Book Review: The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920's Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired

The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920's Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired.  Laurie Aaron Hird. Krause Publications (2009). 256 pages. Genre: Non-fiction.

First Line: "The year 1922 lies between two important events in American history."

Summary:  In 1922, The Farmer's Wife, a popular women's magazine, posed a question to their readers: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, want her to marry a farmer?".  Cash prizes were offered to the best 68 answers submitted.  The best answers to the question are included in this book along with the quilt blocks they inspired.  

My thoughts:  I am not a quilter, but I do enjoy quilts.  My interest in this book was the letters written by women living in the rural areas of America in 1922.  I was first made aware of this contest when I came across this blog post. It includes one of the letters that was left out of the book.  I was so intrigued that I wanted to read more.  

Each page of this book includes pictures of two quilt blocks inspired by one of the letters along with a transcription of the letter.  The quilt blocks are beautiful and I was fascinated by the names given to them.  But, my favorite part of the book was the letters themselves.  

The magazine received over seven thousand responses from their readers and 94 percent of them stated that they would, indeed, want their daughters to marry a farmer.  

My heart and mind were filled with the daily details of life for the 1920's American family.  I was struck by how many of the letters mentioned time for reading as a benefit of the farm wife's life.  

"Her leisure (she really will have more than the city dweller might suppose) will be spent in delightful companionship with the good books and magazines her education will have taught her to appreciate."

"The average farmer's wife who plans her work can find a number of hours for reading, writing and social pleasures and in this day of autos and good roads, has time and opportunity for movies, concerts and lectures."

"I also am interested in dietetics, child-welfare books or magazine articles, good farm magazines, and, for recreation, books by good authors, poets and playwrights.  I probably read about eighty books per year, besides magazines."

Something else mentioned in many of the letters was the wholesomeness of life in the country.  The children would not spend all of their time away from home with their friends, but rather families spend time together and with other families.  Husbands would not be tempted by women who practiced vamping.  This was a new word to me, but the author provided definitions of some of the words that came up repeatedly and that would be unfamiliar to modern readers.  Vamping is "practicing seductive wiles on men." 

"On the farm my daughter's husband and her growing boys are more aloof from vicious allurements.  Instead of vaudeville and moonshine, they have box-social and friendly games of skat.  Vamping is very uncommon, and the necessity of birth control is not so apparent."

Many of the letters spoke about the difficulty of farm life, but they all said they wouldn't trade it for city life.  Most of them spoke of time spent outdoors.  One woman ended her letter this way:

"So, I want my daughter to marry a farmer and I want to see her in her own home on a good American farm with the cleanness and wholesomeness of country life lived close to nature, in daily intercourse with flowers and birds and bees, chickens, and cows and pigs, horses and autos and tractors, pianos, Victrolas and telephones, with all the joys and pleasures of an American home in God's wonderful out-of-doors."

Another benefit mentioned that I thought was interesting was not having to worry about keeping up with the latest fashion.

"On the farm, you are quite independent of fads and fashions.  Cotton stockings, sun-bonnets, bloomers and overalls are all right, and you feel happier than the walking fashion-plate."

I really enjoyed reading these letters.  If you are a quilter, the second half of the books gives directions for each quilt square and how to put them together.  

Book Review: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Harper (2011). 258 pages. Genre:  Non-fiction, Biography.

First Line: "'Kamila Jan, I'm honored to present you with your certificate.'"

Summary:  Kamila Sadiqi has just received her teaching certificate.  The year is 1996.  The place is Khair Khana, Afghanistan.  Kamila is the second of eleven children, nine girls and two boys.  Her country has always been at war, but woman have been free to become educated.  Mr. Sadiqi has instilled in his children the importance of obtaining an education.  

The very day Kamila receives her certificate, there are rumors that the Taliban is taking over.  Within 24 hours, Kamila's life completely changes.  Yesterday she was able to travel freely around her city wearing only a headscarf.  Today, she can leave her house only for necessities and then she must wear a full burqa and be accompanied by a chaperone or risk being beaten or killed. 

As the Taliban continues to take over, Mr. Sadiqi's life is endangered.  He retired from the Army, but he is seen as a threat to the Taliban because he served the enemies of the Taliban.  It becomes necessary for him to leave the country.  Within a few weeks his wife joins him, leaving their children in Khair Khana where it is safest for them.  Kamila is the oldest child still living at home and feels it is her duty to somehow bring in some money to help the family.  Women are not allowed to leave the house to work.  But, Kamila's older sister has a tailoring business.  While Kamila never learned to sew like her sister, she is determined to learn so that she might make suits and dresses for local shops. 

My thoughts:  The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is a riveting story.  It is told by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a reporter who met Kamila while doing research for her graduate's degree.  Her topic was women who work in war zones. She had been an ABC News Political reporter for ten years before deciding to return to school to obtain a graduate's degree.  She was adept at uncovering stories that mattered.  As she conducted her research she spent a lot of time with Kamila and would consider her a friend.  This gave her some superb insight as she wrote the story.

The first thing that struck me about Kamila was that she came from a wonderful, loving family.  With a mother and father who loved one another and their children and were very involved in one another's lives.  Her father felt strongly that all of his children should become educated and successful.  The family felt like a cohesive unit, all working together for the good of the family.  There was no hint of rivalry or teen angst of any kind.  But rather, each child was eager to help out however they could. 

When the Taliban first took over and the girls were no longer able to attend school, they spent most of the day reading books owned by their family.  The girls were voracious readers and soon read all they could from their own library.  Kamila suggested that they contact some of their friends in the neighborhood and exchange books with them.

"'She reads a lot, though I am not sure what kinds of books she likes.  We have the poetry covered; maybe she can bring some of those great Persian detective stories - I think she is addicted to them.'"

It was amazing to me that Kamila could learn to sew a dress so quickly.  Maybe this was a liberty taken by the author to move the story along, but maybe when one focuses only on that and is not distracted by television, movies and social media the learning curve is much smaller. 

Before reading this book I knew very little about the history of Afghanistan.  The author includes bits of history along with the story she is telling, which is also history, but it is history that has happened during my lifetime.  It was fascinating to hear about events, such as 9/11, from another part of the world and gain another perspective. 

Some of the themes I appreciated were family, hard work, perseverance, kindness, and following rules.

I recommend this book if you like biographies of people from other countries, if you are interested in learning what it is like to live under Taliban rule, or if you like stories about strong families.  

September Reading Wrap-Up

 

This is the view I have when I look out my front living room window.  We had some strong winds yesterday day so I think many of those leaves have fallen to the ground.  Some years the entire tree is bright orange before any leaves fall.  

During the month of September I read 10 books.  Here are the genres I read from:

Mystery/Cozy Mystery:  4

Romance: 1

Contemporary Christian Fiction: 1

Non-fiction: 2

Classic: 1

Suspense: 1

Mystery/Cozy Mystery:

Missing Pages (Secrets of Mary's Bookshop #8) by Vera Dodge - A young girl goes missing during a Fourth of July parade.  

The Pomeranian Always Barks Twice (Furever Pets Mystery #1) by Alex Erickson - This was a new to me author.  The owner of a Pomeranian is found murdered.  The main suspect is the son of our heroine.  

 

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot receives a letter urging him to come quickly.  He and Hastings make their way to France, but arrive too late.  The author of the letter has been murdered.

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross - This has been on my virtual TBR for quite a while.  Miss Julia has recently lost her husband when trouble arrives on her door step.  This was a fun, fast-paced read. Review coming soon.

 Romance:

Wishes by Jude Deveraux - This is not normally a genre I read from, but when my sister told me this was her favorite book I decided to give it a try.  I enjoyed it more than I expected to.

Contemporary Christian Fiction:

Cape Light by Thomas Kinkade - This is the first book in a series that Kinkade wrote to answer the question, "Who lives in the houses you paint?".  A story of the people who live in the town of Cape Light. Also on my TBR for a while.

Non-Fiction:

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan - A biography about the author's mother who helped support her family by entering and winning jingle contests.

The Children of Henry VIII by John Guy - Tells the story of Henry VIII's quest for a male heir.

Classic: 

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - A story of the destruction of a soul.

Suspense: 

Code of Valor by Lynette Eason - Brady St. John is spending some time alone at a friend's cabin when he hears a scream from the lake.  He is soon in the water rescuing a woman who jumped from a boat.  Now the question is who took her and why? Review coming soon.

