Airplane Reading (Weekend Reads)

With two trips involving planes and airports and no kids lately I've managed to get quite a bit of reading done. Even when I travelled for my corporate life I spent my flight reading, including the trips where my boss was sitting next to me. I eschew carry-on luggage for the sake of a good book and a cup of tea.

The first book I finished was The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman. I really wanted to like this book. A midwife with a history, birthing in the mining communities of West Virginia with the backdrop of the Depression and the KKK looming. Sounded captivating, or at least promising. I love good storytelling in my novels. In the end, though, I only found it kind of meh. 

In all honesty, I thought the book needed a better editor. There were great elements of story here, but they got lost in irrelevant details. Some tightening up and a few clarifications and the book would have been great. Focus. Just like Patience, the main character, would tell her moms in labour, focus please.

Just this morning I finished Mister Roger and Me by Marie Renee Lavoie. I lingered in bed, leaving my husband to the kids and drank in the last few pages of this novel. A girl on the cusp of growing up, a seedy city neighbourhood, and a gaggle of sad characters so funny it was sad. This is the novel I dream of writing if I was to capture my own anxieties of being a kid. Maybe that's why I loved it so much?


I truly wonder what it would have been like to read it in the original French because the English translation was funny, eloquent, and full of little twists of language that made this about the writing as much as the story. And the story, while sad and depressing for the most part, was honest. A girl with a desire to do nothing more than live, and live with interest and independence, is matched with a neighbour, Mister Roger, who is running towards his death. They are match in sarcasm and in attitude. Maybe that's why I loved it so much?

Regardless, it was a fantastic read. Well worth the loss of leg room on a plane.

Under This Unbroken Sky (Weekend Reads)

About the only time I read is right before bed. I snuggle under the quilts, a cup of warm almond milk with honey in hand and the book that generally lives beside the bed. Some nights I manage to make it through more than 2 pages before falling asleep. But if I don't grab those two pages I usually can't sleep. The next night I inevitably need to read one of those pages over to remind myself what happened.

You can see why it takes me a while to get through a book, at least since having my baby boy. Either through some miracle or because of good books, I've managed to get through two novels already this year! Two! The latest finish is Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell.

A friend loaned me this book solely on the premise that the story is about Ukrainian immigrants settling on the Prairies. Why, that's my background! No, I wasn't a settler, but my Dad was, after WWII. The setting, the descriptions of the home, the land, the people hit quite close to home for me. I saw my Baba in the women of the novel, both my Dad and my Dido in the men. I imagined the joy of a heart shaped rock in the children in the one room school house located uphill in both directions. I felt the dirt of the frozen floor.

I wonder if it was Mitchell's writing or my own experiences clouding the read. I mean, I've been on the farm my Dad's family settled and the quiet, tiny, drafty "cabin" they lived in. It was nestled on the edge of some trees, with a view to a massive stack of wood (for the stove), a slough, and the start of the farmland. Oh, how I hated going to that farm as a kid. So backwards, so scary. Now, however, I totally appreciate the labour, the hardship, the opportunity that cabin and farm provided. It only took me 25 years to get there.

This is also a story that goes beyond the hardship of settlement and tackles the struggles of family - abuse, alcoholism, mental illness, and sibling relationships. Or maybe that is still the story of settlement? There are painful, cringeworthy and heartbreaking scenes in the book that literally make you gasp and hold your stomach. There are joyous and beautiful moments of love that make you want to get up and dance.

Mitchell's writing is haunting. She captures turns of phrases familiar to this Ukrainian, she describes the farm in a way that has you digging out the dirt under your fingernails. And she captures the emotions of the characters so well too - one day you love one, the next day you want to smack the petulant child, and the day after that you desperately want to correct his confusion.

I'm a sucker for good storytelling, and this novel is it. Is it any wonder I managed to finish it in less that a month with my bedtime routine?

Quilting Magazines (Weekend Reads)

There is no denying that I have a bit of a magazine problem. I LOVE reading magazines. At one point in my life I subscribed to at least a half dozen, faithfully reading and mentally indexing issues. Then I was broke, then I had kids. Magazine reading fell away. There was also that storage issue. Lately, however, I've been flipping the pages again.

These two quilting magazines are some recent favourites. I enjoy quilting magazines that are heavier on the articles relative to the patterns. Quilty is a fresh face on the scene, run by the effervescent Mary Fons. And look, that's Amanda's quilt on the cover of one of the latest issues! And starting soon you'll find me in there. I'm writing regularly for the magazine and I'm thrilled to be part of the team.

The other magazine in this week's stack in A Quilt Life, a Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson creation, published by American Quilter's Society. I have to say that I really, really like this magazine. And I'm not just saying that because Amanda and I are in the latest issue. This is a quilt magazine that you actually read. Full of profiles of quilters, with the stories behind the creations, behind the creativity. Even the patterns include quilter's stories.

Speaking of patterns, the one we've got in this issue marked the opportunity for Amanda and I to work together again. It had been a while and it was so much fun! This is another scrappy project, completely inspired by our recent renos (hers and mine). Amanda pieced the quilt just from the concept of a Paint Chip, then she sent the quilt to me and I quilted and bound it. It is an easy and fun pattern, and you could go crazy picking colours to match your own reno.

The Red House (Weekend Reads)

Well, I did manage to get a bit of reading done on our recent vacation. Not as much as I expected, but that's okay. I only got the chance to read during N's naps. But that would also be the time Hubby and I had alone so we often spent those three hours on our balcony chatting and drinking beer. I brought 3 books with me and only finished the one I'd started before we left: The Red House by Mark Haddon.

Haddon is a writer and artist. Take some time explore his works and blog. Fascinating at times, honest, and visually quite inspiring, especially for us quilters.

I was really looking forward to this book. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is one of my all-time favourite novels, also by Haddon. But the writing style that is so perfect for that novel was not as great when it came to The Red House. It is written from the point of view of every single character, jumping from each one constantly. Rather frenetic and it takes some getting used too. Kind of like reading thought bubbles in a comic book. Effective in telling the character's story, which is what this novel is about.

This is a novel of family history, family drama. There are certainly parts that many readers could identify with, and others that seemed completely incredulous. Then again, I'm not a hormonal teenage boy (one of the characters). It is also a novel of shortcomings, that is, of the characters discovering, accepting, and trying to overcome their own. It is like Modern Family without any of the humour.

It is a compelling read, perhaps not for vacation, but still worth finishing.

I refuse to waste my time finishing books I don't find interesting. I've got little time to enjoy reading so I like to make the most of it. It took me years to come to this conclusion but I am much happier for it.

Thank-you so much for the book recommendations too. I've read a number of the novels you suggested and have noted the others for 2013 reading.