The World's Fair Quilt - Jennifer Chiaverini

Genre: Contemporary and Historical

If you are already a fan of Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilts series, her newest installment The World’s Fair Quilt is one for you. If not, this title is a lovely place to start. Sylvia is staring down some changes at Elm Creek Quilts - in part because the camp is in a very difficult financial place. She is also reflecting back on her childhood relationship with her sister Claudia and their experience in working on a quilt for a 1933 contest sponsored by the Chicago World’s Fair. Elm Creek is one of my favorite places to visit.

I have long admired Sylvia, the owner of Elm Creek Quilts. She has creatively saved her family’s home and created a thriving business. She has created a new family, surrounded by friends who care deeply about her. She feels the pressure of honoring them all while staring down increasing financial pressure. Sylvia struggles with the changes that may be necessary in spite of the expert advice of Sarah and Matthew - whom she considers her very own children. Meanwhile, Summer has asked to display the quilt she created with her sister for a world’s fair contest. Searching for the quilt and the memorabilia she’s kept opens a flood of memories. These memories cause her to reevaluate her perceptions of her sister as well as the decisions she’s made. 

The family relationships are what really spoke to me. How often I reflect and reflect again on my history with my family. I hope that I have the insight that Sylvia has to grow and change over time as I gain new information. The book is encouragement to look at both sides when we feel at odds with someone. I always love the quilting talk. I am not a quilter, but perhaps wish I were. In any case, I am one vicariously when I read Chiverini’s books. The historical sections here were fascinating to me as well. I loved the insight into the Bergstrom family struggles and to the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. The World’s Fair Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini offers a number of avenues to get the reader's attention. You will enjoy it!

The World’s Fair Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

Dear Writer - Maggie Smith

Genre - Nonfiction; the Craft of Writing

Maggie Smith is a beautiful poet and writer. I have read and love her poetry. I have read and love her memoirs. How could I resist reading Dear Writer by Maggie Smith, a book about the process of writing. I am sure glad I didn’t resist it!

Smith’s subtitle is Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, as it should goes a long way to capturing the spirit of this work. Not that I expected it - given her other work - this book is not a dry instructional manual about the written word. In most ways she shows how she lives as a creative - it can very much shape the reader’s approach to life. As someone who longs to express creativity but prioritizes below tasks that “must” be completed all too often, I very much appreciated her honest insight into her very busy life and how she finds a way to nurture her desire to write each and every day. As a retired English teacher who spent much of her career teaching poetry and writing, I was also drawn to her chapter called “play.” In it she captures much of the joy of writing, that I always worried that I wasn’t communicating to my students. And perhaps, a joy that I wasn’t even experiencing myself. What a fun approach to the writing process. She graciously uses her own work as examples. She uses those beautiful poetic terms like “enjambment” and makes the discussion magical. (I fear I treated that topic in a rather dry way!) 

I have long wanted to be a consistent writer and have consistently failed in doing so. But boy have I learned to admire the magic that poets create. I have worked hard to appreciate their work as fully as possible. I am so grateful that Maggie Smith in Dear Writer created a beautiful balance of joy and technique and inspiration. I may never be the writer that I dreamed but she gives me hope that I can write.

Dear Writer by Maggie Smith book cover

Back After This - Linda Holmes

Podcasts, romcom, a fairly giant dog, and a bit of finding your voice - the upcoming (and by that I mean right now!) Back After This by Linda Holmes has it all. Cecily is a podcast audio editor who has worked hard to succeed in the world of audio. She has a rather large setback after investing years in a podcast with her boyfriend - only to have to walk away after their break up and start over. In times of change she worries she and her friends may be without work again. She agrees to do a podcast - 20 Dates - against her best judgment and allow a self help guru to help her find true love in an effort to save jobs. In the meantime she keeps bumping into Will - a very handsome man in the most intriguing of ways. 

I spend much of my waking and sleeping hours listening to podcasts. When I heard Holmes of NPR pop culture (one of my faves!) was the author here, I hoped for some insight into the industry. What I learned was that I knew very little about the business that consumes much of my time. Through Cecily’s work, we have insight into the fun and the extreme pressure that exists. What seems so instantaneous as a listener involves hours of work. I enjoyed this fascinating look into the industry. Most of the conflict revolves around Cecily’s work. She wants to keep her job, have her own podcast, and protect the job of some of her friends - so she steps out of her comfort zone into the dating world. Eliza, the self help guru, becomes as interesting as Cecily. She is complex - I didn’t like her one second and thought “what insight” the next. Through her, though, we gain insight into the complex world of social media - the challenges of being current and making a living there. I was fascinated by the lives of these ladies. Cecily’s growth - through Eliza’s less than honest treatment and, in fact, her example is fun to see. And the romance was lovely. I enjoyed the meet cute that involved a running dog and a man in a hair salon cape. I had a moment of cynicism with the coincidences of the meetings that followed, but it was too much fun in the end. And philosophically who doesn’t love the idea that the universe will put you in the path of true love? 