September sure flew by.  Now we have just three months left of the year!  I will be reading some things to finish up my challenges in the coming months, but I really don't have many categories left to fill.  

What did you read in September?

Book Review: The Children of Henry VIII by John Guy

The Children of Henry VIII.  John Guy.  Audiobook. 2018. Genre:  Non-fiction, History.

Summary:  Henry VIII was not the heir to the throne as he was the second son.  His older brother Arthur was to become King when their father, Henry VII, died.  Arthur was married at the age of 15 to Catherine, the daughter of King Ferdinand of Spain.  However, just a year later Arthur died after an illness leaving Catherine a widow.  Because of the importance of an Alliance with Spain, Henry VIII, at the age of 12, was promised to marry Catherine.  However, he did not marry her until a few months after his father's death when he had become king in 1509, seven years later.

It had been brought to Henry's attention by his advisors that the best way to safeguard the Tudor Dynasty and reinforce Henry's kingship was to produce a male heir.  Unfortunately, Catherine was unable to produce the heir Henry longed for.  She did however, give birth to a healthy baby girl named Mary, who would later become the first female monarch.  Meanwhile, Henry took on several mistresses.  One of them, Elizabeth Blount, became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.  This convinced Henry that he was able to reproduce.  A few years later he became infatuated with Anne Boleyn.  However, Anne wasn't so easily convinced to have sexual relations with the king.  In fact, she refused unless he divorced Catherine and married her because then any child she produced would be heir to the throne.  Therefore, Henry declared that his marriage to Catherine had never been legitimate because she was his brother Arthur's wife before she was married to Henry.  After a battle of almost 6 years, Henry married Anne Boleyn.  Unfortunately she also was unable to produce a male heir.  She did give birth to a daughter who would later become Queen Elizabeth I.  When Henry had had enough of Anne he accused her of adultery.  She was convicted and beheaded.

Henry would marry four other women in his quest for an heir.  He was able to produce a male heir with his third wife, Jane Seymour.  He was named Edward and would ascend to the throne when Henry died.  Edward was only 9 years old when Henry died.  Edward died at the age of 14.  He was ill and before his death was able to draw up a "device", like a will, that shut out his half-sisters from succession and named his cousin Lady Jane Grey as his heir.  However, after nine days, Mary Tudor, the rightful heir to the throne, declared herself queen.  

Mary had a fierce devotion to the Catholic faith and much of her reign was taken up with fighting to eradicate Protestantism.  Even going so far as having her half-sister, Elizabeth, thrown in the tower.  She did finally release her and Elizabeth became queen after Mary's death. 

As much as Henry VIII wanted to secure the Tudor Dynasty, it would end with the death of Elizabeth.  All three of Henry's legitimate children were childless.  

My thoughts:  I became interested in learning more about Henry VIII after watching the 1966 film, A Man For All Seasons.  The film is based on a play written by Robert Bolt and deals with King Henry VIII attempting to annul his marriage to Catherine and the opposition he faced.

This book was told in narrative form and was easy to follow.  The lives of the children are included when they enter in the larger story and are interwoven with the life of Henry, as well as his wives and the struggles in the kingdom at the time.  John Guy includes quotes from other literature and documents when appropriate which makes the story more interesting.  I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Saul Reichlin who has a wonderful British accent that is perfect for this book.

If you would like to learn more about the Tudor Dynasty or England in the 16th century, I recommend this book.

Book Review: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

84, Charing Cross Road

Author:  Helene Hanff

Publisher:  Penguin (1970)

97 pages

Genre:  Non-fiction, Memoir

84, Charing Cross Road is a book written in letters that were sent between Helene Hanff and Marks & Co., an antiquarian bookseller in London.  Miss Hanff has an "antiquarian taste" in books and has difficulty finding the books she wants in New York at a reasonable price. She sees an ad for Marks & Co. in the Saturday Review of Literature and decides to write and ask if they could supply her with any of the books on her list.  

