Restoring a Sense of Order to the World: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I was eager to read Amor Towles novel A Gentleman in Moscow after reading rave reviews from my Goodread friends and enjoying the opening pages through the First Look Bookclub. I loved the writing and tone of those first pages. When I got my hands on a copy I read it in three days and was in happy tears at the end.

Count Alexander Rostov, recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, Member of the Jockey club, and Master of the Hunt is a Former Person, a member of the aristocracy slated for execution but for having his name linked to a 1915 revolutionary poem. Count Rostov is instead placed under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in the heart of Moscow. It is June 21, 1922. The Count is 33 years old. It is his luckiest day.

He will not return to his luxury suite stocked with priceless heirlooms and beloved books; he is moved into an empty 100 square foot room, former servant quarters in the attic. The Count chooses a few items to take with him. And when I read these following lines, I knew their truth from having moved many times and carried 'things' that brought a sense of home with them:

"...we come to hold our dearest possessions more closely than we hold our friends. We carry them from place to place, often at considerable expense and inconvenience...allowing memories to invest the with greater and greater importance...Until we imagine that these carefully preserved possessions might give us genuine solace in the face of a lost companion. 

But of course, a thing is just a thing."

I found myself marking passage after lovely and insightful passage that elucidate the characters and our common experience.

The Count adapts to his new reality, mastering his circumstances. He takes a job as the head waiter in the hotel restaurant. He is befriended by Nina, a whimsical nine-year-old girl whose parting gift is a universal pass key to all the hotel rooms. Nina grows up, then leaves her daughter Sophia with the Count to follow her husband sent to the Gulag. The child is ignored by the police only because there was doubt about her patrimony. A Soviet official hires the Count to educate him in the culture of the West, and over fifteen years they develop a mutual respect. And Sophia grows to become an accomplished pianist. (Hear the music of the novel here.)

As the world the Count knew and loved is dismantled under the Bolsheviks, "who were so intent upon recasting the future from a mold of their own making, would not rest until every last vestige of his Russia had been uprooted, shattered, or erased." The Count's university days friend Mishka has been struggling, asking, "What is it about a nation that would foster a willingness in its people to destroy their own artworks, ravage their own cities, and kill their own progeny without compunction? " Mishka answers his question with his realization that self-destruction was not an abomination, but Russia's greatest strength, "We are prepared to destroy that which we have created because we believe more than any of them [The British, French or Italians] in the power of the picture, the poem, the prayer, or the person."

Sophia asks the Count why he returned to Russia from Paris. His only answer is that, "Life needed me to be in a particular place at a particular time, and that was when your mother brought you to the lobby of the Metropol." And the last pages of the novel become comedy, a happy ending, a righting of things knocked over in the skirmish, "an essential faith that by the smallest of one's actions one can restore some sense of order to the world."

You may think a novel about thirty-two years living in the Metropol Hotel would be dull and without interest. The novel is episodic, skipping from one important time to another, but new people enter the hotel and affect the Count's life. Read the author's comment on the structure of the novel at http://www.amortowles.com/gentleman-moscow-amor-towles/gentleman-moscow-qa-amor-towles/

But I was mesmerized, charmed by the Count, drawn in by the slow revelation of his past and enticed by his plans for his future.

2016 Reviewed Books: Fiction and Nonfiction

Many of the books I read or reviewed this year were from major or established writers.

FICTION

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles was my favorite book of the year; its about a man who adjusts to remarkable circumstances and earns the love and respect of even his enemies.


Moonglow by Michael Chabon was inspired by his grandfather's stories about WWII. Funny, tragic, and most wonderful.  

A Doubter's Almanac by Ethan Canin is the harrowing story of how a man pressured to achieve greatness brings his undoing.

The Eastern Shore by Ward Just. A retired journalist remembers the changing role of media in the 20th c.

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleeve is a WWII love story inspired by Cleeve's grandfather's war experience on Malta.

