Some of My Favorite Books Published So Far in 2017

Here are some of the books I have enjoyed reading in the first six months of the year. Readers and book clubs often pick books that are on 'top' lists and miss others which are as good, and even better. Here are some not to be missed, presented from the earliest to the latest 2017 publications.

Non-Fiction

The Tunnels by Greg Mitchell. The story of the Berlin Wall and those who dug tunnels under the wall, the journalists who filmed the tunnelers, and President Kennedy's surpressing the story.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-tunnels-escapees-under-berlin-wall.html

High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel reminds us of the cost of allowing our fear to negate the rights guaranteed by our laws and warns against the misuse of power.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/02/high-noon-hollywood-blacklist-and.html

The Life and Death of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan lays out the natural history of the lakes the ecological problems we have created, and what it will take to preserve and restore the Great Lakes.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-death-and-life-of-great-lakes-by.html

Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson book is sure to bring another generation under the thrall of the tragic story of the Franklin Expedition.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/ice-ghosts-200-years-searching-for-lost.html

A $500 House in Detroit by Drew Philip. "We have an amazing opportunity to become, as strange as it sounds, the city of the future."
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/building-new-world-order-500-house-in.html

The Gatekeepers: How The White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency by Chris Whipple. I enjoyed this both as history and as a model for understanding the present.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-gatekeepers-how-white-house-chiefs.html

Mozart's Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. I was charmed, then delighted; then I felt educated, and finally, elevated. In beautiful language and uplifting insight, Mozart's Starling is my most unexpected find of the year.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/mozarts-starling-exploration-of-nature.html

Apollo 8 by Jeffry Kluger is an exciting narrative about the Space Race.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/manderley-forever-by-tatiana-de-rosnay.html

Detroit: 1967 considers the riot/rebellion from a historical perspective and first-hand accounts.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/we-hope-for-better-things-detroit-1967.html

The Making of Jane Austen by Devoney Looser traces how Austen was 'made' through her illustrators, the dramatization and adaptation of her novels in plays, movies, and television, the political use of Austen, and finally through how her novels were used in education.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-making-of-jane-austen-creation-of.html

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley. I so enjoyed and loved this book about Jane Austen. A must read for Janites.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/jane-austen-at-home-by-lucy-worsley.html

Fiction

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich. The novel is a complicated, slow moving, intense story, delving into characters linked by love and horrific tragedy, in gorgeous writing.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/12/devastatingly-beautiful-devastatingly.html

Lucky Boy. Parental love, it's obsessive envelopment and fierceness, is the theme of Shanthi Sekaran's moving and thoughtful novel. I loved the writing, the characters are sympathetic and real, the story heartbreaking.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/01/lucky-boy-by-shanthi-sekaran.html

The Animators. Kayla Rae Whitaker's novel is about two women who use their life stories in their animated films then reap the consequences.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-animators-enduring-friendship.html

The Refugees. Viet Thanh Nguyen's 2015 novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. These short stories explore the refugee experience, informed by his own family history.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/02/for-all-refugees-everywhere.html

The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis. A remarkable story, beautifully written and wise. Henry's journey resonates with self-recognition and affirms that going home can open the path to the future.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/02/you-must-go-home-again-barrowfields-by.html



Things We Lost in the Fire by Argentinian author Mariana Enriquez are more than eerie or creepy. They are disturbing, upsetting, and some are even repulsive. They are amazing.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/unsettling-stories-from-argentina.html

Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar is an unusual book, at once funny and probing, emotionally wise, and improbable; a blend of philosophy and fantasy.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/spaceman-of-bohemia-truths-must-not-be.html

The Underworld by Kevin Canty. People in a small town react to a devastating mine disaster.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-underworld-by-kevin-canty.html


To the Stars Through Difficulties by Romalyn Tilghman. The empowerment of women to impact their community, the use of art for healing, and a belief in the power of books are the themes behind the stories of three women.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/to-stars-through-difficulties-by.html



Grief Cottage by Gail Goodman. A 'ghost story' in which character's inner ruins lay concealed, their grief diverted by obsessions and addictions.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/grief-cottage-by-gail-godwin.html

