Rock The Block by Joe Cunningham

I am a year and a half into what I like to call my formal education in Modern Quilting. It started with goign to QuiltCon in 2024, where I experienced the closest thing I could imagine to having my mind blown in a positive way. Sadly, I have had quite a bit of wexperience with tragedy but this was spectacular. I have been doing a modern twist on traditional quilting forever, even though I did not know it. However, using a pattern was pretty much the norm--I do the color and I might change up the layout, but I never considered just winging it.

So this is my second year in and I was ready to try classes outside of those at QuiltCon--I have never packed things for a class there that I have been happy with, and it is hard to recover from that when trying to learn a new thing. So when the Minnesota Quilters Quilt Show list of classes and teachers came up, I was motivated and excited to give it a try. Joe Cunningham is a teacher that quilters in my guild really like, asn so I picked the least "out there" of his design classes and took the plunge. I really had a great day, and even though I didn't totally follow directions, I ended up very happy with what I made. Not to mention that I used a fabric I had had for over a decade and was very pleased with how it performed.

Flesh by David Szalay

I am not sure what to make of this book, but for me there were messages that I did not see written about in reviews. There is general agreement that the book follows the life of István, whom we meet as a psychologically isolated and taciturn teenager and follow until he is a psychologically isolated and taciturn middle-aged man. The thing that is less clear is how did he get that way, how did he fail to emotionally launch? It is true that he is a teen who doesn't quite fit well in his own skin, who doesn't easily fit in well socially, but truly, that describes the majority of teenaged boys. He is initiated sexually by a middle aged neighbor who continues to have sex with him even when it is clear that this is predatory on her part, and as is almost always the case, it ends quite badly. The reverberation of this across his life, in the choices he makes and the way he fails to emotionally connect is never resolved. He is quite lucky in some respects, especially financially, but that is a hollow victory for him. The writing is as spare and flinty as István is. The cumulative effect is one of controlled, austere minimalism, a series of thumbnail sketches that suggest precisely the needed amount of detail. This was a disturbing read for me, the parent of four boys and a mental health professional, as I suspect it will be for many, but very well done.

The Life List (2025)

When my spouse is on call or I am traveling for work I like to watch very light weight movies that he would not much enjoy, and this is just that. The difference is that for the most part these play the same role that reading murder mysteries do for me--something that I can wind down to that don't take too much in the way of attention. This one is quite formaulaic--a 30-something woman, Alex, is playing it safe by working for her mother and living at home while she is taking a pause, including being involved with someone who she is more biding her time with than in love with. It all changes when her mother's cancer comes back. Her mother elects comfort care and when Alex finds out that her mother gave her job to her sister-in-law and leaves her with the task of completing a Life List that she wrote when she was 13 years old in order to hear what she inherits. Yes, we know what will happen from the get go, and yet, it was a very enjoyable journey for me. I am not one to micro-manage, as Alex's mother saw fit, but watching it unfold was quite entertaining for me. There are literally no surprises, which is kind of the point of this genre and I definitely got what I was hoping for from it.

A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry

I have very mixed feelings about this memoir, and the whole thing made me feel old. Reviewers describe this a joyful, and all I could really feel at the end was sad. Neneh Cherry is a mixed race woman who's Swedish mother raised her after her father, from Sierra Leone, left them. Her mother later married jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, And she was raised in Sweden, New York, and London. Her mother her mother, Monika Karlsson, was the constant in her life--she worked as a painter, textile artist, musician and set designer. She was and needed to be thrifty, picking up raw materials at flea markets, creating colorful and fantastical work that augmented folk traditions with cosmic, almost visionary motifs. So her childhood was chaotic, creative, and unpredictable. This book was always going to be interesting even if I didn't love it. Cherry has had a fascinating life – she was brought up by a jazz musician and an artist, has lived in different countries and experienced both real hardship and enduring success. She could just have listed it all and that would have been enough to sell plenty of copies, but she has taken the opportunity to produce something that’s beautifully written – it’s thoughtful, considered and deliberate. She talks about many incredibly tough experiences (a parent with a drug addiction, rape, alcoholism and the grief that led to it, teenage pregnancy, and more), and what’s striking is her tone. She often seems brutally honest, but without ever becoming lurid or undignified. She avoids harsh judgements – even where they’d be pretty understandable – instead acknowledging and describing pain with grace and tenderness, in a way that makes it real and tangible. I am not sure really what to make of it, but it is a remarkable story and reasonably well written.

Codes of the Underground Railroad

There is a fair amount of disagreement about whether quilts were used as codes on the Underground Railroad. The evidence in the affirmative comes from oral history, passed down through families over time. We know that stories that families tell are like a game of Telephone, you hear what you want to hear and disregard the rest, but on the other hand, slave stories were largely oral history. They were not taught to write and they weren't allowed to be literate so while there were those who defied that, the majority could not.

There is agreement that spirituals were important as communication of the railroad to the north and that there were codes within them that helped in planning and navigating your way northward. The North Star pattern at least reflects the importance of the Big Dipper in helping escaped slaves navigate at night. The destination for many slaves was Ohio. Cleveland was known as 'Hope', but was also a crossroads for slvaes traveling from the south and from the west to get passage northward--I know this pattern as Jacob's Ladder, and made it over 35 years ago for my eldest son. I also made him a Monkey Wrench quilt, another symbol stemming from slavery. The blacksmiths on plantations were slaves, and they were the slaves who were afforded more privlege than field workers--it is plausible they were the local communicators. There is so much we don't know.

Connie Martin spoke to my quilt guild, and she tells the stories passed down to her great-grandmother Lizzie of how her family survived the antebellum period through trials and tribulations, and how they used quilts that contained hidden codes and secret messages to assist abolitionists–white and black–to guide enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad to Canada. During this presentation, Connie shared eighteen different quilt patterns in replica quilts and refers to a book her mother, Dr. Clarice Boswell, wrote about their family called Lizzie’s Story: A Slave Family’s Journey to Freedom.

Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner

This was written in the early 1980's which is when I was transitioning from college to medical school and still had little idea of exactly what constraints women had been burdened with for centuries. It is set at or around the turn of the 20th century, judging by the all encompassing focus on Edith getting married. She is a self-reliant author who really doesn't need a spouse to get by, so it is confusing as to why she would marry any man that she does not love, but that does seem to be the expectation. The book opens with Edith contemplating her future with the man she is about to marry, who does not want her to work, and it is becoming abundantly clear to her that he desires to control her. He seemed harmless at first, but the more she hears him talk about their future together, the more she realizes that her career as an author will come to an end if she goes through with it, so she doesn't. She is then forced into temporary exile in the quite conventional Swiss hotel on Lake Geneva after abandoning her fiancé at the altar-- that act has so outraged her friends that they have ordered her away to have a good long think. So she does, and we do so with her as we read this quiet book that reflects on the value of a solitary life and the virtues of reflecting on it. This won the Booker Prize the year it came out, so it resonated with the committee, and it is well written, a hallmark of that prize, where the writing is paramount, valued over the story and the ending often.

The Quilters (2024)

This short documentary was short listed for the Oscars in 2025, but it did not make the final cut. I love the short list though, because many of the documentaries are as good if not occasionally better (in my opinion) than what makes it to the nomination phase, and this is one such example. It is not because it is about quilting and that I am a quilter--it is about finding purpose in a place where there isn't much of that. The quilters are in prison, many of them for decades, and the quilts they make are for children in foster care--which is a place many of them are familiar with. The fabric is donated, and while they do not focus on this, they seem to be quilted by one long arm quilter--very fascinated about how he chooses designs and watching that process, but that is not included. They have very entry sewing machines and have to design with the fabric they get that is donated. They know very little about each kid they are making a quilt for, and yet they put a lot of thought into what they are going to do, and why. It is well worth watching and even better, think about the threads that it pulls in terms of what it means to all of us as we think about incarceration.

Counterfeit by Kristin Chen

This is a multi-layered book that has a lot more to it than meets the eye. The uncomplicated summary is that Ava Wong, a strait-laced Chinese American lawyer, reconnects with her one time college roommate, Winnie, and becomes entangled in a scheme that involves importing counterfeit luxury handbags and passing them off as the genuine article in a unique, hands on, and dodgy way. When their operation is uncovered, Winnie disappears, leaving Ava to deal with the consequences. The book opens with Ava telling her story to a detective, so from the get go you know that they get caught. The subtext is where it gets interesting. Ava followed her family's ambitions for their children--she worked hard, got good grades, went to high powered schools, worked for a competitive law firm, and married a doctor. Then she stepped out of most of those roles to become a mother and the unraveling began. She has a child who pretty clearly needs to be evaluated for developmental delays, feels out of her depth and doesn't know how to ask for help. Winnie stepped in and there are a lot of ways to see what she provided for Ava. The book is told in a pretty linear fashion, but the undercurrents it plumbs are anything but straight forward. This seems like fluff but I found myself thinking a lot about it in the days after I finished it.

The Water Museum and the History of Sanitation, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This is also known as El Palacio de las Aguas Corrients, or the Palace of Running Water, and it is spectacularly beautiful inside and out. In the mid-19th century, Buenos Aires was experiencing massive population growth and several epidemics, including cholera and yellow fever. So the city decided to fix the water supply. It took 7 years to build, finiahws in 1894, and it contains 12 water tanks (provided by a Belgian firm) with a total capacity of 72 million liters of water. The style of this building is quite eclectic and is yet another example of the upper classes of Argentina fancying everything European. Almost everything was pre-fabricated in Europe. There are over 300,000 tiles making up the exterior of the building, each individually numbered to enable easy placement. In addition to being a water and plumbing museum, it is also where you go to pay your water bill.

The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang

I enjoyed this book on two levels. It is set in the 1800's in China, at a time when the role of women was shifting. Tightly bound feet, or “golden lilies,” are the mark of an honorable woman, eclipsing beauty, a rich dowry and even bloodline in the marriage stakes, but they are also like chains, as bound feet made it very hard to walk, and so women were almost literally tied to home. The book is set in the time between when bound feet were valued and when they were seen as ancient rather than modern. This is the story of two women and gives some insight into the corrosive effects of power over another has on both parties. When Little Flower is sold as a maidservant—a muizai—to Linjing, a daughter of the prominent Fong family, she clings to the hope that one day her golden lilies will lead her out of slavery. Not only does Little Flower have bound feet, uncommon for a muizai, but she is extraordinarily gifted at embroidery, a skill associated with the highest class of a lady. Resentful of her talents, Linjing does everything in her power to thwart Little Flower’s escape. The only thing she has that puts her at an advantage over Little Flower is that she owns her--and she clings to that in a very Mean Girl way. When scandal strikes the Fongs, both women are cast out to the Celibate Sisterhood, a charitable institution where Little Flower’s artistic prowess catches the eye of a nobleman. His attention threatens not only her improved status, but her life—the Sisterhood punishes disobedience with death. It is a book where the issue of power and control are repeatedly utilized to worsen the lives of those who have it and those who do not.

The Wedding Banquet (2025)

I really liked this and my only regret is that I did not watch it during PRIDE month, when I should have been celebrating that while women are now second class citizens in terms of personal autonomy, being gay and married is still allowed. This is an homage to Ang Lee’s ahead-of-its-time classic of the same name and retains some of the basics of that wonderful movie. They are both the tale of a queer couple and one of the life partners’ arranged marriage to their female tenant to both trick his conservative parents and help the bride with her green card. This version first and foremost recognizes that a lot has advanced in America when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, cultural representation, and the country’s multi-racial construct--at least for now--anything the Nazis hated the current GOP party feels similarly about, but for now we rejoice in the gains. And in that vein (the celebration, not those who seek to queel it) it also understands that the core of everyone’s shared humanity hasn’t changed: love still matters, families (especially chosen families) are worth fighting for, and generational relationships are as complicated as ever. Don't miss this one, and if you haven;t seen the original, see it first!