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson, A woman who comes to a tach in a English village just before WWI and experiences the social changes war brings.

War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans is the author's family story during the Rape of Belgium.

The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith is inspired by a real life forgotten 16th c Dutch artist. The forging and theft of a painting brings moral complications.

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey is historical fiction about exploration and life in early Alaska.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. A nurse trained in the Crimean War is hired to watch a miracle child who has stopped eating.

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley is a thriller that thoughtfully addresses issues of the media and privacy.

The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore. A lawyer gets mixed up in the AC/DC war betweeen Tesla, Edison, and Westinghouse.

At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier. Historical fiction about settlers in the Black Swamp of Ohio and their war over apples.

I Will Send Rain by Rae Meadows is about a family unraveling during the Dust Bowl.

Dark Matter by Blake Couch is a sci-fi thriller about a man trapped in alternative realities.

Barren Cove by Ariel Winter imagines a world where robots rule humans, a smart retelling of Wuthering Heights.

Zero K by Don DiLillo probes existential questions when a man's estranged father chooses a cryogenic death.

The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell crosses time to see how humans have destroyed or ca save the planet.

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi is set in a dystopian future where Americans are at war over water.

The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinsborough tells of a daughter caring for a dying parent while visited by fantastic visions.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman is a lyrical fantasy of childhood peopled by monsters and saviors.

Faithful by Alice Hoffman will break your heart and mend it again as a young woman must rebuild her life after a tragic accident.

The Unseen World by Liz Moore: A daughter searches for her father's mysterious past through computer coded hints.

Leaving Blythe River by Catherine Ryan Hyde is a story of personal growth; a teenager seaches the wilderness for his missing father.

Damaged by Lisa Scottoline has Mary DiNunzio defend a special needs child.

The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester collects the first female detective stories.

*****

NONFICTION

Victoria: The Queen by Julia Baird reveals the surprising woman behind the crown.

For the Glory: Eric Liddel's Journey from Olympic Champion to Modern Martyr releats the story of the runner and missionary and his tragic death in China.

Hero of the Empire by Candice Miller follows Winston Churchill's journey to become a hero in the Boer War.

The Road to Little Dribbing by Bill Bryson revisits the Britain of his earlier book, recounting how it has changed.

When We Are No More: How Digital Memory is Shaping our Future by Abby Smith Rumsey considers the evolving challenges in the storage of information.

Lit Up by David Dency explores the impact of  literature on students in today's classrooms.


The Books That Changed My Life: 100 Remarkable People Write About Books by Bethanne Patrick reveals how books impact lives.

The Fictional 100 by Lucy Pollard-Gott presents the top 100 characters from literature.

You Must Change Your Life: The Friendship of August Rodin and Rainer Maria Rilke by Rachel Corbett looks at how the artist influenced the poet's work and life.

Constance Fenimore Woolston by Anne Boyd Rioux is a biography of a gifted forgotten writer and friend of Henry James.

Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies reveals the artist's life and work in context of WWI.

Sing for Your Life is Daniel Bergner's book about Ryan Speedo Greene's rise from the ghetto to international opera star.

Angelic Music by Corey Mean discusses the rise and fall in popularity of Benjamin Franklin's harmonium. 

World's Elsewhere by Andrew Dickson explores Shakespeare's influence across the world.=

How William Shakespeare Changed the Way We Talk by Jan Sutcliffe is a beautifully illustrated book for children.

Such Mad Fun is Jane Hall Cutler's story of her grandmother, a 1930s Hollywood screenwriter.

Who Knew? by Robert Cutietta is a collection from his radio show about classical music.

The Illustrated Book of Sayings by Ellis Francis Sanders presents illustrated sayings from around the world that don't sensibly translate into English.

You're Saying It Wrong! by Kathryn and Ross Petras helped me know how to pronounce words I had only before seen in writing.

The Dog Merchants: Inside the Big Business of Breeders, Pet Stores, and Rescues by Kim Kavin is a warning to dog lovers everywhere to think before they buy.

