The Briar Club - Kate Quinn

Genre: Historic Fiction/Suspense

Kate Quinn has never disappointed me - and The Briar Club might be my favorite of her novels thus far. It’s possible I say something like that after each of her new novels. Set in a boarding house (maybe I’ll become fascinated by these like I was with boarding schools and am with  fancy resorts (oh, but I’m reading a book about to change that!), The Briar Club focuses on the very, very  different women and children who live there. Grace, a new and rather mysterious resident, brings them all together for a meal each Thursday evening in her tiny attic room furnished with just a tiny fridge and hot plate. These disparate folks form a family of sorts. Each chapter of the book focuses on one of the house’s residents. Their individual stories come to a crescendo in a complex way illustrating the power of strong relationships even to overcome the darkest secrets. 

Even though it starts with a murder - a ghastly one, I’ll admit, at first I was a bit baffled at this novel. I had come to expect certain things from Kate Quinn, in terms of history and suspense.  And though surprised a bit, I loved the structure immediately. I have been recently fascinated by the short story form (thanks Sidle Creek!), so I love how Quinn creates chapters that  focus on a member of the Briar club and reads much like a short story. We get to know Pete a young boy living in the house owned and operated by his single mother; Nora who loves her job in the National Archives (and maybe a gangster too), Reka an immigrant artist who is furious at what has been taken from her;  Fliss who lives with her daughter there while her husband serves as a doctor in Korea, Bea who is missing her career as a professional baseball player; Claire who is working multiple jobs to earn the money for a home of her own; Arlene who works for HUAC and has been left embittered by an affair from her youth; Grace who seems maybe the most mysterious but is also the glue that holds this group together with her Thursday night gatherings, until she needs them in a big way. We meet many of their “people” along the way, learning a great deal about life just after WWII in our world. The subtlety with which Quinn builds her overarching story within these stories is creatively amazing and reflective of her extreme writing talent. I am so glad she used this format to create such an unexpected work.  She concludes each chapter with a recipe based on the featured character.  Quinn also used the boarding house as a character - between each chapter was a brief interlude where the house would update the reader on the murder.  So many elements working so well together. 

As with my recent read of Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful and Jolene McIlwain’s Sidle Creek, I am struck very much by the form and its function in this work. If I were still teaching English - I’ve said that a time or two of late - I would have so much material here. I also love the illustration here of the power of friendship. In this novel, friendship alleviates loneliness, enables and supports strength and courage, quite literally saves lives, supports change. Quinn tackles mob mentality, gender equality, corruption, domestic abuse, child neglect, crime, and more. She teaches history, creating the spirit of Washington DC in the 50s - we see politics, recipes, a national baking contest.  How I admire Quinn’s ability to do all of this in such an inviting, suspenseful, and entertaining way. Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club publishing on July 9 is a must read. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morris for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book cover of The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

Dad Camp - Evan Porter

Genre - Contemporary Fiction, Humor

I loved summer camp. I loved my time there as a kid. Even latrine duty at rustic camp had a magic that perhaps wouldn’t be true now. So when asked by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House to read and review Dad Camp by Evan Porter, I was all in. John is at a crossroads with his daughter Avery. After restructuring his whole life to be a superdad, he finds that as she enters her middle school years their relationship is getting more and more difficult. Avery who used to love her time with him is now often annoyed by him. She wants desperately to try out for a travel soccer team for which he will no longer be her coach. When John spots a camp online designed to help daughters and dads work on their relationships, he signs up. With a reluctant Avery along, he soon discovers that the camp may not be as delightful as pictured online, and wonders just where exactly this week might take them.

I love the setting - I’m not sure I would have loved it as much if it had been picture perfect. Camp dorms should be a little rustic. Spiders ought to exist in the bathrooms. The food should not be worthy of a trained chef. Ice breakers should be awkward - and camp leaders just a bit cringey. Porter creates this world with resounding success. When bunks are being claimed and the dads are awkwardly getting the lay of the land and each other, I felt returned right back to my camp days. John’s dad mates, Ryan, Booker, and Lou are introduced here, and while John is the central focus of the book, each of these dads is well developed and dynamic. Porter captures the stay at home dad, the dad who works too much, the hyper gung ho dad, and the over involved dad, without creating stereotypes. We gain insight to each as John does, and the growth and change is poignant in and among the comedic camp antics that punctuate the content.  The men breaking into the office tipsy on non alcoholic beer is just one such moment. Also notable for me - hand written letters home. I love that every day the men hide the pen, paper, and envelope provided for them and that every night they reappear on the pillow. I don’t have the letters that I sent home from camp, but I have some that my children sent me. What a delightful memory. The letters here are used to illustrate the growth and change  - and give us insight into these men. I found myself looking forward to the next one. 