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout. To understand the experiences of those who are from different backgrounds, forget some of the over-marketed best sellers. Read Strout.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/04/anything-is-possible-by-elizabeth.html

Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker. Shoemaker gives us a kinder and more lovable version of Jane Eyre's Rochester.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/mr-rochester-by-sarah-shoemaker.html

Some Rise by Sin by Philip Caputo. If God is good, why is there suffering and evil? Set in Mexico where 60,000 murders in six years have brought Father Riordan past doubt--he is losing his faith altogether. Should he break his vows to save his flock?
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/some-rise-by-sin-and-some-by-virtue-fall.html

Allie and Bea by Catherine Ryan Hyde. An elderly woman and a teenage girl, both escaping their past, are thrown together by fate and become family.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-friend-in-need-allie-and-bea-by.html

The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris are short stories about how good people can make very bad decisions. Mesmerizing.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-dinner-party-and-other-stories-by.html

The Reminders, musician/actor Val Emmich's first novel, is a heartwarming story of the friendship between a girl who remembers everything and a grieving man who is forgetting his beloved.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-reminders-by-val-emmich-love.html

The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron draws on new research to recreate the waning days of the Neanderthals.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-last-neanderthal-reimagines-shared.html

The Quiet Before the Thaw by Alexandra Fuller follows the lives of two Sioux boys, in writing beautiful and eloquent and charged with emotional intensity and devastating revelation.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/quiet-until-thaw-by-alexandra-fuller.html

Devastation Road by Jason Hewitt, set after WWI, is a chilling vision of the impact of war, a mystery, a love story, and a revelation of war's human cost.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/devastation-road-by-jason-hewitt.html

Tell Me How This Ends Well by David Samuel Levinson is wildly funny and yet deadly serious, a dark comedy and a chilling look at how America, and the world, is evolving.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/06/tell-me-how-this-ends-well-dark-family.html

We Shall Not All Sleep by Estep Nagy is an intriguing Cold War family drama with elements of a spy thriller and mystery. I was riveted.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/we-shall-not-all-sleep-by-estap-nagy.html

Grace by Paul Lynch recreates Ireland during the famine. The writing is gorgeous, the protagonist, Grace, memorable, the descriptions of what she experiences while on the road crushing.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/grace-by-paul-lynch-story-of-girl.html

Central Station by Lavie Tidhar imagines a world where divisions have blurred between man-created and biological entities and corporate and personal memory. Award winning science fiction.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/central-station-by-lavie-tidhar.html

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed is a compelling dystopian novel concerning a disturbing cult, with sympathetic characters and enough mystery that kept me turning pages.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/gather-daughters-by-jennie-melamed.html

Brave Deeds by David Abrams. Six soldiers are denied permission to attend their captain's memorial service. They go AWOL, risking their lives to honor him.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/brave-deeds-by-david-abrams.html

Biography

My Life, My Love, My Legacy: Coretta Scott King. A timely lesson in how resistance movements can alter policy, raise awareness, and impact cultural norms.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/01/coretta-scott-king-tells-all.html

Manderley Forever by Tatiana De Rosnay brings alive a complicated author in context of her family history, her personal and creative growth, and literary place.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/manderley-forever-by-tatiana-de-rosnay.html


The Velveteen Daughter by Laurel Davis Huber. The compelling story of the daughter of Margery Williams Bianco (author of The Velveteen Rabbit) who was a child prodigy in art, and her struggle with mental illness.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-velveteen-daughter-genius-touched.html

Morningstar: Growing Up With Books by Ann Hood is a wonderful memoir about the impact of books on her life. Beautiful.
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/07/morningstar-growing-up-with-books-by.html

Morningstar: Growing Up With Books by Ann Hood

When Ann Hood's memoir Morningstar: Growing Up With Books arrived in the mail, I opened it up to glance at it. I read the Introduction, in which Hood talks about her family and hometown and discovery of books, in particular, Louis May Alcott's Little Women.

I made myself a cup of hot tea and settled in to read the first chapter.

Before dinner, I had read the entire book. I could not put it down. Hood's voice and personality, her childhood yearning for something bigger, her love of reading and the impact books had on her life, caught my heart as well as my interest. I felt a kinship. I recognized myself reflected in her life, and while reading I thought about the books that had changed my life.

