The Gown

Finished August 24
The Gown by Jennifer Robson

I'd bought this a while back and been meaning to read it for ages. I took it on my vacation as I knew I would likely pass it on to one of my stitching friends I was going to be spending time with. It was even better than I hoped.
The main characters in the novel are two young women working at the Norman Hartwell workshop. Ann Hughes answered an advertisement in 1939 when she was fourteen and had no stitching experience at all. In fact, that was one of the reasons that she was hired, as she had no bad habits to unlearn. Now, in her twenties, she is one of the senior embroiderers. During her employment, her parents have passed away, and her brother was killed in the war. As the book opens, she is living with her brother's widow in the council house she grew up in. Money is tight and she is faced with new challenges as her sister-in-law considers joining her brothers who have emigrated to Canada.
Miriam Dessin is a young French woman who has lost her family in the war, and is now looking for a fresh start in another country. She had worked at the Christian Dior workshop in Paris, and is highly skilled, but it is only as she takes a huge risk that she is able to find a job using her skills in England.
Shortly after Miriam starts as the workshop, Hartwell is vying for the job of creating the wedding dress for Princess Elizabeth. This event will be an uplifting one for the nation after the privations and losses of the recent war, and they want it to be a huge success. Ann, with the assistance of Miriam are given the job of making Hartwell's designs come to life. They are under immense pressure, not only for the work itself, but for secrecy about the design.
The stories of these skilled young women was wonderful, and the author credits an encounter with the journalist Heather Mackenzie, who connected her with one of the real-life embroiderers of the wedding gown, Betty Foster, for being able to supply the details that made the story what it is.
This is a fantastic read, for the history, but also for anyone who does handwork.

The Islanders

Finished August 23
The Islanders by Meg Mitchell Moore

This story takes place on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island, and follows several characters, each dealing with their own challenges. Anthony Puckett is a writer whose first novel made huge sales and won critical acclaim. His next novel put him under pressure, and when working one particular section he used something written by a long-dead author, always intending to go back and replace it with something he'd written, but he was outed by one of the advance readers, and this caused huge fallout including his wife kicking him out. He's taken refuge in a small cottage on the island owned by the elderly uncle of a friend. He's desperately missing his young son Max, and feeling shut out by his famous author father Leonard. He's using a fake last name to keep his privacy.
Joy Sousa is a single mom of a young teen girl, Maggie. Her husband left when Maggie was very young, and she's made a life for herself running a shop on the island that sells Whoopie Pies. But now, her landlord is upping the rent, her daughter is less sharing than she used to be, and her ex-husband has reentered Maggie's life. She's definitely feeling the stress.
Lu Trusdale was a successful lawyer until she resigned after having her second child. She's been a stay-at-home mom for a few years, with the family running a tight budget as her husband gets his medical practice started, and he works long hours. Lu wasn't finding fulfillment without some form of outside work, and she's secretly been writing a food blog. Now it is starting to be successful, her husband is pressuring her for a third child, and she must finally step out of the shadows and reveal what she wants to those close to her.
There is lots going on here, and with a small community there is interaction between all these characters. I really enjoyed the various storylines, and liked how they came together.

You, Me and The Sea

Finished August 22
You, Me and the Sea by Meg Donohue

Merrow Shawe has had an unusual life, Now, she's about to marry the man she loves and things should be feeling good, so why is she suddenly feeling haunted by the past she's left behind. This novel starts with the present, and then takes us back into Merrow's childhood, where she grows up without answers around her mother's death, neglected by her father, and abused by her older brother, Bear. Merrow's parents met in the 1960s when her father Jacob came west to find his future. Her mother, Marigold, was living in a commune called the Freedom Collective near San Francisco, and Jacob joined it too. After a few years, Jacob had saved enough money from his other work off commune to buy a property called Horseshoe Cliff near Osha, a small hippie town. They grew much of their own food, and made a life together. But Marigold died when Merrow was just a baby, and her father doesn't talk about her. A neighbor named Rei, an older Japanese woman, helps out with taking their produce and handcrafted creations to sell in the city. She brings food and provides advice. When Merrow is five, her father gives her a dog that she grows very close to, and when she is nine, he leaves one day, and comes back with Amir, a young boy from India, the adopted son of her mother's best friend who has recently died. Amir and Merrow grow very close, but Bear's abuse grows stronger and now includes Amir as well.
As Merrow and Amir struggle with an increasingly difficult home life, a way out presents itself, and Merrow finds herself considering it.
As we gradually learn what has brought Merrow to the point in her life that was introduced at the beginning, we also find her internal struggles for those she loves.
A great read.

