Perfume River Nights by Michael P. Maurer

Michael P. Maurer survived the Vietnam War. He needed to give a voice to the men who died. He worked on his novel for a dozen years and when it was published he donated the royalties to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

I was afraid of Perfume River Nights, afraid to know the drudgery and fear, the earnest naivety, the dark passions of war. But what better time to read it than for Memorial Day?

***

As a girl, I wrote in my diary that the boys were talking about the Vietnam War and fear of the draft. I felt bad, knowing my safety, and thought it unfair.

I didn't understand that war. I had not studied any war but the Revolutionary War; the teachers never seemed to get have time for the Civil War and certainly not the wars of the 20th c. The war movies I had seen, like The Bridge on the River Kwai, reinforced the wasteful stupidity of war.

Like most of my cohorts, I was anti-war. At sixteen, I wrote anti-war poetry. Such arrogance! What did I know to speak for veterans?

my poem in the school newspaper

A neighbor was drafted. Mom wrote him letters. He came home and told Mom he couldn't understand the way soldiers had treated the women. He had two sisters. In my innocence, I didn't understand then what he meant.

At college, young men were returning from Vietnam to complete their disrupted education. One man, who had been non-infantry, told how he learned never to wake his vet brother because his first instinct was to kill. I listened to his stories but did not suspect the unspoken.

***

Maurer's novel follows Singer, an earnest eighteen-year-old with patriotic dreams of glory. He bonds with the men and is eager to learn from them. When they are deployed he hears crying and wonders, Can it really be that bad?

Yes. It is that bad.

When he sees an unarmed enemy he doesn't shoot. The hate comes after his friends are killed.

Readers understand the physical, mental, and spiritual toil war exacts on Singer. We feel the desperation, the dirt in our face making its way into our nose and throat. We feel the paranoiac fear of the unseen enemy. The anger and hate.

And the profound guilt that accompanies the desire for revenge, the self-questioning when we know we have been inalteringly changed into someone we no longer recognize.

He had been innocent and naive then, younger and less angry. Now he was angry all the time. Angry at the deaths, the stupidity of it all, and at incompetent leaders who saw their men as pawns toward obtaining body counts and their next promotion, Angry at the things he'd done and at the knowledge that he would do more.~from Perfume River Nights by Michael P. Maurer

Singer realizes that the enemy likely felt the same way. Soldiers were all pawns in a game in which nothing seemed to be truly gained.

Singer grieves for the men who died and also for the boy he had been, the loss of his goodness and values. Revenge was just another lie.

He makes a choice, a crazy choice, but one that will save him.

***

My dad was to go to Korea until Mom became pregnant with me. I asked him about it once, and he said he would have gone to war. But I could never imagine it. Dad, who went hunting and never shot a deer. Dad who went fishing and threw the fish back into the lake. Dad who during WWII raised rabbits and then couldn't kill them for food. Dad, the soft touch. There were no war stories from my family, the last soldier having served in the Civil War. I can't imagine Dad killing a human being.

And yet, there is the story he told of first meeting my mother's grandparents when they were dating. My great-grandmother had tasked my grandfather with killing a litter of kittens. He asked my dad to do it. It shook dad. I supposed he did it because he never told a story about setting them free. Is there a killer in all of us, just waiting for instructions?

One man I know did have a war story to tell. Floyd Erickson, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and a skier, volunteered for the 10th Mountain Division during WWII. (read about them in The Winter Army.) He was on the side of a mountain in Italy when his best friend died. He prayed to God, asking to be spared. In return, he would change his life. Floyd survived, and as his wife often said, he did change his life. His church and his God and his family were the bedrock of his life. Last I knew, he still could fit into his uniform.

When he was a kid our son watched To Hell and Back with Audie Murphy on tv and his obsession shifted from dinosaurs to WWII. He spent years reading everything he could, became an expert on aircraft and tanks, expanding his interest into other 20th c wars. At school a boy teased that he like war. No, our son replied. He hated war. He read about war because it was the scariest thing he knew, just like dinosaurs and big trucks had fascinated him earlier in his life.