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

I did not know that this author was originally an illustrator and that she drew the original 'Wrinkle In Time" cover--so she is a multi-talented person. Instead, I read this in search of a challenge on Goodreads, and and picked this amongst other choices because it is Newberry medal winner. One review that I read called it a baby "Knives Out", which I think is an apt description. Samuel Westing, a reclusive man who had been a humble immigrant before becoming a union-busting paper-products magnate. Westing is found dead, presumed murdered, and sixteen letters are quickly delivered from his estate, inviting the inhabitants and workers of his engineered apartment complex called Sunset Towers to a reading of the tycoon’s will. A lawyer divides the group into eight pairs and announces that they are all potential heirs to Westing’s two-hundred-million-dollar fortune. He distributes eight envelopes filled with seemingly nonsensical clues and instructs the guests that the objective of the unexplained game is to win. There is a lot left unsaid, and the trick is to figure out not only how to stay in the game, but what exactly winning entails.

Benito Quinquela Martín Museum

Benito Quinquela Martín was a painter of ports. This arts museum in the heart of La Boca was donated to the city by the artist--he is the man responsible for the bright colours of La Boca neighbourhood. His intention was to create an educational and cultural centre in the neighbourhood. As I learned from reading a biography of the city, Buenos Aires did not have an exceptional port. The river is too shallow and it was never the thriving port of other Latin American cities--but because of the enormous wealth coming out of Potosi in the form of silver, there was money to be made and and the port thrived despite it's failings. The museum's collection is representative of the history of Argentine art and features several key figurative artists working from the late 19th century to the present day. It houses the largest collection of Quinquela Martín’s oil paintings and etchings in existence, all completed between 1922 and 1967. There’s also a unique collection of ship figureheads, and, on the terrace, a display of Argentine figurative sculptures. Temporary exhibitions are held in the Sívori room, and on the third floor, the Casa Museo Benito Quinquela Martín exhibits some of the artist's personal possessions.

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Smith Paul

I do a lot of reading of lists. The Booker Prize long list, the New York Times notable books list, the National Book Award short list to name a few. On a lighter note, I have been reading the Reese Witherspoon recommendations--I find these enjoyable, thought provoking, and they are stories written by women about women, which is an added plus. This is one such book. This is a story about blacks passing as whites. I get why in a racist society that would hold an attraction. What I didn't get is what the downside is, and this story really fleshes that out. This is a grand, epic tale that spans multiple generations. Kitty Karr was a white actress and celebrity icon. When she passes away, the world is shocked to find out she left her massive multi-million dollar estate to her next door neighbors: the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women. This tells the complicated why of it. The denying of who you are, where you are from, and how you got to be who you are is soul sucking. That becomes very clear in this story, as it did in Passing (both the book and the movie). This is a good read.

Moana 2 (2024)

Let's just say that while we all love animated feature films in our house, and we have had a long love affair with Disney, which really, I do not want to have to explain or think too deeply about but it is definitely true and will likely always be true, even if there are more than a few cli=unkers. Of which thisis one.Don't get me wrong, it is visually stunning, the action is pretty much non-stop, there are songs where songs should be in a Disney movie worth its salt, but it just was not for us. The follow up to the original does bear a burden--with the exception of Toy Story and Paddington 2, the follow up usually carries a bit of disappointment along with the diversion. This had a heaping helping of that and while we watched it through to the end, we would not recommend it. Even the presence of the delightfully charming Duane Johnson could save it for us.

The Postcard by Anne Berest

May their memories be a blessing. This is s story that swings between the time before the Nazi's, the time of the Nazi's and more modern times. The take home message, besides these were horrible people who committed horrible acts through out the war, even when no one was looking, is to demonstrate generational trauma, how it happens, what it consists of, and how to work on confronting it and getting over it. The book opens on a snowy Paris morning in 2003. The protagonist is Anna and her mother, Léila, steps outside for her first cigarette of the day, only to find a mysterious postcard in the mailbox. On it are four names: Ephraim, Emma, Noémie, Jacques. Her grandfather, grandmother, aunt and uncle – all killed at Auschwitz. No signature, no explanation. For Léila, the postcard is a threat, a provocation. For Anne, it poses a question: why does she know so little about those ancestors? Her quest to find the sender will open rifts between mother and daughter; it will also unearth the family’s origin story. Their early years of wandering; their fate under Vichy France and the Nazis; the risks her grandparents undertook in the Resistance. And then afterwards, the pain of survival; the long reach of the Holocaust through the generations. Two things I liked about this book--one is the nomadic existence of many European Jews before the war and the other is the perspective looking back from the 21st century. We are undergoing another round of "othering" in the United States, and it is more important now than ever to remember how frightful that was for all involved, bot the perpetrators and the victims. Nobody wins, it is just ugly.

The Othering of America

It is unacceptable. Our neighbors are being taken and we don't know where they are being taken. As we start our 249th year as a country, we are in the midst of a movement of "othering" black and brown people in general and immigrants specifically. ICE agents, wearing masks, tactile gear, semi-automatic weapons, and dark glasses, operating without badges or warrents are very similar to kidnappers. The "process of othering" involves categorizing people into groups and emphasizing differences to create a distinction between an "us" and a "them," often leading to the marginalization and stigmatization of the "them". This process frequently involves assigning negative stereotypes and reinforcing power imbalances. Here's a breakdown of the process: 1. Categorization: . Individuals or groups are categorized based on perceived differences, such as ethnicity, religion, gender, or other characteristics. 2. Othering: . This categorized group is then positioned as fundamentally different from the "in-group" or "us". 3. Dehumanization: . In extreme cases, this can lead to dehumanization, where the "othered" group is seen as less than human, potentially justifying discrimination, abuse, or even violence. 4. Reinforcement of Identity: . The process of othering helps solidify the identity of the "in-group" by defining itself in opposition to the "out-group". Othering can have serious consequences, including human rights violations, prejudice, and social exclusion. It is a common tactic used to justify conflict, discrimination, and violence. Understanding the mechanisms of othering is crucial for promoting inclusivity and challenging these harmful practices. Having just watched "I'm Still Here" about the disappeance of people the government wanted to silence in Brazil, I am struck by how many times history has repeated itself. The Nazi playbook holds a lot of appeal for the Republican party. It is time to do what they do, which is othering those who do not agree with them, calling them by labels that largely don't fit--as a twist on their playbook, just be truthful. Their policies are racist. They are White Supremacists. They are fascists. They disregard the Rule of Law. They are terrorists. Call your congress people and ask them to do their jobs, but know who they are. Morally bankrupt. There is no healing this, there is only protesting for the country that my ancestors founded.

