Friday, June 12, 2020

Fifty Years

No photo description available.
our school newspaper, June 1970

Fifty years ago today, I graduated from Royal Oak Kimball High School. Our class reunion was cancelled due to covid-19 so a friend suggested we post photographs and memories on our class Facebook page.

I culled through my scrapbooks, mementos, school newspapers, and photographs to share.

Our Senior Class Trip
Classmates talked about the Senior Prom (which I did not attend), the senior float, school play, and our class trip.

We remembered people no longer with us, old girlfriends and boyfriends, good times.
My graduation photos. Lower left with our
exchange student from Finland, lower right
with my brother
Some admitted they couldn't participate in the class events because they worked to earn money for college, or were shy outsiders, or never found their place in the social network.

One girl, a fellow school paper staffer, wrote about the social and political conflicts that dominate her memories of 1966-1970.

My family moved after I had completed fifth grade. I was shy and had trouble assimilating into sixth grade, the highest class in my new elementary school. All the cliques had been formed. I had always had a best friend instead of belonging to a group.

I had sung in the school choir since Third Grade, taken piano lessons, and liked classical and musicals but disdained the Beatles. I was a big reader, bringing home classic children's literature I found in the school library filled with early 19th c books.

I still rejected the cool teen things in junior high, said I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, reading Jane Eyre and The Count of Monte Cristo. I liked to draw and make up stories. I wouldn't go to the school dances.

As a high school freshman, I was lonely and wanted to fit in. A friend took me up as a hobby and helped me change. I was silly, boy crazy. I listened to Simon and Garfunkel. I still played my classical music on the piano and read Les Miserables, but had expanded.

We didn't have a fancy house or a lot of money. Mom had serious health issues that sometimes left her bedridden or hospitalized.

I became totally enmeshed in high school activities, still an observer, but also finally participating. Four years of choir, from Girl's Choir to A Capella, three years of journalism, hosting an exchange student, attending all the plays and concerts, kept me busy. I read all the poetry books in the school library, wrote poetry, published some poems in the school newspaper. And every night I wrote about my day in a journal.
local moratorium protest in our school newspaper

I wanted to just be able to grow up, figure it all out, but the world infringed, as it does for every generation.

The assassination of Martin Luther King in the school newspaper
The Vietnam War, civil rights, 'generation gap', Detroit Rebellion, assassinations, the political activism going on, the body counts--it all impacted my generation. So much so, that in later years I hated to think about those teen days, it was too sad and conflicted. I even avoided the music.

Every generation has its inherited ills. Fifty years later, I feel for the 2020 graduates and the world they are facing. A pandemic threatens their economic, educational, and social future. The country is divided socially and politically, in a fight for democracy and freedom and equality being waged. Again. Still.

So much has changed in fifty years. And yet, so little.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Night.Sleep.Death.The Stars. by Joyce Carol Oates

An 800 page book doesn't scare me. Some of my favorite books are whoppers.

The number of pages are irrelevant when one becomes immersed in detailed characters, propelled by foreshadowing through their actions and weaknesses, touched by universal truths of human nature.

Oates latest novel explores the impact of death on a family.
I was sucked into the story, eagerly looking forward to reading and learning more about these characters. To discover if I was right about what would come.

Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. begins with the sudden death of a family patriarch. Whitey stopped to investigate what appeared, and was, a case of police profiling and brutality. He was their next victim. He did not survive.

Whitey was 67---my age. He was his wife Jessalyn's reason for existence, her lodestone; he defined her. In deep shock, she plummets into a private despair hidden behind her self-effacing thoughtfulness for others.

The children, as children do, decide what must be done, how their mother should 'be', and when her actions do not conform with expectations, they reel off into obsessions and fears and anger.

The family balance is thrown off. The children carry their individual burdens. Some believed they were 'favorite' sons or daughters, while others strove to gain their father's approval. One had given up trying.

After many months, a man enters Jessalyn's life who takes her under his care. She rejects his attentions in horror, but allows him to slowly change her, alter her, and bring her back into the land of the living.

The children are incensed, complain to each other, demand someone do something. Mom has been acting incorrectly. Mom has chosen the wrong man. Mom has a feral cat in the house.

Oh, I have seen this! The children who resent the second spouse. I myself scared off a woman who had set her sights on my newly widowed father! Yes, I did!

