This is Not a Love Song, Stories by Brendan Mathews

Last year I enjoyed reading Brendan Mathew's first novel The World of Tomorrow. Reading his first collection of stories This is Not a Love Song brought me a new appreciation of Mathews. If World was a fun romp into the past with an action ending, the short stories are an examination of the human experience on a deeper level. I was moved, I related, and I was entertained.

There are stories about we believe we know--about love and family and life--but discover aren't true. Stories about coming to terms with life, or not coming to terms. 

The first story, Heroes of the Revolution, was also one of my favorites. An American female college student is responsible for providing visiting foreign journalists with typical American experiences. She takes them to pick apples, but walking through the orchard stirs memories, revealing the student's sheltered life while the journalists grapple with the lasting damage of the atrocities they personally lived through.

This is Not a Love Song questions the nature of art and friendship as one woman pursues a music career while her friend captures her life on film.

I loved Airborne, the story of how having a child transformed a couple's life and relationship, the crazy obsession over a child's safety, which in the story goes to an extreme, but which I well remember with the birth of my only child.

How Long Does the First Part Last? is about unrequited love.

Dunn & Sons is "the story my father never tells;" three generations of men share stories that connect them and those that split them, and the stories that "might save us" if "ever told the right way."

Look at Everything is an amazing story about a photography student who by accident causes a fire and responds by taking photographs instead of reporting it.

The Drive takes an ironic peek behind the ubiquitous story of a dad taking the babysitter home.

Henry and his Brother speaks to the bonds of fraternal love and a mutual need that transcends family ties.

In Salvage, a man working in the shady business of removing architectural pieces from ruined buildings finds the item that he thinks will finally change his luck and life.

The last story, My Last Attempt to Explain to You What Happened with the Lion Tamer, reads like a parody and comedy but feels like a tragedy involving the love triangle between a clown, a tightrope walker, and a lion tamer.

I can't wait to see what Mathews does next.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

This Is Not a Love Song
by Brendan Mathews
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date 05 Feb 2019
ISBN 9780316382144
PRICE $26.00 (USD)

Jane Austen for Kids

Jane Austen for Kids: Her Life, Writings, and World by Nancy I. Sanders was written for ages 9 and up, but don't think you are too old to read it! This is a great resource for any reader new to Jane Austen and her world. I have been reading and learning about Austen since 1978 and Sanders taught me a few things.

One biographer stated that Austen led an uneventful life, which is how her Victorian Age family wanted her portrayed. Sanders touches on the many ways Austen's life was far from uneventful: family scandals, illness and horrible deaths, wars and epidemics, the loss of a beloved home, romances gone awry, and fame that brought her to the attention of a Prince.

I loved the excerpts from Austen's juvenilia! Her wicked humor and parodies are such fun. What a great way to get kids to connect. A summary of each novel is given.

The 21 projects included are great ideas to make Austen's world come alive. There are instructions on how to play Whist and illustration of popular dances. Kids can create imitate side whiskers and roll their hair with tied cotton strips. There are writing activities.

I can't wait to try the Knight family gingercake recipe! And as a sewer, the reticle will be fun to make.

Jane Austen model

This is a great introduction to Austen.

This book is part of the For Kids series from Chicago Review Press. Books cover a wide diversity of subjects from history and biographies of authors, artists, inventors, explorers, and more. Learn more about the series here.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Jane Austen for Kids
by Nancy I. Sanders
Chicago Review Press
Publication February 5, 2019
ISBN 9781613738535, 1613738536
Trade Paperback  $16.99 USD, £14.99 GBP

Helen Korngold Diary: January 27- February 2, 1919

Helen Korngold, December 1919, New York City

January
Monday 27

Yesterday the gods showered flowers upon me—roses—carnations and sweet peas. That dance last night was a regular E. St. Louis affair. Nothing special today. Talked with Pauline a whole hour in library. Mr. Russack told us all about my friend E.—Gee, I’m all off him for life! He called up today, but I was asleep.

Tuesday 28
Wellston—Class! It’s all wrong—I almost fell asleep in Ed. That fellow Ellenburg calls up too often. Lecture was wonderful—all about paper & China—by a Dr. Willet of Chicago University. Since Mr. Goldstine told us about Ellenburg I’m sorry I ever went out with him, or yet, he treated me fine.

