Playing God: The Space Between the Stars by Anne Corlett

The Space Between the Stars is Anne Corlett's debut novel, combining dystopian sci-fi with a picaresque storyline, with a dose of romance and a touch of mystery added. There is a lot of eschatological table talk and a twisted thriller ending.

A virus has killed most of  humanity across the known universe. Jamie wants to get back home to Earth. She meets up with various survivors: spaceship captain Callen and his sidekick Gracie, and ex-priest Lowry and burned-out scientist Rena, who both had been at a retreat center. Together they go on a journey across space, stopping at various posts to refuel, learning how survivors have organized after the apocalypse, and picking up Mila, born into the 'whore' class, and Finn, who is perhaps autistic.

We learn that before the virus Earth had become overpopulated. A way of classifying people by status involved tattooing people. Some people were sent off-planet, with a resistance group opting to join them.

Jamie, Callen, Lowry and Rena are all on the run from their pasts. Cramped together on the small space ship, there are a lot of conflicts and divisiveness. And some underlying sexual tension.

Rena was a scientist with fixated on understanding the 'will of God' behind all that has happened. As she spirals into a madness of her own making, and each survivor struggles to make sense of their lives, horrible secrets are revealed. Should--will--these misfits survive?

When everything is revealed at the end, I realized the novel was also a warning about genetic manipulation in an endeavor to 'improve' on Mother Nature out of a false fixation on perfection.

Nature is messy. But it is always right.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through First to Read.

Publication Date: June 2017

Resistance Writer Charles Dickens

For the anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens (died Jun 9, 1870), I read Charles Dickens: Compassion and Contradiction by Karen Kenyon.

This concise biography of 112 pages covers all aspects of the author: his childhood trauma; his career as an author and actor; his love affairs and unhappy marriage; and his commitment to social justice.

Dickens was a megastar in his day: a best-selling author, an outstanding orator and actor, an entrepreneur who started several magazines.

This was an era when literacy and cheap reading materials were peaking, and magazines were in their heyday. Dickens serialized his novels in the magazines. His readers would scramble for the next installment.

Charles Dickens in 1842

I appreciated learning about the events, places, experiences, and people who inspired Dickens characters and plot lines.

Kenyon notes that Dickens may have had epilepsy and he may have been obsessive-compulsive. He was a 'dandy' in his fashion and bathed daily. He had a strict schedule which included long walks daily. Often he walked the streets of London all night as well.

Obsessed with money and adulation, he was a workaholic who worked on several works at once. He also 'saw' and imagined his entire novel before setting pen to paper then put his heart and soul into his books.

The subtitle of the book points out the crux of Dickens' personality. He was a great social commentator whose novelizations of the plight of the poor actually impacted his society and lead to changes. The Industrial Revolution had brought rural folk to the cities for factory jobs. The lack of housing, air pollution, a lack of clean water, poverty, and long hours working for small wages brought the average age in London to 27. Only one child out of three attended school. There were over 70,000 prostitutes.

At the same time, Dickens was able to emotionally detach from his wife and family, casting his wife aside (after 11 children!) and idealizing her younger sisters.

Thirty years ago I read a two-volume biography of Dickens. It was nice to revisit his life again.

I received a free ebook from the publisher

Charles Dickens: Compassion and Contradiction
Karen Kenyon
The Odyssey Press
$3.99

Charles Dickens Quilt designed and made by Nancy A. Bekofske

Charles Dickens, Nancy A. Bekofske

It Takes a School by Jonathan Starr

Somaliland is a separate country from Somalia, though they share Somalian people in common. Jonathan Starr's uncle is from Somaliland so he knew about the country and its problems. After running a successful hedge fund firm, Starr retired and earmarked a half a million dollars with the intention of establishing a boarding school in Somaliland.

He planned an education system based on critical thinking skills and preparing students for higher education abroad. The Abaarso school faced many obstacles, from identifying teachers willing to work for room and board to learning the intricacies of clan-based social systems. That he was able to establish the school at all, nonetheless be a success, is a testament to his ideals and ambition and unfailing belief.

