The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the review copy of The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini.

Do you quilt?  Quilting is something I’ve always wanted to do, but it is going to have to wait until my kids are out of the house.  

Summer Sullivan has returned to Elm Creek Manor for the summer.  She is hoping the manor will help her with her writer’s block so that she can finish her master’s degree in history.  While there, Summer discovers that antique quilts have been found in the old Union Hall building built in 1863.  The Waterford Historical Society is headquartered there, but a local developer wants to rip down the historic structure.  As Summer researches the antique quilts and history of the town, she discovers unsettling secrets from the towns past.  The local leaders want these secrets taken out of the antique quilt exhibit as they don’t show the community in a positive light.  Will Summer be able to save Union Hall and keep the antique quilt exhibit open, while keeping true to the town’s history?  Will she be able to finish her master’s degree?

My thoughts on the book:

·       This is the 22^nd book in the Elm Creek Quilts series.  I read the last book in this series, The Christmas Boutique, but I haven’t read the rest of the series.  This book can be read as a standalone.  It gives enough background to get into the story, but I’m sure if I read the rest of the series, I would get even more out of it!  I need to start reading this series at book one.

·       Even though I am not a quilter; I find it fascinating and love reading about these women.  The women at the quilting camps at Elm Creek Manor come from all back grounds and range from master quilters to beginning quilters.

·       Elm Creek Manor and all the ladies are very welcoming.  Reading this book makes me want to go on a retreat. It was a very cozy read.

·       I also love historic buildings and the saving of them.  Elm Creek Manor itself was saved and repurposed, but I enjoyed reading about the Union Hall and the history of the antique quilts.  Summer wrote about both historical accomplishments and failures, and it caused strife in the town. I thought it was interesting to think about how sometimes when we find out that history is not all positive that we would like it to be, we want to cover it up.  I’d rather learn all the history and be able to learn from mistakes. 

·       I enjoyed reading Summer’s descriptions of the quilts that was interspersed between chapters.  The historic quilts and her search to find out their history was fascinating.  I especially loved the author’s quilt which had blocks with famous authors’ signatures from the 19^th century.  What a treasure that would be.  It made me wonder, are there quilts stored at museums or by historical societies? 

·       There is a bit of a sweet light romance in this novel as well.

·       This is a clean read.

·       Jennifer Chiaverini is a Wisconsin author based out of Madison.  She also writes wonderful historical fiction novels that I also enjoy, including her latest, The Canary Girls.

Overall, The Museum of Lost Quilts was a perfect cozy read with great characters and message.  I’ve been super busy and stressed lately and this was a perfect escapism read.

Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the review copy of Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini.

Do you know if any women in your family went to work during World War I or II to help in the war effort?  My Dad was recently telling me a story about how my Great Grandma Godfrey went to work in a local factory and saved the money to put indoor plumbing in their home at the end of the war.

Canary Girls is the story of three women who worked during World War I in an ammunitions factory in London.  April is a maid when she learns from her friend about the higher wages and “more fun” that she can have by moving to London to work in the ammunitions factories, so she takes her chance.  Lucy is the wife of a famous football player, Daniel, who has left to fight overseas.  She takes a job to supplement their income and help the war effort.  Helen’s husband is the owner of the Thornshire Arsenal where April and Lucy work.  She is appalled by the conditions and works to help the girls have better work conditions.  The women work with TNT and start to appear yellow and have health problems. They are nicknamed the “canary girls.”  The canary girls also start their own football team and play across the country.

I liked the three different viewpoints in this novel by three very different women from very different backgrounds.  I enjoyed their personal stories, but I was horrified by the women working with this very poisonous substance and the health impacts.  In the author’s note, it’s stated that it is unknown how many women and men were poisoned or injured due to this dangerous work in World War I.

I loved the women playing football during World War I.  It reminded me of A League of their own, but with football (soccer) and in WWI instead of WWII.  I was sad to read in the author’s note that women’s football was banned in 1921 in the UK.  It wasn’t until 1971 that women were allowed to play professionally in the UK. 