CLASSICS

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis by Max Schulman are hilarious stories of teen angst.

Love for Lydia by H. E. Bates follows the destruction of hearts and bodies left by a new girl in the 'hood at hundred years ago.

Augustus by John Williams is an exploration of power through the life of the Roman ruler.

The Nutmeg Tree and Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp are wonderful social satires of early 20th c Britain. One of my favorite writers.

The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge allows the lost men of the tragic Scott Expedition to tell their stories.

On the Black Hill by Bruce Chawton is his first novel about twin brothers who watch the world changing while they remain bound to the past.

A Talk with Philllip Lewis, Author of Debut Novel "The Barrowfields"

I was pleased on January 5, 2017 to talk to Phillip Lewis about his first book The Barrowfields.

The Barrowfields propagandist Henry escapes an unhappy home life with a distant, alcoholic father with failed literary aspirations. But Henry discovers that to be free of the past one much confront it.

The book is full of the presence of author and North Carolina native Thomas Wolfe, the father's idol.

Lewis grew up in Northwestern North Carolina, close to Virginia and Tennessee, but only a few hours away from Wolfe's hometown of Asheville. "I've spent a lot of time on Mr. Wolfe's porch, I can tell you," Lewis admitted.

We talked about Wolfe's fall from off the radar; the writer who influenced such diverse writers as Ray Bradbury, Maya Angelou, Pat Conroy, Betty Smith, Philip Roth, John Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson (who lifted 'fear and loathing' from Wolfe) is rarely read today.

"I think Wolfe is difficult for a lot of people to read compared to most commercial fiction these days," Lewis commented, adding "I find that so often, but not always, the books I truly enjoy and want to return to are the more difficult, are challenging books. For example, Blood Meridian [by Cormac McCarthy] is a book that I am proud to have read and finished partly because it was so challenging to me...You really have to concentrate on what he's saying or you can miss so much. But you feel like you've grown somehow by the end of it. It's really and extraordinary book, but it's not an easy book."

I told Lewis that I had read that Wolfe commented that his books all were about the search for the father [http://ow.ly/QB6i307PQ6W] and I saw that theme in The Barrowfields.

Lewis: "That was definitely an important theme for me," he replied. "I had a very complicated relationship with my father, and still do. This was the genesis of much of the material in The Barrowfields. He has suffered from a combination of alcoholism and depression for a number of years. He is also quite a literary fellow himself...I think he is a true writer but his struggles with other things have made it difficult for him to do much with it (other than inspiring his children, perhaps.)"

Nancy: "This explains why Henry the father is such a vividly drawn character."

Lewis: "For me the goal was to address or exorcise certain demons and to do so in an emotionally honest way--without writing an autobiographical account. In other words, you take an experience or amalgamation of experiences and examine the emotional toll, and then try to articulate that in some way with the written word that accurately depicts the emotional toll but does not reflect actual experiences.

"So everything in the book comes from a very emotionally honest place, and it was extraordinarily difficult and often painful to write for that reason.

"It's always impossible to know how all of that is going to translate to readers--because I think it is easy to assume that you're reading a book that's just been written for commercial enjoyment. But so far I've seen a few reviews by people who seemed to find aspects of it resonant with their own emotions."

Nancy: "That's when a book really gets to you when the author says things you cannot put into words yourself. I'm pretty blown away right now. The courage, as a writer, to struggle with demons!"

Lewis: "It truly was a very difficult process for me. And of course, it is a very lonely process, too. You spend a hell of a lot of time sitting somewhere trying to write what it is that's inside of you, and all the while not having any idea whether anyone other than you is ever going to read what you've written!"

Nancy: "In your book the son escapes the past but realizes he must return and confront his past. Is that what your book is--confronting the past?"

Lewis: I think that is an accurate description. Henry, our narrator, is in large part coming to terms with all that has transpired. He's somewhat of an expert at repressing past events, I think.