While I am happily married and have been for some time - I appreciated very much the lessons that Cecily learns in Linda Holmes’ Back After This. I love a woman learning to consider what she wants - and learning to trust herself - and acting for her own best interests. I also appreciate that there are no easy answers here. Holmes offers a bit more complexity and a little less ease in her happily ever after. I am now a Linda Holmes completist and recommend her most highly. Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Secret History of Audrey James - Heather Marshall

Genre: Historical Fiction, WW2

I am pleased to have been able to read The Secret History of Audrey James. This novel relates the stories of Audrey James and of Kate Mercer and how their lives intersect in surprising ways as they are a generation or so apart. Kate is recovering from a tragic accident and a broken marriage and accepts a job in a guest house - sight unseen where she hopes to recover some equanimity in her life. Audrey is the owner here and she begins to relate her World War II experiences in Berlin, Germany to her new young manager. Through flashbacks we relive all of these horrific moments with her. Once a promising piano virtuoso, Audrey becomes a housemaid and stays in the unsafe city to protect her Jewish friend Ilse - who has lost her entire family to the Nazis. She sees her father shot in the street and her mom and brother hauled away. 

I am always drawn to WWII novels. I always learn something new, and I learned so much from this one. And I am always amazed at the resilience and strength of the folks who endured this war especially on the European Front. Audrey stands alongside her dear friend Ilse after they witness the brutal murder of Ilse’s father in broad daylight in the street while on a shopping trip. Ilse’s mother and brother are herded away. Soon after, the Kaplan home is taken over by Nazi officers. Audrey must think fast and becomes their cook and maid so that Ilse can remain safely hidden in the attic. From the moment Audrey makes that choice, she must pivot again and again as the circumstances change. Her resilience is stunning as she is forced to mature very quickly. Her devotion to Ilse has a strength that I can barely imagine. Kate also gains strength over the course of the novel. She finds her own strength and resilience both in her growing relationship with Audrey, and in making independent choices for her new life. I always value books that give me strong female protagonists and Marshall does just that. I learned much about the resistance, but must resist talking about it. No spoilers. But the suspense level here is just excellent. I stayed up later than I should rather than putting it down.

I had to really sit with this book for a while after I finished reading. The story and the threads of this book that tangle in a surprising way, really captured me. I am often so saddened by how lightly we take war. We allow people to pretend that evil events never happened, and we allow people to talk flippantly about going to war over the smallest of things. Maybe it is primarily the women who catalog and hold onto the tragedy that war brings. Somebody needs to, and I am grateful for Heather Marshall’s meticulously researched The Secret History of Audrey James. Read it and look for more novels by her. I did.  Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. 

The Queens of Crime - Marie Benedict

Genre: Historical Fiction & Mystery

Imagine one of your favorite contemporary writers writing about some of your favorite historical writers - what a dream, right? So it is with Marie Benedict’s The Queens of Crime - a mystery reader’s delight.  Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Baroness Emma Orczy, and Ngaio Marsh are treated as “less than” in an exclusive club for mystery writers because they are women. With Dorothy in the lead, they decide that solving the murder of young nurse May Daniels that has baffled police for some time will gain them the notoriety they need to break that glass ceiling. Along the way they must challenge that ceiling in more ways than they can initially fathom. 

Dorothy Sayers is a force with which to be reckoned. She will use her journalist husband’s sources, travel, rally the ladies, and take on some powerful British men and the police to solve the story of May Daniels. Throughout their journey, she of all the queens has, perhaps, the most to lose. She has protected her own secrets for quite a long time. The mistreatment of another woman spurs to risk even those. Women have been battling to be heard at a number of levels for a very long time. Benedict captures that battle while crafting a fascinating mystery that would have made the queens proud. She also captures the spirit of friendship in a beautiful way. Each of the queens comes to the table with her own quirks - one prefers pants, another is well used to her wealth, more than Dorothy has a secret. Rather than allowing these quirks to divide them, they use them to work together. Because of this effort, beautiful friendships develop - again speaking to the power of women working together. May never gets to benefit from their work, but what they gain is incalculable, professionally and personally. We get the sense that these queens have only just begun. 

Benedict does not disappoint. I love how through her commitment to women and to detailed research, she continues to bring the lives of unsung women in history to life. I can easily become discouraged as in many ways the fight to be heard as women continues. And really, how dare I, who has more privileges than even my mother, and certainly more than my grandmothers, be discouraged? In The Queens of Crime, Marie Benedict provides mystery, history, amazing women, and, of course, inspiration. Publishing on February 11, you will love this book. Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict book cover