The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille

Nelson DeMille's first book with his new publisher Simon and Schuster is The Cuban Affair. I have previously read several of DeMille's books, including The General's Daughter.

DeMille's character-driven story introduces Daniel "Mac" McCormick, a veteran of the Afghanistan war who has settled in the Florida Keys to run a chartered fishing boat. His mate Jack is a Vietnam Vet. Mac is up to his ears in debt, and frankly, he's a little bored.

Mac is contacted by an anti-Castro group of Cuban exiles who want his help for a covert mission to recover money hidden by exiles when they fled the revolution. "Behind every great fortune is a crime," Mac thinks, not wanting to know how the money had been made. It's a dangerous mission, but the idea of the reward of three million dollars is enticing--as is Sara Ortega who will be his accomplice. They will go to Cuba undercover as part of a Yale tour group.

After a trip to Cuba, DeMille wrote this book to give a portrait of the country and to show the tenuous 'thaw' in American-Cuban relations. Readers tour the island along with Mac, Sara, and the tour group. The island is full of Hemingway places and references, including Islands in the Stream in which Hemingway wrote, "The Cubans double-cross each other."

The 'affair' is a double entendre, for not only is this an episode or event in Mac's life, he also has a love affair with Sara.

The story is told in the first person by Mac, who has a welcomed dry sense of humor, but a decidedly masculine sensibility that did not always sit well with me. Sara is a character who will appeal to women: strong, sure, smart, and brave.

There is more an atmosphere of threat for most of the book, with a thrilling sea chase conclusion. Character, place, and the love story are the hallmarks of the bulk of the book.

Will the love affair survive Cuba, land of daiquiris, danger, and palm trees? Or was it a holiday fling more based on proximity and an awareness that death could be waiting for them? Read it and find out.

I received a free book from the publisher through a Goodreads giveaway.

The Cuban Affair
by Nelson DeMille
Simon and Schuster
Publication Sept 19, 2017

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Shaker Heights, Ohio, is a subdivision built on order where well off families live the American dream: good jobs, home ownership, well-ordered lives, and gifted kids earmarked for prestigious universities. It seems the community channels the original Shaker settlers, being a "patch of heaven on earth, a refuge from the world," a utopia based on harmony and order.

The Richardson family, a defense attorney father and journalist mother with two sons and two daughters, appear to be the ideal family. Mrs. Richardson inherited a house which she lets for low rent, a "form of charity" for the deserving poor.

Itinerant artist Mia Warren and her teenaged daughter Pearl move into the rented home. Pearl has been promised their frequent moves are over. For the first time she has to care what her peers think of her; she's in for the long haul.

"They dazzled her, these Richardsons..."

Moody Richardson befriends Pearl, who is like no one he's ever met before. Pearl is enchanted with the Richardson family and spends her free time with them. She has a crush on the eldest boy Trip and learns fashion from Lexie. Izzy is the family misfit, born to 'push buttons,' an original thinker who won't fit in, but who finds a kindred spirit in the free thinking Mia.

Things get complicated when sexual liaisons arise. One results in an unplanned pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Mr. Richardson is defending a Shaker Heights couple in a legal battle over the Chinese American child they are adopting when the birth mother tries to get her baby back.

"I mean, we're lucky. No one sees race here.""Everyone sees race, Lex," said Moody. "The only difference is who pretends not to."

The local art gallery has an exhibit of photography. Mia is clearly in one of the portraits. Mrs. Richardson puts her reporter skills to work to find out who this Mia really is and what she has been running from.

There is so much going on in this novel: Racism; the question of who 'real' mothers are (Biological? Adopted? Spiritual?); the discrepancy between what a child needs and what it is believed they need; choices of conformity and self-realization.

It is a joy to read, the characters so unique and vivid, their story lines so delightfully intertwined. There are enough ideas and insights into American life to keep a book club going for several sessions. But the book reads like butter, quick and easy and sweet.

Celeste Ng's first book Everything I Never Told You was a huge critical and popular hit. In Little Fires Everywhere she will secure her place in reader's hearts, as well as her place as one of our best young writers.

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

Celeste Ng grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio, in a family of scientists. She attended Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan (now the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan), where she won the Hopwood Award. Her fiction and essays have appeared in One Story, TriQuarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, the Kenyon Review Online, and elsewhere, and she is the recipient of the Pushcart Prize. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and son.

Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng
Penguin Press
On Sale Date: September 12, 2017
ISBN 9780735224292, 0735224293
Hardcover |  352 pages
$27.00 USD, $36.00 CAD
Fiction / Literary

The Good People by Hannah Kent

They were familiar with death, these valley people who shared blood and tradition and an understanding of a world moored in the old ways.

Living in brutal subsistence poverty, the folk shared dwellings with their livestock, whose butter and milk paid the rent, and walked barefoot in frigid mud to save their shoes.

They knew the Good People, the fairy folk, who must be appeased, staved off, and feared. They knew people who had been swept, taken by the Good People. The Good People, called thus so as not to offend them.

Set in 1826, in a small Irish village removed from the encroaching modern world, the people are steeped in their shared belief in herbal cures and potions, blessings and magical rituals.

Nora's daughter had married and gave birth to a son, a fair, normal child. Then her daughter became ill and was swept by The Good People; afterward, the grandchild became ill. A paralytic, shriveled, insensible child is left in Nora's care. When Nora's husband suddenly dies, the child becomes a burden, screaming and incontinent, unable to show love, but with insatiable need.

The doctor and priest tell Nora she must care for the cretin but offer no aid or consolation. She hires an impoverished girl, Mary, to care for the child. And asks for the help of aged Nance, a woman schooled in the ways of The Good People, an herbal healer.

Nora and Nance agree that the child is a changeling, and try charms to make the Good People reclaim their own and return Nora's true grandchild. Only Mary feels compassion for the child.

Under pressure from the priest to give up her heathen practice, Nance believes she needs to prove her skill and value; she needs a win. Nora is desperate for respite and, turning the child into an 'it', agrees to more desperate means, threatening harm to the boy in hope of forcing the Good People to take him back.

A dark and relentless book of a people crushed by poverty, clinging to inherited ways of trying to control their world, The Good People was inspired by a true story. The historical setting is vivid and engrossing. The land and the society are beautifully drawn. Kent gives Nance a true love of nature's beauty, even as she live in lonely filth and pain. We enter her mind, learn her backstory, and understand her world.

Nora's grief over her husband's death and the loss of her daughter feeds into her rejection of the child. The Christian priest admonishes Nora to "blind yourself no longer to the sin of pagan delusion." And yet she still hopes to find her grandson returned, unable to separate superstition from science. We cannot approve of Nora's wish, but we understand what brought her to the crisis.

This is not a fast reading, plot driven book, but a character study of a time and a people. There is propulsion to know how the end plays out.

I found myself reflecting on how our world paradigm limits our understanding. Conflicts worldwide are rooted in tribal or religious values coming into conflict with each other or with modern 21st c worldviews.

If a parent does not believe in vaccinations because of religion--or fake news-- and their child dies of a preventable disease, should they be culpable for the child's death? Was Jim Henson's death of a preventable disease a suicide because he refused treatment based on his religion?

This past week the news reported a local doctor performed genital surgery on seven-year-old girls. We consider it mutilation. In spite of education reforms and making it illegal, the ritual persists. It is a cultural norm in African societies, including Muslim, Christian, and Ethiopian Jews. Some say the girls accept it as a part of being a woman. Today I read in the newspaper women's accounts of the horror and pain they endured.

What we believe is not rational. It never has been based on science or logic. Does it exonerate us for the harm we inflict out of our best intentions?

Hannah Kent offers us The Good People, the imagining of a historical event. May it open our eyes.

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

The Good People
Hannah Kent
Little, Brown & Co.
Publication Date: Sept 19, 2017
$27.00 hardcover
ISBN:9780316243964

Happy Days in Lansing, MI

Moving to Lansing, MI felt like returning to a known environment for Gary and me. It took a while for our defenses to lower, but after several years we felt a part of the community. The nine years we spent with Grace United Methodist Church and living in Lansing were some of the best of our lives.

Gary, Chris and I

The church was located a few minutes from downtown, on Mount Hope Road near Cedar/MLK. The parsonage driveway was accessed by Mount Hope Road but the house faced Cambridge Road. It was a lovely neighborhood a few minutes from the Grand River, Francis Park with its rose garden, and the Governor's mansion. Across Mount Hope was the elementary school our son would attend.

