The Christmas Boutique by Jennifer Chiaverini
I thought I'd read most of the books in Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilt series. I'm pretty sure I read all of the first seven, even though some of those were done before I started keeping track of my reading in LibraryThing. However, I had a big gap in the middle of the series (numbers 11-15), and had also missed some of the more recent ones. This book is #21 in the series, although chronologically, the events in it happen after those in book #15, The Quilter's Holiday (one I haven't read).
The last book in the series that I read before this one was #20, The Giving Quilt, in December 2012. Despite a gap of over 11 years (Chiaverini had also taken a break - of seven years - between publishing that one and this one), I remembered the main characters from the series, and the book stood alone well.
The premise of the novel is that Elm Creek Manor, business home for the Elm Creek Quilters (and literal home for some of them), agrees to host a fundraising holiday boutique when the church in the nearby town that normally hosts it is unable to do so. Each chapter in the book (except the last) is told from the point of view of a different Elm Creek Quilter - Sylvia, Gretchen, Sarah, Agnes, Gwen, and Diane - as well as a new character, Mary Beth, a next-door neighbor to (and rival of the irritating) Diane.
Much of the book retells stories told in earlier books, but this didn't bother me, since it had been so long since I'd read another book in the series. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, I still learned something new about each character. Agnes' story (that filled in what happened after the death of her first husband, Sylvia's brother) was especially interesting. Mary Beth was an intriguing new character, and I'd like to see her included in any future books in this series. As always, I wished there'd been illustrations of some of the quilts and patterns described.
The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber
This month, I was finally able to read Ann Weisgarber's first book. Set mostly in the Badlands of South Dakota in 1917, there are also flashbacks to Chicago in 1903. Rachel Reeves is a black cook in the boardinghouse run by Mrs. Elizabeth Dupree for black men working in Chicago slaughterhouses. While there, she meets Mrs. Dupree's son Isaac, a former Buffalo Soldier who wants to homestead in South Dakota - something blacks could do after 1862. He and Rachel strike a bargain - if she files a homestead claim as a single woman, but gives the land to him, he'll marry her, and stay married at least a year.
Fourteen years later in 1917, they're still married, living in a cabin in the Badlands (after the first twelve years in a four-room dugout), with five children, two more in the grave, and one more in the womb. The book opens in the midst of a drought, with one of the smaller children being lowered down into a well to scoop up water that the bucket can't draw up. Not long after, a storm brings torrential rains and mud, and in trying to rescue their milk cow, Rachel slips and falls on her pregnant belly. She's not sure if the baby is okay.
Money is scarce, partly because Isaac uses every extra bit of they get to acquire more land, from other homesteaders giving up on theirs. As their not-close-by neighbors slowly move away, Rachel even reaches out to some Native American women - who shun her when they learn her husband was a Buffalo Soldier.
As winter approaches (near the end of the book), they have 2500 acres, but barely enough food to make it through the winter - and Isaac plans to leave his pregnant wife and all the children alone while he goes to work in the mines to earn money to buy more land. Rachel is worried about her family back in Chicago - she has learned her brother died in race riots in East St. Louis - and she also fears for the future of her children, particularly her oldest daughter. What will she decide to do?
As winter approaches (near the end of the book), they have 2500 acres, but barely enough food to make it through the winter - and Isaac plans to leave his pregnant wife and all the children alone while he goes to work in the mines to earn money to buy more land. Rachel is worried about her family back in Chicago - she has learned her brother died in race riots in East St. Louis - and she also fears for the future of her children, particularly her oldest daughter. What will she decide to do?
Weisgarber was inspired to write the book by vacations at Badlands National Park, and visits to nearby museums, one on prairie homesteading, and another where she "saw a photograph of an unnamed African American woman sitting in front of a dugout....she was alone.... I couldn’t stop thinking about her, and I started to imagine her story."
Weisgarber worked various historic persons and real incidents into her story. Her website includes photographs and other background for the book and its setting and characters.
As in Weisgarber's other two books, The Promise and The Glovemaker, the setting almost becomes another character in the story. The reader can feel the effects of the weather and the landscape, as well as the time period, just as Rachel and her family do. I definitely recommend this novel.
Weisgarber worked various historic persons and real incidents into her story. Her website includes photographs and other background for the book and its setting and characters.
As in Weisgarber's other two books, The Promise and The Glovemaker, the setting almost becomes another character in the story. The reader can feel the effects of the weather and the landscape, as well as the time period, just as Rachel and her family do. I definitely recommend this novel.
Rain Breaks No Bones by Barbara J. Taylor
This book, set in 1955 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is the third in Barbara J. Taylor's Scranton Trilogy. Although it stands alone just fine, now that I've finished it, I want to read the first two books (set in 1913 and the 1930s respectively), and wouldn't mind seeing more in the series (maybe the next set in the 1970s?), to find out what happens with the characters in this book.
The story revolves around three generations of Morgan women - 50-year-old Violet, her mother Grace, and her turning-25-year-old daughter Daisy. Violet and Grace still mourn "Our Daisy," Violet's year-older sister who died back in 1913, in an accident many blamed on Violet. Violet also suffered in the 1930s when she brought younger sister Lily's baby home from an unwed mothers' home, pretending it was hers, and losing her long-time boyfriend Stanley in the process.
Daughter Daisy falls in love with a black musician named Johnny, who rents a room from Zethray (thanks to The Green-Book). Zethray can hear the dead when they speak - and "Our Daisy" is speaking to her a lot. Unfortunately, her mother, Ruth, whose 1916 suicide opens the book, does not. Grace also talks to her long-dead husband, Owen. This may all sound unrelated, but Taylor ties together these and other characters beautifully.
The title comes from a Welsh saying that "means a little discomfort never hurt anybody," as explained by Daisy about halfway through the book (page 164). Themes in the book of grief, guilt, and prejudice all cause discomfort. Rain plays a big part in the climax of the book, which is based on a real-life event.
I loved the characters and the setting in the book. The author grew up in Scranton, and although I have never been there, I felt like I had, based on her descriptions. I liked how she made 1955 come alive with references to things such as green stamps. Although I was born a few years after 1955, I remember buying some small appliances with books of trading stamps in the early 1980s.
I'd definitely recommend this book. I have no doubt I can recommend the whole trilogy, too.
All the Animals Were Sleeping by Clare Helen Welsh, illustrated by Jenny Løvlie
This lovely picture book can be used both as a bedtime story and as narrative nonfiction about animals in the Serengeti. While returning to its burrow at evening, a mongoose passes groups of eight other types of animals settling down to sleep. Clare Helen Walsh's text describes how each animal sleeps, accompanied by Jenny Løvlie's lush illustrations on a double-page spread. Each spread ends with a repetition of the book's title. The book ends with three pages of additional facts about the nine animals in the story. Although I had trouble reading the text on some of the pages (the contrast between the text color and the background color was not high enough for my 67-year-old eyes), I'd recommend this book.
This lovely picture book can be used both as a bedtime story and as narrative nonfiction about animals in the Serengeti. While returning to its burrow at evening, a mongoose passes groups of eight other types of animals settling down to sleep. Clare Helen Walsh's text describes how each animal sleeps, accompanied by Jenny Løvlie's lush illustrations on a double-page spread. Each spread ends with a repetition of the book's title. The book ends with three pages of additional facts about the nine animals in the story. Although I had trouble reading the text on some of the pages (the contrast between the text color and the background color was not high enough for my 67-year-old eyes), I'd recommend this book.