And so I read about war, too. Because it is the most awful I can imagine. In the comfort of my home, even in lockdown during a pandemic, I am safe and protected. I want to understand what I have not experienced.

***

Perfume River Nights took me on the transformative journey of one eighteen-year-old soldier. It made me better understand what I don't know. I won't soon forget these characters.

Michael P. Maurer is a Twitter friend through David Abram's Sunday Sentence on Twitter. Learn more about Maurer at
http://www.michaelpmaurer.com/about.html
Read about Maurer and the novel at
https://www.twincities.com/2016/07/01/perfume-river-nights-michael-maurer/

I purchased the book.

Perfume River Nights
by Michael P. Maurer
North Star Press
Published June 2016
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-68201-022-8

Covid-19 Life: Books and Quilts and Flowers, Oh My!

Last week we went to Tenhave Woods in Royal Oak, Michigan. The woods is next to the high school I went to, just two miles down the road from where I live.

The woods is a wildflower preserve. They maintain a fence to keep the deer out.

We do have deer in the suburbs. In fact, this week a friend saw a wild turkey a few blocks away! And another friend saw a coyote in her yard. And I have seen hawk and falcon and skunk and opossum. My dad once looked over the edge of the hot tub to see a raccoon. And of course, squirrels and chipmunks abound.

wild violets under our apple trees

We have wild violets in our yard but sadly no trillium. So we go to the woods.

 These close ups were taken by my husband. Below is a Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

 There are sections of the woods blanketed by trillium!

Tenhave as a vernal pond.

There are some very old trees. The woods was a farmer's woodlot, a preserved forest he used for fuel.

On our daily walks around the neighborhood we enjoy seeing the flowering trees and flower gardens. At the end of our street is a park created by the Rotary Club with this lovely tree. A Facebook friend thinks it is a yellow tulip magnolia.

I bought a new sewing machine, a Bernina 570 QE (Quilter's Edition). The quilt shop owners brought it to my car trunk after I bought it over the phone. So far, I love it! First up--binding my Yellow Roses Sampler quilt, just back from the machine quilter! Maggie Smith did a marvelous job. Here are some details.

While I bind it off I have my Lilac Lanes quilt on the bed, made early in my quilting days.

I won another book on American Historical Novels Facebook group, Eldonna Edwards; debut novel This I Know. And a magnate of Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst. Every week an author hosts, talking about her book and asking discussion questions.

From Dover Publications came Jane Austen Embroidery. Look for my review soon!

New to my NetGalley shelf:

• Missionaries by Phil Kay about America's Forever Wars
• Empress Alexandra: The Special Relationship Between Russia's Last Tsarina and Queen Victoria by Melanie Clegg
• Other People's Pets by R. L.Maizes, whose short story collection We Love Anderson Cooper I reviewed

I am currently reading:

• Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework, a lovely memoir set in Eastern Sierra Nevada
• Perfume River Nights by Michael P. Maurer, a novel about a soldier's experience in Viet Nam. The author is a Twitter friend through David Abram's Sunday Sentence.
• The Splendid and the Vile by Eric Larson, Churchill and the Blitz

Our small city of 11,900 had several weeks without new COVID-19 cases or deaths. But in recent days, five new cases brought the count to 63 and two more deaths means 11 people have died. These figures are only for test confirmed cases.

Although the state is opening up, we will continue to social isolate. We order groceries and delivered food. And expect to continue for many weeks. 

Stay safe. 

The Story of Jane Goodall by Susan B.Katz

Growing up, when I was bored I would delve into my father's National Geographic collection. He built a long shelf in the basement with the magazines ordered by year and month. I was fascinated by the stories of Jane Goodall and her chimpanzees that used tools. I remember when she married her photographer and I remember their son, Grub.

Now, young people of today can learn about Goodall's life and contributions through The Story of Jane Goodall by Susan B. Katz.

Children will relate to Jane the animal-loving child and be inspired by her courageous choice to be the first to observe chimpanzees in the wild.

Timelines, a glossary, maps, and quiz and challenges aid the learning process.

For sixty years, Goodall has studied and protect the chimps and is now an activist to protect their vanishing habitat. 

I loved to read biographies as a child, especially of women who impacted the world. Katz has also written books in this series on Frida Kahlo and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

I was given a free book through Callisto Publishing in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Story of Jane Goodall: A Biography Book for New Readers
by Susan B. Katz
Rockridge Press
May 19, 2020
$6.99 paperback
ISBN: 9781646118731

Divided Hearts: A Civil War Friendship Quilt by Barbara Brackman

Barbara Brackman is one of my favorite quilt historians and bloggers. I love how she combines history, genealogy research, quilting and women's work, and women's history in her research.

Her newest book, Divided Hearts , arose from her free block of the month patterns on her Civil War Quilts blog. 

Inspired by friendship quilts created between 1840 and 1861, Brackman focuses on women with 'divided hearts', Northern women living in the South, and Southern women educated in the North, or with families divided by the Civil War. 

The twelve blocks represent the most popular pieced quilt designs of this time, frequently found in friendship quilts. The blocks are presented in 12" and 8" sizes. The patterns include patterns for inked signatures.

Blog followers who participated in sewing the blocks and completing the quilt are represented in the book. The variety of interpretations is broad, from reproduction fabrics reflecting those of the mid-19th c. to the use of contemporary fabrics with a modern vibe.

Brackman is a premier quilt historian who created the first collections of existent pieced and applique quilt patterns. Her knowledge on quilt history is outstanding. But she goes further with her deep research into the women who made quilts or owned quilts.

In Divided Hearts, readers learn about twelve women's lives that spanned the divide. Photographs and maps accompany the biographies. History comes alive through these women. Resources are given for those who want to 'read more'.

• Indiana Fletcher, from a Yankee family who moved to the South. Wandering Lover quilt block
• Mary Lyon and Mount Holyoke. (Emily Dickinson attended Mount Holyoke briefly.) Lend and Borrow quilt block
• Constance Fenimore Woolson, a Northern girl who attended school with Southern girls. Friendship Star quilt block.( Read my review a biography of Woolson by Anne Boyd Rioux here.)
• Sarah Powell Leeds, a Quaker teacher. Quaker Pride quilt block
• Charlotte Forten Grimke' was the daughter of a Freeman. Charlotte married Rev. Francis J. Grimke. Francis's father was brother to Angelina and Sarah Grimke, plantation born women who became Quakers and abolitionists. His mother was Nancy Weston, Henry's slave mistress. Cross and Crown quilt block. (I first read about Charlotte in Lift Up Thy Voice: The Grimke Family's Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders by Mark Perry.)
• The Petigru Sisters, Southern women who went to school in the North. Mary Petigru Chestnut and Sue Petigru King had a contentious relationship. Mary Chestnut's diary is quite famous. Madame's Star quilt block
• Caroline Russell Seabury, a New England educator who taught in the South. Chimney Sweep quilt block.
• Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, Teddy's beloved mother. The Southern Bullochs summered in the North. Southern Cross quilt block.
• Mary Ann Todd Lincoln was born in Kentucky and her family were Confederates. Lexington Belle quilt block
• Elizabeth Keckley and Anna Burwell. Keckley was a servant in the Burwell household. She became Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and trusted friend. Carolina Lily quilt block.(I first read about her in Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly : The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave by Jennifer Fleischner.) 
• Emily Wharton Sinkler was the daughter of a Philadelphia lawyer who wed a Southern man. Double Star quilt block
• Emma Willard and her 'every-widening circle' is represented by the This and That quilt block.

Each block includes instructions and examples. Various settings are offered: straight setting; alternating with double nine-patch blocks; on-point with sashing and applique; on-point with pieced border; on-point as a wall hanging of five blocks. A Gallery of finished quilts completes the book.

Quilters will have fun making the quilt their own. You don't have to be a quilt maker to enjoy reading the history and biographies of these amazing women.

Read Brackman's blog post about her book at
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2020/04/my-new-book-divided-hearts.html

I was given a free egalley by the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.

Divided Hearts, A Civil War Friendship Quilt: Historical Narratives, 12 Blocks, Instruction & Inspirations
Barbara Brackman
Book ( $29.95 )
eBook ( $23.99 )
ISBN 9781617458880
eISBN 9781617458897

I made Brackman's previous BOM patterns for Hospital Sketches and Austen Family Album.

Hospital Sketches by Nancy A. Bekofske

Austen Family Album by Nancy A. Bekofske

Answer Creek by Ashley E. Sweeney

Ashley E. Sweeney recreates a cross-continental journey that makes social distancing and being in lock-down at home feel luxurious. Answer Creek is about endurance and survival.

Set in 1846-7 on the California-Oregon trail, the novel tells the story of Ada who travels across the continent with the Donner-Reed party.

Yes, the infamous, ill-fated, starving cannibals of history.

After the tragic death of Ada's parents, she was taken in by a Norwegian family who decide to move to California. Early in their journey, they impulsively drive their wagon into high water and are lost. Ada is next taken in by the Breen family.

Dyin's gonna get us all in the end, one way or t'other, she thinks. But dyin's not the hardest part. Livin's a lot harder than dyin' any day. ~from Answer Creek by Ashley E. Sweeney

Ada, one of the few fictional characters in the novel, has endured a lifetime of troubles over her brief nineteen years. As hardened as she is, she also has a tender heart, caring for children and women and giving medical care to the men.

The tale can rival any story of hardship I have read, from Polar explorers to concentration camps.

Staying home for two months? Running out of toilet paper, milk, and eggs?

This is nothing compared to living 124 days in an overcrowded cabin, buried in snow, starving, without heat or blankets or decent clothing.

Ada experiences the elements' extremes and the daily pain of sore feet, bug bites, sunburn, chapped skin, frozen extremities, hunger, and painful loss.

Ada survives, but what kind of life can she have, linked as she is to the cannibalism of the Donner party? Luckily, a man named Riddle takes her to Answer Creek where she can heal and find a new life.

Sometimes, it's all we can do to hold it together, she thinks. And over and through it all, we've got to forgive ourselves, and others, over and over and over again. ~from Answer Creek by Ashley E. Sweeney

I was swept into the novel by the beautiful, descriptive writing. Ada is a strong, appealing character who is easy to relate to. The novel gains momentum, from the early beauty of the plains and the impressive natural formations of the West to the privations and life-threatening brutality of mountain winter. It was a joy to read.

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

Answer Creek
by Ashley E. Sweeney
She Writes Press
Pub Date 19 May 2020 
ISBN: 9781631528446
paperback $16.95 (USD)

from the publisher

From the award-winning author of Eliza Waite comes a gripping tale of adventure and survival based on the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party on their 2,200-mile trek on the Oregon–California Trail from 1846 to ’47.

Nineteen-year-old Ada Weeks confronts danger and calamity along the hazard-filled journey to California. After a fateful decision that delays the overlanders more than a month, she—along with eighty-one other members of the Donner Party—finds herself stranded at Truckee Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, stuck there for the entirety of a despairing, blizzard-filled winter. Forced to eat shoe leather and blankets to survive, will Ada be able to battle the elements—and her own demons—as she envisions a new life in California?

Researched with impeccable detail and filled with imagery as wide as the western prairie, Answer Creek blends history and hearsay in an unforgettable story of challenging the limits of human endurance and experiencing the triumphant power of love.

about the author

Ashley E. Sweeney is the winner of the 2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award for her debut novel, Eliza Waite. Her much anticipated second novel, Answer Creek, will be released in May 2020. 

Ashley is a seasoned journalist, teacher, and community activist. She served as a VISTA volunteer in the late 1970s and continues community service today as a member of Soroptimist International, one of the largest women’s advocacy organizations in the world. 

Early in her career, Ashley found an outlet as a humor columnist and features editor for The Lynden Tribune in Lynden, Washington, where she garnered numerous awards for her writing. She has taught English, Journalism, English as Second Language, and GED prep at both the high school and community college levels.

A native New Yorker, Ashley is a graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., the Stanford Publishing Course, and City University in Seattle, Wash., where she earned a Masters of Education degree.
Ashley spends her time between La Conner, Washington and Tucson, Arizona with her husband D. Michael Barclay.