Hood's reading was free ranging, preferring thick books. She believes that the right book comes into a reader's life at the time it is needed, and this small book gives credit to the books that helped her understand life, answering the questions that perplexed her, and showing the path to personal growth and adulthood.

I recommend Morningstar for everyone who loves books, whose lives were touched by books. Those who as children found answers and discovered new questions, who found understanding and direction in the pages.

The back cover reads, "In her admired works of fiction, including the recent The Book That Matters Most, Ann Hood explores the transformative power of literature. Now, with warmth and honesty, Hood reveals the personal story behind these beloved novels." Another book for my TBR list! But when I was at our local bookstore this morning, I choose to buy Hood's novel The Red Thread. I am eager to read more of Hood's work.

The chapters and major books discussed are:

• Lesson 1: How to Dream, in which Hood address the impact of Majorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk, which she read as a teenager who felt trapped in a narrow life. 
• Lesson 2: How to Become a Writer concerns The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Hood's yearning for something more. 
• Lesson 3: How to Ask Why considers Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbull and the Viet Nam War. 
• In Lesson 4: How to Buy Books, Hood agonizes over purchasing a book, in particular, Love Story by Eric Segal, and how that first purchase led to a library. 
• Hood's brother gifted her a set of Steinbeck books and in Lesson 5: How to Write A Book she writes about what Grapes of Wrath taught about layers of meaning. 
• A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins was her introduction to another culture, which Hood writes about in Lesson 7: Be Curious. 
• As a curious teen, The Harrad Experiment by Robert Rimmer answered questions she could not ask, Lesson 8: How to Have Sex. 
• How to See the World is Lesson 9, in which Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago exposed Hood to exotic places and times. 
• The last, Lesson 10: How to Run Away, is inspired by the character longing to escape in John Updike's Rabbit, Run. 

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

Ann Hood

Morningstar
by Ann Hood
W. W. Norton & Co.
Publication Date:  August 1. 2017
$22.95 hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-393-25481-5

Brave Deeds by David Abrams

When our son threw over his obsession with dinosaurs for WWII and later 20th c wars I found myself entering new territory.

For someone who couldn't stand to watch violence, whose high school classes didn't even get to WWI, I found myself watching war movies and reading a lot of war books. At first, our son liked The Longest Day and To Hell and Back. As he grew so did his sophistication. In his mid-teens, he read the book and watched the movie Black Hawk Down over and over. Which meant so did I.

My son's interests expanded my understanding of the world and politics--and human nature.

"Tell brave deeds of war." 
Then they recounted tales,--
"There were stern stands
And bitter runs for glory."

Ah, I think there were braver deeds.
Stephen Crane, The Black Riders and Other Lines

The title of David Abrams' new book Brave Deeds comes from a poem by Stephen Crane. What are these deeds that are braver than the 'bitter runs for glory'?

Told they could not attend the memorial service for their leader Staff Sergeant Morgan, six soldiers in Iraq decide to go AWOL. They had the mission all planned out: 'Borrow' a HUMMER, drive to the base where the service was being held, and return to face the consequences.

If something can go wrong it will. They did not count on the HUMMER breaking down in one of the most dangerous sectors of Bagdad. Or a grueling hike through hostile territory without even a map that in their panic they forgot to bring.

The trek takes eight hours, encountering people who sidetrack them into conflicts. But they stick to their mission, determined to pay honor to their fallen leader, "one team, one fight, one brotherhood," hopefully alive and intact at the end.

This journey tale brings the men into danger, but we also learn that their inner life journey is just as tortured. Each soldier's inner dialogue is heard in alternating chapters, without identification. Readers learn the men's fears and insecurities and pain, how they see each other, what has motivated them to go on this arduous, dangerous journey, and what Sgt. Morgan meant to them.

One soldier admits they are not 'great men risking death on a brave mission'. No, we are 'Fucked up and flawed' he thinks.

Morgan seen through the eyes of his men is a vivid character. Some saw his death as heroic, those who believed in "the First Church of Bush". Others were there for the paycheck, his death just sad and senseless. His death affected each one, and they now they risk their lives to honor him.

Reading the novel I was sometimes disturbed, sometimes I laughed. I felt compassion and revulsion, concern and sorrow. At the end I was moved.