I was increasingly horrified as the novel got darker and darker, delving into the black hearts of these children. They are murderers and self-abusers and suicidal misfits and long-suffering, angry wives.

Each sibling must find their way out of their despair and illness. I expected Jessalyn to change into a 'modern heroine', evolving into her own woman. To leave passivity behind. She finds happiness, but not growth.

This story disturbed my sleep. It was an emotional journey.

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

Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
by Joyce Carol Oates
HarperCollins Publishers/ Ecco
Publication Date June, 9 2020 
ISBN: 9780062797582
hardcover $35.00 (USD)
from the publisher: 
The bonds of family are tested in the wake of a profound tragedy, providing a look at the darker side of our society by one of our most enduringly popular and important writers.
Night Sleep Death The Stars is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: when a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all. 
Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s bestselling We Were the Mulvaneys.

Sunday, June 7, 2020

An Interview with Ashley Sweeney Author of Answer Creek

I am thrilled to share an essay from Ashley Sweeney, author of Answer Creek, a novel about a woman's trip with the Donner Party.

In my review of Answer Creek (found here), I wrote, "I was swept into the novel by the beautiful, descriptive writing. Ada is a strong, appealing character who is easy to relate to. The novel gains momentum, from the early beauty of the plains and the impressive natural formations of the West to the privations and life-threatening brutality of a mountain winter. It was a joy to read."


I asked if Sweeney would write about her novel's timeless theme and message.

***

Navigating Today’s Challenges through the Lens of the Donner Party
by Ashley E. Sweeney

Little did I know when I first started researching the Donner Party four years ago that my newest novel, Answer Creek, would launch smack in the middle of a pandemic with a strict shelter in place order. No bookstore events. No library readings. No live book clubs.

Aside from the scramble to reschedule events and learn creative ways to reach the reading public, the lessons I learned—and continue to learn—from this particular narrative resonate in this Time of Coronavirus.

Many have asked why I chose to tackle one the most difficult and misunderstood narratives in American history, the 1846 ill-fated Donner-Reed westward diaspora remembered in history for one thing only: cannibalism. Rinker Buck, in his 2015 Oregon Trail: A New American Journey, calls the Donner Party “a drama of the mundane gone madly wrong.” That was my challenge. Instead of focusing on sensational and salacious details of the Donner Party saga, I concentrated on the emigrants’ collective humanity on their misguided and horrendous journey through the lens of my protagonist, 19-year-old Ada Weeks.

Nineteenth century journalist Francis Parkman said, “Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than research.” With that in mind, I immersed myself with what Parkman calls “the life and spirit of the times” by spending a month traversing more than 2,000 miles along the Oregon-California Trail from Nebraska to California. I visited countless museums, historical markers, historical societies, newspaper offices, libraries, and bookstores to ferret out information on 19th century customs, euphemisms, transportation, animal husbandry, firearms, and cuisine (if you call salt pork and beans cuisine). But I did not take the trip for my own means and ends. I needed to walk in Ada’s footsteps and ask myself at every pivotal juncture and circumstance: What Would Ada Do?

Standing in the footsteps (and original wagon ruts) of overland travelers is something akin to the sacred. On more than one occasion, my breath caught in my throat. The most memorable experience was at a remote spot off-road near South Pass, Wyoming, where I turned 360 degrees on that treeless steppe at 7,000 feet to see nothing my protagonist would not have seen 175 years ago, no roads or fence posts or buildings—just earth and sky. Ada might as well have been standing next to me kicking at the brown grass and rustling up snakes.

And there were many other remarkable moments. Taking an authentic covered wagon ride. Standing at the base of Donner Hill and wondering how hundreds of cattle and mules and horses—and wagons—could possibly crest such a steep incline. Walking portions of the Great Salt Desert in Utah. And ending at Donner Memorial State Park in Truckee, California, where the historical portion of the narrative ends. Ada was with me the whole time, whispering, nudging, coloring my experience.

Answer Creek is a fresh re-telling of a calamitous mid-19th century disaster, but it’s particularly resonant in this time of COVID-19. Reflect that the Donner Party missed the window to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains by one day due to blizzard conditions and were forced to winter over near present-day Reno, Nevada for 124 days living in appalling conditions with no food. This, after a fateful decision to take an untraveled “shortcut” that put them a month behind on the trail. At Truckee Lake, emigrants subsisted on shoe leather, blankets, and book covers before some of the entourage felt they had no other option but to eat their dead in order to survive (only 48 of the original 91 members of the entourage lived to reach their final destination near Sacramento, California).