Wednesday 29
Wellston—Actually dozed in Ed 4. Ordered gowns & caps. They told me Ellenburg phoned again, but thank goodness it was Joe Raskas! At least, he doesn’t pester me with proposals. Beastly tired. To bed at 10 P.M.

Friday 31
Wellston—This is the first day I’ve felt gay for at least 72 hours! I don’t know why, but—oh well, I suppose it’s the effect of last night—I do love chop suey!—especially chicken. Dancing in gym is getting complicated. Miss Grant is wonderful. Last night Summer told me Dewey Pierre has been sent to New Mexico—he’s bound for the coast, I suppose.

February

Saturday 1
Papa left for N.Y. and I gave him a long list of questions to answer. I know he won’t do it. Junior Council luncheon at Grand Leader—Mrs. Leonard spoke—so also did Mrs. Halpern—she’s a doll. Beatrice appointed me chairman of party committee—I’ve got one big job before me. Went around curio room in Leader with Mrs. H. - Shopped & home.

Sunday 2
Just like all other Sundays—fooled around all day. Expect to get lesson tonight if Aunt Beryl ever comes. Awful Ellenberg called up! Threatened to commit suicide if I didn’t allow him to call! I won’t allow it. He’s too much for me. Said he’d meet me on train to Cole! Not if I know it!

*****

NOTES:

January 27

Several Russack families appear in the St. Louis Census. Samuel Russack in 1916 was Vice President of Peckham’s Pleating and Ostrich Feather Renovating Company. Samuel was in Real Estate on the 1920 St. Louis Census, with a son Martin, age 17. Samuel was Magyar in heritage.

January 28

Dr. Herbert L. Willet of Chicago University spoke on “The Changing Orient.”

Albert E Goldstein, B.S.  His June 1917 WWI Draft Card showed he was born February 20, 1896, and was tall with a medium build and had brown hair and eyes. He was a student. Albert E. Goldstein appears on the 1916 and 1917 St. Louis City Directory as a student living on Morgan St.

In 1930 and 1931 he appears as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry at Washington University. He is a full professor into the 1958 City Directories. He died in 1971.

January 29

Joseph Ruvlin Raskas in 1916 was attending the University of Illinois. His June 1917 WWI Draft Registration shows he was a student at Washington University. He appears in the 1917 Washington University yearbook and in the Class of 1919 Freshman Medical School photo.

The 1917 St. Louis City Directory shows  Joseph R. Raskas working for the St. Louis Neckwear Company and living at 4401 Page Blvd., the same street the Korngold family lived on. In 1944 he is working for the Raskas Sales & Service Company and still on Page Blvd.

passport photo for Joseph Raskas

Joseph R. Raskas was born on May 19, 1895, to Isaac S. Raskas and Sophia Saranson, both born in Russia. A 1921 passport request included an Oath of Allegiance. Joe was traveling for personal business to visit his father Isaac who was living in Palestine. Isaac appears to be appointed to the U.S. Consular post in Israel. The passport shows that Joseph was 26 years old, 5’6’ tall with a high forehead, brown eyes, prominent nose, round chin, dark hair and oval face. His WWII Draft Registration shows him living with Lottie in Evansville, IL and self-employed. In 1924, 19230, 1939 and 1943 (living in New York City),  he appears on passenger lists traveling to Europe. R. Raskas also appears on a passenger list in 1950. He was living in Baltimore when he passed away in 1981.

January 31

Miss Florence Grant, A.B. was Director of  Physical Training for Women until June 1919 when she retired to marry. She was cited as having awakened increasing interest in PE among women at the university, which included hockey and swimming.

February 1

article from Jewish Voice

The Grand Leader Department Store was located at 601 Washington Ave. Built in 1906 as Stix, Baer & Fuller, it was one of the premier department stores in St. Louis. Expanded in 1919, it became the Grand Leader Department store.

In 1879 Julius and Sigmond Baer opened a dry goods store in Arkansas which thrived and grew. After they were joined by their brother-in-law Aaron Fuller they decided to relocate to St. Louis. The men contacted Charles A. Stix, a St. Louis civic leader and in 1892 the Stix, Baer and Fuller department store was opened. In the 1980s they were bought out by Dillard's.
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https://plus.google.com/photos/102332006155314414372/albums/4969145109586378769/4969145400627167250?banner=pwa&pid=4969145400627167250&oid=102332006155314414372

Goggle+ Being Elminated!

Goggle+ is being shut down in April 2019 "due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers' expectations."

