Book of the Month: February

My favorite book for February was The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish.  It is the story of Ester Velasquez who lived in the 1600s in London's Jewish community. She was quite a compelling character. After having lost her entire family she begins to secretly be a scribe for a blind rabbi. This type of work is unthinkable for a woman of that era. Her intelligence and her job must be kept quiet in order to maintain her standing in the community as well as keep open her marriage prospects. Ester wasn't interested in marriage because she knew no husband would allow her to continue her reading.  She thought that she could somehow make herself a life of intellectual activity but I won't tell you whether she succeeded or not. Read the book!

I began reading C. J. Sansom's Tombland which could have been a contender for book of the month but its 900 pages have me still reading it all the way into March. 

Siddhartha

Siddhartha is another book from my high school days that I loved. I have wanted to reread it for a while and the Read it Again Sam Reading Challenge gave me the opportunity.

Hermann Hesse began writing Siddhartha in 1919 and finished it in 1922. He was fascinated with India as his parents had lived there as Christian missionaries. He even tried to travel to India to live but became ill on the ship in Southeast Asia and returned to Switzerland where he had been living. The book was immediately successful in his native Germany but he probably never thought that it would become popular with the hippie culture of 1960s America.

The story begins with Siddhartha going on a spiritual journey with his best friend Govinda where they eventually meet Gautama Buddha. Govinda stays with the Buddha and becomes his disciple but Siddhartha leaves, still in search of finding his true self. He continues to be a self-denying samara until he figures out how to be made whole. Just when Siddhartha finds himself he meets a woman named Kamala. Kamala is a prostitute who Siddhartha falls in love with but she will have nothing to do with him as he has no money, fine clothes or possessions. Siddhartha gives up his samara ways, gets a job with a merchant and and becomes one of Kamala's lovers. He becomes wealthy, buying a house and a garden. After 20 years he leaves her as he realizes that he has changed from what he has sought to be his whole life. He does not recognize his soul.

He begins to walk back to where he originally started from and runs across Govinda. Govinda does not recognize him. They have a short talk and then Govinda leaves him. Siddhartha comes across a boatman he met 20 years ago and finds him to have become wise from the river that he plies his trade from. Siddhartha moves in with him and regains his soul. There is more to the story but for Siddhartha he has learned that he had to err in life in order to find wholeness.

While this book was written 100 years ago it is still relevant today.  The character Siddhartha found that there was no happiness in following the ideas of others, that you must find it within yourself. After he endured a period of suffering Siddhartha was able to pull himself up out of his pit and make a new life for himself. There is a lesson for us all here.

Siddhartha is a short 80 page book whose words flow beautifully making it a wonderful read. I highly recommend it.

The Weight of Ink

The Weight of Ink won the Book Club Award from the National Jewish Council in 2017.  It's chapters alternate between the stories of two women, one living in the 1660s and one in the 2000s. Ester Velasquez was an immigrant to London from Amsterdam and was permitted to be a scribe for a blind rabbi for a period of time before the plague hit the city.  Helen Watt was a historian who ran across some newly discovered Jewish documents from the 1600s that had been kept hidden in a storeroom under the staircase of a London mansion.

The Weight of Ink is not for the faint of heart. It is 560 pages long and it is not a light read. What keeps the reader interested is primarily the incredible character Ester. You want to know how life turned out for her who had a rough start in life. She lost her entire family while she was young, in separate incidents, and then was sent by her Amsterdam community to London to live with a stranger, Rabbi Moseh HaCoen Mendes. The Rabbi becomes her mentor which puts her at risk. Women in that era were not supposed to be educated, let alone work as a scribe, and doing so affected their marriage prospects.  Ester was required by society to hide her intelligence. Helen Watt is a less compelling character. She suffers from Parkinson's Disease and is near retirement age. Consequently, she needed help in studying the documents that she found as quickly as possible so that she could publish a paper about them before her retirement. She hired a Jewish American student, Aaron Levy, to assist her. She is somewhat similar to Ester in that she must kowtow to younger male historians at her college who are always ready to take any advantage over her that they can. Ester, however, is the reason you will want to read this book.

Since Ester is scribing for a blind rabbi the novel is heavy on Jewish theology and Jewish heresies of the time period. Secular philosophies of the era are also discussed. The history of London's Jewish community is also shown in great detail.

It took me awhile to finish this book but it was a satisfying read. I am both glad and sad that I have finished reading it! I am happy to be done with it but sad that this lovely story is over. The author, Rachel Kadish, is an incredibly talented writer. This is her third book.

Way over 5 out of 5 stars!

Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches

Carole Samples' book is the go-to guide for crazy quilters seeking new stitches and stitch combinations for their quilts.

I had been doing crazy quilting for a few years when I first learned about Carole Samples out of print book. All of my crazy quilting education came from blogs at that time and 3 years into my crazy quilting experience one blog post mentioned this book as having every stitch and stitch combination imaginable within its pages.  I found a copy and was amazed at what I found inside.

This book is very different from other crazy quilting instruction books. It does not have stitch instructions or pretty pictures to get inspired by. What it does have is quite helpful for the intermediate or advanced crazy quilter who is looking to expand her stitch repertoire.  The book shows every stitch on black and white pages by stitch category, ie, single stitch, fan stitch, holbein, comb, alphabet, T, triangle, geometric, cross stitch, stem stitch, star, herringbone, arrowhead, chevron, fern, zig zag, fishbone, satin stitch, blanket, buttonhole, feather, cretan, and chain stitch. The book then shows numerous examples of stitch combinations.  When the title says the book is a "treasury of stitches" it is telling the truth!

If you want to advance in your crazy quilting craft then you need this book to help you see new ways of doing common stitches.  It helps you to be creative in your embroidery on your crazy quilt top.

I would rate this book 10 of of 5 stars! That is how fantastic it is. As I said above, this book is out of print. However, you can still find it on Amazon as well as Ebay.  It is a must have for the crazy quilter.

12th Annual Graphic Novel and Manga Challenge

I am rejoining this challenge again despite having to post review links on Facebook. I prefer to keep my Facebook separate from my book reviews for personal and business reasons. However, I read a lot of graphic novels each year and it would be foolish not to join the challenge and meet other readers and see their reviews.

To ensure that I can meet challenge requirements I will join at the Modern Age level which is the smallest reading level.  It requires that 12 books be read throughout the 2019 calendar year.

Murder by Misrule

Murder by Misrule is Anna Castle's first book in her Francis Bacon Mystery Series. Francis Bacon is a 25 year old new barrister at Gray's Inn who is tasked by his uncle, Lord Burghley, to find out who killed fellow barrister Tobias Smythson in Westminster. Smythson had been working with Bacon's uncle to get information on the Catholics in the country, particularly the Jesuits who may have been bringing unlawful pamphlets into the country. With Mary Stuart condemned to die, England's Catholic citizens were in turmoil and Queen Elizabeth wanted to stamp out their rebellion. Smythson's death meant that the three law students he tutored needed to find someone new. The student's leader,Thomas Clarady, picked Bacon and Clarady primarily assisted Bacon in the investigation.

The mystery formula was followed here with the murder occurring early in the novel and the suspects and red herrings being in their proper order. The fact that the story took place in 1586 was secondary to the solving of the crime. Murder by Misrule, while a historical mystery, followed the formula of a straight mystery not the formula of a historical mystery.

I found the novel to be enormously entertaining. I was engaged in the plot from the first chapter. It had a light feel to it similar to a cozy mystery which made it a fast read.  The Francis Bacon character was interesting. As a 25 year old he had a brilliant mind but was a bumbling young man who had made some major political mistakes in his career. This is not how I remember him from history but everyone has to start somewhere.

Murder by Misrule was a pleasant surprise. I didn't know what to expect since I had never heard of the author before. Now I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Book of the Month: January

My top book for the month of January is The Sisters of Versailles. Based on a true story, this historical fiction novel presents the bizarre story of the five Mailly Nesle sisters, four of whom had affairs with Louis XV.

While the background of the story was about sex, it did not go into detail about the sex itself. The book showed the differences between the sisters' personalities and how each of their strengths, or vanities, propelled them toward Louis and power in his Court.

They loved backstabbing each other like no other characters you have ever read about before. They grew up on the poor side of aristocracy but had an incredible zest for power and had an innate sense on how to obtain it.  They mesmerized me.

I have already read book two of this trilogy.  It was good but I don't think the mistresses in book 2 can beat the ones in book 1 for their political and sexual maneuvers. I will soon be getting the third novel and conclude reading this delicious trilogy.

The Splendor Before the Dark

The Splendor Before the Dark is the sequel to Margaret George's The Confessions of Young Nero.  The story begins when Nero is 26 and has been emporer for 9 years.  It covers a 4 year period of time which is also the last 4 years of Nero's life.

The story opens with Nero helping to put out the Great Fire of Rome.  Here he is a benevolent ruler with concern for the poor citizens as well as the rich citizens of Rome. His political and administrative skills are top notch.

Rumors begin to circulate that Nero started the fire which wasn't true because he was out of town when it started. He brushes the rumors aside initially because all emporers have to deal with them. Nero sets about to rebuild Rome with grand public features even though some wealthy citizens will have to be displaced to make room for them. The houses will be grander and the placement of them will be organized into a beautiful city plan. The rumors become more intense that Nero started the fire so that he could rebuild the city and he decides that he can no longer ignore them. He comes up with a plan to blame the Christians for the fire.

The author presents a Nero who loved to stage plays, play music, engage in athletics and compose lyrics. He is a man who fiercely loved 2 women. Acte is the girl he grew up with and who knew him as he really was, not as an emporer. He adored his wife of 2 years, Poppaea. When she died he was devastated. This is a sensitive man, not the man of history that we have come to know, except for the part about blaming and punishing the Christians by burning, crucifixion and feeding them to beasts.

While I enjoyed the book in the beginning, it was slower reading than the first book The Confessions of Young Nero. It was a little wordy and less exciting than Confessions. It took me 6 weeks to read it! In addition, I don't remember Nero being such a nice guy in the first book. He had to become evil in order to survive his family.  The family was rough. They killed each other for power. There seems to be a missing link between what Nero was like at the end of book 1 and what he was like in book 2. Am I missing something here?  Did becoming emporer free him to be himself or did being the only surviving member of the family free him? I am just speculating.

Margaret George is well known for her research on the people she writes about.  It is confusing to me that she gives us a nice Nero. Nero is not known historically as a nice person. She shows us Nero as a human being and explains in the Afterward that most of what we know about Nero was written by his enemies who had an agenda to destroy his reputation.  However, she whitewashes the treatment he ordered against the Christians by preferring to focus on his leisure activities both before and after he made decisions to torture and kill them. This did not sit well with me. Most of the book was about Nero finding time to be an artist. If he was truly just an artist, why does she need to end the book with his successor killing everyone associated with him? He does not sound like a benevolent ruler here and it seems that she left out many of his ruthless actions as emporer.

She explains in her Afterward that she agrees with the historian Edward Champlain that Nero's actions were rational and that much of what he did resonated with contemporary social attitudes. She further stated that the Christians may have started the Great Fire in order to bring about the end times which is exactly what Nero believed and was the reason he persecuted them. However, she writes in the novel that they had no involvement in the fires but writes in the Afterward that they may have. In addition, she states that no one knows how widespread the persecution was and that the Christians may not have known about it. Ms. George has failed to read all of the historical accounts of the persecution. I find her thoughts offensive.

What is "the dark" referred to in the title? It's the last chapter where Nero is forced to commit suicide for an unknown reason. If you know history you know why he had to commit suicide. If all you know is the history presented in this book you must be confused.

The Splendor Before the Dark is thought provoking. It gives the reader a different perspective on Nero than history provided but still shows him as a ruthless killer albeit indirectly. I must state, though, that my opinion of Margaret George has changed. In historical fiction writing the reader expects the author to be true to history. In this book she wasn't. It seems to me that she and Nero have the same opinion on Christianity. Otherwise she would not have focused so much attention on how more important his leisure activities were than ordering the slaughter of a group of people.

2 out of 5 stars.

Frost Quakes and Polar Vortexes

Here in the American Midwest we are in the middle of a polar vortex which has brought freezing temperatures. It is currently colder where I live than in Antarctica. At the time I am writing this post the actual temperature is -21 degrees with a wind chill factor of -54 degrees.

Last night I woke up three times in the middle of the night hearing loud thuds outside. I got up to look out the windows to see what was happening outside or to see if the windows cracked but saw nothing. This morning the TV weatherman explained that we were all hearing frost quakes which is a seismic event.

Here is how a frost quake occurs. While water naturally freezes underground, when the weather is in a deep freeze the water goes deeper underground. This forces the soil upward which releases kinetic energy. The release of the energy makes a loud sound that is called a frost quake.

Here is a photo of a frost quake in nearby Milwaukee, WI showing that it's much more than a loud sound. This is scary.

I guess if you lived in Antarctica this would be common knowledge for you. Now it's common knowledge for those of us in the Chicagoland area. The quakes are still occurring this morning. It is going to get a little warmer today and by that I mean -13 but I don't know at what temperatures the quakes stop.  We had a -17 degree day 2 years ago and we didn't have frost quakes then.

With three polar vortexes now under my belt I should be accustomed to their challenges. No one ever said anything before about a frost quake. Now I am worried about the ground opening up near my highrise apartment. We have never seen the train tracks set on fire before either.

The steel tracks get pulled apart into pieces during extreme cold and after being set on fire they can be molded back into one piece that the trains can run on tomorrow.  I don't really trust those train tracks. They just don't seem safe.

Polar Vortex 2019 has been the toughest and it's not over yet.

2019 My Kind of Mystery Challenge

I am rejoining this challenge this year. It runs from February 1, 2019 through January 31, 2020.  There are no reading requirements for the challenge which I find freeing. I think I actually read more mysteries than if I knew I had to read a certain number of them. Based on what I read for the challenge last year I presume that I will be reading mysteries published in 2019.  We'll see!

Irresistible

In Irresistible-Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World, the reader in invited to embrace the original form of Christianity, the version that turned the world upside down 2,000 years ago. The author, an Atlanta, Georgia pastor, shows how a shift from faith in the resurrection of Jesus to a Bible-centric faith has left Christians with an anemic version of the faith that is not very interesting to those outside the faith or even inside the faith.

The premise of the book is that the first century Christians, not having any Scriptures other than the Jewish Scriptures spread the faith with their eye witness accounts of the resurrection. Succeeding generations similarly used their zeal over the resurrection event to gain new converts to the faith. It worked. The faith spread like wildfire even though getting caught and having to admit it meant that you would be put to death by the legal authorities. The author wants us to regain that zeal for the resurrection that our predecessors in the faith had. He believes it will transform how outsiders view the church and Jesus himself and bring people to Jesus as well as bring backsliders back into the church.

The author spends a lot of time distinguishing between the old covenant between God and Israel and the new covenant between God and everyone willing to participate in the new covenant. He explains that when the church became organized, rules and customs were set that were a blending of the two covenants. The two covenants were never supposed to be blended as after the resurrection the old covenant was ended because a new one had been created. Forty years later when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD and animal sacrifices could not be made any longer, ancient Judaism ended. Here he produced a considerable amount of Scripture and history as proof of his thesis.

He continues that the church today still blends the old covenant with the new covenant with Bible focused preaching and reading requirements. However, today's preachers are failing to tell their parishioners that the Old Testament was a means to an end. It brought Jesus to the world. The author is critical of those who pull passages and promises from the Old Testament and apply them to themselves when the passages apply to ancient Israel. This is also what he calls blending the two covenants. The final third of the book deals with how Christians should handle themselves with each other and with those outside the church in a new covenant manner, all backed up with Scriptural references.

The topic was well researched.  Stanley presented Scriptures from Genesis through the New Testament as well as historical references from ancient Israel and the early church as proof of his interpretation and conclusions. He knows the material well.

The writing style of the author is poor. He writes in the same way that he speaks. Unless you are a member of his congregation and are accustomed to this approach you will find the writing disconcerting. Consequently, I found it difficult to connect the points as I got bogged down in the writing method.

Irresistible is the first book of Stanley's that I have read.  I was expecting a serious book given the title and the back cover blurb. The writing style subtracted from the strong ideas that Stanley presented. Having said that, the author did do a good job of setting up major points in a dramatic fashion. However, he then fell into his culture-specific speaking style. He should, in the future, realize that his audience reaches far beyond the culture of his own congregation and city and adjust his writing accordingly.

