The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn/ Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst

The library book club read in October was A. J. Finn's suspense thriller The Woman in the Window.

I have read several suspense novels in the past and am pretty much over them. I dreaded reading 488 pages! Luckily, the chapters are short, there is lots of blank space, and I read it in a few days.

Of course, there is an unreliable narrator. Not one but two 'unexpected' twists. A murder, threat of death, mental instability, and all the stock noir memes. Finn saturates the novel with references to the classic, black and white, noir movies, the narrator's obsession. 

I thought it overwritten, too many cute descriptive words. And I early guessed the real villian.

Over all, the book club readers said it was a quick easy read that kept their interest, full of the expected thriller twists. One thought it contrived. Entertainment, if nothing more. 

Maybe. One reader appreciated the insight into agoraphobia. 

And yet the book spurred a great discussion. Was too much space given to Anna's drinking or movie watching? Did we feel sympathy or disgust by her behavior? What spurred her self-destructive behavior? How soon did we predict the real villian, if at all? We talked about bad parents, red herrings, and how familiar Anna's homebound life felt during COVID-19.

Readers did find the book very cinematic with detailed descriptions that brought the book to life, and learning a movie was made of the book, we were all interested in viewing it.

*****

The Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst came to my attention on Facebook's Breathless Bubbles & Books page.

The main character, Elizabeth, struggles with her dissertation on Georgia O'Keefe, trying to connect her time in Hawaii as a transition point in her art. 

Elizabeth's marriage lacks physical passion and emotional intimacy. She finds herself attracted to a photographer and together they discuss O'Keefe and her modeling in the nude for Stieglitz. She accepts his challenge to recreate the photographs with him as a way of coming to better understand O'Keefe and her motivation for modeling, if she was a co-creator in the art.

Plot-wise, the novel felt inevitable and unsurprising. The real interest is in Elizabeth's internal struggle for self-realization. She and her sister were early pigeonholed into narrow roles. Their husbands keep them confined to those roles, Elizabeth the 'owly' intellectual, her sister the fun and pretty one. Elizabeth is a good teacher and she believes in her work and can defend it. She has to learn to believe in her beauty, free herself to find real love, and take charge of her destiny.

Much of the novel's space is centered on O'Keefe's art and life, which I did enjoy.

The sexual issues are addressed with great honesty, from the marriage bed's coolness to Elizabeth's intense, unrequited attraction.

The novel is well written and an enjoyable read. Fans of women's fiction, stories of young women's self-actualization, or the art world will enjoy this one.

I purchased an ebook.

Jeeves and the Leap of Faith: A Novel in Homage to P. G. Wodehouse by Ben Schott

At the best of times I love a comic novel, and these have not been the best of times. I really, really needed an entertaining read right now. And I found it in Jeeves and the Leap of Faith, Ben Shott's second homage to P. G. Wodehouse's classic Wooster and Jeeves novels.

Shott brings Wodehouse's eccentric characters back to life, embroiled in a zany and complicated tangled plot of comedic excellence.

Over the course of a week, Bertie evades matrimony, helps save the Drones club from insolvency, goes undercover for the government, battles fascism, challenges Jeeves choice of bedroom wallpaper, and stands up to his formidable Aunt Agatha. 

Strange things go on. What's even stranger is that they are based on history! Like the annual Boot-Finding in Spitalfields Market and the Pavement Club, a Cambridge society that sat on the pavement on Saturday afternoons, and the Hysteron Proteron club of Balliol College that in the 1920s spent a day living backward. Also appearing are the night climbers of Cambridge and the daring leap that gives this volume its name.

Throughout the novel, Bertie struggles with the Times crossword puzzle, which is included in the endnotes for readers to solve! 

I am fortified with gladness, ready again to face the chaotic world.

I received a free galley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

View the trailer at

https://www.benschott.com/jeeves---the-king-of-clubs.html

Jeeves and the Leap of Faith: A Novel in Homage to P. G. Wodehouse
by Ben Schott
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date: October 13, 2020 
ISBN: 9780316541046
hardcover $28.00 (USD)

from the publisher:

The Drones club’s in peril. Gussie’s in love. Spode’s on the war path. Oh, and His Majesty’s Government needs a favor . . .

I say! It’s a good thing Bertie’s back, what?

In his eagerly anticipated sequel to Jeeves and the King of Clubs, Ben Schott leads Jeeves and Wooster on another elegantly uproarious escapade.

From the mean streets of Mayfair to the scheming spires of Cambridge, we encounter a joyous cast of characters: chiseling painters and criminal bookies, eccentric philosophers and dodgy clairvoyants, appalling poets and pocket dictators, vexatious aunts and their vicious hounds.