She receives a letter in return letting her know that some of the books on her list are on their way to her.  The letter is signed FPD.  So begins a relationship between Miss Hanff and Marks & Co., Booksellers.  Most of the correspondence is written by FPD, Frank Doel, on behalf of Marks & Co.  However, after Miss Hanff sends gifts to the shop, some of the other employees secretly write to her sending their thanks.  The correspondence begins in 1949 and continues through 1969.  

My thoughts:  This book has been on my TBR list for a long time.  I am so glad I finally got around to reading it!  It was an enjoyable read that left me wanting to know more about the people writing the letters.  We are given a glimpse into the personalities and lifestyles of the writers, as well as little pieces of history that affect their lives.  Miss Hanff likes to send gifts to the shop for them all to share.  She thoughtfully chooses things that might be difficult to find in London at the time such as meat and eggs.  

The book talk is fascinating as well.  Miss Hanff loves old English books and especially secondhand copies.

"I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest."

Her reading preferences:

"Wasn't anything else that intrigued me much, it's just stories, I don't like stories.  Now if Geoffrey had kept a diary and told me what it was like to be a little clerk in the palace of richard III - THAT I'd learn Olde English for."

"You'll be fascinated to learn (from me that hates novels) that I finally got round to Jane Austen and went out of my mind over Pride & Prejudice which I can't bring myself to take back to the library till you find me a copy of my own."

And this was my favorite bit about housecleaning her books:

"I houseclean my books every spring and throw out those I'm never going to read again like I throw out clothes I am never going to wear again.  It shocks everybody.  My friends are peculiar about books.  They read all the best sellers, they get through them as fast as possible, I think they skip a lot.  And they NEVER read anything a second time so they don't remember a word of it a year later.  But they are profoundly shocked to see me drop a book in the wastebasket or give it away.  The way they look at it, you buy a book, you read it, you put it on the shelf, you never open it again for the rest of your life but YOU DON'T THROW IT OUT!"

I'm not sure that I could bring myself to throw out a book either, but I will definitely give books away.  I enjoyed this short book and am glad I finally read it.

Book Review: Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich

Voices From Chernobyl:  The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Author:  Svetlana Alexievich

Publisher:  Picador (1997)

236 pages

Genre:  Non-fiction, History

First lines:  "There are no nuclear power stations in Belarus.  Of the functioning stations in the territory of the former USSR, the ones closest to Belarus are of the old Soviet-designed RBMK type.  To the north, the Ignalinsk station, to the east, the Smolensk station, and to the south, Chernobyl."

Recently, my husband and I watched the HBO Miniseries Chernobyl.  It was very well done and I highly recommend it.  It left me with a desire to learn more about this disaster.  I was in high school when it occurred and I only remember hearing something about it in the news.  I could not have told you much about it.  

As stores are slowly opening in our area, we had the opportunity to browse at our local bookstore.  My husband came across this book and we had to get it.

In Voices from Chernobyl, Svetlana Alexievich interviewed scores of people who lived through this disaster.  The words in the book are their words.  Every one of their lives was changed in some way.  Most of them lost someone they loved.  Many of them are sick themselves.  Hundreds lost their homes.  

What struck me the most was the deep passion the Russian people have for their country and their homes.  It is also very shocking to realize that much of the suffering could have been lessened if the government had not been afraid of looking incompetent in the eyes of the people.  In the Translator's Preface Keith Gessen says this:

"And it's certainly true that Chernobyl, while an accident in the sense that no one intentionally set it off, was also the deliberate product of a culture of cronyism, laziness, and a deep-seated indifference toward the general population.  The literature on the subject is pretty unanimous in its opinion that the Soviet system had taken a poorly designed reactor and then staffed it with a group of incompetents.  It then proceeded, as the interviews in this book attest, to lie about the disaster in the most criminal way."

This book will stick with me for a long time to come.  While I highly recommend the book, I don't think it would have had the same impact if I had not first watched the HBO Miniseries.  That gave me a very good understanding of the situation and what happened and this book fleshed the story out with a deeper insight into the thoughts and reactions of the people.

Quotes:

"Chernobyl is like the war of all wars.  There's nowhere to hide.  Not underground, not underwater, not in the air."

"So then I go to the military people.  They were young guys, spending six months there.  Now they're all very sick."

"And of course we were raised with a particular Soviet form of paganism, which said that man was the crown of all creation, that it was his right to do anything he wanted with the world."