Death in Provence

Finished August 17
Death in Provence by Serena Kent

This mystery features the divorced Penelope Kite, a British woman who took early retirement from her job in forensics at the Home Office. Since her retirement, her stepchildren have been relying heavily on her as an unpaid babysitter for her grandchildren and showing little appreciation for her time. She wants to take time for her own interests, for the life she wants to live. Part of that is a life in the French countryside, and she's found the perfect fixer-upper.
Unfortunately, on her first morning at her new home, she finds a man face down in her sadly neglected swimming pool.  Was he the same man who accused her of living on his property the evening before? He seems to be, but her knowledge of forensics makes her question this. As she meets the others in her village and spends a lot of time with her real estate agent as she deals with issues arising from the crime on her property, she also begins to consider what she will do with her time in her new home.
This was an enjoyable read. I liked Penelope and how she is learning to find a place for herself in her new environment. She's finally coming into her own life. The mystery of the dead man, and subsequent worrying events are intriguing and stretch into the village's past.

The Maker

Finished August 16
The Maker: Crafting a Unique Space by Tamara Maynes with Tracy Lines, photography by Eve Wilson

This inspiring book looks at a variety of creative pursuits
The book has a handmade feel, with a thick board cover and rounded corners.
The first section talks about a wide variety of creative pursuits readers may want to explore and gives short descriptions of each. These are; applique, basketry, ceramics, chair caning, embroidery, fabric dying and printing, felting, glass blowing, knitting, leaded glasswork, leatherwork, macrame, metalwork, papercraft, quilting and patchwork, rug hooking, sculpture, shade making, tapestry weaving, upholstery, willow bending, wirework, and woodwork.
This is followed by more in-depth chapters on a number of these. Each chapter includes quotes from people doing this type of work, examples of a variety of work in this area, a short interview with a maker, and complete instructions for a project.
Wall Art includes a project for a metal wall hanging. Objects includes a project for a wire sculpture. Textiles includes a project for a woven table runner. Ceramics includes a project for a no fire clay vessel. Lighting includes a project for a woodworked light box, and Furniture includes a project for a marquetry table top.
These chapters are followed by a discussion on craftsmanship, sustainable making, raw materials for making, space for making, design, and reworking.
The book ends with a list of various tools, with images and some ideas of makers to follow.
I loved the layout, and found that it make trying out some of these creative pursuits very approachable. The projects chosen don't require a lot of financial outlay or specialized tools, and are good starting points for a beginner.

13th Canadian Book Challenge September Roundup

Post the reviews for the books you read this month here.

A Single Thread

Finished August 11
A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier

This historical novel is set between the wars, in the early 1930s. Violet Speedwell is in her late thirties, working as a typist for an insurance company. She's recently moved out of her mother's house in Southampton to Winchester, where she rents a room in a boarding-house. After her father's death, she found it increasingly difficult to deal with her mother. Violet's older brother George was killed in the Great War, soon followed by her fiance Laurence. Her younger brother Tom did his stint in the war, but came back changed and is now married with a couple of children. Violet has been feeling more and more like her life has no meaning.
She relishes her independence, but finds it hard to live on her meagre salary. She shares the office with two younger women who chat and giggle about the young men they are seeing, and treat her with a pitying respect. Violet is drawn to the cathedral, which is much more magnificent inside than it is out, and tries to stop in regularly.
As the book begins, she's stepped out of work on an errand and finds a service about to begin. She forces her way into the seated group of women, and finds that they are embroiderers who have created the first of many planned batches of kneelers for the cathedral and the service is to accept this offering of work. Violet doesn't have fond memories of her own failed tries at embroidery under her mother's tutelage, but one of the women reaches out to her in a friendly way, and soon Violet finds herself a part of the group, learning how to do the expected stitching and finding a community for herself. This is a story of a woman who, after a period of suspension of her life, finds a new way forward, confident in what she has to offer and brave enough to take what she wants when the opportunity arises.
I liked Violet and her courage to find a new life for herself, and I loved the embroidery theme of the novel, based on real people and a real embroidery project. The characters were interesting and I liked the way the story unfolded.