The parsonage was well maintained. During our time at Grace many improvements were made to the house, including a new kitchen and two new bathrooms, custom made drapes, and new windows.

When the outgoing pastor's wife told me her dog had been hit by a car on Mt. Hope, I asked the church to install fencing between the house and garage to provide a safe area to let our dog out. The Trustees were obliging!

The church had been built in the 1960s as a new church start. The congregation felt like a big family.

The congregation was very social and church activities kept us busy over the years--starting with a welcome party.

Chris and I at the welcome party

The Vacation Bible School (VBS) was always a well planned, spectacular event. That first summer, VBS ended with a riverboat cruise on the Grand River!

Gary, Chris and I on the Princess Queen for VBS

The Princess Queen paddleboat moored at the Grand River 

I quickly found work at a Catholic school as a part-time secretary focusing on desktop publishing and other computer generated administrative tasks.

At the end of the school year I left for full-time work at the Lansing Art Gallery as the membership secretary. Before a year had passed, I was hired by Jostens, the class and championship ring company, for a newly created position as the state office manager. I was the hub for the management and sales team and their customers. Working from a home office, I provided sales support to the salespeople, customer service to the colleges, created and sent out promotional supplies, and sometimes even attended sales events or sold rings over the phone. The nine month a year job was perfect! Within two years I had doubled my salary.

Church members participated in the denomination's Family Camp held at the United Methodist church camp in Pentwater, MI. It became an annual family vacation. There was also an annual church family camp at Lakeview UM Camp.

Kili and Chris at the Pentwater family camp

We were less than an hour from Gary's parents and just over an hour from my dad and brother. We could make day trips. One of our favorite visits was to Crossroads Village and Huckleberry Railroad.

Dad at Crossroads Village 

Chris, Gary and Laura and Herman Bekofske
at Crossroads Village. (I made Chris's jacket)

We continued to take family vacations around Michigan. When the pop-up camper nearly burned down from an electric short we rented cabins around the state, including Ludington, Lake Louise, Cheboygan, and Tawas. The church's generous Christmas gift made the cost of the cabins possible. Gary and Chris also took father-son camping trips in the U.P. every year.

Mackinaw Bridge Sunset 

at Pictured Rocks

Lake Louise, Dad and Chris on rowboat

Chris and Kili at Tawas, MI

Kili after wading at Tawas

Whitefish Point Lighthouse

We took Chris to Washington, D.C.

Chris and Gary at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.

Chris spent many weekends with my dad and brother at the cabin on Lake St. Helen. Chris loved to snowmobile.

Snowmobiling 

Kili at Lake St. Helen

Chris and I often visited Dad. He took us to the State Fair, the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, the Detroit Zoo, Belle Isle, the Auburn Hills Chyrsler Museum, and the Cranbrook Museum.

The iconic oven at the old Michigan State Fair Grounds was destroyed in a fire

The Wolverine at the Detroit Zoo posed for us!

1660s Windmill at Greenfield Village

The parsonage had four bedrooms and two full baths so it was easy to accommodate Dad and Tom for Christmas at our house. The Bekofskes usually came on Sundays for worship, including Easter Sunday.

Dad with a photo memory quilt I made

These years were a time of great growth in my life as a quilter. I joined the Capital City Quilt Guild. The large guild hosted nationally known quilters to speak and run workshops. For a while I was in the American Quilt Study Group and also a group supporting the Michigan State University Museum's quilt programs. The group met in our church and created a quilt to auction to raise funds.

I gave a presentation to the quilt guild on Handkerchief Quilts, and was told I had done a professional job! A proud moment for me! I entered a quilt into the World Quilt and Textile Show. It was a Barbie quilt made for an ugly fabric quilt challenge. One of the show organizers told me how they loved my quilt and got such a kick when they unpacked it. I scanned Barbie, printed the image on fabric, and dressed Barbie in the 'ugly' fabrics. I embellished the quilt with real Barbie clothes and accessories.

My Barbie Quilt

I made When Dreams Come True based on NASA photographs of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

I got a quilt frame for my birthday.

Kili keeping me company while I quilt 

I donated quilts to fundraisers including Habitat for Humanity auctions. When a staff member left I made a signature quilt signed by the congregation.

Signature quilt presentation.