"We had the psychology of oppressors.  Now everyone talks about God.  But why didn't they look for Him in the Gulag, or the jail cells of 1937, or at the Party meetings of 1948 when they started denouncing cosmopolitanism, or under Khrushchev when they were wrecking the old churches?  The contemporary subtext of Russian religious belief is sly and false."

"In those first days, there were mixed feelings.  I remember two:  fear and insult.  Everything had happened and there was no information:  the government was silent, the doctors were silent."

"In the civil defense instructions we had then, you were supposed to carry out an iodine prophylaxis for the entire population if there was a threat of a nuclear accident or nuclear attack.  That was in the event of a threat.  Here we had three thousand micro-roentgen per hour.  But they're worried about their authority, not the people."

Book Review: Tisha by Robert Specht

Tisha:  The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness

As Told To:  Robert Specht

Publisher:  Bantam (1976)

342 pages

Genre:  Non-fiction, Memoir

"I've lived in the Forty Mile country of Alaska for a long time, but even now, every so often when I'm out rock-hunting or looking for fossils, I get lost.  Sometimes I'll have to wander around for a while before I get my bearings.  That's what happened to me when I first started to think about telling this story.  I wasn't sure which direction to take, until I finally realized that the only way to tell it was the way I might have told it when I first came to Alaska."

The year was 1927.  Anne Hobbs was nineteen years old when she was offered the job of teaching school in a gold-mining settlement near Yukon Territory in Alaska.  Since the time she was a young girl, the idea of living on a frontier was exciting to her.  So, of course, she took the job.  

The story reads like a novel and tells about Anne's first year of teaching in Alaska.  It begins with the journey to Chicken and ends when the school year has finished.  The journey was much more difficult than she imagined.  And when she arrived in Chicken and was shown to her living quarters, she was confronted with an empty room and had to ask the women escorting her if she could have a bed.  Thankfully, it was just an oversight and a bed was brought right away.  

As Anne begins teaching classes at the one-room school, she is confronted with some things she didn't expect.  One is that the school is intended only for white children.  So when she invites a native child into the classroom, many of the townspeople are upset and tell her she can't do that.  Another is that some of the "old-timers" drop by and sit in on class.  This doesn't create much of a problem and the children find their stories interesting.  Throughout the year, Anne is confronted with the prejudice that is rampant in the area.  She tries to do what she feels is right, even if it means she won't be allowed to teach next year. 

I enjoyed this story.  I learned much about Alaska including the harshness of the winters and how people survive during them.  I found Anne's teaching style interesting and some of the things she  did reminded me of when I was homeschooling my children.  She understood that if they were to learn, they needed to be interested in what they were doing.  This led her to create a project that they could all work on together that involved making a map of Chicken and learning the history of the town.  

At the beginning of the story, I felt like I was missing something.  There wasn't much information given about Anne before this year of teaching which left me feeling like I had entered the story in the middle.  I would have liked to know a little more about Anne before she went to Alaska.  But that was a minor thing and didn't take too much away from the narrative. 

If you are looking for an adventure story with a female heroine, or would like to know more about Alaska in the 1920's, I recommend this book.

Book Review: The Great Fire by Jim Murphy

The Great Fire

Author:  Jim Murphy

Publisher:  Blackstone Audio (2003)

Narrated by Taylor Mali

3 hours (approx.)

Genre:  Juvenile Nonfiction

The Great Fire is the story of the 1871 fire that destroyed a large portion of Chicago.  Author Jim Murphy combines first hand accounts and careful research to create a narrative that is hard to forget.  We are able to follow several individuals through the course of the fire based on their first hand accounts.  The author fills in the missing details based on his research and what was learned about the fire after the fact.  

It was interesting to learn how human carelessness combined with the right conditions led to the fire being much worse than it needed to be.  But equally interesting was how people helped one another in the midst of the fire and how quickly things were rebuilt once the fire was extinguished.  

While this is considered a children's book, I found that it had just the right amount of information for me.  I think that anyone, middle school age and up would find this compelling.  I listened to the audio book version narrated by Taylor Mali.  I enjoyed his reading and use of different voices for the individuals in the story.