Empress Alexandra: The Special Relaitonship Between Russia's Last Tsarina and Queen Victoria

Empress Alexandra by Melanie Clegg was such an interesting and informative read. She draws from Victoria's letters and journals, revealing a mother and grandmother who doted on her family. She was known as Grandmama to her granddaughter's spouses.

Clegg tells Alix's story in context of her relationship with her grandmother Queen Victoria. Alix was Queen Victoria's favorite granddaughter. Her mother Alice was the queen's companion and social secretary after the death of Prince Albert. Tragically, Alice died young.

The queen took Alice's children under her wing as a surrogate mother. They and their father Prince Louis became even closer to the monarch.

Alix was a beautiful child. At an early age, she caught her cousin Nicky's attention.

Queen Victoria and Alix

In spite of Queen Victoria's endeavors to arrange a marriage for Alix, she and and her cousin Nicky fell in love. When became Nicholas became Emperor of Russian, and Alix became Empress Alexandra, Victoria worried about her. She did not approve of the opulent lifestyle of the Russian Court, or the condition of Alicky converting to the Russian Orthodox Church. And especially, she worried about the social unrest and feared assassination attempts.

The queen loved Nicky and he enjoyed his time in Britain with her and his beloved Alix. The couple recreated a retreat inspired by British middle class style, and preferred a quiet life. When Nicky's father died, he was only twenty-six. He followed his father's autocratic style of governing.

Victoria and Albert raised their children to be self-sufficient, educating them well but also including fun and healthy activities in their lives. Alice patterned her mother's style, and so did granddaughter Alix when a mother.

Queen Victoria died in 1901 and happily never lived to know her beloved granddaughter and Tzar Nicholas and their children were assassinated in 1918.

Clegg's book is well presented, and for all the characters and royals to keep track of, I never felt confused.

The royal family suffered so many tragedies! But love also blossomed.

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

from the publisher:

When Queen Victoria’s second daughter Princess Alice married the Prince Louis of Hesse and Rhine in 1862 even her own mother described the ceremony as ‘more of a funeral than a wedding’ thanks to the fact that it took place shortly after the death of Alice’s beloved father Prince Albert. Sadly, the young princess’ misfortunes didn’t end there and when she also died prematurely, her four motherless daughters were taken under the wing of their formidable grandmother, Victoria. Alix, the youngest of Alice’s daughters and allegedly one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe, was a special favourite of the elderly queen, who hoped that she would marry her cousin Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and one day reign beside him as Queen. However, the spirited and stubborn Alix had other ideas…

Empress Alexandra: The Special Relationship Between Russia's Last Tsarina and Queen Victoria
by Melanie Clegg
Pen & Sword
Pen & Sword History
Pub Date  September 30, 2020
ISBN: 9781526723871
hardcover £19.99 (GBP)

NOTE: This book’s publication has been delayed and will be available November 30, 2020.

Jack by Marilynne Robinson

Can these bones live?

I read Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead when it came out in 2004. A few years later I read it again with a church book club, and four years again I read it a third time for a book club.

It is a gorgeous,profound novel written as a letter by an elderly preacher to his young son. The narrator, John Ames, is conflicted about his best friend's ne'er-do-well son, Jack. Jack has returned to Gilead to visit his ailing father. His presence is a torment to John Ames who fears his young wife will be drawn to Jack. Jack left town after impregnating a girl, his abandonment of the child causing a rift. When Jack finally tells John Ames he has a colored wife and child, he gives Jack the blessing of forgiveness he has long sought.

Robinson has revisited Gilead in Home and Lila, and now in a fourth volume, Jack. I could not resist reading Jack's story.

The novel begins shortly after Jack is released from prison. He has been a bum, a drunk, homeless. There is still an air about him of respectability, learned from being the son of a Presbyterian minister. People call him Professor. They appreciate his playing hymns on the piano.

Jack is in a black suit when he assists a young colored teacher who has dropped her papers in the rain, and she believes him to be a minister and invites him into her home. From this a relationship begins, one that is not only socially unacceptable but against the law.

Jack is profoundly aware of his sinfulness. His birth nearly killed his mother. His boyish antics, unrelenting unbelief, and teenage wildness embarrassed his preacher father. The final straw was impregnating a young woman and not taking responsibility for their child who later dies. His legacy of harming those around him weighs heavily.

"And everything is vulnerable to harm, one way or another Everybody is vulnerable. It's kind of horrible when you think about it. All that breakage, without so much as an intention behind it half the time. All that tantalizing fragility."~from Jack by Marilynne Robinson

This young woman who treats him so respectfully draws him. He has lied to her by not correcting her mistake; already his harm has begun. But Jack can't forget her.

He had seen kindness weary before.
~from Jack by Marilynne Robinson

Jack and Della meet again and talk poetry and more. He is falling in love. The daughter of a minister, Della is a college educated teacher, and has a respectable family who loves her. They can have no future in this world.

...it was taking her a long time to give up on him.
~from Jack by Marilynne Robinson

Jack feels shame and dread and grief. Just by existing he is destroying Della's career and alienating her from her family. Her freedom and even her life is in peril if they are caught.  Jack calls himself the Prince of Darkness. His "battered, atheist soul" has regrets, but he cannot repent. He jokes that he has lived a life of 'prevenient death,' a play on prevenient grace which believes all can grasp the grace already offered.

Jack isn't preying on Della. She has pursued him. Like God, she can look beyond the outer appearance and the social appraisement to the inner man. She sees his soul.

But once in a lifetime, maybe, you look at a stranger and you see a soul, a glorious presence out of place in the world...You've seen the muster--you've seen what life is all about. What it's for.
~from Jack by Marilynne Robinson

Jack has stolen the grandest thing by far--he has stolen Della. Yet a wise man has told him that if God puts some happiness in your way, you should take it. Even the greatest sinner can find a moment of grace.

Jack is one of the great characters in literature, a portrait of a sinner who struggles with his unbelief and the wreckage he has brought. His love story goes to the heart of America's original sin, slavery and segregation that treated people of color as less than human.

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

Jack: A Novel
by Marilynne Robinson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pub Date September 29, 2020
ISBN: 9780374279301
hardcover $27.00 (USD)

from the publisher

Marilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the latest novel in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction

Marilynne Robinson’s mythical world of Gilead, Iowa—the setting of her novels Gilead, Home, and Lila, and now Jack—and its beloved characters have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions, and the wonders of a sacred world.

Jack is Robinson’s fourth novel in this now-classic series. In it, Robinson tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister, and his romance with Della Miles, a high school teacher who is also the child of a preacher. Their deeply felt, tormented, star-crossed interracial romance resonates with all the paradoxes of American life, then and now.

Robinson’s Gilead novels, which have won one Pulitzer Prize and two National Book Critics Circle Awards, are a vital contribution to contemporary American literature and a revelation of our national character and humanity.

Covid-19 Life: Autumn Doldrums

It is mid-September and in Michigan that means I brought out a warmer quilt. In the early fall I use this Sunflower quilt, a pattern from Mountain Mist, because it is heavier than it looks. It was my first applique quilt. It is heavily hand quilted and the backing fabric is heavier than typical quilter's cotton. Perfect for later summer/early fall.

Grandpuppy Sunny is going to school--for obedience training! Just a year old, Sunny is all joy and exuberance and running and jumping. Her mom has taught her all kinds of tricks, but now she must learn to sit and stay on command without treats being involved.

Sunny shared her birthday cake with Ellie.

But sadly, grandkitty Hazel underwent an operation to remove a tumor that was found to be cancer. This beautiful and loving kitty is twelve years old. The kids have a hard decision to make.

Hazel and Ellie were good friends.

My brother recently took this photo at Cass Lake, MI.

We are going through books and deciding what we need to keep. Looking at old cookbooks we found some old recipes that once were very popular, like Russian Tea.

Our little city is divided politically. We picked up signs from the Indivisible group. Two doors down are signs for the other party's candidates. They have been very friendly over the years...Will this election make bad neighbors? I have never before put signs up in my yard.

Talking of signs, the city post office has one, too.

My only new TBR book from NetGalley is The Decameron Project: 29 Stories from the Pandemic from the New York Times.

I am excited that in November the library book club will read The Bear and will Zoom with author Andrew Krivak! And, we rescheduled Miracle Creek for February and will Zoom with author Angie Kim! We were to Skype with her last March.

I am still working on the Water Lily quilt borders. 

Summer is gone. With a pandemic taking 200,000 lives, who knows which of us will see another? I always loved fall's colors and cool weather, but as I age, I know autumn means winter and snow and ice and days stuck indoors. Will we be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas alone? What risks will we take if we join with family?

The stress has affected me. Oh, it was fine in March and April, I was busy with reading and reviewing and quilting. But as the months drag on, it  becomes harder. I am too aware of mortality, already living 11 years longer than mom and being the age my grandfather was when he passed. I was never afraid of death...until it became more probable. So there is fear and there is the longing to hug my family and there is remembering to find the beauty here and now.

But it is more than my own paltry existence that I grieve for. It is the wildfires and the floods and the hurricanes and the droughts, the rising sea waters and the warming of the planet. It is the endless injustice and racism that America can't seem to escape. It is the victims of disease and violence. It is the daily reality show of Trump's White House, politics that has lost all moral centeredness, wealth that purchases privilege and power.

We watched The Pickwick Papers, an old British miniseries. It was such absurd fun, until it wasn't funny. Pickwick goes to Fleet Prison and it opens his eyes to his privilege. He sees poverty and suffering and starvation and illness. He changes his life and helps those less fortunate.

Like Dicken's A Christmas Carol, the story tells of a transformation. Pickwick was an innocent abroad. He sought experiences and pleasure. He saw how others lived and then acted to help ease the life of the less fortunate.

 We need a moral transformation in America today. A rebirth. 

Choose hope, not hate.

Good Blood by Julian Guthrie

When I married in the early 1970s I remember my fiance and I needed blood tests to check if we were Rh compatible. I knew it affected our ability to have children.

That is about all I knew about Rh disease. Until reading Good Blood, I had no idea how many people were affected by the disease, how many babies were lost, the depth of grief and despair suffered.

Or of the obsessed doctors who sought a cure over many years, or the 'man with the golden arm" who donated blood 1,173 times, saving 2.4 million babies.

Guthrie's moving history is filled with memorable and remarkable people.

I received an ebook from Publisher's Weekly.

Good Blood: A Doctor, a Donor, and the Incredible Breakthrough that Saved Millions of Babies
by Julian Guthrie
Abrams Press
Pub Date September 8, 2020 
ISBN: 9781419743313
hardcover $26.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A remarkable, uplifting story about one of the greatest medical breakthroughs of the 20th century

In 1951 in Sydney, Australia, a fourteen-year-old boy named James Harrison was near death when he received a transfusion of blood that saved his life. A few years later, and half a world away, a shy young doctor at Columbia University realized he was more comfortable in the lab than in the examination room. Neither could have imagined how their paths would cross, or how they would change the world.

In Good Blood, bestselling writer Julian Guthrie tells the gripping tale of the race to cure a horrible blood disease known as Rh disease that stalked families and caused a mother’s immune system to attack her own unborn child. The story is anchored by two very different men on two continents: Dr. John Gorman in New York, who would land on a brilliant yet contrarian idea, and an unassuming Australian whose almost magical blood—and his unyielding devotion to donating it—would save millions of lives.

Good Blood takes us from Australia to America, from research laboratories to hospitals, and even into Sing Sing prison, where experimental blood trials were held. It is a tale of discovery and invention, the progress and pitfalls of medicine, and the everyday heroics that fundamentally changed the health of women and babies.