But that’s not all:

Who is ICEBERG, and why is he covered in chalk?

Why is Jeeves reading Winnie-the-Pooh?

What is seven across and eighty-five down?

How do you play Russian Roulette at The Savoy?

These questions, and more, are answered in Jeeves and the Leap of Faith — an homage to P.G. Wodehouse, authorized by his estate, and essential reading for fans of The Master.

Tinkety-tonk!

Covid-19 Stress = DNF Books

Yes, there are books I do not finish.

This is why I give so many of the books I read high star ratings. If a book isn't for me I usually know and don't even pick it up, and if I start a book and it isn't for me I don't finish it.

You are allowed to not finish a book, people.

Now, not finishing a book does not mean it is not a bad book! It means it was the wrong time, or I found the subject material was something I did not want to grapple with, or I had to decide to leave it and move on to one of the other books I was committed to reading.

I did not finish these books because the subject matter was too dark for me to handle right now. With the pandemic with its social distancing and the looming election, I feel stressed all the time. When I read something disturbing, I can feel the stress mounting. I had to walk away.

I won The Second Home by Christina Clancy through Book Club Cookbook. I was intrigued by the description that "it is about second homes, second families, and second chances."

I read 71 pages. Ann is selling her family's second home on Cape Cod. She has not told her sister or brother she is selling it. One summer, Ann set off a series of events that broke up the family. The description says the siblings reunite and confront their past.

Why did I stop reading? There was a disturbing scene involving an older man and Ann that indicated he was going to be a sexual predator. I decided I did not want to go there at this time.

*****

Two books I was looking forward to reading ended up being too hard to read at this time.

I was so excited by the idea of Nick by Michael Farris Smith! A prequel to F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece The Great Gatsby, it is the story of Nick Caraway's WWI experience. I kept walking away from the novel because it was so dark. I ended up reading 55% and although I could see some merit in the novel, I just was not enjoying it. At all.

I was also irked by Nick's childhood memories that were more 1950s than early 1900s. Like dads picking up the newspaper from the front lawn and kids with cowboys and Indian toys under their beds. The character would have been born in 1892 in the Midwest. My grandfather was born in 1905 and wrote about his rural childhood life. 

I thank Little, Brown & Co and NetGalley for a chance to read the book. 

from the publisher

Critically acclaimed novelist Michael Farris Smith pulls Nick Carraway out of the shadows and into the spotlight in this fascinating look into his life before Gatsby

Before Nick Carraway moved to West Egg and into Gatsby’s periphery, he was at the center of a very different story-one taking place along the trenches and deep within the tunnels of World War I.

Floundering in the wake of the destruction he witnessed firsthand, Nick delays his return home, hoping to escape the questions he cannot answer about the horrors of war. Instead, he embarks on a transcontinental redemptive journey that takes him from a whirlwind Paris romance-doomed from the very beginning-to the dizzying frenzy of New Orleans, rife with its own flavor of debauchery and violence.

An epic portrait of a truly singular era and a sweeping, romantic story of self-discovery, this rich and imaginative novel breathes new life into a character that many know but few have pondered deeply. Charged with enough alcohol, heartbreak, and profound yearning to paralyze even the heartiest of golden age scribes, Nick reveals the man behind the narrator who has captivated readers for decades.

Missionaries by Phil Klay early caught my attention and I requested it through NetGalley. The writing is good, the subject matter is devastating. Another time I could read it, but with the pandemic and the election already stressing me out, I had to walk away from this novel. I thank Random House and NetGalley for a chance to look at this novel.

from the publisher

A group of Colombian soldiers prepares to raid a drug lord’s safe house on the Venezuelan border. They’re watching him with an American-made drone, about to strike using military tactics taught to them by U.S. soldiers who honed their skills to lethal perfection in Iraq. In Missionaries, Phil Klay examines the globalization of violence through the interlocking stories of four characters and the conflicts that define their lives.

For Mason, a U.S. Army Special Forces medic, and Lisette, a foreign correspondent, America’s long post-9/11 wars in the Middle East exerted a terrible draw that neither is able to shake. Where can such a person go next? All roads lead to Colombia, where the US has partnered with local government to keep predatory narco gangs at bay. Mason, now a liaison to the Colombian military, is ready for the good war, and Lisette is more than ready to cover it. Juan Pablo, a Colombian officer, must juggle managing the Americans’ presence and navigating a viper’s nest of factions bidding for power. Meanwhile, Abel, a lieutenant in a local militia, has lost almost everything in the seemingly endless carnage of his home province, where the lines between drug cartels, militias, and the state are semi-permeable. 

