Champagne Problems (2025)

This is a movie of the lightest variety--a romantic comedy that is heavier on the romance than the humor. I chose it because I am recovering from a choulder replacement on my dominant side and the inactivity has been quite challenging for me. Initially I read incessantly, but that got my brain revving along at a rate that was uncomfortably fast while my body was geared more for slow living. This fit the bill. The story line is entirely predictable and really, that is what I was going for. It is set in a French vineyard, and that was a definite plus for me. The timing is pre-Christmas--for some reason, a plot that revolves around a take over of a beloved company right before the holidays, where the person who goes to do the taking over seems to have no family obligations and no concerns about gettinmg back home on time--which is inevitably not going to happen--is a recurring plot line. In any case, this hit the spot, in the midst of working my way through some short listed international movies, which are weightier and require more bandwidth in terms of attention than I have had at times in the recovery process.

City Of Night Birds by Juhea Kim

I would not have found this book without it being a book of the month choice, and it is books like this that keep me reading the Reese Witherspoon choices. This is a story of what it means to be a performer, what might motivate those who choose that life, and what happens when it all comes crashing down. The added layer in the case of a ballerina in a culture that has many restrictions on it is the privledge that such talent afforded the performer. Here is the story-- Prima ballerina Natalia Leonova was once celebrated across the world, her signature bravura in demand on stages from St. Petersburg to Paris to New York. But at the top of her career, an accident forces her into sudden retirement. Injured and alone, she turns to pills and alcohol to numb the pain of her past, still haunted by her relationships with two gifted dancers, Dmitri and Alexander. These men were responsible for her soaring highs, her darkest hours and, ultimately, both played their part in her downfall. So when Dmitri resurfaces with a tantalising offer for Natalia, she must decide what she is willing to sacrifice in order to dance again – and for the chance to return to the great love of her life. Painting a vivid portrait of a world in which ruthless ambition, desire and sublime artistry collide, City of Night Birds unveils the making of a dancer with profound intimacy and breathtaking scope.

Andrea Tsang Jackson: Transparency

I watched a lecture given by this artist, who trained as a gemologist, and who has translated that into quilt blocks for all 12 of the birth stones--using just 5 fabrics to create the gem effect--reallt remarkable, but that is not all. She does large public art instillations that are quilt inspired, and the lectire I listened to was one where you use on like color tools to get a transparenct effect, which was mind blowing. When I see those quilts in the transparency category at QuiltCon I thought they did it themselves, and maybe some of them do, but you do not have to guess--you can feed in the two colors that will cross paths in your quilt and it will tell you the color that would result in sucha a mixing. More on that later when I play with it a bit. More on this artist first. This is her artist statement: Andrea Tsang Jackson is a Canadian-born textile artist of Chinese descent based in Kjipuktuk / Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her work takes the traditional craft medium of quilting and applies it to a contemporary context, often using bright hues and bold graphics. She abstracts intentionally accessible imagery, inviting points of connection from the viewer to spark discussion and inquiry. Clean and crisp, vibrant but not loud, Andrea’s work uses solid-coloured commercial fabrics, found textiles, hand-dyed and painted fabrics, and more recently Tyvek. Andrea’s work often celebrates community and collaboration, and explores ideas of home and belonging. The rich history of quilting also heavily influences her practice; she sees it as an extension of community across time. Andrea strives to push the limits of the quilting medium — and other textile media — by exploring scale and dimension and moving traditionally domestic objects into the public realm. Through her public art in recent years, Andrea’s work has explored the translation of textiles into other media – drawing, architectural mesh, and acrylic carving. This act of translation continually poses questions of what textiles mean to us as communities and how textile work exists outside the home. The boundaries around folk art, fine craft and fine art are a continual source of enquiry in her practice as she operates within all of these areas.

Art Quilts of the Midwest by Linzee Kull McCray

I have an I am in the midst of a big house organization project and discovered this book amongst other things in a box and realized that while I had bought it I had never read it. That was a mistake. This is a really interesting approach to organizing quilters and their work. The author explored how deeply fiber artists were influenced by their surroundings. Focusing on midwestern art quilters in particular, she put out a call for entries and nearly 100 artists responded; they were free to define those aspects of midwesterness that most affected their work. The artists selected for inclusion in this book embrace the Midwest's climate, land, people, and culture, and if they don't always embrace it wholeheartedly, then they use their art to react to it. The emphasis in this book is on the art. These artists are not known as quilters at least in the modern quilting world. There are a lot of interesting techniques that are on display here and this and this book is inspirational if you are thinking of adding a an artistic embroidery or dyeing or printing component to your personal quilting.

People We Meet On Vacation (2026)

This is a romantic comedy that is lifted directly from the pages of an Emily Henry novel of the same name. One of my kids who has read these along side of me noted that he thought that over time they seemed a little boring, and what I think is that there is a need to suspend belief in order to roll forward with the central premise, and this story is no exception. Told in a nonlinear format, we follow frenetic travel writer Poppy she tries to get her groove back when her job is no longer fulfilling. We soon learn that the heart of the problem lies with her college best friend, the introverted Alex. Ever since meeting cute in college when Poppy joined Alex on a road trip from Boston College back to their hometown of Linfield, Ohio, one summer, the two have spent one week a year on vacation together, both unable to share how they really feel about each other. When Alex finally breaks off with his on-again, off-again high school sweetheart, Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook) before his brother’s wedding, Poppy impulsively decides to shirk off a work trip to attend the wedding in Barcelona, and possibly finally admit her true feelings for Alex, to him and to herself. The endless approach/avoidance that happens here is tiresome and also hard to believe that people who have been friends the length of time these two were wouldn’t communicate better. In any case it does adhere closely to the book.