Black in Blues by Imani Perry

This is such an unusual way to approach race and racism, and I would be even more surprised than I am if I hadn't read her last book. She won the 2022 National Book Award for South to America, in which she meditates on the history of racism in the South as she is traveling through the South as a black woman in 21st century America, and how it reveals the very character of the nation. If you haven't read that, I recommend it. This book, which meditates on the color blue and what it means to black people, is breath taking. It is a series of stories, and they span from the days of colonialism right up to the present, highlighting the work of contemporary artists like vanessa german, Lorna Simpson and Firelei Báez, who all use blue dye and blue objects in their work. And, of course, there is a discussion of the blues, as both a musical genre and an ineffable sound that resurfaces again and again in Black music. She weaves this tapestry of Black life across five centuries, moving seamlessly among historical records and the diaries of white explorers to enslaved peoples’ testimonies, close readings of African American fiction and vignettes from he own family's relationship with the color. The sheer breadth and depth of this mosaic telling speaks to the power of Perry’s craft as both scholar and storyteller, illustrating the beauty of the very culture about which she writes. The near closing line sticks with me: "May we haunt the past to change the present and claim the future."

Paddington in Peru (2025)

Unlike the very enjoyable movie The Marching Band, which I also watched on a long haul flight (and when my bar for enjoyment is at an all time low--I like almost everything in that situation) this was very disappointing. My chagrin is based not so much of the Paddington books and how they have been translated to the big screen, but rather on just how much I loved Paddington 2 and how I hoped the same for what is essentially Paddington 3. No such luck. And it has a new director, which may explain the discrepency. The quest at hand takes Paddington to Peru, where he hopes to find his beloved Aunt Lucy. Lucy was living at a Home for Retired Bears when she began behaving oddly. A letter from the establishment alarms Paddington into deciding to visit her. Paddington’a adoptive family The Browns accompany him in solidarity and off they go, with one after another misadventure befalling them, but none quite so charming as those that occurered in previous films. This is not awful, it just doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi about it.

Einstein: His Life and The Universe by Walter Isaacson

I admit, tackling the life and science of Albert Einstein is a gargantuan undertaking. Conveying the magnitude of Einstein’s scientific achievements is tough enough, but that’s just the start. His geopolitics, faith, cultural impact, philosophy of science, amorous affairs, powers of abstraction and superstar reputation are all part of this subject. While the science was hard for me to follow completely and a lot of the personal details were less than fully divulged, overall I would say this is a satisfactory biography, elevated in my rating based on the degree of difficulty in handing the subject matter. The book is heavy on the science, maybe 1/3 of the 700+ pages detail Einstein's life as a scientist and what he contributed to our understanding of how the universe works. If you are interested only in the personal side, I would suggest a different source. The fascinating thing for me was how much what he discovered came from him alone, and came about mostly through thinking it through rather than pouring over the math or grueling laboratory experiments. He was a force to be reckoned with, who was not 100% correct, but whose papers propelled his field forward almost at the speed of light. I wondered how a biographer could have such a knowledge of the science, and found that he leaned heavily on physicist Brian Greene in explicating the series of revelations Einstein brought forth in his wonder year, 1905, and the subsequent problems with quantum theory and uncertainty that would bedevil him. He was at the time working in the patent office in Switzerland, a job that provided him with enough income to live on and enough time to think. The personal aspects of Einstein's life are less interesting to me--he was a flirt, chronically unfaithful, twice married, and an inconstant parent. He was charming and unpredictable socially, at least as portrayed here. His political views shifted across his lifetime, and are also of little interest to me, but Isaacson does a good job of following them and Einstein shifted from a pacifist to a supporter of the war against Hitler and Nazis. Overall I would recommend this, although it takes some time and energy to get through.

Oh Canada!

Happy Canada Day! It seems especially important to state the obvious, that I respect Canada's sovereignty. It is a great big beautiful country that is all it's own, and nothing like the United States. While it wasn't always so, they embrace their French past, and bilingual signs are seen coast to coast. You do not see that in the United States, not even in the seven states that were part of Mexico until 1848. We get why you are boycotting us. I would too. I am on a commerce diet altogether, in fact. My personal spending on goods is down. My confidence in the economy is at an all time low. The Guardian reported that 64% of Canadians now hold unfavourable views of the US, and nearly 40% say they hold very unfavourable views of their neighbour, up from 15% who felt that way last year. Sixty-four percent of Canadians now hold unfavourable views of the US, and nearly 40% say they hold very unfavourable views of their neighbour, up from 15% who felt that way last year. Only one-third of Canadians (34%) think positively of their southern neighbour today, compared with 54% last year. Canadian wariness towards the US is also reflected in new travel data from Statistics Canada, which found return trips by air fell nearly 25% in May 2025 compared with the same month in 2024. Canadian-resident return trips by automobile dropped by nearly 40% – the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year declines. It is amazing how quickly your brand can be damaged when you try mess with sovereignty. So celebrate your day, and according to the Pew Research Center, 74% of Americans have a favorable view of you.

Buenos Aires: The Biography of a City by James Gardner

I discovered this book when I was doing some last minute preparation for a trip that I did not plan, so knew very little about the places we were going as a result. I had been to Buenos Aires over two decades before, on a trip with my parents, who neither speak Spanish nor were much interested in Latin American history, which is to say that I did not plan that trip either, and therefore did not get as much out of it as I might have. I did not read the book until I had gotten back, but the city was quite fascinating to visit and I came home wanting to know more--this book is a great antidote to that desire, because it takes you step by step through the long history of a resilient city. Buenos Aires was settled early in the Spanish colonization of the New World and like a number of South American cities, it played a secondary role to Potosi, the Bolivian mountain city out of which enough silver came to build a bridge from there to Spain. The story of how it began and then changed over time is pretty fascinating and also unique--the history of South America is one that I am less familiar with, and this is a good story well told.