My kids are raised and out in the world - partnering with others and one is raising her own child. I often awaken in the middle of the night just obsessed with something I did wrong or wish I had done better in raising them. Even good counseling hasn’t eliminated those moments for me. I love the insight that Porter offers here for parents of young children. None of us will get it perfect, but the men here and what they learn can offer some advice to all. The focus is on dads and daughters - but extends to all parenting. I have entered a different space in my relationship with my dad - which involves to some extent a role reversal. But it also involves getting to know him in a different way. The time spent with him has offered my insights into his childhood, young adulthood, dating life with my mom in ways that I just didn’t have access to before. This review is not the right place for me to develop this idea, but Evan Porter’s Dad Camp has made me grateful for this time in a more profound way. You might gain some insight into your own parent/child relationships, but you will  laugh, and maybe well up a bit. Dad Camp is a great summer read!

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion - Julie Satow

Genre: Nonfiction

I am so delighted I was asked to read and review Julie Satow’s When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion. Satow focuses most closely on Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller, Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor, and Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel. Although very different, these women represent those who were making their way into corporate leadership positions in the world of Department stores and fashion. Through exploring these lives we gain entrance into the fascinating world of 5th Avenue - watching the evolution of the department store and women’s fashion. The era here is one that I love to read about. For me it evoked feelings of PBS’s Mr. Selfridge which was fascinating to me and of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - I mean, who wouldn’t want her fashion style and access to those clothes?

I was born when these department stores were considered the pinnacle for shoppers, but by the time I was shopping, these kinds of stores were struggling to maintain their relevance (which I learned from this book). To be clear, I didn’t live near 5th Avenue, nor did we have the economic freedom to shop for designer clothing. But, oh, I remember Brody’s - a department store in a nearby small town. I remember shopping there with my grandmother, who had a bit more spendable money. We would descend into the basement of the store where pop music would be playing and the decor was all silver and lucite. Here was the world of the teen shopper. I can even - pretty accurately - describe some of the clothes I got there. I was a bit entranced. I was entranced in much the same way by the contents of this book. I would love to walk the corridors of one of the early department stores. Satow describes the executives, the shoppers, and the facilities in a way that they come alive. The inclusion of a number of photographs enhance the reading.

Brody’s Department Store Building

The ladies that Satow focuses on are charting new territory. Odlum is a housewife who becomes involved at the urging of her husband who bought Bonwit Teller and wanted to revitalize it. Dorothy and her sister Ellie came to New York City on a whim and stayed. Dorothy worked her way up the ladder at Lord & Taylor. She loved her career and was, of course, excellent at it. In many ways Geraldine Stutz had the most difficult job to revitalize Henri Bendel because of the unique structure and small size of the building. She had to be very creative and her ideas were often the stuff of criticism - right up until the point where she consistently succeeded. These ladies had to fight for respect by working hard for much less money than corporate men were getting. 

I learned a great deal of history as well. This paragraph will read a bit like a list, but I’d love to whet your appetite to read the title.  I didn’t know that the Nazi’s attempted to weaponize women’s hats and fashion. I learned about the circumstances that surrounded the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the tragic loss of life. For someone who wielded her fashion plates with aplomb, I was also delighted by the history of American fashion as it were - the spying, the thievery, the high stakes copying in Paris. I was unaware of Eleanor Roosevelt’s involvement in its development. Having just visited the Andy Warhol museum for the first time - I was especially interested in reading about his early shoe work for department stores. Other prominent names involved in this era include: Salvador Dali, L. Frank Baum, Amelia Earhart, Jackie Cochran, Christie Brinkley, and Mary Tyler Moore. The history of mannequins and decorated windows are a part of this book. I have vague memories of decorated windows in Pittsburgh department stores.) One mannequin designer often took one of his favorites to social events! I read about the first paper catalog created by Geraldine Stutz to help keep her store relevant. (Evoking for me memories of the yearly arrival of the JCPenney Christmas Catalog) Finally, Satow outlines the advent of the discount department store - Walmart, Kmart, etc. and of course shopping malls are also explored here.  These signaled the demise of the department stores. The fall of these department stores and the change in the careers of these three women are also explored. The loss of actual historical buildings like that of Bonwit Teller was a tragic consequence. 

Satow concludes that the three ladies that she has featured as trailblazing  (2 of whom devoted their entire careers to keeping their stores relevant) would not be overly sad at the demise of the traditional department store. In part because so many other opportunities for women to advance in the corporate world exist now. She also suggests they might be pleased with the democratization of American fashion through avenues like Etsy and social media.I might also add that the current uptick in the appreciation of vintage fashion might be pleasing for the ladies as well. I am new to vintage shopping but am enjoying exploring the clothes from the very eras that this book features. I love having time to create a “fit” that features a vintage piece in what I would consider an updated way. Perhaps now, I can picture myself in the dressing room of one of these upscale department stores just taking it all in. I appreciate Julie Satow’s When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion - excellently researched, well written, informative, and for me memory evoking. Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the Advanced Reader Copy