Nancy: "Yes, even abandoning Threnody." [Henry's sister].

Lewis: "Exactly."

Nancy: "I was thinking about Poe being another of the father's favorite [authors]. I just read in Mary Oliver's Upstream her essay on Poe. She says "life grief was his earliest and deepest life experience" and it made me think about Henry's father and what ghosts he was struggling with."

Lewis: "I have the sense that certain people experience anguish and tragedy in a different way than perhaps others do."

Nancy: "I wanted to say that two scenes from The Barrowfields that stay with me are the book burning and Henry and Story and the horses at night."

Lewis: "Thank you. I think those were probably the scenes that took the longest to write, and required the most effort.

"In regard to the horse scene, we had horses growing up and we were fortunate enough to have a good-sized field for the horses to enjoy. And one of my favorite things was when all the horses would take off running through the field and thunder away and then come charging back up the hill. And so I had memories of that, and that is what I drew on to describe that scene."

Nancy: "So, putting a memory into words, getting it just right--it's a lot of pressure."

Lewis: "It really is. And imagine this: my mother had horses from the time she was a child, and still does. I was writing those scenes with the horses knowing that she would be reading it, and knowing that it had to be just exactly right.

"I think authenticity is so incredibly important when you are writing fiction. And above everything else, I wanted The Barrowfields to be authentic. I wanted the characters and the scenes and the events to be authentic and deeply real. The horse scene late in the book, in addition to the horses, was also partly for the purpose of describing that part of the country at night--which I believed was important, or even critical, for that sense of authenticity."

Nancy: "There is a strong sense of place in your book, whether the mansion on the hill, so Gothic and dark, or Henry's university days, where it felt so contemporary and modern."

Lewis: Sense of place has always been important to me as a reader. Have you ever read a book, and in the book is a scene, and you're reading along and you realize that you have no idea where the charterers are, or what it looks like?"

We chatted about books we had read or were planning to read. Lewis' TBR shelf includes The Nix by Nathan Hill, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, and Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleeve. Books he recommended to me include The Tinkers by Paul Harding, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and James Salter, "who has his own writing style." He also enjoys J. R. R. Tolkien and fantasy novels.

Lewis is a working dad who spent five years working on The Barrowfields which is coming out in March 2017.

Read more about Lewis at his website http://www.philliplewisauthor.com/

from the publisher:

The Barrowfields is a richly textured, deeply transporting novel that traces the fates and ambitions of a father and son across the decades, centered in the small Appalachian town that simultaneously defines them and drives then both away.

Just before Henry Aster's birth, his father--outsized literary ambition and pregnant wife in tow--reluctantly returns to the remote North Carolina town in which he was raised and installs his young family in an immense house of iron and glass perched high on the side of a mountain. There, Henry and his younger sister grow up in thrall to their fiercely brilliant, obsessive father, who spends his days as a lawyer in town and his nights writing in his library. But when tragedy tips his father toward a fearsome unraveling, Henry's youthful reverence is poisoned and he flees, resolving never to return.

During his time away at college and then law school, Henry meets a young woman whose family past is shrouded in mystery and who helps him grapple with his father's haunting legacy. He begins to realize that, try as he might, he, too, must go home again.

Mythic in its sweep and mesmeric in its prose, The Barrowfields is a breathtaking novel that explores the darker side of devotion, the limits of forgiveness, and the reparation power of shared pasts.

End of the Year Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

April Showers Bring May Flowers, hand appliqued and machine quilted

Little Red Riding Hood, hand embroidered and hand quilted

The Bronte Sisters, original quilt, machine quilted

Tweet, hand quilted

Winter Houses, machine quilted
pattern by Anne Sutton

unnamed, machine quilted

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

Unnamed, hand quilted

Vintage quilt block, Freedom of Speech, hand quilted

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

Baskets, hand applique and hand quilted
pattern by Anne Sutton

Thicket fabric from Gingiber quilt top

Hospital Sketches quilt top, unfinished
patterns from Barbara Brackman

Wizard of Oz quilt top, hand embroidered original designs

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

Its been a great year.