The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods

My spouse got this book out of the library as an e-book and it came up in his search of murder mysteries. It does chronicle a murder, but it is by no means a book that I would put in that genre--it is more like historical fiction. He thought I would like it more than he, but in the end, it went the other way around. The book centers on a place that really did exist. Founded by a group of elite Quaker women, the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers opened its doors in 1876 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Amidst the glitz of the Gilded Age Twin Cities, the Bethany Home provided unmarried and outcast women and mothers with food, shelter, work, and a second chance at life. This book tells the story of three women within the walls of the Bethany Home in 1894: the real-life Bethany Home treasurer Abby Mendenhall, the naive and lovestruck resident May, and the mysterious and mesmerizing new resident Faith. As these women each fight to overcome the hardships dealt to them, they must also learn to survive perhaps the gravest danger of all: what is right in front of our eyes. Underlying their individual struggles there is a gruesome, bone-chilling, and immensely puzzling murder that overlays all that happens in the book.

Marching Band (2024)

I did not watch a lot of great movies on my long haul trips so far this year, but this is the winner. French film-maker Emmanuel Courcol has a nice touch with this dramedy. Benjamin Lavernhe plays Thibaut, a distinguished and sensitive orchestra conductor who collapses mid-rehearsal in Paris and is told he has leukaemia and needs a bone marrow transplant donor. Thibaut is adopted and this means tracking down his biological brother out in the boondocks: factory worker Jimmy, played by the formidable Pierre Lottin, whose gift for deadpan comedy really only gets free rein at the very beginning of the film. Thibaut has the tricky task of asking someone who is a total stranger if he wouldn’t mind donating his bone marrow. But this fraught situation reveals – a little programmatically, perhaps – that Jimmy has a real musical talent, like him, plays trombone in the raucous factory band and nurses a passion for jazz on vinyl. Thibault sees in Jimmy a vision of what his own life could have been without his adoptive mother’s comfortable middle-class background, and sees Jimmy and himself through the lens of class, politics and society, and not the supposed destiny of pure talent. It is a great story well told, and it has the subtext of what the affirmative action of class provledge affords those who are born into it.

Food For Thought by Alton Brown

I liked this but I did not love it. That also sums up my feelings about Good Eats, which was a show that my family--five men--liked more than I did. I think the science of cooking was a great hook for them and it did almost nothing for me, although I did not find him annoying, which is not a given for this sort of show. Same can also be said about this book, which really is a collection of ruminations and expositions on a wide range of topics mixed in that mostly adds up to a bit of a memoir. There is a fair amount about what it was like to be him as a child, growing up in the South and largely without a father, how he really struggled in a traditional classroom and he repeatedly tells us this, that he barely got out of high school, but never seems to realize that the way he learns is not the way others learn, and that is where public education failed him. He strikes me as a kinesthetic learner--maybe he has since figured it out. There are a few details about his current life, and the story about what they did during COVID and what he learned about his wife and himself is charmingly told. Then in between there is the part about how he came to be known by all of us, how he more or less stumbled in to what he is now widely known for. This is a better book once I reflect on it, because the story telling is non-linear, but at the end you do emerge with a sense of things about him. If you like food memoirs, this isn't really that, but it is food adjacent and enjoyable with that lens.

Crizia, Buenos Aires, Argentina

We had some spectacular food on a recent trip to Argentina, and this was my favorite meal. While Argentinian beef is world reknowned, it really isn't my thing, and what you might forget in all the hype about the parilla grill, the gaucho, and the grasslands is that it has hundreds of miles of coastline. This restaurant is all about things that come out of the water. Owner-chef Gabriel Oggero works with small-scale independent producers, fishermen and farmers in order to source the very best seasonal ingredients (the restaurant also has its own rooftop city garden). Oysters are a particular speciality and fish-lovers will delight in a menu which is completely focused on seafood and shellfish.

I live in a very land-locked place, so having a dozen small plates of this kind is amazing to me, and then there is the presentation--there is an emphasis on natural things, with stones and wood featuring prominently as the vehicle for each dish, and then the ceramic plates and bowls are impressively gorgeous as well. The attention to detail is special, and I would definitely return here should we be in Buenos Aires in the future. As a bonus, it was a few minute walk from our hotel, where I would also return.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

I have been completely absorbed in getting all my badges for teh Goodreads challenges, and this fulfilled one of them. A satire and an indulgent romance tale, this is the first book in a trilogy penned by Kevin Kwan, starting in 2013-so this is a throwback, but also has the advantage that if you get into it, you can read the whole thing, you do not have to wait for the next two books to come out. I would usually advocate reading the book before seeing the movie, which is not what happened in this case--luckily I liked the movie, despite it's somewhat off putting title, and saw it long enough ago that I did not remember it clearly enough to be off put by the inconsistencies between the two. The book takes an in-depth look into the immense wealth, lavish lifestyles, culture, family expectations and innuendo that swirls around the rich families of Asia. With a specific focus on the heir of one of Singapore’s most well regarded families, Nicholas Young, the author considers the problems that arise when a son of old money in Asia, brings his Chinese American professor girlfriend back home. The complications of this potential ill match in the marriage stakes is set against another grand high society wedding. The upcoming nuptials of Colin, a close friend of Nicholas Young, provides Kevin Kwan with the room to explore the jetting setting life of the elite set of Singapore and surrounds. A story of wealth, love, family, honor, duty and culture, this book could either makes you stop and think for a moment what it would be like to live in this absurd world of affluence or it could make you grateful for your own flawed family.

