Luther by Andrew Pettegree

November

The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel by Margaret Oppenheimer

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

The Last Words of the Holy Ghost by Matt Cashion

Hear My Sad Story by Richard Polenberg

White Eskimo by Stephen R. Brown

PLUS, still on my shelf to read, most to be published early next year, are:

• Lady Bird and Lyndon by Betty Caroli
• My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Stout (author of Olivia Kitteridge)
• The Longest Night by Andrea Williams
• A Doubter's Almanac by Ethan Canin
• From Stray Dog to WWI Hero by Grant Hayter-Menzies
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin 
• Radioactive! By Winifred Conklin
• All of Us and Everything by Bridgit Asher

AND, I am still reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Kathleen Boos for the new library book club.

NOT TO MENTION...I have Japanese Contemporary Quilts and Quilters sitting next to me! That review should be up in the next few days as well. AND, I took advantage of C&T's big sale and bought four quilt books, and there is the one I got at Grand Rapids AQS..

It's gong to be quite a fall.