It Takes a School is the story of Starr's struggles to build and run the school.

But the book's heart is the stories of the students. Children who were goat herders with little education or English pass the admission test, and then give 100%, achieving remarkable success in a short time. Starr was able to place his graduates in MIT, Harvard, and a host of top-tier liberal arts colleges.

I kept remembering the old commercial, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," for these children, boys and girls, were doomed to lives as goat herders and teenage brides. And what a loss it would have been for these children of such high intelligence, dreaming of becoming a doctor or an engineer, had they never had a chance. We root for them and are inspired by them.

I received a free book through a giveaway by the publisher.

Juvenelia: Flight into Space

I have written about how I was space crazy as a girl. I enjoyed make-believe play about going to outer space or being visited by space aliens. I dressed my Midge doll in 'Gone Fishing' and pretended she was Philip, the boy from Mars. How I ignored those curves is an act of imagination all in itself! My first story, The Saucer in Her Yard, was about a space alien stranded on earth. I wrote it in Seventh Grade. And in junior high, I filled scrapbooks with articles about the Space Race. 

from my scrap book

As I sorted through my memorabilia I came across this cartoon series I wrote as a teenager, perhaps at age 14 or 15. 'Flight into Space' has been edited to 'Fright into Space.' 

Here are links to Space Race books I have read recently:
Apollo 8 by Jeffrey Kluger
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/apollo-8-thrilling-story-of-first.html

Space Man by Mike Massimino
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-real-right-stuff-spaceman-by-mike.html

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/02/hidden-figures-by-margot-lee-shetterly.html

I made When Dreams Came True to celebrate Apollo 11
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2014/07/when-dreams-came-true-apollo-lunar.html

detail from When Dreams Came True
by Nancy A. Bekofske

Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed, Retelling Shakespeare's The Tempest

Margaret Atwood's bestselling novel Hag-Seed is now out in paperback. It is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, in which contemporary novelists reimagine the classic plays for a new age.

The brilliant, original, artistic director Felix was about to direct The Tempest when he was disposed from his job by self-seeking men. He retreats to an isolated primitive cabin, his only companion his sensing of the presence of his deceased daughter Miranda.

After many years he takes a job under a false name and becomes Mr. Duke, literacy teacher in a local prison, teaching inmates Shakespeare through performance of the plays.

When Felix learns his old enemies are now Ministers who want to end the prison literacy program he decides the time has come for him to take his revenge. The Ministers come to the prison to see a video of The Tempest performed by the inmates. But Felix and his prisoner actors plot a live theater experience that will bring his enemies under his power.

I loved the play within a play structure, so Shakespearean. The intricate structure of the novel knocked my socks off.

The prisoners become essential characters. Hag-Seed, a Shakespearean curse, is their name for Caliban, and the actor playing Caliban writes his own lines:

My name's Caliban, got scales and long nails,I smell like a fish and not a man--But my other name's Hag-Seed, or that what he call me;He call me a lotta names, he play me a lotta games:He call me a poison, a filth, a slave,He prison me up to make me behave,But I'm Hag-Seed!

"The last three words in the play are 'set me free'," says Felix." Felix has identified nine prisons within the play, and so we understand how Atwood conceived of Hag-Seed.

I received a free book through Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Hag-Seed
Margaret Atwood
Hogarth Shakespeare
$15 paperback
ISBN: 978-0-8041-4131-4

I Love House Blocks: 14 Quilts from an All-Time Favorite Block

The fourth book in the Block-Buster Quilts series from That Patchwork Place is I Love House Blocks.

And I do love house blocks! Especially, I am loving these house blocks.

There is something here for every quilter, every style, 14 quilts including new blocks and new twists on traditional blocks, from traditional to Modern styles.

A chapter with color photographs teaches construction techniques for easy, precise sewing.

I love so many of these quilts!