Champions (2025)

This is a very enjoyable and entirely predictable romantic comedy. I watched this while I was traveling, and one plane landing while I still had about a quarter of the movie to go. While I was switching planes and waiting to board, I played out what I thought would likely happen and while I was not 100% correct, I nailed about 92% of it. That, in my mind, is what makes a successful movie in this genre--that you know exactly what will happen and you can't wait to watch it unfold. This is also a very likable sports comedy – what I did not know until I read a review of the movie is that it is a remake of the 2018 Spanish film Campeones (inspired by the real-life story of the Aderes basketball team in Burjassot) that delivers belly laughs and heartfelt charm in equal measure. Woody Harrelson plays Marcus Marakovich, an irascible assistant coach working in minor league basketball whose life unravels when he fights with his superior Phil (Ernie Hudson) on court and then drunkenly rear-ends a cop car on the road. To avoid prison, Marcus accepts 90 days’ community service coaching “adults with intellectual disabilities”. He is not what you would call enthusiastic about this, in fact he is rude and narrow minded, but as you might predict, they win his heart, and it is just a fun movie to watch.

I Leave It Up To You by Jinwoo Chong

I am usually not one for the gimmicky story line, but I have to say that I did enjoy this book--I did not read his first book, but it was apparently in the sci-fi genre, and this one gets extra points for breaking out of that mold as well. Jack Jr. wakes up from a coma after almost two years. He missed COVID altogether. He slept through it, which is maybe what a lot of people wished they could do. Prior to all this he had turned his back on his family and their Japanese restaurant run by his Korean family in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He had not seen them for quite some time when he had the accident that left him unconscious, but in the end they were the ones that stuck by him. While he was out, everyone else gradually evaporated, including his fiancé, and what he was left with was his family and their restaurant. So, reluctant as he had been to stay on, he returns, and it turns out that you can go home and lo and behold, he has quite the talent as a sushi chef with a knife. So much so that when his nephew makes videos of him preparing food he becomes a TikTok sensation. At the end of the day, this is a crowd pleaser. It kind of veers into YA territory in that respect, because usually when things are going too well for the characters, in an adult fiction piece of work you would expect a wrench in the works, but for the most part things progress smoothly and positively for the characters. It turns out we also want the best for Jack Jr. and his post-coma, post-COVID life as he picks up the pieces of what he left behind and re-examines how he lives, so a lot can be forgiven.

A New Deal For Quilts by Janneken Smucker

I stumbled upon this book as I try and read a lot of books about modern quilting in general (which is not what defines this book nor the quilts shown within) and quilting in general--this I would categorize as the History of Quilts. I did not know this, but might have surmised it if I had thought about it for half a minute, but during the Great Depression there was a large resurgence in quilting--quilts were used not just for bed, but because so many people became homeless during that time, they were used to delineate makeshift dwelling, and served as door and window cover for people living in broke down sheds and abandoned buildings. The photos in the book are as telling as the narrative, and are largely taken by government workers. They show quilts made by women and the women making them in some instances--there are black women and white women. There are poor women and middle class women. There are women living outside and those living inside. It was a time of making do with what you had, but some of these quilts were just exquisitely designed and pieced out of things that they had and things that they repurposed. They were an ode to scrap piecing, and fit beautifully into the throw nothing away philosophy of modern quilting.

The Road From Belhaven by Margot Livesey

This is a quiet book, set in Victorian Scotland, where the author returns to the life of her mother, who led a hard scrabble life replete with unappealing choices, the gift of second sight, and who died young. Lizzie can see see events that have yet to happen, but she cannot change them and she knows well enough that sharing her gift with others will lead to trouble. It is a time of superstition, and seeing the future is equated with the devil rather than as a gift from God. She makes quite a few mistakes, including the one where she believes the man she loves that he will marry her, only to find herself abandoned once she falls pregnant. The rest of the book flows from the subsequent choices that she makes as a result of this error in judgement, and what she does to survive, hide her secret, and find her way back to her child. In a time when America is populated by a large group of people who want to go back to a time when women have no reproductive choices in order to better control them makes this story more poignant. The patriarchy is alive and well, and while that used to annoy me, it now makes me very angry, and thus harder to relax and enjoy this story, which is well written and atmospheric.

The Fire Inside (2025)

This is a biopic or dacudrama about Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, who is an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist from Flint, Michigan who is widely regarded as one of the greatest female boxers ever. She was born in 1995 and became a double Olympic gold medallist (2012 and 2016), the first time when she was just 17 years old and coached by a man who basically volunteered his time to teach her to box. She is the first boxer, male or female, to hold all four major world titles across two weight classes simultaneously. The movie does a nice job of telling all of her story, which is a severely impoversihed childhood, an unstable living situation and a coach who changed her life, maybe even saved it. The story of her rise to success is told in the way of all great sports sotries, where you basically know the outcome but still enjoy watching it unfold. The back end of the movie is what happens after she wins, which is nothing at all. She is expecting to be showered with riches and she is all but ignored. The reality of life after the Olympics is equally well told.

The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots by John Swanson Jacobs

The story behind this publication is in some ways cooler than the book itself and perfect for Juneteenth. Schroeder, who wrote the biography of the author that is included in this publication, is a literary historian, and he knew the story of Harriet Jacobs, the abolitionist who famously wrote about her life and abuse while enslaved, her secret relationship with a white politician and her escape to freedom in the 1800s. Schroeder searched a database of historical documents for details on Harriet's son. He wasn't getting far, so he tried another search term focused on Harriet's brother, Johnathan S. Jacobs. That is how he stumbled upon an autobiography by John Swanson Jacobs, first published in Australia in 1855 and largely lost to time - until now. Six hundred thousand despots is a reference to the number of slave owners in the U.S. at the time. John Swanson Jacobs was born in 1815 in Edenton, N.C., and he was born a sixth-generation slave. Today, he's a footnote in the life of his older sister, Harriet Jacobs, who is the best-known Black female author of the 19th century. He was an abolitionist in the U.S. and U.K. He was a gold miner in California and Australia. He was a sailor on four oceans and four continents. And he was an expat for nearly all of his free life. He had become a gold miner after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. He left the U.S. for California, and then for Australia, which was going through its own gold rush at the same time as America's gold rush. And he eventually struck it rich or at least did well in the Australian gold rush. And that gave him a rare moment of time off from the kind of labor that dominated most of his life to go to Sydney and to finish the life story that he had begun practicing in the 1840s as an abolitionist in William Lloyd Garrison's Boston and Frederick Douglass' Rochester. This is a recreation of his autobiography, and then a biography of what we know about him now with the help of time.