Homeland Elegies: A Novel by Ayad Akhtar

Homeland Elegies was a revelation, a chance to see American culture and history and politics from the viewpoint of an 'outsider,' even if that outsider was American born.

Ayad Akhtar  has written a novel with a strong narrative voice that reads like memoir. It's compelling storyline and conflicted characters engage the reader. It is also a novel of ideas, a dissection of social and political culture.

How Christian is America? Consider the commercialization of Christian holy days, the Christian based place names of cities, the King James Bible language and words that are woven in our writing and speech, how we do personal hygiene, dogs in every home. 

The accumulation of wealth, buying sprees dependent on credit cards and interest, and the importance of corporate wealth and the power it wields is another theme. It's a Wonderful Life, that beloved Christmas movie, the narrator realizes, was really about money and power.

Central to the novel is the experience of living in a racist culture, especially after 9-11. When the narrator's car breaks down in rural Pennsylvania, the narrator finds himself vulnerable.

The narrator travels to Pakistan to visit family. Is returning to one's family homeland the answer? The anger that fuels people here is also found abroad. 

"America is my home," the narrator affirms. 

Homeland Elegies, this poem that mourns the country of our hopes and dreams, reveals our character like a mirror. It isn't pretty. 

I was given access to a free galley by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. I received a final copy of the novel from a giveaway through Bookreporter.com.

Homeland Elegies: A Novel
by Ayad Akhtar
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date: September 15, 2020   
ISBN: 9780316496438
hardcover $14.99 (USD)

from the publisher

A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.

Ayad Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to capture a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and the gods of finance rule, where immigrants live in fear, and where the nation's unhealed wounds wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerrilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one -- least of all himself -- in the process.

Book Club Reads: French Exit by Patrick deWitt and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

 

Patrick DeWitt's novel French Exit was the Clawson public library book club selection. I listened to the audiobook. The narrator was fantastic, giving the characters distinctive voices. 

Stick to the story--the characters are not very likeable when you first met them. Frances seems to be a vacuous and unfeeling socialite and her son Malcolm a pampered and unemotional slug. When I learned their backstories, I was moved. I realized that in the beginning, we saw them as the world perceived them. Learning how damaged they were by their deceased husband and father, I had sympathy. There is a bit of magic, a heavy dose of comedy of manners, droll humor, and a nice twist of sentimentalism.

My book clubbers were not excited by this novel. It was described as 'fluffy', easy to read, and they did not like the characters. They did not like the ending.

French Exit
Harper Audio
by Patrick deWitt, Lorna Raver (Narrator)
ISBN0062871927 (ISBN 13: 9780062871923)

from the publisher

Brimming with pathos, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind 'tragedy of manners,' a send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother/son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute.

 Frances Price – tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature – is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Price’s aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts.

Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit. One ocean voyage later, the curious trio land in their beloved Paris, the City of Light serving as a backdrop not for love or romance, but self destruction and economical ruin – to riotous effect. A number of singular characters serve to round out the cast: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic proposing a seance, and a doctor who makes house calls with his wine merchant in tow, to name a few.

Brimming with pathos, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind 'tragedy of manners,' a send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother/son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute.

*****

The book club at the Royal Oak Public library read Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles this month. I had purchased it on Kindle well before I read Miller's novel Circe, which I loved. I was eager to read Achilles.

Miller chooses to view the story of the Trojan War through the Greek character of Patroclus, bosom friend of the warrior Achilles. We see them as boys growing up together and watch their friendship blossom into romantic love. The emphasis on their deep love made me categorize the novel a love story. 

Achilles is fated to be a great warrior so when he is called to be a leader in the Trojan War he accepts, pacifist Patroclus tagging along. There are some gruesome scenes during the war. This part felt felt more like the original Iliad.

I found myself comparing this to Country by Michael Hughes, which I read earlier in the year. I felt the drive and violence and passion in Hughes novel.