When a staff member suffered losses I made her a quilt.

And when a young man tragically died I made this quilt commemorating his work with Habitat for Humanity.

My brother bought a cabin outside of West Branch, MI. We had two family cabins for our use whenever we could get away.

Tom's cabin outside of West Branch, MI

We enjoyed going to the area nature centers. Starting the summer we moved, Chris attended the Woldumar Nature Center day camp. When we was too old to be a camper, he volunteered as a counselor in training. He worked all day, all summer!

The Fenner Nature Center was a lovely place to visit as well, plus they had the annual apple butter festival, making the apple butter in a large copper kettle over an open fire!

Fenner Nature Center, Lansing, MI

Chris and Gary at Fenner Nature Center, Lansing MI

We took family walks with Kili around the neighborhood. We often stopped to talk to neighbors.

Walking Kili around the 'hood

Kili spent her time on the window seat. She watched the world, and slept there too! People asked if that was a fox in the window!

Kili in the picture window

We saw Beauty and the Beast at the Wharton Center and plays at Lansing Community College. We visited museums in Grand Rapids, the Kalamazoo Air Museum, and zoos in Lansing and Battle Creek.

We were active as a family in many church activities, including buying and wrapping Christmas presents for donation, delivering Thanksgiving meals, walking (with Kili) in CROP Walk, and fundraisers for Habitat for Humanity. Chris was in the church basketball team for several years, attended Sunday School, participated in plays and in Youth Group.

Youth Musical. Chris in the middle.

Newspaper article on CROP Walk at the church

I sang in the choir for several years, played piano for the children's choir, and for two years taught the Youth Sunday School Class. I loved teaching and had a great time. The kids seemed to enjoy me as a teacher, too.

Gary and I at a church dinner

One day a man came to church and joined our Sunday School class. At the end of class he asked several questions about the church's stance on sensitive social issues, especially reguarding human sexuality. That year the church held an eight session discussion on the issue, with many points of view presented. Although the majority of members were in consensus, they had agreed to disagree and continued to care and work with each other in love. When the man's question was met with silence, I spoke up. God gave me the words. I explained the offical UMC Social Creed, and that there was no universal consensus, but that in the Wesleyan manner, we supported the right to "think and let think."

The man next asked to see the pastor. After a discussion, he told Gary that he was coming back to denounce the church as followers of Satan. Several members moved quickly to contact the police. It turned out that the man was known to the police, and said that he was "off his meds." The Washington D.C. police contacted the church. They also knew about this man after targeting Senator Debbie Stabenow. Grace is her home church, and that made it a target for this man. We were afraid of what was going to happen the following week.

As worship began the next Sunday, police were on the scene. They prevented the man from entering the church, keeping him across the street as he ranted and raved. When church was over, people going to their cars or the Youth Building stood aghast at the vehemence coming from the man across the street. A WWII veteran who had given his life to God under siege at the Battle of Anzio was very upset that his church was being attacked. His wife restrained him from crossing the street! Youth were as upset as their grandparents. The experience brought the church together, all generations, united in their belief in their community and purpose.

Kili

There is another side to the story of these years: How the move impacted our son, including the challenge of a new social environment; how the school environment changed after Columbine; and finally our decision to opt for home schooling.

Me

A Story of Reconciliation and Healing: Convicted

When I was a freshman in small Michigan liberal arts college I asked a man where he was from. He said from outside of Benton Harbor. Where was that, I asked? He described the town in most negative terms and said, “if a bird flew from here directly west to Lake Michigan, and dropped a bomb just before the lake, that’s Benton Harbor.” Over the years I learned more about Benton Harbor and its affluent sister city across the bridge, St. Joseph.

I was moved to read Convicted: A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship by Jameel McGee and Andrew Collins with Mark Tabb because it was about Benton Harbor and a Michigan story.

Benton Harbor was once was a booming port town until the 1960s when manufacturing jobs disappeared and the white population moved across the river to St. Joseph. It has suffered forty years of racial tension, high unemployment, and the decay of city services and infrastructure. The murder rate per capita is one of the highest in the United States and drugs are rampant.

As in African American communities across the nation, the push to be tough on crime resulted in aggressive police tactics. Officer Andrew Collins yearned for recognition and success and became legendary for his narcotics related arrest rates and convictions. When he took short cuts and illegally manipulated evidence he justified it as part of putting away the bad guys. When he skimmed money off confiscated drug money, it was his just due for working for so little money.