If you are one of my 74 Goggle+ followers you will need to change to another way to follow my blog posts after April.

On the right column near the top is a "follow by email" option. Each post will appear in your mailbox in total with no need to visit the website.

Further down is another group of followers through Bloglovin' and there is a "follow" button there. You can set up a daily notice to receive all Bloglovin' mail in one email with links to each blog you follow.

I have a Facebook page for The Literate Quilter where I post links to my blog posts.

To follow my book reviews outside of my blog there are many options.

I am on Twitter at @NancyAdairB
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I am on Goodreads at
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And on Book Bub at
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The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers

I don't gamble. I don't buy raffle tickets or lottery tickets or visit the casinos. To me, it's throwing money away. I harbor no dreams of "hitting it big." I don't find it intriguing and it doesn't sound like fun. Then, I'm not motivated by money, although I never had much either.

That made me standoffish about Bridgett M. Davis' memoir about her mother who for 34 years was a numbers runner working out of her Detroit home. But...it's Detroit...and I had to at least take a look at this book.

The book is a paen to Fannie Davis who used her wits and charisma--and a lot of hard work--to ensure that her children had a comfortable home and a good life.

The Davis family had moved to Detroit for the same reason as my family did: the dream of a job in the auto industry. Davis loved her father, but with frail health no regular work, he was unable to support his family.

Fannie didn't want her kids growing up in a vermin-ridden slum house. So, Davis's mom had a choice: work in the home of a white person, for little pay, and away from her own family all day, or get creative.

She got creative. And built a business.

This memoir offers a good understanding of Detroit in the 1950s and 1960s, filled with specifics and local color. One learns the history of numbers in the African American community, it's economic importance, and how it works.

Davis talks about the secretiveness about her mom's work, how the legal lottery impacted the numbers, and her desire to get away from Detroit for college and work.

Above all, Fannie Davis shines as her daughter paints a larger-than-life image of her mom.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers
by Bridgett M. Davis
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date 29 Jan 2019
ISBN 9780316558730
PRICE $28.00 (USD)

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.

The Falconer by Dana Czapnik

Sometimes a book finds me that I would not have found by myself. That is how The Falconer by Dana Czapnik came into my life--as an unexpected package from the publisher.

Reading it was about a seventeen-year-old girl in 1993 New York City whose passion was basketball and who has a crush on her best friend Percy, I wondered if I would care for the book. Sure, there was advance praise from Column McCann, Salmon Rushdie, Chloe Benjamin--but could I relate to the story?

I opened the book and started reading. The opening scene finds the protagonist, "pizza bagel" Lucy, playing basketball with Percy. I've seen basketball games. Only when the tickets were free. But the writing was so good, I found myself drawn into the scene, turning pages. There was something about this book, about Lucy's voice.

On the surface, I had nothing in common with Lucy. And yet Lucy felt familiar, her concerns and fears universal.

In telling the story of one particular girl from a particular place and time, the author probes the eternal challenges of growing up female: conformity and acceptance by one's peer group while staying true to oneself; crushes on boys who don't see you; concerns about our attractiveness; what we give up for love; is the world is chaotic and without order, or can we find joy and hope?

There was a multitude of lines and paragraphs that I noted for their wisdom, beauty, and insight. I reread sections, scenes that elicited emotion or thoughtfulness.

I felt Lucy was channeling Holden Caulfield, who I met as a fourteen-year-old in Freshman English class in 1967. The Catcher in the Rye was life-changing for me, a voice unlike any I had encountered in a novel. The New York City setting, the wandering across the city, the characters met, the rejection of the parental values and lifestyle, Lucy's misunderstanding of a song line--Lucy is a female Holden, updated to the 1990s.

Lucy tells us that in Central Park is a statue of a boy releasing a falcon. She loves this statue but resents that only boys are portrayed in the way of the statue, that girls are shown nude or as children like the Alice in Wonderland statue. She sees in the joy and hope in The Falconer.

The Falconer, Central Park

Lucy experiences many things in the novel, including some pretty bad stuff. But she is resilient, holding to the joy and beauty she finds around her, the "the perfect jump shot" moments. She will inspire young readers and offer those of us whose choices were made long ago a journey of recollection and the affirmation of mutually shared experience.

I received a free ARC from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Falconer
by Dana Czapnik
Atria Books
Publication: January 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9322
$25 hardbound