I appreciate that author Jennifer Chiaverini is able to weave together so many interesting pieces of history into one fascinating story.  There is sadness and tragedy in this story, but I enjoyed that it ended on a happy note.

I love that Jennifer Chiaverini is a Wisconsin author based in Dane County which she also states in the acknowledgements. 

Favorite quote:  “And for the grieving widows and sisters and mothers, every shell was a blow for vengeance, smoldering and bitter and full of anguish and spite.”

Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini

 

What person from history would you love to learn more about?

I don’t know much about the Grant family and was happy to read Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini for the September Page-turners Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  I had read an interview with one of Grant’s descendants a few months ago and I was intrigued about his discussion on how Grant’s memory was tarnished as Lee’s memory was lifted up.  If one is a saint, the other must be a villain.   

 I like lists so I’m going to list what I liked and didn’t like about this book.

What I liked:

•  Ulysses S. Grant and Julia had a great love story that spanned through the decades.  I enjoyed it.
•  Life was complicated for them with Julia being from a family that owned slaves and Ulysses was from a family of abolitionists.  I can’t imagine what those family discussions would have been like!
•  The book did discuss the rumors that were spread during the war about Grant to tarnish him by his enemies and how they weren’t true. The main rumor was that Grant was a drunk.
• Ulysses had some moments with Julia that were great learning moments.  Julia didn’t like how he tried to kick all Jews out of the military, and said he couldn’t categorize people by race.  He said, isn’t that what you do with black people and slavery?
• I liked that we got to see life in the Grant presidency.
• My mother has told me that Galena, Illinois where the Grants lived before the Civil War is beautiful and historical.  I loved reading about it in this book.  I need to visit.

What I didn’t like:

• Jule was not as main of a character as Julia.  The focus really was on Julia and Ulysses.  I understood when I got to the end of the book that it was because while Jule is referred to in a few historical references, there just isn’t any more information about her.  I wanted her and Julia to get together in the end.  I kept waiting and it never happened.
• The book was good but was more of a slow read.

Book Source:  Borrowed from the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

 

The Christmas Boutique by Jennifer Chiaverini

 

An accident has damaged the local church that was going to host the annual Christmas Boutique fundraiser.  In order to make it so the fundraiser will  happen, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson allows her family manor to be used for the event.  The manor has an interesting history and is currently being used for the Elm Creek Quilt Camp.  Will the ladies be able to get the manor ready in time to host a successful Christmas Boutique?

 I enjoyed this book.  This was a good story about a variety of different lady quilters that are all different ages and how they came to love quilting.  It also shares the trials and the tribulations in their lives.  This novel is part of the Elm Creek Quilt series, but I haven’t read any of the other books in the series.  Each chapter was about a specific woman and it gave enough background for me to understand the character and what was going on in the story.  I really loved the detail and learning about each character.  I would love to read more of this series.

 

Favorite Quotes:

“If you brood over the past, you can’t enjoy the present or the future.”

 “As long as Elm Creek Manor stood, compassion and generosity would infuse every class taught, every meal shared, and every story shared within its gray stone walls, not only at Christmas, but every day, year after year.

 Overall, The Christmas Boutique is a warm Christmas tale filled with quilting and interesting women.

 Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow Books.  Thank-you!

Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini (TLC Book Tour)

Did you know that an American raised in Milwaukee and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin was a resistance fighter in Germany during WWII?  I didn’t and I live in Wisconsin!  Mildred Fish meets and falls in love with Arvid Harnack while they attend college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  Mildred leaves Wisconsin to journey to Germany as Arvid’s wife and she hopes to continue her education in Berlin.  As she lives in Germany through the 1930’s and during WWII, she sees the country fall under Hitler’s spell.  Will she be able to help the many Germans who do not follow Hitler’s views?

Greta was a friend of Mildred and Arvid’s at the University of Wisconsin.  When she returns to her homeland of Germany, she is dismayed to see the changes that are taking place.  She falls in love with a married man, is involved with the theatre, and helps the resistance as she can. 

