Twenty-One Wishes

Finished February 9 

Twenty-One Wishes by Debbie Macomber

This volume is actually two books, the novel Twenty Wishes, and the novella The Twenty-First Wish. At the center of Twenty Wishes is Anne-Marie Roche, the owner of Blossom Street Books, in Seattle. Twenty Wishes is the fifth book in the series set on Blossom Street. The Twenty-First Wish is number 5.5 in the series but I found that the actions here came after those of the sixth book, Summer on Blossom Street, which I read a while ago. 

Anne-Marie is still recovering from the loss of her husband a year earlier. They had been estranged due to Anne-Marie's desire to have a child, something she'd agreed not to have when they married, but then had a change of mind about. They were starting to reconcile when her husband died suddenly. She has formed a small group with three other women who are widows. Elise has recently reconnected with her husband Maverick, only for him to be diagnosed with cancer. Lillie and Barbie are a mother and daughter who both lost their husbands when their plane went down on a business trip. Barbie was very close to her husband, and she and their college-age twin sons are finally beginning to move forward. Lillie didn't have a great marriage, but she pretended not to be aware of her husband's infidelity. On their Valentines Day get-together, the women decide to make lists of twenty wishes that they have for themselves, not necessarily with a definite plan, but as a way to move forward. 

We see them slowly develop these wishes, and each move forward in different ways. The story concentrates most on Anne-Marie, with Lillie and Barbie also having a fair bit of plot line. Elise is a more minor character here. 

The Twenty-First Wish is a development based on some of Anne-Marie's results to her wishes, and is definitely her story. 

I always enjoy the light romance, with some life decisions happening in Macomber's novels. And there is knitting involved again as a part of the plot, but no knitting patterns are included here. 

Improper Cross-Stitch

Finished February 6 

Improper Cross-Stitch: 35+ Properly Naughty Patterns by Haley Pierson-Cox

This fun cross-stitch design book is one I had meant to look at for some time. I had at one time had temporary access to an ebook, but it was just a sample and so I put it aside until I could get hold of the actual book. All the projects in here are small ones, and most could be done in a weekend.

The introduction gives some insight into the reason for the book and how it came to be that I found interesting. Then, the first two sections are preparation for beginners. One describes the tools used in doing crossstitch and the other gives the basics of the craft. Less useful to me as I've been doing it for quite a while, but both very well done with good pictures.

The designs are categorized into three sections: Hipster Snark; Ironically Domestic; and Talk Nerdy to Me. As you can tell from these topics, there's a lot of fun going on here. Hipster Snark includes ten patterns, with my favourite one being "Sweet Campfire Dreams", although I really liked the negative text "Nope" too. Ironically Domestic includes twelve patterns, and here my favourites are "I'll Cut You" and "Armed and Creative". Talk Nerdy to Me has ten patterns, and I really liked the "Princess Not in Need of Rescue" and "Grammar Police".

Because these patterns have a text element to them, the book also includes three complete alphabets for you to customize and even create your own designs. They are a sans-serif alphabet, a script alphabet, and a line alphabet. 

There is a section on finishing and framing that gives tips for those who want to do this final part themselves. And of course, along with that idea of DIY, there is a section on designing your own custom patterns with some good advice for creating your own simple designs.

This book is actually a lot better than I thought it might be, with only a few having profanity, and a lot of sly humour. The designs are fun and with the additional advising chapters, easy to customize for your own preferences. 

Once Upon a River

Finished February 5

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

This is a lovely story with some elements of fantasy. It takes place along a river that is both the Thames River in England and not. There are several characters and several storylines that come together.

As the story begins it is Midwinter and in the village of Radcot was an inn called The Swan. Every inn has its specialty and this one was known for its storytelling. The landlady of the inn was Margot Ockwell and the inn had been run by the women of her family for generations. Her married name was Margot Bliss, but the inn always used the old name to keep the tradition. Margot was married to a man who was a storyteller, and who had come to the inn one night from further up the river. His name was Joe. They had numerous daughters, all married and left home and a son Jonathan, who was still not grown and would always live at the inn, being a bit slow and delicate.

On this midwinter night, a figure with a monstrous looking face stumbled in carrying what appeared to be a large doll. They came around him as he dropped and realized that his face was injured and they sent someone for Rita Sunday, the midwife and healer that lived nearby. It was only after some time that they realized the thing they thought was a doll was a young girl, and that she seemed to be dead. 

They laid her carefully in the other room and Rita arrived and did her work on the man, checking him for other injuries and mending him as best she could. There were certain signs on his body that she announced indicated that he was a photographer. A card in his pocket confirmed this. Rita then went to look at the child and while she agreed that the child was dead, something kept her by her side, and then suddenly, the child was no longer dead. At this seeming miracle, she took the child in to the main room of the inn to warm. Shortly thereafter the inn closed for the night and Rita stayed to look after the two patients. 

As word spread of this event through those that had been there, Rita continued to puzzle over the situation, something she would do for many months going forward. 

There were two families that heard of the child that had been found. The Vaughans, who lived in a nearby manor house and were wealthy had their two year old daughter kidnapped two years before, and she would now be about the same age as this child. Mrs. Vaughan has been heartbroken, aching for her child and not engaging with anyone as she had before. As soon as she hears, she rushes to the inn and claims the child upon sight. 