The Poisoned Water by Candy J. Cooper

Every book I read about the Flint Water Crisis makes me sad and angry. The stories of the suffering of the citizens of Flint are horrifying. It is revolting to know that governing officials made the economic decision that lead to this suffering, then covered it up.

Candy J. Cooper saw that the excellent books already written about the crisis, including The Poisoned City by Anna Clark and What the Eyes Don't See by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, left some stories untold. In Poisoned Water, Cooper shares the stories of the primarily African American Flint citizens who alerted authorities and politicians that there was something wrong with the water. The crisis is an example of racist policies.

General Motors plants brought a migration of workers to the city who fought for a union and fair wages. When GM closed plants, those who could left the city. With the tax base decimated, Governor Snyder sent in an Emergency Manager [EM] to balance Flint's budget, disenfranchising elected officials.

Detroit water was expensive and the EM opted to use Flint River water while the city developed a new source. They sidestepped the use of anti-corrosives and added chemicals. The river water corroded the natural buildup in the pipes that had previously kept the lead from leaching into the water. The discolored, foul smelling water caused rashes, hair loss, and illness. People complained and were lied to by authorities who insisted the water tests showed no problems.

It took years before the people were heard, the water investigated, and officials admitted there was a problem.

"Who, then, were the heroes?" Cooper asks. Yes, the media "latched" on to some important folk. But left behind the grassroots activists and mothers and citizens without who stood up to power to demand justice.

The book is promoted for Middle Grade, and perhaps some young people that age will be able to handle it. I would recommend it for older teens and adults seeking a shorter history.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

“Poignant . . . This detailed offering, the first specifically intended for young audiences, has multiple curriculum applications.” –  Booklist, starred review 

“Thoroughly sourced and meticulously documented, this stomach-churning, blood-boiling, tear-jerking account synthesizes a city's herculean efforts to access safe, clean water. . . . This compulsively readable, must-buy narrative nonfiction serves as the ultimate antidote to civic complacence.” –  School Library Journal, starred review

Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation
by Candy J Cooper; Marc Aronson
Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Pub Date May 19, 2020
ISBN 9781547602322
PRICE $18.99 (USD)

How Beautiful We Were by Mbolo Mbue

One angry woman did everything, and she failed.~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

I read Imbolo Mbue's first novel Behold the Dreamers as a galley and for book club. I jumped at the chance to read her second novel, How Beautiful We Were. 

Was money so important that they would sell children to strangers seeking oil?~from How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

The novel is about an African village struggling for environmental justice, powerless, caught between an American oil company and a corrupt dictatorship government. 

They are a proud people, connected to the land of their ancestors. They have lived simple, subsistence lives, full of blessings. Until the oil company ruined their water, their land, their air. A generation of children watch their peers dying from poisoned water. Their pleas for help are in vain. 

School-aged Thula is inspired by books, including The Communist Manifesto, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and The Wretched of the Earth. "They were her closest friends," spurring her into activist causes when she goes to America to study. In America and becomes an activist. Meanwhile, her peers in her home village lose faith in the process and take up terrorism. 

How could we have been so reckless as to dream?~from How Beautiful We Were by Mbolo Mbue

The fictional village, its inhabitants and history, is so well drawn I could believe it taken from life. The viewpoint shifts among the characters.

We wondered if America was populated with cheerful people like that overseer, which made it hard for us to understand them: How could they be happy when we were dying for their sake?~from How Beautiful We Were by Mbolo Mbue

The fate of the village and its country are an indictment to Western colonialism and capitalism. Slaves, rubber, oil--people came and exploited Africa for gain. The village loses their traditions and ancestral place as their children become educated and take jobs with Western corporations and the government.

This story must be told, it might not feel good to all ears, it gives our mouths no joy to sat it, but our story cannot be left untold.~from How Beautiful We Were by Mbolo Mbue

This is not an easy book for an American to read. It reminds us of the many ways our country has failed and continues to fail short of the ideal we hope it is. And not just abroad--we have failed our to protect our children here in America.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

from the publisher:

We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price.

Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.

How Beautiful We Were
by Imbolo Mbue
Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Pub Date: March 9, 2021
ISBN: 9780593132425
hard cover $28.00 (USD)