This is an intellectual book written in an unintellectual manner.  Because it has strong arguments that the church should hear, I would like to refer it to it to a few friends.  I believe the book's message is important.  However, I am not sure that they will read a book that does not appear to be serious in the beginning section. They might give up and put it down.

Irresistible counts as a selection for the 2019 Christian Reading Challenge as a book that was a 2018 bestseller.  I would have rated it 5 stars for the thought content but due to the writing problems I can only give it 3 out of 5 stars. 

The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook

Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius began writing the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook after the United Nations declared that 2009 would be the International Year of Natural Fibers. The declaration was an environmental one as the process of producing synthetic fibers released harmful compounds into the air. The result was smog and many health problems for people who lived near the areas where they were produced.  The book was published in 2011.

As a person who spins fiber into yarn, having a book with information on 200 different sheep and other animals is quite resourceful to have on my bookshelf. The hair, or fiber, that is shorn from each type of animal has different characteristics and may need to be spun a certain way.  A spinner may need to purchase more fiber from a particular species to complete a project than from another species. Having all this information at your fingertips helps in making purchasing decisions.

When an animal can be grouped into a category, it is.  For example, there is the Cheviot Family of sheep, a Down Family, English Longwool Family, Merino Family and others.  Goats, camelids, bison, yak, rabbits and musk ox are also covered. Note that a camelid can be an alpaca, llama, guanaco, vicuna, or camel.

For each sheep/animal there is a description of its traits, facts on its fleece weight, length, diameter, lock characteristics and natural colors. There is also information on how to prepare it for spinning, how well it takes dyes, and the types of garments it is best suited for. In addition, there is a full color page showing the fiber in various forms.

You can see with all this information at hand, the spinner or weaver basically has a goof proof guide to selecting the best fiber for a project.

This is a must read for all spinners! 

Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils

I came across Ann Swan's YouTube channel earlier this week and was pleased to find a botanical artist who only uses colored pencil in her botanical drawings. Usually colored pencil is only used as a final highlight after pen, ink and watercolor have been used. I immediately ordered her book from Amazon and it arrived yesterday.

This book is not for beginners.  The author assumes that you know how to draw as well as how to use colored pencils.  You need to be a high achieving intermediate colored pencil artist or an advanced one before taking on botanicals. The first thing the author teaches the reader is the need to know the scientific structure of the plant that you are drawing. How does it grow? How is it constructed? How are the leaves on the stem arranged? You need to study the pattern of the veins on the leaves, all of them, as no two leaves are alike. In addition, the artist needs to study the life cycle of the plant, making measurements of each part of the plant as it changes.  It seems like the artist needs to buy a botany book on the plant before getting started as there is so much scientific information needed before you can start your drawing.

The author recommends using a small sketchbook to record details about the plant's growing habits as well as making a series a thumbnail sketches of the flowers, stems, roots, leaves, and buds.  She also recommends taking a series of photographs to use as a reference for your drawing.

One fact I learned is that botanical paintings are always lifesize. That was why you needed to take measurements of the plant in the planning stages of your drawing. Also, Ms. Swan shows the reader how to use the Divine Proportion, which occurs in nature everywhere, when planning the composition of the drawing so that it is aesthetically pleasing. I also learned that there are 3 styles in botanical illustration. There is the traditional style which was the only style I was aware of, the contemporary style where the focus is on just one part of the plant and the abstract style where one part of a plant is enlarged and it's the only part of the plant that is drawn.

The author also includes great tips on which colors to use when shading leaves in the foreground versus shading them in the background as well as how to develop a critical eye toward the style and elements in your drawing.

The latter half if the book consists of how-to demonstrations of various plant subjects.  Ms. Swan primarily uses Polychromos pencils but will also use Prismacolor and Luminance pencils for blending. I was surprised that she didn't use the Luminance pencils more often since they are 100% lightfast but the colors they come in are not suited for botanicals. In fact, they are not very vibrant for other types of drawings and I wish Caran d'Ache would create more colors for us.

Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils is a wonderful addition to the colored pencil instruction books. It is quite unique from the rest since botanical art requires a different skillset.

This book is a must-read.