2020 Goals, WIP, and TBR

Hello to a new decade! 

I have a full schedule of book reviews coming these next few months and a long list of TBR galleys and books to read!

Right now I am reading the newly published Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, a lovely Goodreads win.

I am also reading biographies Fannie Lou Hamer by Maegan Parker Brooks and Frida in America by Celia Stahr, and Conversations with RBG by Jeffrey Rosen.  Also, Deeds Not Words, art quilts on women's suffrage from Schiffer Publications.

Just arrived in the mail is Country by Michael Hughes.

On my TBR galley shelves are:

• John Adams Under Fire by Dan Abrams
• Miss Austen by Gil Hornby
• The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi
• Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
• Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest by Ian Zach
• The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
• Paris Never Leaves by Eileen Feldman
• American Follies by Norman Lock
• They Called it Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton
• Beyond the Horizon by Ella Carey

And, finally in the mail are LibraryThing wins is Inland by Tea Obreht.

My Christmas presents included Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion by Hillary Davidson.

And The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians by David M. Rubenstein.

My library book club finished up 2019 with A Gentleman in Moscow! This month we are reading Kirk W. Johnson's The Feather Thief and coming up this quarter are dynamite reads--Karen Dionne's The Marsh King's Daughter, Angie Kim's Miracle Creek, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. 

 I accepted a challenge to finally frame this needlepoint I made in 1973.

This year I am planning to continue to hone down my pile of quilt tops by getting them quilted, and to finish the tops I started, and to make the quilts I bought specific fabric for.

One of those incomplete projects is Love Entwined. I couldn't face the next border. 

Then there is Hospital Sketches and my Yellow Roses Sampler to finish! And the Thicket animals to quilt.

I also want to use stash fabrics. I'm not getting any younger and it's 'use it or lose it'! I love this Eastside Detroit find. I would like to take some of my vintage fabric stash and create something free and awesome along this line.

Our weekly quilt group had two weeks off for the holidays, then I missed a week. But look at what I got this week: a wonderful gal gave me these vintage fabrics, including some feedsacks and a Disney print of Alice and Wonderland!!!

 And on the 'free' table I found these books.

It's been a crazy winter here in Michigan with little snow. This snowman I made years ago is pleading, Let It SNOW.

But it's been cold enough that this squirrel seemed to be at the doorwall begging to be let in.

Our son's girlfriend's cat took over a basket and for Christmas I made her a pillow. Hazel the cat is pleased.

 And we gave our grandpuppy Ellie a Barkbox toy of a mug with squeaky marshmallows, which she took to bed.

The new news is that we will have another grandpuppy soon! Another puppy mill rescue from Safe Harbor, but this one a puppy!

Rachel Maddow: A Biography by Lisa Rogak

Maddow has impressed me with her cogent and reasoned narratives in explaining news stories. Earlier this year I read her book Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russian, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth in which she explains the gas and oil industry's influence and power and how Putin's goal of becoming a gas and oil supplier to Europe and the world has impacted current American politics. I count it as one of the best 2019 books I read..

I was late to discovering Rachel Maddow in spite of her popularity as I don't care for most cable and network news shows featuring a personality. I prefer print media sources.

In 2015, I followed the Michigan online newspaper Bridge stories on the Flint, Michigan lead water crisis. Maddow turned this local story into national news. She publicized the decisions by Flint's emergency managers which bought about the contamination and hosted a live Town Hall meeting in Flint. Maddow caught my attention at this time.

When St. Martin's Press offered me a chance to read Rachel Maddow: A Biography by Lisa Rogak I was very pleased. I knew I had a lot to learn about Maddow.

I was disappointed when Rogak's coverage of Maddow's involvement was a few sentences. I hoped for more insight, especially since this showed Maddow's activist side as well as her penchant for finding buried news.

I did learn about Maddow as a person, her early activism, her work habits, and her overall career. It was no surprise to learn that Maddow's deep intelligence and perfectionist drive was manifest from childhood.