Sherbet Town, 74 1/2"  x 74 1/2", uses
16" square blocks with double borders to
create an Irish Chain secondary pattern

Block Party, 65 1/2" x 70" is a
delightful neighborhood I'd love to live in

I love these houses. They remind me of three-story Philadelphia rowhouses.

The Street Where You Live, 64 1/2" x 72 1/2"
showcases floral prints worth of
My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle's dresses

This is so cool! Like a Modern Log Cabin. 

Sugar Shack, 60 1/2" x 64 1/2"

Modern minimalism is the style for
Village on a Hill, 44 1/2" x 66 1/2"

Welcome Home, 42 1/2" x 48 1/2"
Uses a strip fabric for architectural detail

I know some quilters who will love this cozy quilt.

Little Country Home, 21 1/2" x 33 1/2"
Sweet embroidery enhances a country cottage block

A neutral gray background makes these color pop.

My Hometown, 55 1/2" x 59"
a quirky and colorful quilt 

See all the quilts in the book at
http://www.shopmartingale.com/blockbuster-quilts-i-love-house-blocks.html

The book comes out June 6, 2017.
$24.99
ISBN: 9781604688580

A Sad Goodbye to Our Dear Suki

Our dear Suki

Last week we had to let our Suki go. She was about 16 years old and had been declining physically and mentally. 

Suki was a puppy mill breeder for her first seven years. The Shiba Inu Rescue Society bought her at auction and she spent a year as a foster dog. When we brought her home she was still very unsocialized, frightened, and ignorant of the world. We worked with her and she blossomed into a brave, smart dog.

Suki, when she came to us, huddled in a corner. I sat next to her
and pet her and talked to her. It took days to get a response.

Suki was a 'red' Shiba with dark hair down her back and on her face. She had a triple-thick coat that felt like velvet.

Suki had to learn to be on a leash, climb stairs, understand open spaces, and the concept that she couldn't go in a straight line when something was between her and her destination. 

Suki 

Suki was our third Shiba Inu. Over the last 30 years, we have had a Shiba Inu for 27.

Happy Suki

When we lived in the country she loved to run! I took her out to run four or five times a day. The wide, open space made her feel very safe. She hated corners and fences because anything could be on the other side. But in the open she was free.

Suki

Suki was large for a Shiba, her ears, head, and chest much bigger than our other Shiba's. She was powerful but a 'gentle giant' who was submissive to other dogs.

Our shy Suki

We wanted her to have a friend and fostered Kara. Sadly he died after nine months, but he did teach Suki to play and run. She was so happy, her tail up.

Kara with Suki (on the right)

She was very bright and a quick learner. She understood what we were saying, like 'back door' and 'front door'.  We could not say, "Do you want to walk the dogs?" because she would be at the door immediately. Then she knew "Do you want to w. the dogs" so we had to say, "Shall we perambulate?"

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She loved to sit up and beg for treats until I stopped her because I knew she had bad arthritis. Then she just had to sit, and later as she became blind I just made her 'come'. And, she learned to sit for a treat on the second command!

Our old Suki became blind. She loved 'cookie' treats.

Suki liked her cheek stroked and her back rubbed, but any semblance of holding or restraint sent her fleeing. In her younger years, she even enjoyed brushing and baths!

After we lost Kara we adopted Kamikaze. Kaze was a real pistol and bossed Suki around. But as they aged they gave each other great comfort.

Suki with Kamikaze

Suki's back had developed a white strip

Over this last winter, Suki no longer groomed herself, or rolled on her back like she loved. She wanted to go on walks but she had a limp in one leg, a quiver in another, and a front leg was so stiff it did not bend.

In her last months, Suki slept a lot.

As Suki lost her sight and experienced heart problems and arthritis she wanted me in her sight at all times. She became frightened of men again. She was hyper-vigilant all night, pacing and wanting to go outside and check the yard. And she panted deeply, from pain or stress. Some days she slept in past 3 pm or refused to eat her meals.

Suki loved when Kamikaze snuggled up

It was a hard decision to make but I know she was suffering. We will miss our beloved girl.

Suki's last meal was scrambled eggs.