Drawing on six years of research in America and Colombia into the effects of the modern way of war on regular people, Klay has written a novel of extraordinary suspense infused with geopolitical sophistication and storytelling instincts that are second to none. Missionaries is a window not only into modern war, but into the individual lives that go on long after the drones have left the skies.

Shelter in Place by David Leavitt

In 1986 I read David Leavitt's novel The Lost Language of Cranes and it blew me away. Although I have his novel The Indian Clerk on by TBR shelf, I haven't read more by him and it was time to correct that. Especially, it was time for this novel.

Reading in the age of Coronavirus is not easy. I pick up my Kindle, read for a bit, then find myself on Twitter or checking my email or placing an order for delivered groceries. It isn't the books--they are great books. I just have trouble concentrating.

But, I had no problem with Shelter in Place--it's a comedy of manners under the Trump presidency that kept me entertained. These characters are rich and liberal and, well, flaky.

Eva won't even say the president's name, (think Voldemort) and yet she wouldn't stand in the long lines to vote. After Eva and her friend Min visit Venice, she decides to buy an apartment there, a place to escape to when America is no longer safe. Her obliging husband Bruce plays his role in their marriage: he earns--she spends. A successful wealth manager, he is rich enough to indulge his wife's whims.

And Eva does spend.

Eva is determined the Venice home would be redecorated by her favorite decorator Jake. But hearing he would have to go to Venice, he has been stalling. Likeable, secretive, Jake is the straight man in the novel--well, a gay straight man, a foil to the people who hire him.

When Eva's dogs start peeing on the sofa, she has the maid wrap it in aluminum foil! "Some things matter more than decor," Eva proclaims, and yet she has not considered what will happen to the dogs when she--or she and Bruce--goes to Venice.

Bruce's secretary is battling cancer, her husband abandoning her. He becomes overly involved with her life, his version of charity.

Bruce also has been consorting with the enemy---the Trump supporting neighbor Alec whose kids won't talk to him since the election. Alec can't even say Hillary's name. The election results came as a miracle to him. "One man's miracle is another's nightmare," Bruce says. Walking their dogs at night, they confide to each other.

Shelter in Place targets our idiosyncrasies when our world suddenly changes, on the national and personal level. Sometimes we grow, other times we dig in and hold on tighter.

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

Shelter in Place
by David Leavitt
Bloomsbury USA
Pub Date October 13,  2020 
ISBN: 9781620404874
hardcover $27.00 (USD)

from the publisher

It is the Saturday after the 2016 presidential election, and in a plush weekend house in Connecticut, an intimate group of friends, New Yorkers all, has gathered to recover from what they consider the greatest political catastrophe of their lives. They have just sat down to tea when their hostess, Eva Lindquist, proposes a dare. Who among them would be willing to ask Siri how to assassinate Donald Trump? Liberal and like-minded—editors, writers, a decorator, a theater producer, and one financial guy, Eva’s husband, Bruce—the friends have come to the countryside in the hope of restoring the bubble in which they have grown used to living. Yet with the exception of one brash and obnoxious book editor, none is willing to accept Eva’s challenge.

Shelter in Place is a novel about house and home, furniture and rooms, safety and freedom and the invidious ways in which political upheaval can undermine even the most seemingly impregnable foundations. Eva is the novel’s polestar, a woman who moves through her days accompanied by a roving, carefully curated salon. She’s a generous hostess and more than a bit of a control freak, whose obsession with decorating allows Leavitt to treat us to a slyly comic look at the habitués and fetishes of the so-called shelter industry. Yet when, in her avidity to secure shelter for herself, she persuades Bruce to buy a grand if dilapidated apartment in Venice, she unwittingly sets off the chain of events that will propel him, for the first time, to venture outside the bubble and embark on a wholly unexpected love affair.

A comic portrait of the months immediately following the 2016 election, Shelter in Place is also a meditation on the unreliable appetites—for love, for power, for freedom—by which both our public and private lives are shaped.

Covid-19 Life: Quilts, Books, and News

It was a windy day when the quilters met in the park. I showed my latest quilt top completion, the wind blowing it like a sail! The central block is from Esther Aliu's Little Hazel pattern. I used reproduction fabrics from my stash to complete the top.

When I saw this panel I had to buy it. I did thread work and machine quilting to enhance it. The golden thread really makes the acorns pop!

I got book mail from LibraryThing early reviewer giveaway, Angry Weather by Friederike Otto, looking at the human sources of climate change.

New to my NetGalley shelf

• Beethoven by Laura Tunbridge, a biography through nine of his works
• Girl Explorers by Jayne Zanglein 
• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez whose Things We Lost in the Fire I reviewed
• The Mission House by Carys Davies whose West I reviewed

Halloween displays have cropped up all over town.