The novel was inspired by a true story, as Abrams discusses here.

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

Brave Deeds
David Abrams
Grove Press, Black Cat
Publication August 1, 2017
Paperback $16.00
ISBN: 9780802126863

Gary Hits the Ground Running at UMCOR

United Methodist Committe on Relief Mission Statement:
Compelled by Christ to be a voice of conscience on behalf of the people called Methodist, UMCOR works globally to alleviate human suffering and advance hope and healing.

Gary; UMCOR photo

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is part of the General Board of Global Ministries. During the 1980s they concentrated their work on relief, rehabilitation, refugee ministry, and the root causes of hunger.

Sketch by Wendy Turrentine

On October 23, 1984, Tom Brokaw broke the story of the famine in Ethiopia, resulting from a devastating drought. A million people died in the region.

"Before the world's media outlets broke the story, UMCOR was working with Church World Service on relief effors with the Ehtiopian Orthodox Church. A Bishop's Appeal for Africa provided funding." from the UMCOR website

Gary started work at UMCOR in November. As the Secretary for Specialized Ministries and Emergency Response Officer, he had to hit the ground running.

That January he was in Haiti for the winter conference meeting. His boss Norma Kehrberg accidentally introduced him as her "executive disaster."

I, of course, was home alone every January. After leaving Philly I told Michiganders that there were six weeks of winter in Philly, January and into February. While Gary went to the Caribbean I shoved snow.

UMCOR photo of Gary

Gary left the house before I was up, at 5 am. He walked several blocks to the Broad Street Subway, getting off at the North Philadelphia Train Station, then he rode the train to Penn Station in New York City, where he got the subway to 475 Riverside Drive. It was a two-hour commute both ways! He was often home at 7:30 pm.

But he made the most of the commute time, reading and listening to music with headphones. He got to know some of the other commuters. There was a group who worked in the World Trade Center.

It was a small department. Director Norma Kehrberg, who took over the position in 1983, had been a missionary in Nepal. There were an associate director and a woman whose specialty was refugees. Their secretary, Lydia Chao, as a girl during WWII had been interned in a Japanese prison camp. She also had cradled Malcolm X's head when he was assassinated.

UMCOR projects are funded with 100% designated donated funds. Even salaries and office costs were from designated funds. When an emergency arises churches across the world take up collections and the money is used to address needs arising from that crisis. A yearly collection for UMCOR is used to operating costs.

Norma went to Ethiopia very early. She told the story of seeing the endless stream of refugees heading toward a feeding station at a relief camp. She stopped and talked to a woman who told her story. Her husband had first gone to the camp and disappeared. Then her children died of starvation and her thirteen-year-old son was killed in a car crash. "How do you find the strength to go one?" Norma asked. "I'm pregnant." The woman answered. Gary was moved by that story of hope.

When Mexico City suffered a major earthquake in 1985, UMCOR worked with the UMC of Mexico to rebuild homes. Gary made a trip there.

After tornados struck across Ohio and Western Pennsylvania UMCOR went to discover what needs were left unmet by FEMA and the Red Cross. A woman at the relief center was angry and would not talk. She finally told her story to a volunteer: her son had been killed in the tornado and her husband's business destroyed. Her husband then died in a car accident. The mortgage on their destroyed house was due and she could not pay. She was angry at God. The worker told her to return the next day. When the woman returned, the volunteer presented her with a receipt showing payment of her mortgage. The woman was finally able to cry. "Anyone can rebuild a house," Gary would preach. "Only the church can rebuild a life and a soul."

In 1985 and 1986 the Haitian people rioted against Duvalier. Gary was there just after the riots. He visited a school high in the mountains. Children walked long hours and across mountains for free education and the only meal they would have that day.

UMCOR funded this well on La Gonave in Haiti.
Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

On the island of La Gonave, he visited a well that was funded by UMCOR. The barren island was first populated by natives fleeing Spanish colonists and later by runaway slaves under the French.

Well on La Gonave, Haiti. Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

Goats in Haiti. Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

In a Haitian classroom. Metal was flattened and cut
to make the scene on the wall. Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

Gary traveled across the country and the world, sometimes going to exotic places, but usually to see the least exotic communities. He visited a garbage dump community in Kingston, Jamaica where UMCOR was providing hygiene, health care, and immunization of pigs.

