Waking Lions: The Complexity of Our Choices

While driving in the desert at night, distracted by the most beautiful moon he has ever seen, Dr. Eitan Green hits a man. A brain surgeon, he knows the man will not live. He makes the decision to drive on, leaving the dying man. He won't risk his career by reporting the accident.

He does not know he left behind a clue or that the dying man's wife Sirkit witnessed the accident. She blackmails the doctor: he will spend his nights at a makeshift clinic caring for her fellow Eritrean refugees.

A man who prefers to live in order, who shuns the blood and shit of human frailty, the doctor is thrust into the dirty, ugly side of life. But as he works with the tall, proud woman, he comes to admire her skill and to secretly lust for her.

Dr. Green's wife is a detective on the case of the hit-and-run victim. She struggles with her husband's absence, sure he is not cheating on her, yet sensing something is not right.

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, beautifully translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston, is a remarkable novel that probes the complexity of our moral choices. People do bad things or good things, for bad reasons or good ones, culminating in earned or unearned outcomes. It is about power shifts, the prejudice between Israelis, Bedouins, and African Eritreans, the refugee experience, the mystery of never really knowing one another, and how the privileged class can turn away from the uncomfortable and live in a sterile world of their own making.

The story is told by an omniscient narrator who knows the thoughts of the characters, without dialogue. Twists create an unexpectedly propulsive, action plot line. It is a memorable novel.

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

Waking Lions
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Little, Brown, and Company
$9.99 paperback
ISBN: 9780316395403

Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss and the Fight for Trans Equality

"I'm twenty-four, transgender, and a widow...that's a lot for someone in this society to handle." Sarah McBride

In Tomorrow Will Be Different, Sarah McBride shares her personal story as inspiration and to put a face on what it is to be transgender.

Imagine being unable to go into a public restroom in North Carolina without breaking the law. Imagine being unable to change your sex on your state ID, or being unable to keep a job or find housing. Imagine being vilified, ostracized, beaten up, an object of fear.

Nearly fifty years ago my husband 's father's best friend disowned his son when he became a woman. Over the years I heard snippets of the story, how as a child their son loved to play dolls and dress up with his older sisters, how blame was assigned for causing their son's 'problem', the resulting divorce and alienation.

In the 1990s my husband was approached by a teen from his church, an unhappy and angry child. Some thought she was presenting 'butch' because she was not conventionally pretty, assuming she was a 'pretend lesbian'. My husband affirmed her, but the support she needed from the community was not there. She changed her name and moved away. Today I know he was transgender, and I see on his Facebook page a happy, confident, burly guy with a successful career and a sparkle in his eye. I am so happy for him.

I wanted to read Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride because I had seen her on television and knew she was an intelligent and lovely person. And I wanted to better understand her experience and the work toward equality for all persons.

The book's preface by Joe Biden is a must read. I recently read his Promise Me, Dad and I heard the same compassion and love in this preface.

McBride was fascinated by American politics since childhood. Meeting Joe Biden was an unforgettable moment. She interned on Beau Biden's first race. McBride was fifteen when she introduced Jack Markell at the launch for his 2006 race for reelection as state treasurer, and at age eighteen when he ran for governor.

During these years, McBride outwardly conformed to the gender role socially acceptable, presenting masculine and even dating. She did not want to let anyone down. But she was miserable.

McBride ran for student president at college to great success and was very popular and led a push to end gender exclusive housing.  In her junior year, with great trepidation, McBride announced being transsexual.

She describes the scene when she came out to her family, her mother in tears. McBride had a gay brother, and her other brother tried to break the ice by announcing, "I'm heterosexual." In a heartwarming scene, McBride tells her fraternity brothers, who enveloped her in an embrace. Beau Biden called her to offer his love and support, as did Joe Biden. The Biden family confirmed her belief that there are still good people in politics.