Including at our son's house!

We bought a new kitchen table! It is a retro style chrome and laminate table with a pedestal base. We were able to special order the WilsonArt Betty laminate that is on our countertops!

I bought a new laptop computer for Zooming. I have Zoomed with my library book club and several times with a neighboring library book club. I also am starting to go to virtual author events.

This week we are having a warm wave, with temperatures close to seventy. But soon enough it will be cold. The quilters won't be able to meet in the city park, and we will again Zoom together.

The maple trees turned red and orange early, but the silver maples and oaks are just not yellowing. There are roses in the garden, and the bees still come to the geranium.

We in Michigan have had such a shock learning of the militia plan for a terrorist attack on our elected officials and to kidnap Governor Whitmer. The Republicans have removed the governor's power to mandate protections during the pandemic and local communities are scrambling to create their own requirements. Our county instantly took action, and masks and other protections remain in place. We took our ballets to city hall this week. Now, we pray that anarchist groups don't interfere with at the polls.

Right now, I can hear the national anthem being played at the stadium down the street. Someone practicing on an electric guitar for the high school football game tonight. Flags fly at the field and the DPW and in front yards.

Yet we can not agree what patriotism is in this country. 

I am reading What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism by Dan Rather. Last night I read,

“No one has a monopoly on the truth, but the whole premise of our democracy is that truth and justice must win out. And the role of a trained journalist is to get as close to the truth as is humanly possible. Make no mistake: We are being tested. Without a vibrant, fearless free press, our great American experiment may fail.”― Dan Rather, What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism

So much is at stake. 

My Literary Quilts: Portraits of the Poets

In 2016 I woke and a quilt flashed into my head. I went to the local quilt shop, bought fabric, and by day's end had the quilt designed and started. I finished it the next day.

My William Shakespeare portrait quilt started me on a new quilt series. 

I sketched the image on a large sheet of paper and cut it out for templates for the head, hair, and body. 

The portrait was made with snipped fabrics fused to a black background. I then cut the portrait out, leaving some of the black which I folded over and hemmed. Then I placed the portrait on the background. I printed Sonnet 116  on fabric to include. The flowers in the foreground were also lined are folded for a three-D effect.

It was so much fun that I next made an Edgar Allen Poe portrait quilt. I made the image the same way, hand snipping prefused fabrics to build the face. I made a pieced background and added a 'silken purple curtain' of gently folded fabric. I attached the portrait onto the background, adding Poe's poem Annabel Lee and a real feather in the inkwell.

For T. S. Eliot I searched for cat fabrics. I printed his portrait to the size I wanted and traced it onto my fabric. I used permanent marker pens to create the portrait. I found an image of a cat and then reversed. And printed out The Names of Cats on fabric.

I typed the names of the cats in the poem and printed it on fabric which is used in the pieced background.

I have been reading quite a few books on the Brontes and a few years back read all their novels and poetry. 

I used the image of the sisters painted by their brother Branwell as my model for the Bronte Sisters quilt. 

This time I directly fused the fabrics onto the Jane Sassaman fabric background, then fussy cut flowers from Sassaman and Kaffee Fassett fabrics. I wanted to show the women's romantic and wild sides.

I have been working on an Emily Dickinson quilt but need more fabrics and I haven't found what I want. Since the pandemic I have only shopped online.

My idea was to show the many images we have of the poet: the recluse in white, the lover of flowers and gardens, her darker side that wrote about death and pain, and the romantic lover and writer of Valentine poems.

My techniques include fusible applique and permanent marker and colored pencil. I have a lace overlay to represent a curtain at her window.

This has been a fun series to make. 

Literary Quilts 3: Embroidered Fairy Tales and Stories

The third kind of literary quilt I make are embroidered fairy tales and children's stories.

Some of the quilts I made I neglected to photograph! I made the Ruby McKim Peter Pan quilt.

Most recently I completed the Alice in Wonderland redwork quilt. The patterns were from Mirkwood Studios and are base on the original book illustrations.

Alice in Wonderland by Nancy A. Bekofske
Mirkwood Studios pattern

The Little Red Riding Hood redwork quilt patterns were reproduced from 1918 patterns. I hand embroidered and hand quilted it and used Riley Blake's Little Red fabric line.

Little Red Riding Hood by Nancy A. Bekofske

I drew my own images for the Wizard of Oz embroidered quilt. It was a fun process of drawing and revising the drawings.

Wizard of Oz designed by Nancy A. Bekofske

The finished  quilt.