He gained a sense of perspective when he was proudly shown the water taps and indoor latrines--a cement trough in the corner--new luxuries made possible by UMCOR programs.

He visited Cairo's garbage dump where health care and sanitation projects were funded.

Ezbat El Nakhl. Photo by Gary L. Bekofske
People living in Cairo's garbage dumps sorted and recycled for a living.

Ezbat El Nakhl
photo by Gary L. Bekofske

Donkey carts are used to transport the garbage.

Ezbat Nakhl. Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

Smoke from burning trash can be seen in the photo above. The smell must be imagined.

Cairo's garbage dump where people lived.
Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

At the Caribbean Conference of Churches, he heard about American Cultural Imperialism. Satellite television from America had created a 'need' for Western goods, like Atari game systems and designer jeans and shoes. But there was no way to purchase them. People going to the States would bring back these goods to sell.

He went to Mexico City several times, once with Norma. At the home of a peasant, they were offered them cactus juice to drink. Gary whispered to Norma, "What do we do?" He did not want to get sick from the local water. Norma replied, "You drink; you eat; you smile; and pray hard." It would have been offensive to turn down hospitality. Another time an impoverished family proudly offered a meal, which went down hard knowing the sacrifice being made to honor them.

It was a high profile job. Gary's name frequently appeared in the United Methodist Reporter. He traveled with Bishops and important United Methodists across the world and the country. He visited Mission Fairs across America to talk about how the money raised by local church impacted the lives of strangers in need.

Gary had two back-to-back conferences in San Franciso and I flew out to join him. Several times I visited his office in New York City, once for a Christmas Party. I had my office friends to the house for several parties. But our worlds mostly stayed apart.

As Gary stayed in a beach front cottage in Belize, or rode a camel to the Pyramids and Sphinx, he felt sad and lonely wishing he could share the experience with me.

The Pyramids and the Sphinx. Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

The Pyramids. Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

View of the Nile. Photo by Gary L. Bekofske

 Meantime, I was home alone with P.J. and watching our first color television.

"UMCOR makes a difference simply because people of faith believ they can make a difference by sharing God's gift. The 'body broken for you' is Christ's gift to us. This gift frees us to participate--frees us to empty ourselves for others, frees us to make incarnate that which we have received." Norma Kehrberg

Gary had finally found a way to make a difference, to touch the lives of the least and the lost. He saw faith in action.

Storybook Style: America's Whimsical Homes of the 1920s

Storybook Style: American Whimsical Homes of the 1920s by Arrol Gellner and Douglas Keister is a delightful pictorial history of fantasy homes influenced by Old European rural homes.

The 1920s Period Revival styles included Mediterranean, Normandy, Tudor, and Spanish styles, and the relatively rarer Storybook.

I had not realized that the architectural style I have long admired had a name, or that it's roots date to WWI when soldiers returned from the European front with a love of the rural, rustic houses and Medieval structures they had seen: the quaint cobblestone cottage with thatched roof, the half-timbered Tudor house, the shingled roof, and rolled eaves and seawave rooflines.

In my neighborhood there is a house that I have admired, built in the 1920s when a rail line came into our suburban town, allowing workers in Detroit to live in what became the never ending suburbs of Oakland County, MI.

The Clawson Historical Center has identified the house as a Montgomery Ward 'kit house' called The Cranford from the late 1920s. It is described as a "Tudor revival and “storybook” style home" that "combines several varied architectural features, including a gambrel roof, dormers, Tudor peaks and faux stucco and half-timber."

from  Clawson Historical Museum

There are several Cranford homes in our 2 square mile city.

The authors follow the evolution of the style, from "Backstory" to "Opening Act;" how Hollywood "movie people" adopted the fantasy period styles for their homes; the legendary development of Hollywoodland; and how the fad for Period houses made its way across the country.

The history of period styles dates to the 'picturesque' fad of the 18th c which revived Medieval, Classical, and Gothic styles. This is when people built fake 'ruins,' homes that looked like castles, and the construction of fabulous public buildings like the Brighton Pavilion with its exotic Indian/Chinese/Saracenic influences.