Mishiguene Restaurate, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This was our first dinner in Argentina and it was a very good start to an excellent food trip. We arrived at opening time--8:30 at night--and were the only ones in the place. I do struggle with that in general, and combat it by having a late lunch instead of dinner, and that has been a good strategy as I age, having the heaviest, and sometimes the only, meal of the day a bit earlier, so that by the time I am settling down to sleep the meal is well on it's way in the digestive cycle. The thing about cultures that start dinner so late is that no one is going to bed before midnight and often not until the wee hours of the morning, and that is just not how we roll. Unless there is a 6 hour time difference and then it it perfect. We can essentially stay on our time, less jet lag in both directions. Argentina is both an overnight flight to get there and a minimal time difference, so let's just say I was not at my best. The food is both Ashkenazy and Sephardic cuisine that revives the flavours of traditional Jewish food from a contemporary perspective. These revive Jerusalem-trained chef Tomás Kalika’s childhood recollections and his quest for food that imprints an immigrant population on the history of a place--these are his words and high goals. One of Mishiguene’s signature dishes is Pastrón, a beef prime rib cured for ten days with salt, herbs and spices, which is then smoked over wood embers for four hours, and steam-cooked for a further fourteen--it was the only dish that did not wow us--everything else was great.

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

This is a peaceful book, one that focuses within rather than without. On the one hand it is a memoir of a time and of a relationship that seems like it might fit better in a children's picture book than in a grown up reflection. It is so beautiful that I felt transported by it. The setting is the English countryside, the time is COVID, and the relationship is between a woman and a hare. Things are in lock down and people are not seeing much of each other. Enter the leveret, a baby hare, which is both a magical interloper and harbinger of transformation. The author finds the creature lying on a country track outside her home, seemingly abandoned. From the outset, she is conflicted about whether to rescue the hare and take her into her home or let nature take it's course. She relents, though she places certain restrictions on their relationship: she does not name the animal, tries not to touch it, and does not, except briefly, confine it (it can leave the house through a specially constructed flap). Over the course of the book they develop a remarkable relationship with its own language; not, of course, a human language, but one of gestures, movements and exhalations (hares, we learn, emit soft, puff-like sounds). Dalton has a zoologist’s eye for detail combined with a poet’s sensitivity to descriptive language; she conjures the beauty, the allure and variation of the hare’s sounds, mouth, eyes and fur, which changes with the seasons and marks the passage of time. Her language is shot with such intense tenderness and emotion--she cares deeply about what happens and as a result, so do we. This is a breath of fresh air in a chaotic time.

Tea Growing in Munnar, Kerala, India

After sweating at lower altitudes in Tamil Naru, the hills of Munnar were a welcome alternative. The hills abound with tea here. Tea or Chai is the most widely drunk beverage in the whole world. The tea plant, Camellia Sansis, is a cultivated variety of a tree that has its origins in an area between India and China. There are three main varieties of the tea plant: China, Assam, and Cambodia and a number of hybrids between the varieties. The China variety grows as high as nine feet (2.75 metres). It is a hardy plant able to withstand cold winters and has an economic life of at least 100 years. The Assam variety, a single stem tree ranging from 20 to 60 feet (6 to 18 metres) in height. Regular pruning keeps its height to a more manageable 4 to 5 feet tall. It has an economic life of 40 years with regular pruning and plucking. When grown at an altitude near that of Darjeeling (Assam) or Munnar (Kerala), it produces tea with fascinating flavours , sought after around the globe. The Cambodia variety, a single stem tree growing to about 16 feet in height, is not cultivated but has been naturally crossed with other varieties. Tea growing in this region was started by colonialists, starting in the mid-19th century.

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

This is the second book that I have read by this Nobel Prize winning author, the first being The Vegetarian. This book shares some story telling features with that book, which is a deft combination of poetry and pain that reads with an almost dream like quality. It is a horrifying story that is not so horrifying to read--it is almost matter of fact in tone. The story is that after an accident, Kyungha is asked by her friend Inseon to travel to her home on Jeju Island to save her pet bird Ama from starvation. Kyungha agrees--she doesn't have something that she has to do instead, and she heads off immediately. She travels through a snowstorm, as the power grid fails and the transport system shuts down, her mind always on the flickering edge of a migraine. So extreme is the journey that, as she arrives at Inseon’s house, she seems to cross into a different reality, a world of shadows and of ghosts so real that Kyungha does not know if she herself is alive or has she died and entered a state between life and death.

Chris Manchini--Just Finish It

Chris Manchini of Rose City Originals spoke to my quilt guild and there was a lot to be learned from him. First, it is nie to see someone who is not a cookie cutter quilter. He is a man, there is that, but he is also a pattern maker who does large format quilting, which is not the norm. He has been sewing almost all his life, but he came to quilting about a decade ago, and pretty quickly found that things that he wanted to make did not have readily available patterns. When you look at what he has created, you can see why he had to figure it out--there is a higher than usual percentage of skulls than you see in traditional (or even non-traditional) quilts. Then there is how he lays out the patterns--he uses a Lego assembly approach, which is modular assembly paired with a lot of graphics to help you keep it organized. So while this is not in my usual wheelhouse, I was very happy to hear him talk about his art and his process. Then there was his take home message, which is "just finish it". He says that the pile of unfinished projects that most all quilters have languishing in hidden corners of our crafting spaces carry a psychological burden, and so when we finish them, we lighten our load. He hypothesizes that in order to do that we have to overcome some obstacle, and that often that involves feeling like the project has a flaw and that we need to ignore it and move on and that we will be rewarded in two ways--that it will be done, which is a huge plus, but that also once done, the flaw that we saw is diminished, that the finished project is greater than the sum of it's parts and we cannot see that until it is done. I am inspired by this, and hope to follow through on his advice.