Sara is a young Jewish woman in love with a non-Jewish man.  She is a student of Mildred’s and gets to know everyone in the resistance movement.  Will she be able to keep her love alive and will her family be able to stay in Nazi Germany?

Martha Dodd is the daughter of the American ambassador to Germany during the 1930’s.  At first, she is entranced by the Nazi cause, but she soon finds herself disillusioned.

My favorite part of this novel was the author’s note at the end where I found out that almost everyone in this novel is real!  I knew that Martha Dodd was real, but I didn’t realize that Mildred Harnack and Greta Kuckhoff were real women in the resistance movement.  I found their true stories to be fascinating.  I hope that they get a more prominent place in history.

As a resident of Wisconsin, I enjoyed the many shout outs to the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin in general.  Even more so when I realized they were real historic figures.  I grew up in Michigan and I missed learning about Mildred Harnack.

I also liked that the novel showed the changes over time as Hitler took over the country and it fell under his sway.  I was disturbed on how much of this paralleled today’s society where a charismatic leader takes over and people believe everything he has to say, even if it is false.

I will be honest; this book did move slow for me.  I found it all very interesting, but with four main characters and the action taking place over 10 to 15 years, it dragged at time for me.  I think the addition of Martha’s fourth narrative into the book slowed it down a lot.  The resistance seemed to focus more on the friends talking and Arvid moving around papers and information. Mildred did help several Jewish people escape from Germany.  I wanted more detail on that!!  The book had a wide scope and I know it must have been hard to write about true people.  I actually enjoyed the story of Sara the most and she was the one fictional character.  The action picked up the last part of the novel during the war and I enjoyed it. 

Favorite Quotes:

“Some fires burned themselves out only after consuming everything within reach of the flames.”

“Scapegoating Jews – or Communists, Poles, women, immigrants – was the refuge of the lazy, envious, and unimaginative.  It made the world an ugly, hostile place to live in and did nothing to solve any actual problems.”

“Where they burn books, in the end they will also burn people.”

“How could they flee?  How could they abandon Germany to evil men who were determined to destroy everything good about it?”

Overall, Resistance Women is a great look at the real-life story of women who worked within Germany try to over throw the Nazi’s.

Book Source:  Review Copy as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you!  For more stops on the tour check out this link.

About Resistance Women

• Hardcover: 608 pages • Publisher: William Morrow (May 14, 2019)

 From the New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, an enthralling historical saga that recreates the danger, romance, and sacrifice of an era and brings to life one courageous, passionate American—Mildred Fish Harnack—and her circle of women friends who waged a clandestine battle against Hitler in Nazi Berlin.

After Wisconsin graduate student Mildred Fish marries brilliant German economist Arvid Harnack, she accompanies him to his German homeland, where a promising future awaits. In the thriving intellectual culture of 1930s Berlin, the newlyweds create a rich new life filled with love, friendships, and rewarding work—but the rise of a malevolent new political faction inexorably changes their fate.

As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party wield violence and lies to seize power, Mildred, Arvid, and their friends resolve to resist. Mildred gathers intelligence for her American contacts, including Martha Dodd, the vivacious and very modern daughter of the US ambassador. Her German friends, aspiring author Greta Kuckoff and literature student Sara Weitz, risk their lives to collect information from journalists, military officers, and officials within the highest levels of the Nazi regime.

 For years, Mildred’s network stealthily fights to bring down the Third Reich from within. But when Nazi radio operatives detect an errant Russian signal, the Harnack resistance cell is exposed, with fatal consequences.

Inspired by actual events, Resistance Women is an enthralling, unforgettable story of ordinary people determined to resist the rise of evil, sacrificing their own lives and liberty to fight injustice and defend the oppressed.

 

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Jennifer Chiaverini

Jennifer Chiaverini is the New York Times bestselling author of several acclaimed historical novels and the beloved Elm Creek Quilts series. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin. Find out more about Jennifer at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.