Jameel McGee tried to keep away from drugs and criminal activities but was convicted for a crime he did not commit as a teenager. And then one day he asked a stranger to give him a ride to the store and his life changed forever. The police found drugs in the car and the stranger set Jameel up for the crime. The policeman who arrested him was Andrew, who manipulated evidence to ensure a conviction.

Convicted is the story of how these two men came to this fatal meeting, how it changed their lives, and how they each turned to faith and God. It is a story of how forgiveness is the first step in reconciliation and new life.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

The book is presented with first-hand stories by both Andrew and Jameel, which gives an immediacy and authenticity to the story. Jameel insists on his innocence, and Andrew professes that his using ‘short cuts’ was part of his wanting to do good by ensuring bad people were off the street. They both had to come to terms with their personal responsibility for their fate and to stop blaming others.

Jameel turns to God to help him let go of his murderous anger. Andrew turns to faith to find forgiveness.

Ten years after Andrew arrested Jameel they meet again. They must decide between vengeance and hate, or forgiveness and healing.

Convicted is an inspirational biography about Christian redemption. But the basic lessons shared are important and universal, applicable even for those outside of a faith community. Don’t travel the easy path, Don't justify your errors and choices. Anger corrupts. Admit your failings and ask for forgiveness from those you have harmed. Put aside hate and vengeance in order to grow into health.

He has told you, O man, what is good;And what does the Lord require of youBut to do justice, to love kindness,And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

America has created a police culture that corrupted Andrew, as I read about in I Can’t Breathe by Matt Taibbi and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and the poverty that causes crime as I read about in Michelle Kuo’s Reading with Patrick.  For people of faith, it is clear that we are called to do justice and to forgive and to be kind. 

There are many ways of telling the stories that we need to hear. Perhaps Convicted will reach people who would not otherwise read about the issues of institutional racism, the failure of the police and justice system, and the poverty that fuels crime.

I received a free book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Convicted

A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship

Jameel Zookie McGee & Andrew Collins & Mark Tabb

Publication Date: Sep 19, 2017 

Hardcover $21.99

ISBN: 9780735290723 

Ebook $11.99

ISBN: 9780735290730

Sitches From the Harvest: Hand Embroidery Inspired by Autumn by Kathy Schmitz

I love hand embroidery. And Autumn is my favorite season. In Stitches from the Harvest, Kathy Schmitz has combined both with some of my favorite motifs--oak leaves and acorns, rabbits, squirrels, and birds--in these 15 lovely new designs.

Hazel, from Stitches From the Harvest

Hazel, above, is one of my favorites from the book. I am working on it now, in different colors! I am reminded of Hazel, the main character in Richard Adam's novel Watership Down!

I also love this landscape with a cornucopia and cottage on the hill.

Welcome Home from Stitches From the Harvest

Simpler patterns will appeal to new at stitching, such as the squirrel and bird motifs for linen kitchen towels as shown below.

Great Rewards from Stitches From the Harvest

This pear and vine motif table runner would look lovely with a harvest dinner table.

Gather Together table runner from Stitches from the Harvest

Are you into less decorative items? There are patterns for zippered pouches, a bird coat pin, a tote, a sachet, and a pincushion, seen below.

Wild Oaks Pincushion from Stitching from the Harvest

Below is a needle keeper, and a pocketed notion keeper pattern is also shared.

Autumn Sheaf Needle Keeper from Stitching From the Harvest

Crimson Bounty Tote Bag from Stiches From the Harvest

The ebook has links to the website to download and print a PDF of the patterns. Embroidery basics, cording basics, floss color chart, and a resource guide is included in the book.

Schmitz is a MODA fabric designer and sells her own patterns. Her previous book is Stitches From the Garden; the pillow below is from that book.

pillow from Stitches From the Garden

I just adore these patterns!

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

link to the publisher's webpage for photos from the book:
http://www.shopmartingale.com/stitche...

Stitches from the Harvest - Hand Embroidery Inspired by Autumn

By Kathy Schmitz

Print Version + eBook $24.99

eBook Only $16.99

ISBN: 9781604688634

Publication Date: September 6th, 2017