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

When reading light literature, I am on team murder mystery first and foremost, but the growing number of authors who write more modern themed romance novels has had some appeal for me--and one of my kids likes them too (none of them are mystery fans). Emily Henry is my favorite author in this genre, and there is the added bonus that not only are her female characters not looking for someone to take care of them, they are often authors themselves. That said, I did not love this book--the set up is quite contrived, the motivations of the characters is suspect, and at no point did I change my mind about any of it. Here are the basics: follows Alice Scott, a journalist waiting for her big break, with a relentlessly optimistic view of the world, and Hayden Anderson, a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer whose stony disposition is the complete opposite. They find themselves pitted against each other in the small town of Little Crescent Island, where Margaret Ives, a notorious heiress who disappeared altogether years ago and hailed from one of the most notorious families of the twentieth century, has decided to share her life story after decades of silence. But only one of them will get to write her biography. They are trying out for the role and of course find each other just as fascinating as the woman they are auditioning for. There are some twists and turns along the way, but it fell a bit flat for me. I will, of course, read her next book and am glad I read this one, but it was not a favorite for me in her otherwise enjoyable oeuvre.

The Peacock Door, Heritage Hotel, Madurai, India

We stayed at some beautiful hotels while we were in Southern India, and the Heritage Hotel in Madurai is one of them. It had this spectacular carved door in the lobby. n the late 1700s, when the Royal family of mayurs, moved to a large palace near Baripada, in the present day Mayurbhanj district of Orissa, they demolished the fort that they had occupied for over 75 years, to prevent its misuse by invaders. "Mayur Dwaar" the Peacock Door, which stood as the imposing entrance to the fort, was carried with them to their new palace and stored as a symbol of the might and heritage of the Mayur dynasty. With the unification, through marriage, of the Mayur and Bhanja dynasties, to form the Kingdom of Mayurbhanj in Northern Orissa, and their subsequent shift to the Present Mayurbhanj palace, the "Mayur Dwaar" lost its prominence and found its way to an Armenian trader in Calcutta, where it remained. The family migrated to USA in 1945 and left the "Mayur Dwaar" and other antiques, in the care of Mr. S.R. Bose, the last magager of the Armenian Firm. The Present owners procured it from Mr. Bose, with consent from the Armenian family. The door is elaborately carved, with the Mayur (Peacock) motif visually dominant. Though it has a strong Rajasthani influence, and is a typical fort door of that era, its uniqueness lies in the exquisite details of the outer frame, and the head work, with the 2 alcoves originally used for lamps. The wood seems to have been specially treated, and has withstood the ravages of time remarkably well.

Behind You Is The Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

This is in some ways not at all unusual and in other ways it is unique. The book follows three interconnected Palestinian immigrant families in Baltimore. Palestinian immigrants have been in the spotlight of late, and yet there are very few books in English that portray them. This is an exception--and not one that glosses over or sugar coats the details that are unsavory, especially when it comes to violence against women and women seeking their own paths that diverge from those of their male relatives and their cultural norms. Its characters come to life, transcending politics, breaking through preconceptions and stereotypes, speaking clearly and lucidly about their experiences, some of which are relatable and some which are not. The book is filled with stories of immigrant parents who can’t make sense of their American children, but there are also shimmering moments of revelation and reconciliation. The novel’s title, “Behind You Is the Sea,” comes from a battleground speech attributed to the Islamic conqueror Tariq ibn Ziyad. Facing the enemy, ibn Ziyad is said to have set his soldiers’ boats on fire, making retreat impossible, asking for bravery in the face of almost insurmountable odds: For these characters the battleground shifts — between parents and children, men and women, tradition and self-invention. Most importantly, it breaks through the stereotypes that reduce Arabs and Arab Americans to clichés, creating a false division between us and "them", which is especially valuable in the current political climate.

The Way We Speak (2025)

I watched this movie on a long haul flight, and it is unusual in that it explores public and private struggles in a way that made me, at least, uncomfortable. There are three main characters in this. The setting is a debate at a conference. THe first is a middle-aged writer named Simon Harrington who is finally starting to have a breakthrough is brought in to have a series of debates over three days with another rationalist, his longtime best friend and colleague George Rossi. When Rossi bows out due to health problems, Simon ends up squaring off against a last-minute replacement, Sarah Clawson, a young Christian essayist whose latest book has sold over a million copies. The third is Claire, Simon's wife, who is a well respected doctor and researcher, and also dying of cancer. Simon is struggling both professionally and personally. He has always finished second, and he had been hoping to shine on this stage--both for himself, but also as it might be the last time his wife will see him compete in this way. He relies heavily on her, but rather than grapple with losing her, he is focusing on the debate. His new opponent is no more likable than he is and worse yet, she fights dirty. Claire is the adult in room, and it all comes to a dramatic end.

Uncommon Measure by Natalie Hodges

This is an unusual memoir that has taken me a while to write about, which means that I have been thinking a lot about just what to write. I got it because it was the electronic version of The Community Reads, meaning that my library had unlimited e-books to take out and while it is pretty rare for me to love these books, I usually at least like them and they are always something that I wouldn't have discovered on my own--this book fits that bill. The author was a concert violinist who stopped working as a professional musician because she developed performance anxiety. In the quest to make sense of her life as a musician and the experiences she was having, she has examined it through the twin portals of neuroscience and quantum physics. Rather than dwelling on the purely emotional aspect of dealing with crushingly high personal expectations, she steps outside of herself and looks at how music informs our experience of time, and whether she as musicians was living in time, or whether time lives within her. She doesn't ignore the anxiety and where it comes from for her, and exactly how her anxiety manifests. It would start typically by fixating obsessively on a particular passage that never seemed to go exactly as she wanted, so much so that the actual performance would become temporally distorted. In addition to the temporal dichotomy performers are familiar with – the coexistence of ‘real’ time ‘out there’ and the music’s internal temporal flow – she would experience a sense of accelerating uncontrollably towards the ‘doomed place’, and then at the point of arrival would feel as if time had stopped. I couldn't relate to much of what she was describing about her experience, but it is pretty mesmerizing to read, nonetheless.