Late Summer in Michigan, Quilts, and Books

My 1857 Album quilt is finally complete! In 2016 Gay Bomers of Sentimental Stitches shared her patterns based on a historical quilt. I finished the top in 2017. A few months ago I took the top to a local machine quilter, Maggie Smith. She did a wonderful job!

I bought the green, red, and orange fabrics online. I found they frayed too easily for applique. That will teach me to buy online! Applique requires a tight weave.

The one things I would recommend is to wait until the top is done before adding the corner petal units. Mine came out wonky. I should have removed them and restitched them. But I didn't. Because I am complacent and lazy, lol.

 I substituted some of the original patterns and made up my own, like adding the printed portraits of 1957 presidents.

I made a Halloween table runner. I created the applique in the center based on the print. 

After a long stretch of 90+ degree heat it cooled down a bit and two weeks ago we went to the Stage Nature Center in Troy, MI for our walk. 

The Rouge River flows through the park.

The meadow flowers were blooming.

 The last time we visited we saw close to 20 deer, but this day we only saw one.

Our Rutgers tomatoes and apple trees are coming into peak season!

After my brother returned from backpack hiking into the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan he invited us to his place for a corn roast and for my birthday presents--Charlie Harper coloring books and The Man Who Planted Trees with woodcut illustrations.

Two weeks ago on my Sunday walk I came across a neighbor's garage sale and picked up a book by Pat Cox.

 I am quite charmed by Millie's Quilt.

 What a great scrap quilt this would be!

 Also pictured is this Single Wedding Ring quilt circa 1915.

I caught my interest because I have an heirloom quilt from my husband's great-great-grandmother that is a Turkey red and white Single Wedding Ring and I had thought it dated about 1915.

Harriet is pictured below on the left with her mother Margaret Scovil Nelson and holding her daughter Grace.

We went on a trip to Port Huron, Michigan. We donated Harriet's New Testament to the Port Huron Historical Museum for a long-term loan. The book is said to have belonged to John Riley, an Objibway chief, and son of an early Michigan trader. Riley was a translator for The Treaty of Saginaw. He and his brothers James and Philip are mentioned in history books with Louis Cass, fighting for the Americans.

I just hung this handkerchief quilt wall hanging which I made some years back. The Japanese contemporary handkerchief is beautiful! I added three borders extending the motifs.

I was recently contacted by a man who saw my review of Simply Austen. He noted I had studied with Prof. Toby Olshin at Temple and was excited to find someone else who remembered and revered her.

As if I didn't have enough books to read...I jumped on the bandwagon to join The Goldfinch readathon sponsored by Little, Brown on social media. It was on my TBR shelf and it was a good excuse to pick it up. I am so glad, too--it's wonderful!

The Goldfinch 

Our local library is having a book sale. I picked up some vintage books.

 The Sunbonnet Babies are adorable.

 I can't resist this pattern with the baby reading a book.

 A cat lover has joined our family. Perhaps these patterns will be of interest to her.

I love Rumor Godden's fiction and memoirs about living in India. She also wrote books for children, like The Mousewife.

What have you been doing this summer?

WIP and TBR

Spring has come to Michigan! We have nesting birds in the yard, wildflowers have sprouted up, and the herb garden is green and flourishing.

Wild Violets

It has been a busy spring. After my two cataract surgeries, my husband underwent his second knee replacement surgery! I am super busy handling his chores along with my own.

But I am still keeping up with my quilt projects and reading!

I am hand quilting the Little Red Ridinghood quilt.

I am deciding on the borders on the Winter Houses quilt.

And I played making a quilt with some wool birds from the quilter's group free table and am nearly done with the applique. I will do more embellishment after they are sewn down.

I am now reading:

• LibraryThing win ARC  Make Me A City by Jonathan Carr about the history of Chicago.
• The Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey about George Orwell and the writing of 1984.
• Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer shares snippets on the quilting life.
• Jared Diamond's Upheaval. I have read about Finland, Japan, and Chile so far. What is so cool is that when I was a senior in high school my family hosted an exchange student from Finland. I became close to the exchange students from Japan, Chile, and Germany during that year. 
• Cesare by Jerome Charyn a love story and thriller set during WWII

On my TBR galley shelves:

• The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar
• Women from the Copper Country by  Mary Doria Russell
• We Are All Good People by Susan Rebecca White
• Out of Darkness Shining Light by Petina Gappah
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
• The Book of Science and Antiquities by Thomas Kenalley
• The Vexations by Caitlin Horrocks

On Kindle:

After reading her new book Gold Digger I purchased Rebecca Rosenberg's novel Mrs. Jack London. My review on Gold Digger will appear on my blog soon.

I have Amy Stewart's Miss Kopps Midnight Confessions and Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit on my Kindle which I hope to read soon as the next volume Miss Kopp on the March is being mailed to me via the Kopp Sister's Literary Society.