The portrayal leans heavy on the personal. I had no idea of Maddow's struggle with depression or even of her earlier activism in AIDS and LBGT organizations. I knew she was lesbian and have noted her handsome, no-frills style. Maddow's wardrobe choices take up too much space, her preference for hoodies and sneakers mentioned several times. I appreciate that Maddow found the love of her life.

I preferred the sections which described her ability to put personal politics aside and her reasoned interactions with people whose political views were vastly divergent from her own.

I wish the author had been able to include a section on Blowout.

I loved the quote about Maddow's dislike of cable news hosts as 'brands' and her comment on how some even profess opinions just for attention and to draw viewers. Maddow sees her role as offering "a useful analysis" to help viewers "come to their own conclusions." I love that! That is my ideal.

The biography has reinforced my estimation of Maddow.

I was given an Advanced Reading Copy by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Read an excerpt here.

About the author:LISA ROGAK is the author of numerous books, including And Nothing But the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert. She is the editor of the New York Times bestseller Barack Obama in His Own Words and author of the New York Times bestseller Angry Optimist: The Life and Times of Jon Stewart. Rogak lives in New Hampshire. Learn more on her website.

Rachel Maddow: A Biography
by Lisa Rogak
Thomas Dunne Books
St. Martin's Publishing Group
On Sale: 01/07/2020
$28.99 hardcover
ISBN: 9781250298249

Cesare: A Tale of War-Torn Berlin by Jerome Charyn

They would embroider, multiply, manufacture, until I was their Caligari with his slave, Cesare, who strangled enemies of the Reich at will and then returned to his coffin at Tipitz-Ufer. ~Admiral William Canaris in Cesare by Jerome Charyn

From the beginning, I knew I had entered a noir world of tales and terror where fantasy and fact spun a deeper journey into the known, for surely nothing can convey truth better than fiction.

Reading Cesare by Jerome Charyn I knew I had to see The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari again, for the imagery of the doctor and his sleepwalking murderer is central to the novel. It is set in a world gone mad and filled with madmen. Yes, I am talking about the movie--and I am talking about the novel.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 German film in which horror builds upon horror, the action set against contorted Expressionist Art sets. A doctor is monomaniacally obsessed with controlling a somnambulist, Cesare, who in his sleep murders on command. In the end, we are unsure who is really mad.

We were all madmen at the Abwehr. We had to be. How else could we have survived the Furher's fiery wind day after day? ~ Admiral William Canaris in Cesare by Jerome Charyn 

In Jerome Charyn's Cesare, we met the orphan Erik Holdermann, raised by whores who pool their money to send him to school. There he is discovered by a benevolent department store baron who sends Eric to his an estranged uncle--only to be treated like a household slave. But the Uncle's daughter, the imperious Lisalein, bewitches the boy. Lisalein is fierce and beautiful, a cruel Estella toward men; under the Nazis she becomes a crusading angel for the Jews.

While at cadet school Eric unwittingly saved the life of Admiral Canaris, the head of the "asylum called the Abwehr," the German Military Intelligence. Canaris brings Eric into the Abwehr to eliminate their enemies, becoming Dr. Caligari to Eric's Cesare.

Dr. Caligari's will controls Cesare in his coffin

Eric is Admiral Canaris' liaison with the Nazi Gestapo and SS; the Abwehr was at odds with them, hiding and protecting select Jews, one Jew at a time. Eric was protected and feared by his reputation, for the enemies of the Abwehr disappeared.

Hitler's mad dominions meant nothing to Erik. He was loyal to Uncle Willie and played Cesare for him. ~ from Cesare by Jerome Charyn

To rescue Lisalien, Eric enters the contorted reality of Theresienstadt, a PR facade constructed to hide the truth of the Nazi death camps.

The book reads like a twisted dark fairy tale, stepped in the details of a time in history so chillingly horrific some deny it ever happened. And like all good horror stories, it will disturb your sleep.

I was given access to an egalley by the publisher through Edelweiss in return for a fair and unbiased review.

Cesare: A Novel of War-Torn Berlin
Jerome Charyn
Bellevue Literary Press
Publication January 7, 2020
ISBN: 9781942658504, 1942658508
Hardcover $26.99 USD, $35.99 CAD, £19.99 GBP

Polite Society by Mahesh Rao

When I read the opening of Polite Society on the First Look Book Club I was intrigued, and when I won a copy of the novel I was pleased.

The story is inspired by Jane Austen's Emma, only set in Dehli among the upper strata of society.

Early on I was laughing out loud. I even selected a sentence to share on David Abram's Sunday Sentence on Twitter. Roa's satire permeates the story.

In some ways, Ania's initial interest in Dimple's affairs could be placed on the same spectrum of charitable instincts as the one that left her to the animal shelter. When Dimple stared in confusion, widening her large brown eyes, Ania's heart gave a little flip. But over time she had become genuinely fond of Dimple and didn't see why the girl shouldn't reap the rewards of a superlative Delhi social life just because of her unfortunate beginnings.~ from Polite Society 

I was halfway into the book when I picked up another book to read for my library book club and afterward found it hard to get back into this novel. I realized I did not know what it was 'about', other than the absurdities of the wealthy. I also realized that I didn't like the characters.

I kept reading because I had already read 75% by this time. I was disappointed in the end.

On the plus side, Rao can be very viciously funny. I had not realized how sophisticated and worldly India's rich are, a mirror of Western society. There are comments about the legacy of British Colonialism and the conflict between Hindi and Muslin. There were some interesting twists to characters, bringing their story into the 21st c.

On the negative side, the growth of the characters does not mirror that in Austen's Emma. I found some actions distasteful, especially a scene near the end involving masturbation. I did not feel the satisfaction of Austen's happy ending.

Updating a classic Austen novel is not easy. This one didn't work for me.

End of the Year Review

I did it! I read fewer books this year than last year! I only read 166 books.

According to Goodreads, the most popular book I read--with  539,159 Goodreads readers--was The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I read it for its ten-year anniversary read-along on the Little, Brown Facebook group. I also read Richard Power's The Overstory with the Read It Now Facebook group sponsored by PBS Newshour and the New York Times Book Review.

It is always exciting when a publisher or author likes my reviews and quotes them in media. I discovered on Indiebound a quote from my review of The Peacock Feast by Lisa Gornick and I received comments from Nicholas Meyer about my review on The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols and from Julie Langsdorf on her novel White Elephant.

NetGalley publishers starred eight of my book reviews including The Vexations by Caitlin Horrocks--who I later discovered had been my son's writing professor!

Books about writers, fiction and nonfiction, always catch my interest. I read biographical fiction novels:
Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts: Mrs. Frank L. Baum and the making of the Wizard of Oz movie
Paris 7 A.M. by Lisa Weiland: poet Elizabeth Bishop's missing weeks in Paris
Love That Moves the Sun by Linda Cardillo: the friendship between Michelangelo and the poetess Vittoria Colonna
The Secrets We Kept by Laura Preston: Boris Pasternak's novel Dr. Zhivago's place in the Cold War and female typists turned spies

Non-fiction books on writers and books including:
Marma and Louisa by Eve LaPlante: Louisa May Alcott's heroic mother
Rilke in Paris: the city's place in the life of Ranier Maria Rilke and the writing of The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life by Steve Almond: the author discusses his understanding and relationship to John William's novel
Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey: George Orwell's novel 1984 
Mother of the Brontes by Sharon Wright: about the famous sisters' mother
Jane Austen's Inspiration by Judith Cove: Austen's friendship with Anne Lefroy
There's Something About Darcy by Gabrielle Malcolm: the Austen character's impact throughout the arts
The Story of Charlotte's Web by Michael Sims: E. B. White's inspiration and creation of the childhood classic
These Fevered Days by Martha Ackman: Emily Dickinson's life and works through pivotal moments
Cold Warriors by Duncan Wright: how literature was a weapon during the Cold War
Irving Berlin by James Kaplan: about the iconic Jewish songwriter

Literary Fiction I read includes:
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler; class, race, and values war "can't happen here" happens there
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins: the horrendous story behind one refugee family
Eden Mine S. M. Hulse: the roots of violence and the moral decisions we make
The Dutch House by Ann Pratchett: siblings stuck in the past
Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson: when utopia doesn't work out
Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken: a family+a bowling alley=hilarity
The Night of Memory by Linda LeGarde Grover: Ojibwe sisters disappear into foster care until sought out by family
The Parade by Dave Egger: a parable about war and fake peace
Imagine That by Mark Fins: child in 1950s struggles with faith and life
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam: passed over for the Nobel, a professor tries new values and lifestyle
The End of the Ocean by Maya Lunde: dystopian future with climate refugees and water shortage
The Overstory by Richard Powers: a multilayered exploration of the importance of trees to our survival
Rodin's Debutante by Just Ward; a coming-of-age novel set in Chicago. I read this when I learned of Ward's passing in December.

Women's fiction read included:
Chronicles of a Radial Hag by Lorna Landvik: a woman's legacy in a small town
The Words Between Us by Erin Bartles: books, forgiveness, and romance
Things You Save in the Fire by Katherine Center: female firefighter copes with dying mom and sexism in the workplace
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova: ex-wife cares for concert pianist with ALS
Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid: a reimagining of Austen's classic
By the Book by Julia Sonneborn: Persuasion update about second chances
Unforgettable by Soniah Kamal: Pride and Prejudice update set in Pakistan
The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow, an imagining of Mary Bennett's story

Thrillers and suspense:
The Holdout by Graham Moore: jurists from a headline trial reconvene and one is murdered
Shadow of the Lions by Christopher Swann: man returns to teach at his boarding school and hopes to solve a mystery
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim: trial hopes to determine responsibility for deaths but secrets abound
The Long Call by Anne Cleeves: detective solves a murder mystery in the community that has shunned him
The Dinner by Herman Koch: masterful plotting about a disturbing crime

YA books:
The Patron Saints of Nobody by Randy Ribay: teenager travels to the Philippines to unravel the mystery of his cousin's death
The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen: teenage girl caught in the class division of resort town

Nonfiction:
Father of Lions by Louise Callaghan: Mosul citizens caught in the war try to survive--and protect zoo animals
The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt: the women behind Disney
Joe Biden by Jules Witcover: Joe Biden's life and career
Rachel Maddow by Lisa Rogak: first biography of Maddow
Labyrinth of Ice by Buddy Levy: the riveting story of the Greeley expedition to the Arctic
The Winter Army by Maurice Isserman: the 10th Mountain Division in WWII
Falter by Bill McKibben: climate change and humanity's future
Broke by Jodie Adams Kirshner: dysfunctional governance causes housing crisis
Blowout by Rachel Maddow: oil and gas and Putin and politics
We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer: changing our lifestyle can slow climate change
Archeology from Space by Sarah Parcak: cutting edge technology reveals our place in the world
American is Immigrants by Sara Novic: foreign-born Americans contributions
Threads of Life by Claire Hunter: women and needlework in history and society
Whose Water is it, Anyway by Maude Barlow: communal vs. corporate control of water resources
Songs of America by Jon Meachem and Tim McGraw: history through music
Grace Will Lead Us Home by Jennifer Berry Hawes: victims of church shooting embody forgiveness
Fault Lines by Kevin Kruse: the 1970s roots of a divided America
The Chronicle of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee: Columbus's son creates largest collection of books
The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story by Aaron Bobrow-Strain: the true story of an immigrant illustrates the consequences of American policy
The Forgotten Hero: Folke Bernadotte, the Swedish Humanitarian Who Rescued 30,000 People from the Nazis by Shelley Emling: Neutrality allows man to manipulate Nazis and rescue Ravensbruck women
Upheaval by Jared Diamond applies psychology to understand nations
Morality and the Environmental Crisis by Roger S. Gottlieb: systematic consideration of human choices and our impact on the environment
The Last Whalers by Doug Bok Clark chronicles a vanishing culture
Camelot's End: Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight that Broke the Democratic Party by Jon Ward
Thomas Cole's Refrain: The Paintings of Catskill Creek by H. Daniel Peck. Three Sheets to the Wind by Cynthia Barrett: sayings with nautical roots
How to Remove a Brain by David Haviland: stories about the human body

I reviewed three cookbooks!
Amy Cotler's The Secret Garden Cookbook
Wini Moranville's The Little Women Cookbook 
Lincoln in the Kitchen by Katherine Eighmey.
I also read The Anti-Diet Cookbook by Christy Harrison

Memoirs:
Family Records by Patrick Modiano: fictionalized memories of WWII Paris
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay: British OB/GYN doctor's comic and tragic true stories
Mighty Justice by Dovey Johnson Roundtree: African American lawyer's impressive legacy
Educated by Tara Westover: author escapes horrific childhood
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro: DNA test results drive the search for real father
The Sun is a Compass by Caroline Van Hemert: a 4,000-mile journey across Alaska's wilderness
Legacy by Susan Methot: the lasting legacy of removing Indigenous children from families
The World According to Fannie Davis by Bridgett Davis: the numbers racket gives an African American Detroit family a home and education
Greek to Me by Mary Norris: the author's obsession with all things Greek
A Good American Family by David Maraniss: the author tries to understand why his journalist dad was called before the UnAmerican committee
Maid by Stephanie Land unwed mother's struggles to better herself
A Polar Affair by Lloyd Spencer Davis: author discovers suppressed manuscript detailing sex life of penguins

Historical fiction:
I reread A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: house arrest makes a Former Person the "luckiest man in Moscow"
The Girl in White Gloves by Teri Maher: Grace Kelley's life
The Great Unknown by Peg Kingman: Scientific theories upset Victorian society
Things in Jars by Jess Kidd: eccentric female detective seeks child in Victorian England
Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict: an imagined life of Churchill's wife
The Light After the War by Anita Abriel: WWII refugee Hungarian Jewish women seek a new life
Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain: WPA artist discovers suppressed history in a southern town
Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gapah: David Livingston's remains are returned to England by African servants
The Doll Factory by Elizabeth McNeal: The Great Exhibition is the backdrop to this Victorian gothic thriller
Lost Roses by Matha Hall Kelley: White Russian refugees helped by New York socialite
The Gown by Jennifer Robson: women craft exquisite wedding dress for Queen Elizabeth
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner: Detroit Jewish sisters divergent lives
Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard: imagines Lincoln and Joshua Speed in love
The Editor by Stephen Rowley: new author mentored by Jackie O.
The Road to Grantchester by James Buncie: Sidney Chamber's WWI experience drives his calling
The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin: family drama explores how love fails us and saves us
The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith: romance and mystery set in the early French film industry
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake: Racism divides family
Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell: women endeavoring to unionize, based on historical people and incidents in Calumet, MI
This Tender Land by William Kent Kruger: boys escape boarding school and set on a river journey
Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris: woman survives concentration camp and Siberia, helps others
The Book of Science and Antiquities by Thoman Kenalley: ancient and modern Australian men cope with end of life
We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca Wright: sisters divergent paths into a divided America
Make Me a City by Jonathan Carr: vignettes from the history of Chicago
Amy Stewert's Miss Kopp On the March, Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions, Lady Cop Makes Trouble, and Kopp Sisters On the March: based on real female detective, series considers women's struggles in early 20th c
If Anyone Should Ask, Tell Them I Died From the Heartbreaking Blues by Philip Coiffari, inspired by his NYC boyhood