McBride repeats how lucky and privileged she has been, knowing that most trans persons lack a support system and her advantages. Throughout the book, she shares the devastating statistics behind the transgender experience: high rates of suicide; verbal harassment and physical assault in public restrooms; legal exemptions that allow discrimination; inability to find housing or keep a job.

McBride met the love of her life, Andy, who was a few years older and also trans. Tragedy struck when Andy was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery and treatment with McBride providing care and support.

I can't imagine the burden of being twenty-three and watching your beloved struggle with a terminal illness. Both my parents died of cancer, and I was at my Dad's side in the hospital for over two months. My heart broke as I read McBride's story.

Trans rights advanced under President Obama,  then 2016 saw the election of President Trump and Vice President Pence. The gains for equality under the law are being threatened. But McBride has found hope in the young people of our country, those who have been accepted as children for who they are, and who assume that the doors are open to them.

I pray it is so.

I received a free ebook from First to Read in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality
Sarah McBride

Jingle Bell Jack, a 1955 Yo-Yo Clown Doll

I remember Ding Dong School on television. And I remember owning this book when I was a girl. What I don't remember is ever making or having a yo-yo doll. Every girl had a yo-yo doll and a sock monkey, and I wanted them, too.

This Rand McNally book dates from 1955. It tells the story of a girl who loved the circus clown she had seen, who had been wearing bells. Her mother shows the girl how to make her own circus clown, a yo-yo doll with bells.

Yo-yos are very simple to make. Circles are cut from fabric scraps. A basting thread is sewn along the edge so that when the thread is drawn the fabric forms a circle.

I found a tutorial online at
http://sunshinescreations.vintagethreads.com/2006/10/how-to-make-yo-yo-friend.html

The yo-yo circles are sewn together with a heavier thread to make the arms and legs of the doll.

 At the end of each unit is a bell. The head, collar, and a hat is added.

 The girl has her own clown with bells, Jingle Bell Jack.

A quick search online shows various ways of making the clown's face. In the book, the girl uses crayons to add the features. Many dolls have premade plastic faces. The tutorial shows how to make the head with fabric.

I found this copy of Jingle Bell Jack at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market from Acron Books. The owner, Jim Deak, told me a story about Miss Frances--Dr. Frances R. Horwich--whose program I watched as a preschooler. The Ding Dong School program was never expected to succeed, and when it took off Miss Frances was asked to turn it into an hour-long show. She said children should not be watching that much television! Then she was pressured to allow advertising for a BB gun, which she declined to do. She resigned over this issue, but her resignation was not accepted.

Miss Frances paved the way for children's television programming that was educational while considering the needs of children, including Mr. Rogers.

You can see an episode of Ding Dong School in which Miss Frances turns a handkerchief into a bunny on Youtube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad6UxxL4yi8

***See the Jingle Bell Jack I later found at a flea market! I finally have my doll!
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/03/jingle-bell-jack-comes-to-my-house.html

First Ladies of the Republic: Creating a Democratic Style

I began reading about the First Ladies while designing my quilt Remember the Ladies. I have read many biographies and general books on these amazing women.

The wives of our presidents are not elected. They have no job description. Some come to the White House unwillingly, although some did push their spouse into office. They face the deepest public scrutiny and share with their husbands both fame and criticism.

The first First Ladies had the hardest (unpaid) job: everything about the office of the presidency had to be invented. And a lot of it fell on the ladies, for they handled the social networking. If the president and his lady appeared to ape European courtly traditions they were accused of being monarchists and anti-Democratic. But we could not appear to be backwoods rubes to the foreign ambassadors, either.

First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role by Jeanne E. Abrams shows how these women responded to the challenge of creating a Democratic social style for the presidency.

Martha and George Washington were revered figures when George became the first president. Don't think they were exempt from criticism! The political in-fighting and party politics started up right away. Like many presidential couples, the Washington's personalities balanced each other. George could be stiff, but Martha was beloved by everyone, America's sweetheart-- "the mother of our country."