Along the way, Ada doesn’t miss an opportunity to help others, even if she is ill equipped or inconvenienced. And through the ordeal, she evolves from a victim to become an empowered woman living on her own in the wilds of California. Far from perfect, she challenges herself to become a better version of herself because of it.

We may be inconvenienced and frustrated—and legitimately upset— navigating life through this pandemic. Quarantining and social distancing are riddled with issues. Many of us can’t work or go to school. We can’t attend worship or shop. It’s difficult to get a doctor’s appointment or a haircut. And even libraries are shuttered. I don’t diminish the tolls of this pandemic: physical, mental, emotional, and financial. They have been—and continue to be—grave. And we are reminded daily of the many fellow and sister citizens who have lost their lives.

But for the vast majority of us, the shelter in place order has been an inconvenience—nothing more. When we put it in perspective, we are not forced to eat our clothing and shoes and bedding—let alone each other—to survive. There have been snippets of joy during the pandemic as well: Zoom choral concerts, creative art projects, more time for gardening and reading. It’s as if we’ve collectively hit the “pause” button to reorganize, recalibrate, rethink.

It’s also been an opportunity to dig deeper into our own psyches, something we are often reluctant to do (for me, it was the harsh realization that I would not have not survived the Donner-Reed journey as Ada did).

It’s also brought to the forefront two important questions as resonant today as in 1846:

  • What are we doing to ease the suffering of others during this time?
  • How can our reaction to any given situation evolve from victimhood to empowerment and, more importantly, who do we want to become as a result?

I love when fiction transcends reality to confront us and convict us and change us.

Ashley E. Sweeney is the 2017 winner of the Nancy Pearl Book Award for her debut novel, Eliza Waite. Answer Creek is her second novel and she is at work on a third. Sweeney lives in the Pacific Northwest and Tucson, Arizona. 
Visit Sweeney's website
https://ashleysweeneyauthor.com/

Answer Creek
by Ashley E. Sweeney
She Writes Press
Pub Date 19 May 2020
ISBN: 9781631528446
paperback $16.95 (USD)

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Covid-19 Life: Lockdown to End; TBR; Book Suggestions

Two springs ago I woke up and thought, I want a yellow bedroom. I decided to find yellow fabric for curtains and a quilt.

I found the fabric online. I decided to hand applique rose blocks.
 This late winter a local woman machine quilted it.

And then I choice a neutral paint color because I will switch quilts around. This week we painted the bedroom and rearranged the room. All the nail holes were spackled and sanded. It's a fresh start!
Michigan is reopening, with preventive measures. I am being deluged with notices that all my cancelled doctor appointments can be rescheduled. Although the 'curve has been flattened,' it is hard to go back to 'normal' after almost four months of staying home and safe.

But we are going to visit our son and his girl and their critters! We will visit outdoors. Recently they both tested negative. Since we last saw Sunny she has grown up and was spade.

Hazel and Sunny share a quiet moment
I love my new Bernina 750 QE sewing machine! It is so easy! So quiet! I am ready now to learn how to machine quilt.

Our weekly quilt group meets at the community center which is still closed. This week our oldest member and founder suffered a stroke. Such sad news when we must be apart.

I have completed 78 books so far this year.

New to my egalley TBR shelf:
  • The Violence Inside Us by Senator Chris Murphy
  • Pew by Catherine Lacey, a novel 
I won This I Know from Eldonna Edwards who hosted the Facebook American Historical Fiction group.

I won Hieroglyphics by Jill McCorkle from LibraryThing.

I won the egalley Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy from the publisher.

Reading now:
  • The Splendid and the Vile by Eric Larson, a Goodreads win
  • Democracy, If We Can Keep It, a history of the American Civil Liberties Union, from NetGalley
  • Estelle by Linda Steward Henley

I have been receiving numerous invitations to read galleys and participate in blog tours. More than I can take on as I have committed to over twenty books already!

I accepted two from Algonquin that are coming up: Miracle Country by Kendra Atleework and The Lives of Edie Pritchard by Larry Watson. Both are fantastic reads. I signed up for one more and am waiting to hear back.