Another book to come is Archaeology from Space by Sarah Parcak which I won on LibraryThing this month.

Upcoming Book Clubs:
Next month the library book club is reading Wiley Cash's novel The Last Ballad, which I read as an ARC. Wiley will be Skyping with our club!

The Barnes and Nobel book club is reading The Guest Book, which I also read as an ARC.

Mini Reviews: The Queen Reads and a Victorian Romance

Alan Bennett's short comic novel The Uncommon Reader was my local library book club pick of the month.

The plot involves the Queen of England stumbling into reading, a habit her family and staff do not approve of. As she becomes immersed in her books she becomes bored with her public life and neglectful in her dress. She begins to think, and that leads to writing. A dangerous past time for sure!

An early abettor in her hobby is a young gay staff member whose reading preferences inform his choices for the Queen. Later the Queen picks up books by people she met, or who were connected to titled families.

Authors and book titles are often dropped without the context of what the Queen thought about the books or how they specifically influenced her. We do know she did not care for Jane Austen, the late Henry James, or the early George Eliot. I wanted know more.

I was familiar or had read many of the books mentioned, but not all. Not knowing, for instance, Nancy Mitford's work it would have been nice to know a bit about the books and what the Queen liked and why. Without familiarity, it felt like I was missing an inside joke.

I did resonate to the Queen's interest in what people are reading. As a teen and young woman I always had a book with me, almost like a talisman which might draw other readers to me. I am afraid that for at least forty years I have judged people by the books they read. I am endlessly boring people about the books I am reading.

A charming, slight read with some laughs.

*****

The title of Mimi Matthew's novel The Lost Letter: A Victorian Romance tells you what to expect. It is a romance novel set in the Victorian Age in which a lost letter leads to the separation of true love. Each believes they have been rejected by the other.

I have been reading Mimi Matthew's blog (https://www.mimimatthews.com/blog/) for several years. It has high style, great writing, deep research on subjects relating to Victorian Age literature, history, and romance. I pre-ordered The Lost Letter.

Sylvia Stafford "was the first and only woman he had ever loved." Sylvia was so drawn to Sebastian Conrad she did not resist their mutual attraction, acquiescing to give him a lock of hair and even, gasp, a kiss! Then he was called to war.

Sylvia wrote Sebastian a letter of declaration, but received no letter in return. She taught herself to give him up. When her father's finances toppled and he killed himself, Sylvia was shunned by society.  Now on her own, she hired out as a governess.

Sebastian's sister, Lady Harker, has come to her door and requested that Sylvia pay her and her brother a visit. Sebastian has suffered brutal war injuries, and his sister implies that he is disconsolate. Only Sylvia can save him.

Informed by Beauty and the Beast with a touch of Jane Eyre, this romance has more misunderstandings and twists as the lovers misunderstand each other while fighting against their strong attraction. It is a charming read with just the right amount of historical detail.

Publisher: Perfectly Proper Press
Published: September 2017
ISBN-10: 978-0-9990364-1-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-9990364-0-2

I will be reviewing Matthew's next novel, The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter soon!

We Become What We Read. Maybe.

How to Be A Heroine, Or What I Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis just sounded like too much fun to pass up.

The author reviews the literary heroines that influenced her during different life stages. She discusses how she perceived the heroines at the time she was drawn to them, then how the 'wisdom of age" has brought new insights.

I loved reading about the books I knew well (Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre). She offers enough information about the books I had not read (Valley of the Dolls) to understand her point.

I had not expected to learn so much about the author herself. Duh. The whole point of the book was how these heroines influenced her expectations, self-image, and life choices. Sometimes for the better, and often for the worse. Catherine Earnshaw is not really a good role model after all. Nor is Sleeping Beauty--unless your life's goal is to be beautiful victim so a prince can save you and marry you!

Random House first published the book in Britain in January of this year, with the American printing coming in February, 2015.

I received a free ebook in exchange for a fair and inbiased review.

How To Be A Heroine, Or What I Learned from Reading Too Much
by Samantha Ellis
Random House
ISBN 9781101872093
$14.95 paperback

What I Have Been Reading

Jane Austen and Food by Maggie Lane. This e-book was a pleasant surprise to me. It is a deep and thoughtful exploration of Austen's novels and values through her use of food in her books. I have not read a critical study of Austen in years, sad to say. I really enjoyed this book and it has made me want to re-read, for the sixth or more time, Austen with a new view. I particularly enjoyed her chapters on Mansfield Park and Emma. The Kindle edition is $2.99.