As the wife of the first Vice President, Abigail Adams became very close to Martha. When John Adams became president, Abigail followed Martha's pared-down, understated formality. Abigail was a very different personality, of the highest intelligence and not afraid to speak her mind. She was an important sounding board for John. Frail health plagued her and when her health required her to retire to the Adam's home in Quincy, John sorely missed her counsel.

Thomas Jefferson's wife had tragically died during the war after she fled from their plantation shortly after giving birth. His daughter Patsy sometimes played hostess. Sometimes his Secretary of State's wife Dolley Madison stepped in. Jefferson downplayed his elegant and sophisticated taste with a forceful display of anti-elitism, welcoming guests in bedroom slippers.

With the intellectual James Madison's election, his younger wife Dolley Madison took the capital by storm. A brilliant extrovert with a high social IQ, she notched the style up a few ratchets. Her 'squeezes' included all of Washington, bringing together political enemies, men and women. Dolley had high style, refined and dignified but with real bling. Well, she wore pearls instead of diamonds, so we give her that. When Dolley died her funeral rivaled that of George Washington's!

Each woman advanced the role of First Lady, politically for their influence on the president and their ability to tweak the granting of political office, and by promoting causes. All three valued the traditional role of women but also understood that it was women who determined social manners.

This book is a nice introduction to these ladies and their influence.

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

First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role
by Jeanne E. Abrams
NYU Press
Pub Date: 06 Mar 2018
ISBN: 9781479886531
Hardcover $28.95

Remember the Ladies: The President's Wives in Redwork
by Nancy A. Bekofske

Remember the Ladies from Quilts Presidential and Patriotic
by Susan Reich

Flower Handkerchiefs for Spring

While we are eagerly waiting for spring to come to Michigan, we are planning to expand our flower garden. The daffodils are coming up already. The tulips were all eaten by the squirrels, but we will soon see the crocus and hyacinth sprouting.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some of the floral handkerchiefs from my collection.

This caladium isn't a flower but the colors are amazing!

 After the flowers bloom, the butterflies will come.

I can't wait until we can enjoy the lovely flowers of summer!

Works in Progress and Books On the Table

I received two new review books in the mail today. From Blogging for Books, my choice was Patriot Number One American Dreams in Chinatown by Lauren Hilgers. A Goodreads friend's review prompted my interest in this book about a family of Chinese immigrants.

I won Gayle Forman's I Have Lost My Way from Bookish. I read an excerpt and wrote an impression review to enter to win. This will be my first read by this author.

I used a discount coupon from Simon and Schuster to purchase Janesville by Amy Goldstein. It is a study of the effect on the community after the closing of a GM plant.

I am reading too many books right now:

• An American Quilt by Rachel May, the secret history behind a hexagon 1830s quilt from Edelweiss
• Fun scrap quilt patterns in Oh, Scrap by Lissa Alexander, from Edelweiss
• Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride, the story of transgender rights, from NetGalley
• Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris, about a family's forgotten Jewish diaspora roots dating to the 16th c, from NetGalley
• Erica Robuck's satire #Hockeystrong, a Kindle purchase
• A new translation of The Canterbury Tales, a Goodreads win
• High Noon in Hollywood by Warren Adler, an ebook from the publisher

On my TBR NetGalley shelf:

• Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
• The River by Starlight by Ellen Notbohm
• Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper whose 2015 novel Etta and Otto and Russell and James was a favorite of mine
• The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
• Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
• Limelight by Amy Poeppel

And lots of reviews are scheduled for the coming months:

• First Ladies of the Republic by Jeanne E. Abrams considers how the early president's wives created their role
• Laura & Emma by Kate Greathead--a funny comedy of manners novel on mothers and daughters
• The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman--I loved this book about the world of art 
• The Italian Party by Christina Lynch--American newlyweds with secrets, set in 1950s Italy
• Whistler's Mother delves into the personal life of the woman behind the iconic painting
• Southern Quilts by Mary Kerr explores the rich heritage of Southern quiltings
• Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech
• The Opposite of Hate by Sally Kohn--a probing look at why we hate and how to overcome it
• After Anna by Lisa Scottoline, an engaging courtroom drama
• West by Carys Davies, a lyrical historical fiction novel
• The Right To Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Cloudier--fighting to preserve the Inuit culture
• Journeys: An American Story, 73 essays on the immigrant experience 
• The amazing civil rights leader Pauli Murray's autobiography
• Circe by Madeline Miller--the Greek myths are revisited in a mesmerizing novel

I made new yellow curtains for the bedroom, so of course, I need to make a matching quilt. The curtain fabric is a rose print in yellow and gray. I decided to make a rose sampler applique quilt in the same colors. Here are the blocks I have finished already.

What are you working on? What books are on your table?

Austen Finishes

This month I finished my Austen Family Album quilt, a sampler pattern of the month offered by Barbara Brackman. I took me two winters to hand quilt it! It was too big and warm to quilt in summer.

On the same day, I also finished Jane Austen the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly.

Brackman's quilt block patterns represented members of Jane Austen's family, her friends, and her society. There was a Flickr group where quilters could share their versions of the blocks. Everyone had such brilliant interpretations. And I made several friends in the group.

Here are some of the finished blocks. I had a stack of MODA fabrics in deep red, a gray-green, cream, and pale gray. I added a few other fabrics from my stash.

 I added some applique bits to the block above.

 And fussy cut now and then, like the corner pieces in the star block above.

Austen Family Album by Nancy A. Bekofske

I did not use all of the blocks shared by Brackman, but added my own touch with silhouettes of the Austen family, made in reverse applique. I embroidered the name of the person each block represented.

The Jane Austen silhouette I used is used on the cover of Kelly's book.

Kelly shakes our view of Jane up...a lot! Jane's younger family members grew up in the Victorian Age and tweaked Jane's image to fit the ideal of a pious, quiet, unassuming, Christian woman.

Through a deep reading of Jane's novels, Kelly concluded that Jane was a secret radical whose books addressed issues that her first readers would have recognized: slavery, poverty, enclosure, war, feminism, changing societal values, the hypocrisy of the church.

One might think it is a matter of seeing what one wants to see in a book, but I will warn you that Kelly builds her case based on the texts and family letters and a thorough knowledge of Austen's life, time, and place.

In Northanger Abbey, published after Austen's death and years too late for the audience it was intended for--readers who were well versed in the Gothic novel of the 1790s--Kelly sees "The Anxieties of Common Life."

"The Age of Brass" finds Kelly's reading of Sense and Sensibility as a book about "property and inheritance--about greed and the terrible, selfish things that families do to each other for the sake of money."

In Pride and Prejudice, that sparkling and delightful novel so beloved today, Kelly finds a "revolutionary fairy tale, a fantasy of how, with reform, with radical thinking, society can be safely remodeled" without the revolution that had wracked France.

Mansfield Park is about "The Chain and the Cross," referring to Fanny's amber cross from her brother and the chain gifted her by her cousin Edmund. (Inspired by Austen's own amber cross from her sailor brother.) It also refers to British wealth from slave plantations in the Caribbean and how the Christian church profited from them.

Enclosure was the turning of common lands into privately held lands for use by the rich only. "Gruel" is Kelly's chapter on Emma, in which Jane references how wealth was concentrated into the hands of a few while workers starved, unable to afford British wheat. The Corn Laws kept the price artificially kept high; good for farmers and disastrous for the working poor.

The Lyme cliffs hold a treasure chest of fossils. The characters in Persuasion make a visit to Lyme where a series of events change their lives. "Decline and Fall" places the novel in perspective of Jane's personal life and the alteration in British society. The book takes place in a brief moment of peace with France, just before Napoleon escapes from Elba.

After reading this book, you will realize that Jane is not the person you thought you knew.

Austen Family Album by Nancy A. Bekofske, 2018