Quilts Old and New and Other News

It has been a very busy summer. I have been reading up a storm, trying to get in some quilt projects, and mothering our dear senior doggie.

I got out my 2015 Row By Row kits to complete. I machine sewed around all the fusible applique pieces. I decided to make several rows into small wall hangings or table toppers.

The quilt below was from A Little Quilt Shop in Waterford, MI, an area full of small inland lakes used for boating and sport. Techniques include fusible applique, machine sewing, and machine quilting. The kit included two sea gull buttons.

My brother lives on Cass Lake in Waterford and we have many pleasant memories of evening boat rides on the lake.

Our dad on my brother's boat on Cass Lake, Oakland County, MI

Setting sun over Cass Lake, Oakland County, MI

Waterlilies on canal access to Cass Lake

There are lilies on the canal that leads to the lake from my brother's back yard. This row from The Pincushion in Imlay City, MI, was one of my favorites from 2015. The kit came with pre-fused pink circles and the fabrics and pattern. To ensure placement of the applique pieces I traced the pattern on clear plastic, which could be laid over top the pieces before ironing down. Techniques include fusible applique and machine quilting.

I am still working the modern wall hanging Seed Collectors.

bottom portion of my wall hanging

Completed flowers of my wall hanging

The original quilt in the book

A Christmas block of the week is available from I Wish You A Merry Christmas on Facebook.  This lovely star pattern I just had to try. I'd like to make it again. This was hand appliqued.

Christmas block of the month

I love this block of vintage Christmas tree ornaments! I want to make it again and again with different fabrics!

I am trying my hand at several Distinctive Dresden blocks. My review of this new book is coming soon!

My Tuesday quilt group friend Theresa Nielson brought in quilts belonging to a client. I was amazed to see a Marie Webster French Basket kit quilt!

This pattern can be found in  Joy Forever: Marie Webster's Quilt Patterns, which can still be found for sale online.

 These are photos from the book.

 The original quilt kit fabrics are seen below and it appears that Theresa's client has the same fabrics!

Theresa is completing her client's English Basket quilt. The solid fabrics were in luscious Nile Green and a soft lavender.

Theresa Nielson and the English Garden quilt top

 The flowers are from a variety of 20s-30s era prints.

This pattern was shared as an heirloom pattern in Quiltmaker magazine in the March/April 1994 issue.

And, Theresa is washing this Grandmother Flower Garden for the same client.

Our Kamikaze's health has been precarious and several times in August we thought we had come to the big decision. Thankfully, we have worked with the veterinarian and Kaze is doing better, acting more like her old self. She has an enlarged heart and the medications that are keeping her alive gives her tummy issues and depresses her appetite. We lost our dear Suki a few months ago.

I had a sudden insight that I had better buy several books before they are no longer available in hard cover! Last year I had read library copies of The Nix by Nathan Hill and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. They were two of my most favorite 2016 books, so with my new Barnes and Noble membership discount I ordered copies for my library.

J. J. Abrams is bringing The Nix to television with Meryl Streep as the mother! And I am thrilled that Towles' book is on the best seller list!

 Our big Zinnias have attracted bees and lots of butterflies this summer.

We let part of the herb garden go to flower, and bees of all sizes and kinds flock to the flowering oregano!

I discovered that Goldfinch love to eat the Zinnia seeds!

We have a farmers market a few blocks away in the local city park. There has been a booth selling crafts to raise money for Alzheimer's disease research. I picked up some cute Altoids tins decorated with paper, paint, buttons, and other embellishments. I put in a small magnate and use them for my needles and pins. I keep my projects in plastic boxes, the kinds used for scrapbooking and available at craft shops. In each project box I have all the supplies I need--needles, threads, scissors, pins--for easy grab and go.

Last of all I want to share some of the lovely quilts that were in our city's  library in August.