Book cover When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow

Shelterwood - Lisa Wingate

Genre - Historical & Contemporary Fiction

The kids from Lisa Wingate’s upcoming novel Shelterwood could (probably should) break our hearts. Set in Oklahoma, Wingate maintains two timelines. In 1909 Olive and Nessa are on the run from the man who has drugged their mother and molested their sister. Olive will demand a different life moving forward - if she can just get back to her childhood home in the mountains. The struggle to stay ahead of the evil ones, to earn money, to eat - banding with other lost kids and trying to survive is suspensefully portrayed. In 1990, park ranger Valerie Borden-Odell is assigned to the same Oklahoma wilderness. She is contending with a devastating burial site with three sets of bones, a missing teenage boy and his missing grandmother, and a mystery in the woods that is endangering her officers. The presence of Kate Barnard, Oklahoma’s first elected female official - Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections -  looms large in life in 1909 and in spirit in 1990. She worked for the children - pushing for child labor laws and for the property rights of native children and more. I have been reading of the lives of historical women lately who have often been overlooked. This book fits right in. 

Wingate expertly weaves these two stories together using alternating chapters throughout the novel. Each chapter leaves us with a question to take to the next - so well done. The whole time I read, I was trying to make the right connections. The parallel elements are simultaneously delightful and devastating. In each timeline older women are working against very difficult odds to protect younger kids. The title Shelterwood echoes this motif in such a lovely way as they are described as older, taller trees who protect younger ones. Again and again the idea of the older generations working to protect the younger ones - and most often women - surface. Valerie thanks her mother and grandmothers for their influence in one beautiful passage.  One of the main characters from 1909 who is an elderly woman in 1990 speaks of the dreams of children and how those dreams thrived in the shadows of the trees and were fulfilled  in spite of all of the opposition. The timelines are united, and the throughline here is just so beautiful.

As so often happens these days, I am left wondering if I am doing enough in the world - to leave it better than I found it. Wingate raises so many issues - the treatment of indigenous people in our country, the treatment of orphans in general, the treatment of women, the flaws in the foster system, the need to preserve nature, trees, our environment from greed without being didactic. While we see improvements from 1909 to 1990, we can also see how much work is left to be done. Most will agree that much work remains in 2024. I have more time than many to figure out how to contribute to that work. I also like the starting over motifs. Olive is starting over again - a child responsible for other children. Again and again she is betrayed by adults in her world, but she forges ahead because she must. Valerie is starting over - really for the second time in her new job and as a single parent - who wants her son to grow up with the freedom to be exactly who he is. Time and again she could make choices to make her life easier. She doesn’t do so. She chooses the freedom to be herself. These women are strong. I have worked to be so; as time marches forward, and as I’m starting over a bit, may I continue. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book cover of Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate

The Museum of Lost Quilts - Jennifer Chiaverini

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

For me, reading The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini was like coming home. Sometimes you don’t fully understand the people you’ve missed until you come in contact with them again. And then, sigh, it’s just so comforting. Chiaverini puts a note at the end that she had to change some of the futures for our favorite characters she had previously written in  the novel she intended to be the last of The Elm Creek Quilters series. Let me raise my hand just to say that I don’t mind! Summer makes a surprising trip home to Elm Creek when she finds herself unable to complete her thesis and her masters degree. She is hoping that home and the people she loves will help her to complete the job. She quickly becomes involved in her familiar world (as does this reader 😀). She leads yoga, accepts  the position of curator for a display of historical quilts - and through her research revisits one of her favorite places, the university library. She is even battling the bad guy - Gregory Krolich and his Universal Realty in an effort to preserve the historical Union Hall. 

The characters of Elm Creek are old friends to me, I am delighted to meet up with them again. As with most friends, I was quickly back into the rhythm and remembering the individual characteristics of each and eager to hear what was new in their lives. In so many ways, Summer spoke to me this time, so I was happy to see her featured. (More later.) Chiaverini does such a good job of creating conflict and suspense in a genre that is not a thriller or even a straight up mystery. She relates directly to those of us living in communities we love and trying to do what we can to improve them. She is also excellent with infusing history into this work. Learning about the civil war has always been interesting to me and the plot points that explore the quilts of his era and their historical impact is fascinating. 

So, Summer spoke to me. I guess I am currently drawn to characters who are conflicted about the direction their lives should go. She was very committed to a path and is no longer sure that the path is right for her. Her instincts send her home to the people she has loved and trusted her whole life to try and figure things out. They give her a soft place to land, but challenge her to challenge herself.  I am blessed with friends and family who will do that for me. I am slow to make decisions and very quick to second guess them. I am grateful for the support I receive in those processes. Also, I am a retired librarian who has longed to be a museum curator. How can I not love that part of Summer’s journey? Librarians matter. Artifacts matter. History matters. Community matters. Family matters. Tradition matters.  In The Museum of Lost Quilts, Jennifer Chiaverini illustrates these and much more. Welcome back to Elm Creek. 

The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini Book Cover