Mrs

Finished August 8
Mrs. by Caitlin Macy

This was a very interesting read, told from a number of viewpoints. The character at the center of the novel is Philippa Lye a woman married to a man who owns a small family investment bank, one of the last of its kind in New York City. She hasn't joined the usual group of gossipy mothers when she drops her children off at the private school, seemingly oblivious to the expectations of her set. She does her own thing, seems a bit distracted, but nice.
Gwen Hogan knew Philippa back when they were children, and knows some of her past. Gwen had her own career as a chemical engineer, but now is a stay-at-home mom, with a husband who works as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office. They married relatively young, just out of college. She recognizes Philippa at the school, and is friendly, but she is also a bit of an outsider, with less money than most of the other parents, and a scholarship daughter who is smarter than most children her age.
When a new child begins attending mid-year, they all take note, as this is highly unusual. The mother, Minnie Curtis, is unusual too, wealthy but very open about her humble background. She, too, seems oblivious of the rules, and tries to hard to connect with the others,
As we see the dynamics between the women and their husbands, picking and dropping up kids, attending school events and children's parties, we begin to see the issues that are coming.
Gwen's husband Dan is investigating Minnie's husband, which may lead to others, and Gwen sees Philippa's distractedness as a vulnerability that Philippa herself seems unaware of.
This is a slow read, character-driven, with some very interesting situations.

Beautiful Bad

Finished August 5
Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward

This psychological suspense novel has three timelines. One takes place on an evening when an emergency call is received at a suburb in Kansas starting with the call. One begins decades before when Maddie worked overseas teaching and writing and first met her now-husband Ian. The other is recent events taking place in Maddie's life, particularly her time with a therapist, leading up to the call she makes.
Maddie always wanted to escape her boring life growing up in small town Kansas. She studied languages, and began working at various jobs overseas. She met her best friend Jo at school where the two connected instantly. Jo became an aid worker, and as their story develops from a time where Jo was working in Macedonia and Maddie in nearby Bulgaria, we see how their estrangement began. It was there they met a number of young men in the British military, one of whom Ian developed a relationship with both women, eventually marrying Maddie as we know from the more recent timeline.
This is another story with unreliable narrators, where we aren't sure who to trust. Why is Jo angry with Maddie, and what happened between them to create the later rift. Do Ian's military and para-military experiences lead him to have violent tendencies? How does his PTSD affect him? What is Maddie's life like with her husband and young son? What happened the night they were camping?
There's a lot going on here, and a lot of uncertainty. All you really know is that something bad has happened, and it isn't over yet.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Finished August 3
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

This novel has several storylines surrounding the title character. Nina is in her late twenties, living in a small apartment in the Larchmont area of Los Angeles. She works at a bookstore in the neighbourhood, running a number of programs there including storytimes and a girls' book club. She is a collector of trivial facts and belongs to a competitive trivia team. She has a small circle of close friends, uses her organizer with dedication, and has conversations with her Phil, her cat. Nina suffers from anxiety sometimes and she is about to have a lot of new experiences.
Nina's mother is an journalist who travels widely internationally. Nina has been told that her mother wasn't sure who her father was, and so has never known anything about that side of her family. Once she got to be too big to be carried around on her travels by her mother, she was settled in Los Angeles with a nanny, who she thinks of as a second mother.
As the book opens Nina is approached by a man who says that he is a lawyer for her late father. Her father kept his promise to her mother never to approach her, but she is mentioned in his will, and she has several siblings, nieces and nephews, and other family. This is a shock to Nina, and a bit overwhelming as she gradually meets the various family members. Some of them she quite likes, and others she isn't so sure about.
Nina also sees a man on a trivia team her team matches wits with that intrigues her. Her fellow team members notice and encourage her to make a move. Again, she's not sure.
The bookstore that Nina works in is struggling financially, but her boss and co-worker Liz seems to be handling it, except for the landlord interactions.
As Nina's life absorbs this new information and she considers making changes to her life, she begins to consider her own behaviours and thinks about why she is the way she is.
I really liked this book, especially because I can relate to Nina on several levels. It was a fun read.