I listened to more audiobooks this year.
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid: band propelled to top the charts  unravels
To the Stars Through Difficulties by Romlyn Tilghman: women discover hidden strengths and love
The Secrets We Kept by Laura Prescott: typists turned spies--Olga and Pasternack and Dr. Zhivago--and Cold War intrigue

Short story collections:
This Is Not a Love Song by Brenden Matthew
Maggie Brown & Others by Peter Orner
We Love Anderson Cooper by R. L. Maizes
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout in which the story of Olive Kitteridge continues
I'd Die For You, the uncollected stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Indie authors are gems ready to be discovered and I have been lucky to read quite a few.
Anne Creel Howard's The River Widow (a flood offers a wife an opportunity to escape an abusive husband) and Mercy Road (women ambulance drives in WWI)
Rebecca Rosenberg's historical fiction novels Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor and The Secret Life of Mrs. Jack London
Tidal Flats by Cynthia Newberry Martin; a military marriage under stress
The Fourteenth of September by Rita Dragonette; revisits the Vietnam war protests and first draft lottery from a female perspective
Temptation Rag by Elizabeth Hutchinson Bernard; early Ragtime stars
Wickwythe Hall by Judithe Little; WWII and Operation Catapult provides the historical background for this romance
Northward by Chuck Radda; retired PI returns to Alaska to find a missing woman and stumbles upon environmental catastrophe in the making
And the memoirs Redlined by Lisa Graft about her Chicago childhood neighborhood and racial tensions, Two Minus One by Kathryn Taylor about life after marriage, and Lost Without the River by Barbara Hoffbeck Scoblic, recalling her childhood in rural Dakota

I have discovered Bellevue Literary Press and love their books. This year I read:
Feast Day of the Cannibals by Norman Lock, in which Robling and Melville appear, from his American Novel series
Hap and Hazzard at the End of the World by Diane DeSanders; girl survives dysfunctional childhood
Cesare by Jerome Charyn; Jewish orphan in Nazi Germany rises in power while protecting select Jews
The Bear by Andrew Krivak; father and daughter survive in a post-apocalyptic world
The Welsh Fasting Girl by Varley O'Connor

Best of all I was recognized as a top Amazon reviewer--ranked 927!

Our library book club had Skype visits with Wiley Cash to discuss his novel The Last Ballad, Nefertiti Austin on her memoir Motherhood So White, and Amy Stewart on Girl Waits With Gun.

Quilt books I reviewed:
Art Quilts Unfolding, celebrating 50 years of the Studio Art Quilts Association
Blue and White Quilts
Exploring Your Artistic Voice in Contemporary Quilt Art by Sarah Sider
Lynette's Bet-Loved Stitcheries
Autumn Bouquet by Sharon Keightley
Wild Wool and Cotton  Quilts by Erica Kaprow
Victoria Findlay Wolfe's Playing With Purpose
Blended Embroidery by Brian Haggard
Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer
Organic Applique by Kathy Doughty
MODA All-Stars On a Roll
Visioning Human Rights in the New Millennium by Caroline Mazloomi
HERstory Quilts by Susanne Miller-Jones
Hidden Treasures: Quilts from 1600 to 1860 by Lori Lee Triplett

*****

I continued toward my goal of completing quilt tops and quilting existent quilt tops. I'm not getting any younger! Time to clean up the backlog!

