The Royal We (2025)

There are, at this point, a seemingly infinite number of rom-coms about wayward princes and princesses from small made-up European countries that range from comfortingly mediocre to highly unwatchable. This one, which boasts not one but two fake fiefdoms, is both Hallmark Hammy and surprisingly self-aware and goofy, making it far more charming than expected. Plus, it has a whole plotline about its princess teaching girls leadership skills and kings conflict resolution, which really adds some oomph to its feminist fairytale kind of feel. I mean, please still keep your expectations entirely within check. In order to put to rest a 300-year-old feud between the kingdoms of Vostierrie and Androvia, Princess Coralina and Prince Desmond are set to get married, which will allow for the reunification of the Alsinian province and Castle Elora. Friends, that’s a LOT of silly names all squashed in together. Anyway, these two have basically been betrothed to each other since they were babes, so that when they wed the two countries can finally live in times of peace. Or that’s the plan until Princess Coralina ditches Prince Desmond and elopes with a plumber named Cody (Adam Woodward). As you can imagine, social media is all aflame about how you’ve “gotta love a man who can work with his hands.” You know who is not pleased by this? Well, both royal houses, obviously, but who is really peeved is Edwin, Prince Desmond’s butler/valet/main squeeze. The back up plan goes surprisingly well, and all in all it is a diversionary movie that was surprisingly fun.

We The People by Jill Lepore

This is it, the exhaustive look back at the US Constitution--well, not so exhaustive that it starts with the Magna Carta, and at no point does the author go back to what had happened in England that led up to England's colony rising up and breaking away--she really starts at the post war Constitutional Convention, and how we ended up with the mish mash that we got. The U.S. Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world—and one of the most difficult to amend. At what cost? In this landmark, lavishly illustrated book, Harvard professor of history and law Jill Lepore argues that the philosophy of amendment is foundational to American constitutionalism. Challenging both originalism and the Supreme Court’s monopoly on constitutional interpretation, Lepore argues that the framers never intended for the Constitution to be kept, like a butterfly, under glass, but instead expected that future generations would be forever tinkering with it, improving the machinery of government. The argument against "originalism" is the best part of the book, where she refers to to the writers of the constituion said about it at the time--and that the Federalist Papers were published in a newspaper well after the constitution, and were not even generally available until the last 20th century. These originalists just basically made that all up and nobody fact checked them. At the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding and in an account as radical as Charles Beard’s An Economic Interpretation of the United States, Lepore offers a sweeping, lyrical, and democratic constitutional history, telling the stories of generations of Americans who have attempted everything from abolishing the Electoral College to guaranteeing environmental rights, hoping to mend America by amending its Constitution.

Sarah Goer Quilts

My quilt guild had a spring retreat that happened two weeks after I had should replacement surgery on my dominant arm. I did not sign up for it, appropriately worried that I would not be able to participate, but then 5 days ahead I got my brace off and was just in a sling. When I asked if I could sew, the APP seeing me saud "Sure." Things were looking up! The next day they were again dashed, because my physical therapist said that I could do nothing that essentially required me to shrug for several weeks, if not months, and surely sewing was again off the table?? I got an adjustable table that made typing at least possible, and waited.

The day before the retreat I decided to pull the trigger. The cost was modest, and I knew I could at least attend the lecture--which was with this improv quilter--this was such a gentle gateway into how to start improving, I really loved it. She does teach some on line classes, and I will definitely consider them once I am two handed again. The retreat itself went well. It turns out I mostly sew left handed--not sure I could sew without the left, but sewing with an impaired right was quite doable. I had cut out my BOM and not gotten it together and managed to finish that month and start the next. I also won a door prize of essential notions and so the cost of the retreat was practically nothing, and the abilty to spend a whole day with my guild mates was both fun and distracting. Two thumbs up!

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King

This was another miss for me from the Reese Witherspoon book choices--which is not the norm at all, but I am on an unfortunate streak. The Phoenix Pencil Company is essentially told via diary entries, whether electronic, handwritten, or magically recorded, split primarily between two perspective characters. One is a contemporary computer science student, working with a professor to code an app that connects people based on common interests expressed in social media posts and diary entries. The other is her grandmother, who had worked alongside her mother, aunt, and cousin at a magical pencil factory during World War Two before immigrating to Taiwan and eventually America. When the app puts one of the leads in contact with another university student who had met her grandmother’s cousin, it triggers frantic remembering on the part of her grandmother and a bit of romance on her own part, with both stories heavily seasoned with difficult questions about the ethics of privacy and preservation. There are a lot of good points about the story, and it is written competently, but it just didn't hold together for me.

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.

The Fate Of The Day by Rick Atkinson

I read a review of this book that the writer had been reading this author's military histories for years and years--and maybe that was because they took years and years to come out. I had to laugh because this is meant to be the middle book of a trilopy but took over 5 years to be published after the first, and hope he manages to get through the third! Always seems like you should be pretty close to having it in the bag if tou announce how mant there will ultimately be. In any case, this volume covers 1777 to 1780 and goes through the uncertain future of the Revolution as the American Colonials faced defeat after defeat, super-cold winters (including one that could be said to have almost ended the rebellion at Valley Forge in 1777-78), and an ineffective Congress. In these middle years of the war, only a fateful victory at Saratoga, and the ill-fated occupation (and then withdrawal from) Philadelphia by the British, lifted American hopes that the British could actually be defeated. Otherwise, money shortages, shortages of ammunition and supplies, and deserting troops made American defeat very possible. The reader gets the sense of how back and forth the momentum was, how many mercenary soldiers were employed, and how tenuous the rebel position was. There are no whitewashes, and George Washington is presented as a troubled and flawed figure who wasn’t always the best general but who was doing as much as he could to bring the army together when he didn’t get much support from Congress. Other figures, both American and British, are given fresh looks. Nobody is a complete angel or devil. Instead, these figures are three-dimensional people with their own sides being presented as well as how others viewed them. Atkinson also doesn’t shy away from the darker areas of American history. Slavery and how slaves took part on both the American and British side, are well-represented in a clear fashion. Native Americans mostly fight with the British and the reasons why are fleshed out--and may have fueled future conflicts. Overall, this is very much a military description of this time period, with interesting back stories fleshed out but are not at the center of the story. Brace yourself, there is a lot of carnage.