Covid-19 Life: New on my TBR Shelf, Virtual Book Clubs, Quilting Projects

With the pandemic raging, many of us are self-imposing a lock down. 

Last week, the quilters met at the park. It was a warm day, reaching 77 degrees. Several came without masks and other slowered their mask to talk. 

This is not safe behavior. So, I will join the quilters who prefer to Zoom meet.

But first, we visited with our family before the weather changed. We visited my brother, sitting on his deck. Deer came to the yard and birds visited the feeder as we talked.

He designed and built a shed that is like a small cabin with a porch swing facing the canal that goes to Cass Lake.

Canal to Cass Lake

And we visited our son and his girlfriend outdoors, with masks, watching the grandpuppies play in the yard. We only spent a few moments indoors to see Gus, the new kitten.

Gus

Sunny

The weather quickly changed, the leaves came down, and it finally feels like November.

local Oak and Moon last week

Luckily, I have plenty to keep me busy. My TBR galley shelf is filled up and I have dozens of incomplete quilt projects to finish and fabric to 'use up'.

Bellevue Literary Press sent me the ARC of Norman Lock's new book in his American Novels series, Tooth of the Covenant which is about Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have enjoyed four other novels in the series and some day hope to read the others. 

My NetGalley shelf is filling up! New books include:

• John Keats, a biography by Suzie Grogan
• Jane Austen’s Best Friend: The Life and INfluence of Martha Lloyd by Zoe Wheddon
• The Life She Wished to Live: A Biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of the Yearling by Ann McCutchan
• Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature by Angus Fletcher
• The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts that Illuminated the Renaissance by Ross King
• The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan interested me because it is about Germans in the Ukraine under Soviet rule who had to escape during WWII

Previous books on my NetGalley Shelf include

• The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington
• The Invisible Women by Erika Robuck
• Girl Explorers by Jayne Zanglein
• Brood by Jackie Polzin
• Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig
• Astrid Sees All by Natalie Standiford
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
• The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken

I purchased several books for book clubs and readalongs. 

Little, Brown & Co reissued Brideshead Revisited for its 75th anniversary and arranged a read along. I read the edition that was published when the television miniseries was out.

I purchased Jess Walter's brand new novel The Cold Millions for the Barnes & Noble book club December 1. I so enjoyed his novel Beautiful Ruins.

Our local library book club is discussing The Bear next week with author Andrew Krivak Zooming with us!

This week I joined the Leesburg Public Library, FL, to discuss Jerome Charyn's novel The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King, imagining Teddy Roosevelt's early life, with Charyn Zooming with us at the end to answer questions.

The book club enjoyed the novel and the 'energetic' and 'dramatic' characterization. Those who were not familiar with TR's life appreciated learning about him while others remarked the novel was not a history. Charyn talked about finding the voice and the music for his novel, and how writing in the first person offers a greater intimacy that a history or biography cannot provide. "Writing is dreamin," he remarked.

I have signed up for a number of other online events with authors.

I tried to sort out my collection of vintage quilt tops, fabrics, and trims and embellishments. I was inspired to play with them and made a small quilt.

I used a vintage embroidered linens, crotchet, trims, buttons, and a quilt top. 

Every day I take a walk around the neighborhood. I was surprised by this squirrel going in and out of a hole in the tree.

Another day I saw this really fat squirrel in the park!

It's time to prepare for winter. Like the squirrel, we are stocking up on food and supplies. I have plenty of hand quilting to keep me busy--and warm as the quilts lay on my lap while quilting. And loads of books to read.

Stay safe out there. Take care of each other.

WIP Quilts, Books, and News

Winter arrived in Michigan! It has been bitter cold. It's perfect weather to quilt and read.

I completed a project from my weekly quilt group's "free table" exchange. Another quilter had started a twelve block quilt in wool and flannel. The incomplete blocks were given up. I finished the embroidery, cobbled together pieces to complete one block, and machine quilted the project.

I finished the Little Red Riding Hood quilt top. I set the seven 1919 Redwork patterns with other vintage patterns that seemed to fit the story: a basket, strawberries, Grandma's house, bunnies hiding in the woods.

I loved the Little Red Riding Hood prints from Riley Blake. I used two from the collection for the top and have another for the backing. I'll bind the quilt with the red fabric.

 I used perle emrboidery thread for the Redwork.

I decided the Thistle fabric quilt needed a border. Now it is ready!

I won a wonderful gift on American Historical Fiction Facebook Group! The giveaway from Anne Howard Creel included a signed first edition of her new book, a lovely tote bag, and pretty coasters. Anne's book is about a flood, an abused wife, and her step-daughter.

The Sunday paper's Parade magazine highlighted two memoirs I have read and reviewed. The World According to Fannie Davis by Bridgitt Davis (my review will appear tomorrow) and Maid by Stephanie Land, which I reviewed last week.

Books I have on my table include the memoir Lost Without the River by Barbara Hoffbeck Scobie, courtesy of Caitlin Hamiton Marketing & Publicity,

and Make Me A City by Jonathan Carr, a LibraryThing win.

painting by Joyce Gochenour, my mother

For some reason, I have won a record number of books on giveaways! From Goodreads I won That Churchill Woman, Camelot's End by Jon Ward on Kennedy and Carter, Unmarriageable by Sonia Kamal based on Pride and Prejudice, and Northward by Chuck Radda. And I won Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben from LibraryThing. 

I just read and reviewed The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin, a LibraryThing win; look for my review next month. I an also reading an ebook win from Goodreads, Imagine That! by ark Finn about an eight-year-old boy with an active imagination.

My NetGalley shelf is thin because I am going to have cataract surgery in February and March! No more trifocals! I know I won't be able to hand as much reading for a while. I am excited because I am going to get a special lens to correct the astigmatism that has plagued me all my life! 

I am reading The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books about Christopher Columbus's son and his quest to build the largest library; Three Sheets to the Wind about nautical terms that have come into our every day language; and The Road to Grantchester, a prequel to the Grantchester series. 

TBR is The Editor by Stephen Rowley author of Lily and the Octopus, The Life and Death of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story, and The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith whose The Last Painting of Sara DeVos I read.

We have been dog sitting our grandpuppy Ellie! Our son had long days at the office and dropped her off before work and picked her up at the end of the day. 

Ellie is only four months out of the puppy mill. She was dropped off at a vet for putting down! Safe Harbor Animal Rescue in Vermillion Ohio was contacted and now Ellie is a pampered pooch.

She is blossoming into a lovely girl. 

Rescues make the BEST PETS.