In the 19th c, Victorians rebelled against Industrialization in a movement reviving hand craftsmanship, resulting in the Arts and Crafts movement. Art Noveau briefly ruled, with its naturalistic designs and artistry.

The Craftsman style became popular and led to the Bungalow. My great-grandfather and his sons built Bungalow homes in Tonawanda, NY in the 1920s.

Bungalow built by y grandfather John Becker in Tonawanda, NY

Another Becker bungalow in Tonawanda

The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition was the roots of the Colonial Revival which ascended in the 1920s and continued through the Bicentennial. My parents and grandparents all decorated in the Colonial style.

circa 1930 greeting card features a Storybook
cottage with a dovecote and thatched roof

The Storybook Style was the most fantastic period style of them all. The photographs show the wide variety of interpretation. The more misshapen, bizarre, and odd the design the more it pleased!

The Witch's House was built for Willat Studios in 1920 as a set for silent films, including Hansel and Gretel. One of the producers moved it to Beverly Hills and made it into his home.

The style influenced home design across the nation. Sears offered a medieval influenced English cottage with "catslide roof and rubble-tome trim" in its 1931 catalog. The Montgomery Ward Cranford kit house is a very domesticated nod to the style.

The book includes Michigan's Bartholomew's Boulder Park in Charlevoix, created by Earl Young. Born in Mancelona, Michigan Young studied at University of Michigan for a year before dropping out and going into real estate. His twelve stone houses were built in the late 1920s after the peak of the Storybook style, but are influenced by trips to Europe.

Photo by my dad of a "Mushroom House" in Charlevoix, MI

He also built ''mushroom houses' in 1952, and seven homes in downtown Charlevoix including the Half House in 1947. He used local fieldstone and cedar shingled roofs.

Another Michigan mention is Henry Ford's purchase of stone cottages for Greenfield Village in the 1920s. He had wanted Arlington Row, but was rejected and instead bought a 1600s cottage from near Chedworth. The cottage is one of my favorite parts of the Village.

Cottswald Cottage at Greenfield Village

1600s Cottswald farm at Greenfield Village

pigeon house, 1600s farm at Greenfield Village

Storybook Style was such fun to read, with plentiful color photographs.

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

Storybook Style
by Arrol Gellner, Douglas Keister
Schiffer Publications
July 2017
$34.99 hardcover
308 color and b/w images | 176 pp
ISBN13: 9780764353086

Aunt Martha's Quilt Booklets

My Tuesday quilt group was given boxes of craft supplies from an unknown source. I picked up some Aunt Martha's quilt booklets that date from 1952 to 1977.

According to Quilt History Tidbits the dates are:
Quilt Designs; Old Favorites--& New (No. 3175), ca. January 1952
Quilt Lover's Delight (No. 3540), ca. January 1960

Bold and Beautiful Quilts (No. 3778), ca. February 1977

Quilts; Heirlooms of Tomorrow (No. 3780), ca. February 1977

There were several figural patterns. The Gingham Dog and Calico Cat patterns are dear to my heart. The Eugene Field poem The Duel was a favorite of mine as a girl, as I wrote about here.

There is a sweet lady with a nosegay to applique and embroider.

 And Sunbonet Sue and Overall Bill.

 My friend Linda is making a version of this Morning Glory pattern.

I love this Hexagon Wreath! I can't see myself making it this size, but I would like to make a larger version of this.

Hexagon Wreath

 The Cornflower is another cute floral pattern.

The Ferris Wheel Quilt is an interesting pattern that could work up to be very Modern done in solids on white.

 Some day I will do a Rose quilt. This Democratic Rose makes an 18" block.

Read about Aunt Martha at Quilt History
http://quilthistorytidbits--oldnewlydiscovered.yolasite.com/aunt-martha.php

The Quilt Index has full text and photographs available of
Aunt Martha's Favorite Quilts (No. 3230), ca. January 1953 found at
http://www.quiltindex.org/ephemera_full_display.php?kid=1E-A3-5D8

Q is for Quilter has clean scans of all pages in Quilt Designs, Old Favorites found at
http://qisforquilter.com/2011/08/quilt-designs-old-favorites-and-new/