These past days have been so disturbing with images of police violence, starting with George Floyd. But there have been snippets of good, too, and hope for change.

All over social media book publishers and writers have stood up for social justice and an end to systemic racism.

Reading lists are being shared. Here are books I have reviewed over the years. Click on the titles to access my review.

Nonfiction

I Can't Breathe by Matt Taibbi

Detroit 1967 : Origins, Impacts, Legacies by Thomas J. Sugrue, Joel Stone, et. al.

The Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle

BrokeHardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises  by Jodie Adams Kirshner

Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness by Jennifer Berry Hawes

One Mississippi, Two Mississippi: Murder, Methodists, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in Neshoba County by Carol V. R. George

TruevineTwo Brothers, A Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South: by Beth Macy

Quilt Related:

An American Quilt by Rachel May

And Still We Rise by Carolyn L. Mazloomi

Visioning Human Rights in the New Millennium: Quilting the World’s Conscience by Carolyn L. Mazloomi

Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs

Mighty Justice by Dovey Johnson Roundtree

My Live My Love My Legacy by Coretta Scott King with Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds

Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage
by Pauli Murray

Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Janet Dewart Bell

Just Another Southern Town: Mary Church Terrill and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Nation's Capital by Joan Quigley

Odetta by Ian Zach

Fannie Lou Hamer: America's Freedom Fighting Woman
by Maegan Parker Brooks

Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin

Redlined by Linda Gratz

Convicted: A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship by Jameel McGee and Andrew Collins with Mark Tabb

Sing For Your Life by Daniel Bergner

Reading With Patrick by Michele Kuo

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

The World According to Fannie Davis by Bridgett M. Davis

The $500 House in Detroit Drew Philp

Daisy Turner's Kin: An African American Family Saga by Jane C. Beck

His Eye is On the Sparrow by Ethel Waters

Fiction
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

The Turner House by Angela Flournoy

The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop

A Boy in His Winter by Norman Lock

New Boy by Tracey Chevalier

We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels

Children's Books

The Colored Car by Jean Alicia Elster

The Story of Harriet Tubman by Christine Platt

Thursday, June 4, 2020

The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move by Sonia Shah


Our teenage son volunteered at a local nature center every summer. One of the activities the counselors in training participated in was pulling up Purple Loosestrife. It is an considered invasive species that thrives along Michigan's lakesides.

So, I was shocked to read that Canadian researchers concluded "there is certainly no evidence that purple loosestrife 'kills wetlands' or 'creates biological deserts'!"

Investigative journalist Sonia Shah's book The Next Great Migration is filled with such iconoclastic insights, smashing prevalent notions contending that ecosystems were meant to be unchanging, pristine, and unadulterated.

Instead, she systematically argues that no place on Earth has remained untouched by the migration of species. Including human migration.

Shah takes readers through the entire history of the migration of species and the ideas humans have held about migration. Bad science and ingrained beliefs have lead to false assumptions that impact the political landscape to this very day. Most disturbing is the rise of Eugenics and categorization of human groups to justify our fearful reaction to newcomers.

Building walls, Shah contends, cannot stop or solve the reality of migrating human populations. She writes, "Over the long history of life on earth, its (migrations) benefits have outweighed its costs." Embracing migrants can be a solution to the problems we face.

Shah's book was an engrossing read that shed light on how we 'got to here'.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
from the publisher: 
A prize-winning journalist upends our centuries-long assumptions about migration through science, history, and reporting--predicting its lifesaving power in the face of climate change. 
The news today is full of stories of dislocated people on the move. Wild species, too, are escaping warming seas and desiccated lands, creeping, swimming, and flying in a mass exodus from their past habitats. News media presents this scrambling of the planet's migration patterns as unprecedented, provoking fears of the spread of disease and conflict and waves of anxiety across the Western world. On both sides of the Atlantic, experts issue alarmed predictions of millions of invading aliens, unstoppable as an advancing tsunami, and countries respond by electing anti-immigration leaders who slam closed borders that were historically porous. 
But the science and history of migration in animals, plants, and humans tell a different story. Far from being a disruptive behavior to be quelled at any cost, migration is an ancient and lifesaving response to environmental change, a biological imperative as necessary as breathing. Climate changes triggered the first human migrations out of Africa. Falling sea levels allowed our passage across the Bering Sea. Unhampered by barbed wire, migration allowed our ancestors to people the planet, catapulting us into the highest reaches of the Himalayan mountains and the most remote islands of the Pacific, creating and disseminating the biological, cultural, and social diversity that ecosystems and societies depend upon. In other words, migration is not the crisis--it is the solution. 
Conclusively tracking the history of misinformation from the 18th century through today's anti-immigration policies, The Next Great Migration makes the case for a future in which migration is not a source of fear, but of hope.
The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move
by Sonia Shah
Bloomsbury Publishing
Pub Date June 2, 2020 
ISBN: 9781635571974
hardcover $28.00 (USD)

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Jane Austen Embroidery: Regency Patterns Reimagined for Modern Stitchers


Jane Austen Embroidery: Regency Patterns Reimagined for Modern Stitchers is the kind of book I love, blending needlework and literature and history. 

We learn about Austen's material world and society, the women's work that was expected and the fashions it adorned. Plus, actual patterns from the Regency era Lady's Magazine are reproduced to make projects with today's women in mind.

I enjoyed the essays that introduce embroidery in Austen's time and explain the use of embroidery in dress, trims, and objects for the home. 

I learned so much! Like the double entendre' related to 'muff' and how men sometimes carried a muff. 

The authors plumb Austen's prose and letters for references to these objects and the use of needlework. 


The embroidery patterns are delightful and the instructions are detailed and clear. The projects range from purses to tablecloths, a cell phone pouch and tablet sleeve, to a work bag and sewing set. They cover every part of a modern women's life!

When I first read Austen, I thought a 'sprigged muslin' was a printed fabric. Now I know it could have been hand embroidered, white embroidery on sheer muslin.

We quilters are very familiar with the quilt made by Jane Austen and her family. But I learned that a sampler made by Cassandra Austen, Jane's beloved elder sister, is on display at Chawton.

This is a delightful book that will please embroiderers and Austen lovers alike.

I was given a free book by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

from the publisher:
Jane Austen was as skillful with a needle as she was with a pen, and this unique book showcases rare and beautiful embroidery patterns from her era, repurposed into 15 modern sewing projects. Derived from Lady's Magazine (1770–1832), a popular monthly periodical of fashion, fiction, and gossip, the projects consist of embroidered clothes, accessories, and housewares. Designs include an evening bag, a muslin shawl, an apron, a floral napkin set and tablecloth, and other pretty and practical items with timeless appeal.
 These authentic patterns — many of which have not been reprinted in more than 200 years—are enlivened by vivid glimpses into the world of Regency women and their domestic lives. Fascinating historical features, quotes from Austen's letters and novels, enchanting drawings, clear instructions, and inspirational project photography trace the patterns' origins and illustrate their imaginative restoration for modern use. A must-have for every Jane Austen fan, this book is suitable for needleworkers at every level of experience.
Jane Austen Embroidery: Regency Patterns Reimagined for Modern Stitchers
by Jennie Batchelor and Alison Larkin
Dover Publications Original
ISBN 10 0486842878
ISBN 13 9780486842875
soft cover $21.95

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Paris Never leaves You by Ellen Feldman

Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman is a quick reading page-turner filled with conflicted characters who are damaged survivors of WWII.

In occupied Paris, Charlotte runs her family's book shop. A war widow, she struggles to keep her baby daughter Vivi alive. A German army doctor visits the shop and takes an interest in her baby daughter, secreting in food and medicine. Charlotte reluctantly accepts his gifts and trust and friendship grow, putting them both at risk.

Years later, Charlotte's choices come back to haunt her in her new life in New York City where she works for a publishing house. Teenaged Vivi is pressing to know more about her father and heritage. Charlotte's boss, a paraplegic, knows that war destroyed the enlightened man he had been. Charlotte has been trashing the unopened letters from the German doctor.

I appreciated how Feldman incorporated less known WWII history, including the privations of occupied France and post-war retaliation against collaborators. Her handling of the character's moral struggles was of special interest to me. There are several strong romance stories that will appeal to readers of women's fiction.

Surviving the war brings guilt for having survived, their decisions and actions kept secret. Admitting their shameful truths brings healing and the possibility of a new life.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Paris Never Leaves You
by Ellen Feldman
St. Martin's Griffin
Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 9781250622778
PRICE: $16.99 (USD) trade paperback