April Showers Bring May Flowers, hand appliqued and machine quilted

Little Red Riding Hood, hand embroidered and hand quilted

The Bronte Sisters, original quilt, machine quilted

Tweet, hand quilted

Winter Houses, machine quilted
pattern by Anne Sutton

unnamed, machine quilted

1857 Album quilt, hand applique and machine quilted
patterns from Gay Boomers

Unnamed, hand quilted

Vintage quilt block, Freedom of Speech, hand quilted

Cluck Cluck, hand appliqued and hand quilted
pattern from MODA All-Stars On a Roll

Baskets, hand applique and hand quilted
pattern by Anne Sutton

Thicket fabric from Gingiber quilt top

Hospital Sketches quilt top, unfinished
patterns from Barbara Brackman

Wizard of Oz quilt top, hand embroidered original designs

I made a table runner for my son and his girlfriend,
creating an applique to match the print

Its been a great year.

Last Books of the Year

My last books of the year were not review books, but personal choices from my TBR shelf.

When I bought my first Kindle I went wild with 99 cent book sales. It was unbelievable that I could own a book for under a dollar! I discovered some of my favorite books this way, like John William's Stoner. Another was Ward Just's An Unfinished Season, a coming-of-age story about politics and journalism. Later I reviewed Just's last novel, The Eastern Shore, a retired journalist reviews the uses and abuses of journalists and the news.

Learning of Just's passing I pulled his Rodin's Debutante off my physical TBR shelf.

"Tell me this, she said. Has your life worked out the way you thought it would?"~from Rodin's Debutante by Ward Just

A small town is shocked by the violent attack of a teenage girl in the local school and the leaders of society convince the local newspaper editor to bury the story.

Teenage Lee's mother convinces his father to leave the town of his ancestors for a safer neighborhood.

Odgen Hall School of Boys is Lee's chosen school, housed in the private home of Tommy Odgen whose wealth allowed him the luxury of pursuing his love of shooting--and his love of the local cathouse. One of the most chilling scenes I have ever read occurs when a young Tommy, hunting on his father's grounds, sees an interloper hunting. He gets the man in his sights, justifying his intended action. Tommy establishes the school to spite his wife. His lawyer Bert Marks handles the business for him.

Lee helps the school team to have a winning season and is noticed by Tommy, who upon meeting the boy warns that "you don't learn a damned thing by defeat." Tommy then goes on a rage about newspapermen, "They'll take everything if you let them," he growls.

In the house remained a sculpture by Rodin of a Chicago debutante. Lee was enchanted by the sculpture and it impels him to pursue the art of working in stone.

Lee goes to university, renting a South Chicago room for his studio. Resisting a knife attack leaves him with a scar. Lee meets a girl, he becomes successful.

The victim of the attack that drove Lee's family from their home returns, seeking answers. She has no memory of what happened and hopes Lee will prompt her memory.

You mean a thing's better not known than known. 
It depends on what you fear most, the known or the unknown. 
She offered a ghost of a smile. Do you have to choose? I imagine it's chosen for you, Lee said.~from Rodin's Debutante

I love Ward's writing.

When I read the beginning pages of The Secrets We Kept on the First Look Book Club I was enchanted by the narrative voice. I put in a hold on Overdrive and waited patiently. The audiobook was the first available copy.

I wanted to read the book for several reasons: First, because I had read Cold Warriors by Duncan White this year in which I learned how books and ideas were weapons in the Cold War. Second, because I had read Doctor Zhivago in 1968 and was interested in how the novel was secreted out of the Soviet Union.

my 1968 copy of Doctor Zhivago

Preston divides the novel into two fronts--East and West. In the West, female secretaries working for the government face sexism even when some become spies; one helps to clandestinely disseminate Pasternack's novel to Russian readers at the World's Fair in Belgium. In the East sections, we learn the story of Boris Pasternack and his lover Olga who was sent to Siberia for not informing on Pasternack when the government feared what Pasternack's novel contained.

The secrets kept are multiple on both fronts.

I enjoyed the audiobook and the story, but I still prefer to read a book. I could have read the novel in half the time it took to listen to it!