The Armstrongs are a large farming family with an interesting history. Mr Armstrong is a black man who was supported in starting his life as an adult by his own white father. Mrs. Armstrong is a woman with a unique talent for seeing people as they truly are. Their oldest son has been a trial and they recently learned that he was a father and it would seem that this child could be his daughter. 

Another woman Lily also swears that she knows the child, as her younger sister Anne. But the woman has issues and doesn't seem to understand the impossibility of her claim, and she appears to have no desire to take the child herself. 

As the recovered photographer, Henry Daunt, and Rita join forces to look into the matter further and the story continues with interesting sidenotes over the next several months.

As this story developed, and we could see into the feelings of many of the characters, I began to care about their individual lives and stories, wanting things to work out for each one. It was all related to the storytelling in some ways too, as this story is itself. It felt like the kind of tale you'd hear around the fire in past days.

I liked the way that things converged and appreciated the epilogue that took us into the future a ways to see what happened in the near term to the various people. 

A great read.

Snow

Finished February 4

Snow by John Banville

This is the first book in a series, that is also related to another series by the author that he published under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. Here, the main character is a detective inspector with the Garda, the Irish police, and the time is late in 1957. The book begins just a few days before Christmas.

At the manor house Ballyglass, near the village of , in the county of Wexford, a priest is murdered one night. His is discovered by the woman of the house who often wanders in the night, and with the local officer under the weather, DI John Strafford is called in. Like the house owners, Strafford is Protestant, but the priest is Catholic as are most of the people who live in the area. 

The woman of the house, the second wife of the owner, Mr. Osborne is unreliable and often medicated. Osborne and his two teenage children all claim to be sound sleepers who heard nothing. The staff in the house live out, and there seems to be no forced entry. As Strafford delves in the lives of these people, and into the past of the priest, he must also look at his own life and his lack of direction, as well as deal with the power of the church, which is strong in this country. The church, it's history of coverups and abuse have a major role in this story, as they do in reality in many stories. 

The weather plays a role in the book as well, as one can guess from the title. Strafford is woefully unprepared, having only shoes and a thin coat, and he is often borrowing pieces of clothing, offered or not to venture out into the snowy landscape. The weather also affects the actions of others, from the priest staying over at the Osborne's due to the weather, to the delay in assistance arriving.

There are interesting elements of sexuality that also come up several times in the book. 

As always Banville's writing is wonderful, and this story develops slowly, with a few red herrings thrown in for the reader to consider, and a few clues that seem to lie dormant before being followed.

Strafford is an interesting character, who seems to have trouble focusing, and doesn't seem to take notes during his interviews and so loses track of what he knows. It will be interesting to see how he develops in future books.

Nowhere Is a Place

Finished February 2 

Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden

This is a book about a journey. There is a journey in a physical sense as the two main characters, Sherry and her mother Dumpling drive from her mother's home to a family reunion several states away. There is a journey into the past as Dumpling tells the story of their family and Sherry enlarges on that story, bringing it to life with new details and depth. And there is a journey of the relationship between these two women, who hadn't been close in a long time, perhaps not since Sherry was a young child, and how the story of the past laid bare the incident that came between them and gave new closeness to them, even more than Dumpling has with her other children.

This story goes back into the 19th century, with Dumpling's great grandmother, a young indigenous girl abducted from her home, separated from her siblings, and sold into slavery. We see how she gradually came to terms with her new reality, and started a family, with many losses along the way. And we follow one of her daughter's who becomes Dumpling's grandmother and starts again after the Civil War, and how her family also has loss and trouble. And then we see how Dumpling also has had to deal with issues outside of her control. And Sherry is the one bringing all these stories to life, as she also drives her mother across the country and along the way visits with a variety of people from her own past, people that helped make her the woman she is today. 

This is a book about telling our stories, even the difficult ones. And how doing that allows us to move forward into happiness and a more hopeful future. 

The Other Me

Finished January 31

The Other Me by Saskia Sarginson

This book has three timelines in it. One follows two German brothers as Nazi power is on the rise and they get enveloped into the German army, one more enthusiastically than the other.

Another timeline follows Klaudia in the mid-1980s as she struggles to keep her home and school life separate. Her father is strict and very religious and doesn't say much about his German background. Her parents met in Wales when her dad was a POW there and her mom a teenager. There is no contact with her mother's side of the family. Klaudia and her mother are close and her mother encourages her to practice her passion, dancing, even though they can't afford lessons and her father would never permit it anyway. Her father has had various low level jobs and currently works as a custodian at her school, something that would impact how Klaudia was treated by other students if it became common knowledge. 

The third timeline is the mid 1990s. Klaudia has gone away to university and reinvented herself. She has dropped out of the university her parents think she is still going to, uses a different name, Eliza, with everyone she knows and is taking dance lessons. She has even gained a boyfriend. But when a family emergency brings her home again, she doesn't know if she can tell her friends the truth, and when she learns more about her parents' past, it seems there are more secrets for her to keep. 

This was an interesting story, driven by the author's own recent revelations about her past, making her wonder "what if". I liked Klaudia/Eliza and her mother and the one brother of the two German men. But the other one inspired more complex emotions in me. I both didn't like him, and sympathized with him. 

February Reviews for the 14th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

 Use the link below to add reviews that you read during February 2021 for the 14th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge.