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.

Crumb Quilts by Emily Bailey

The subtitle of this book is: : Scrap Quilting the Zero Waste Way. There is a growing movement within quilting to use ALL of the fabric when quilting. It is perfectly acceptable to make a quilt that inherently generates some waste, but the next step is not to compost it or throw away the left overs, but rather to use them to make something else. I have always done this is a casual way. Some fabric that I used almost 10 years ago in one of the first quilts that I made when I returned to quilting after a many year hiatus following my diagnosis of ovarian cancer used some Guatemalan fabric that I bought in the 1980's that was well used when I got it. I used some of the leftovers in a baby quilt a few years after that, and I just added some of it to a Block Of THe Month Quilt that I made last year with the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild. So not opposed, is what I am saying, but also not particularly systematic either.

This is my favorite quilt from the book and it demonstrates something that I have not done, which is organize my scraps by color and value, and then essentially piece together a back ground to use for making quilt blocks. I really like the star as a design feature, and these slightly wonky stars very much appeal to me--but the pieced backgrounds are an added plus. This is all in the interest of wasting nothing, or as little as possible, and while I came from a family that valued this (Depression Era parents), the fact that textile production uses so much water is another reason not to waste it.

Kaveri River, Tiruchchirappalli, India

On our trip to Southern India we learned a little bit about the Tamil rituals around death. The death ceremony is marked by cremation which is now done in a crematorium. Somewhere between 10-16 days later, people may perform rituals at the Amma Mandapam Bathing Ghats in Tiruchirappalli, India, or immerse the ashes of the deceased in the Kaveri River in Srirangapatna (this is a sacred river, the Ganges of the south and the second longest river in India): Amma Mandapam Bathing Ghats

This is a place where Hindus can perform rituals for their ancestors. The ghats are located on the Kaveri River and include: An open hall where prayer items can be purchased Three small temples Ritual performing lines Bathing ghats for men and women Barbers for ritual shavings The eldest son and a priest perform the ritual. Then, one year later it is done again.