Jackson by Max Brand was an e-book that I have mixed feelings about. It was a bit confusing at the beginning with jumps between time and viewpoint. We learn about Andrew Jackson from the view of a writer who is researching Jackson during his presidential campaign. The information seemed to be mostly accurate. I have an award winning biography of Jackson, so I plan on reading it soon for comparison. Brand points out that everything we know about modern presidential politics started back in the early 1800s. The reader is informed on all the 'new' ideas from that time, like snipers and the use of "OK".

There are some great lines.
"People believe what they read, " Emma said from the door..."It is the most depressing fact in the modern world."
"Jackson is the price you pay for having Jefferson." (Allowing a true democratic process means the people will choose who they will.)

The authorial voice is quite present throughout the book, and his political thoughts are quite evident.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin was a Christmas 2013 gift, and I have been reading at it for a year! I loved Goodwin's book "No Ordinary Time on Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt". Her portrayal of Lincoln leaves me so impressed with the man and the leader. Why have I not finished it? Well, perhaps because I read a chapter and want to ruminate on it. And then the Civil War came and I am not so interested in war. I mean, I skipped all the War in "War and Peace" when I read it at age 19! But I am 200 pages from the end. I expect I will finish it before summer, lol.

The Donzerly Light by Ryne Douglas Pearson was a light read which I enjoyed, especially after a slow beginning. This e-book was the first novel by the author, and it was rejected. After his success as a screen writer (Mercury Rising) he decided to publish this book, which he always liked. The supernatural story is about a 1990s Wall Street wannabe who is given the power to know what stocks to buy, guaranteeing a quick rise to success. He loses his self, his girl, and finally everything else when his power turns dark. Sometimes this felt like a morality tale, sometime like Faust, a bit of the Gothic and mystery genre, it is hard to categorize. I quite enjoyed it.

Other books I have not blogged about which I read in the last months include:

Flourtown by S. G. Redling, an ecological/dystopia story about a community isolated from the world after a accident exposes them to a toxin that is transmittable. The people are sick and dying, trapped in a guarded enclosed city. It was an enjoyable conspiracy thriller.

I Am Legend and The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson, horror/sci-fi classics which I enjoyed. The Shrinking Man 1950s movie gave me nightmares when I was a girl!

An Unfinished Season by Ward Just, which I thought very good. Set in the early 1950s, it is the story of a young man's learning about the world and the experiences that determine his future.

Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook was the basis of the movie by the same name...I liked the movie better.

Honolulu by Alan Brennert  traces the forty year journey of a woman who escapes Korea in 1914 as a picture bride only to find life in Hawaii is hard and sometimes cruel. I loved the character and enjoyed learning about this time and place in history. I look forward to reading more books by Brennert.

I read most of Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks but lost interest. His 700 page book is the story of John Brown and his sons from the perspective of the only surviving Brown son. I did not like some of the characters, felt bogged down at times, and after reading a rather gory scene I decided I really did not want to read about Harper's Ferry and the slaughter. What I did learn is that extremism and terrorism have always gone together. The e-book has a lot of errors.

We have had record snow here, and it has been a continual process of digging out the mailbox...

The Brothers Karamozov Will Improve Your Social Intelligence

"In literary fiction, like Dostoyevsky, “there is no single, overarching authorial voice,” he said. “Each character presents a different version of reality, and they aren’t necessarily reliable. You have to participate as a reader in this dialectic, which is really something you have to do in real life.”

A article in the New York Times reports on a study conducted by social psychologists at the New School for Social Research in New York City where volunteers were given literay fiction, popular fiction, and non-fiction to read. The readers were then fiven tests that measure people’s ability to decode emotions or predict a person’s expectations or beliefs in a particular scenario.The results were startling. As reported in the article, written by Pam Belluck,

"The researchers — Emanuele Castano, a psychology professor, and David Comer Kidd, a doctoral candidate — found that people who read literary fiction scored better than those who read popular fiction. This was true even though, when asked, subjects said they did not enjoy literary fiction as much. Literary fiction readers also scored better than nonfiction readers — and popular fiction readers made as many mistakes as people who read nothing."

"This is why I love science,” Louise Erdrich, whose novel “The Round House” was used in one of the experiments, wrote in an e-mail. The researchers, she said, “found a way to prove true the intangible benefits of literary fiction."

Erdrich later says, “Writers are often lonely obsessives, especially the literary ones. It’s nice to be told what we write is of social value,” she said. “However, I would still write even if novels were useless.”

"Experts said the results implied that people could be primed for social skills like empathy, just as watching a clip from a sad movie can make one feel more emotional," Belluck wrote. This is exciting news for all who enjoy literature. And a good reason to continue to include literature in education curriculums. It build better people. 

I read The Round House a few months ago, a wonderful book. And have been reading the Brothers Karamazov over the last few weeks, a book I first read in 1970 and have read at least four times since then. I have been reading literary fiction since Sixth Grade. I can't say if it has made me a better person. But the now have a test for that!