Overall, I did not care for this as much as I did Circe, but the book clubbers who had never read Home or Greek literature found it a revelation. And for that I am very glad! I was the only one who had read Homer and Greek literature and Greek myths. They found it easy to read and enjoyed Miller's updating of the story and found themes that were relevant to today. 

The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

Eco

ISBN-10 : 0062060619
ISBN-13 : 978-0062060617

from the publisher

Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.

Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,” is everything Patroclus is not—strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess—and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative connection gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper—despite the displeasure of Achilles’ mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.

Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

OurStory Quilts: Human Rights Stories in Fabric

I opened the book to flip through the pages for a first look. When I came to the image for Jesus Wept, I stopped. And I just cried. 

The quilt made by Michelle Flamer of Philadelphia, PA, reproduces the 16th Street Baptist Church stained glass window after it was bombed in 1963, killing four little girls. The window was intact, save for the face of Jesus.

Quilts can tell a story with power and impact. It's not the first time a quilt brought me to tears. 

Quilts also inform and inspire.

I am currently reading a new biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. This uninformed, damaged woman who accepted the status quo understanding of people of color self-invented herself and became a champion for peace, civil rights, and forgotten men and women. 

Gabriele Di Tota of Melbourne, FL, used Eleanor Roosevelt's Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the background to her portrait. The former First Lady chaired the United Nations commission that created this document.

Quilts create empathy.

Ryleigh was designated male but identified as a girl. Birgit E. Ruotsala of Green Bay, WS, portrays a joyful Ryleigh embracing her identity. 6% of the population identify as transgender, but they struggle to be "free to be me." 

Quilts celebrate iconic leaders. Meryl Ann Butler of Norfolk, VA chose to portray the 14th Dalai Lama, champion for peace and human rights.  Butler used an amazing fabric pointillism technique.

OurStory Quilts: Human Rights Stories in Fabric by Susanne Miller Jones is filled with beautiful and impressive art quilts that champion the struggle for inclusiveness, equality, and fairness. Today hard-won gains are being threatened at home and across the world. The fight to protect and expand human rights is an ongoing process. 

The book is divided into sections. 

The first addresses the basic needs, common to all people. 

The second spotlights basic rights. 

The third considers the disenfranchised whose rights have been denied. 

The fourth honors iconic leaders in the human rights movements. 

The fifth celebrates Human Rights Events that spurred action. 

The Sixth tells the personal tales of the artists and the seventh celebrates diversity and similarities.

I was thrilled to see so many of my personal heroes appear among the juried quilts. Each quilt is presented on a full page with a full page essay about its subject. I am always interested in learning more about the artists techniques in creating the quilts.

Like her previous book, HerStory Quilts, OurStory raises awareness of the struggle for inclusive rights and celebrates achievements through thoughtful and inspiring art quilts. 

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

OURstory Quilts: Human Rights Stories in Fabric

by Susanne Miller Jones

Schiffer Publications

115 color photos

hardcover $34.99

ISBN 13: 9780764357978 

from the publsher

Today’s renewed interest in our basic rights has become part of popular culture and breaking news. From the Mexican border to the #MeToo movement, these images made in fabric are amazing, colorful, and thought provoking. The images offer a new perspective and answer the new demand for attention. These 65 quilts focus on the history of the battles for human, civil, and political rights, and the continuing developments today. They also celebrate the heroes. The heroes who fought for rights, as well as the events that have drawn the attention of news media and the public. Personal stories offer moving reminders and encouragement for future rights successes. The quilts are created by 47 artists from six countries.

About the author

Susanne Miller Jones has been creating art all her life. Fiber art opened many doors and introduced her to fiber artists around the world who have become friends through the magic of social media. Her work is in private collections, has been exhibited in national shows, and has been featured in several books. She is the author of Fly Me to the Moon: An Art Quilt Journey and HERstory Quilts: A Celebration of Strong Women. Jones is a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates and of the Quilt Alliance and serves on the Sacred Threads committee.