The Art Forger - B. A. Shapiro

Let me first say that this book struck a real chord with me, as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is the first place that my husband took me when he was trying to impress my romantic side. I have a soft spot in my heart for every small nook and cranny of that magnificent building and every piece of art that is perched, mounted, and hanging within its walls. That being said, when I happened on Shapiro's book, The Art Forger I was immediately intrigued.

The Sandcastle Girls - Chris Bohjalian

This latest novel from Chris Bohjalian is a powerful look at an Armenian family's tragic past and the secrets that surface generations later when a young woman delves into her family's geneology and the path that her grandparents took from Turkey and Syria to the United States. In parallel stories, Bojahlian writes of a young woman in modern day discovering her family's past and the ramifications that it has for her and her present day relationships. He slips back to the early 20th century to tell the full story of the family's traumatic evolution. The reader follows the sheltered life of a young Bostonian woman who accompanies her father to Aleppo in 1915 to bring humanitarian aid to the Armenian peoples who were being systematically filtered from Turkish society and forced into the desert to be slaughtered and starved in a mass ethnic cleansing campaign.  Meeting a young Armenian engineer who has been sheltered from death because of his ability to help expand the rail system, she begins a relationship that will take her into the heart of a that dark time in Middle Eastern history - the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

I think it interesting that this is the second book concerning genocide that Bohjalian has written. His searing novel about the last of the Jewish concentration camp internees escaping and trudging their way back toward western Europe during the last grueling days of WWII was chronicled in Skeletons at the Feast . Now, he brings us the Armenian genocide. Dark stories, both, and yet they are important chapters of history that must not be forgotten. Bringing them to life within well-researched novels makes them more accessible to the mainstream and helps readers explore the emotional and human side of the dry statistics and politics of these horrible historical events.

I would place this book in my 2012 top ten, but I must admit that I need to move on to something much lighter, as the emotional catharsis of this novel got to me. Other readers may not find it too searing, but this kind of story, one that explores man's inhumanity to man, just gets under my skin and stays with me for a good while.

At any rate, I recommend The Sandcastle Girls for those who like historical fiction as a way to learn about real events outside of an academic forum. It provides places, dates, and interesting political scenes that a truly interested reader can use as jumping off spots for more research. It's a well-done endeavor by Bohjalian.

 

Saturday Snapshot ... Hanging Up Stockings!

It's Yankee Swap Day at the family farm! Imagine about thirty of the Lindquist side of the family gathering at the family farm to have a joke gift swap to start things off with many a chuckle. Then, the grazing sets in when we spread out an impressive lunch buffet (my contributions are a warm artichoke dip with crackers, a huge green salad, and a pan of chicken and spinach enchiladas). After lunch, we get to the serious business of swapping really nice gifts. There's bound to be many laughs, much chucking of the kiddies' chins, serious photo opps that usually have hilarious results, and a few glasses of holiday cheer!

Huzzah! I sure hope your families have fun this holiday season!

PS - The stocking is one of several that I have been making this holiday season  ... each one is done with completely different fabric and different cuff embellishment ... I am having such fun doing the hand quilting on these. Some have beadwork, some have appliqué, some have small hand quilted holly leaves with jingle bell berries. All are quite cute ... and they really hold a lot of loot!

This Saturday Snapshot joins others at Alyce's blog ... athomewithbooks ... check out the other posts and think about joining the group! The rules of joining up and contributing a post are simple and the sharing is great fun! See you there!

Saturday Snapshot - Turkey Day!

Well, we had a great turkey ... and we had all the leftovers ... and I've used the last of the turkey breast to make a white pizza with broccoli and red peppers and black olives ...phew. How 'bout you?
Sick of the bird yet?

I'm guessing we'll be having a ham or a beef tenderloin for Christmas. Happy Holidays, all!

This post is linked to Alyce's blog athomewithbooks for her weekly photoshare ... pop over by clicking the link to see what's what! You can join in too! Just read up on the rules and get your camera clicking!

The Prospering - Elizabeth George Speare

Google a search on Elizabeth George Speare and you will get a nice bio and a list of New bery Award winners and honor books that she wrote between 1957 and 1984. Her novels for young adult readers were the stuff of history that I grew up on - Calico Captive, The Bronze Bow, The Sign of the Beaver, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond were all classics of historical fiction. Yet, nowhere in that biography will you find note of her novel for adults called The Prospering.

 

 

The Prospering is a fictionalized (albeit incredibly well-researched) novel that revolves around the grand experiment undertaken by the Massachusetts settlers to convert the native peoples.

 

Saturday Snapshot - Armchair Birdwatchers

Penny and Opey Birdwatching

 

 

 

 

She is NOT Amused

 

 

I have been spending a lot of time sitting on the couch and doing hand sewing. Our little church's Holiday Fair is fast approaching and I have been making Christmas stockings, potpourri bags, and other crafty items. So sorry that I haven't been visiting many of you, but time is not infinite and I am in the holiday rush ... just until the 17th of the month. When the Fair has passed, I plan to relax with the computer and the many blogs I follow, bake some holiday breads and cookies, read a new mystery, and catch up on Masterpiece Theatre's Upstairs Downstairs.

 

My constant companions are here on the couch as, we speak. They have found warm sunny spots to loll in, as they while away the day watching me work with needle and thread ... ah, a cat's life! Huh?

 

 

 

 

Saturday Snapshot

 

I wonder what everyone else is posting this morning for their Saturday Snapshots! Hit the above link and check them out!

Lady's Maid - Margaret Forster

There is an adage - "No good deed goes unpunished." That's all I could think of as I read this novel that revolves around Elizabeth Wilson, the long-suffering and dedicated lady's maid to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Margaret Forster wrote a biography of EBB before she branched out to center a novel around the young woman who came to the Barrett household when they had re-trenched to Wimpole Street in London of the 1840's.

Young Wilson comes to London from her hometown of Newcastle, recommended by a relative of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She takes up a reclusive residency and waits on EBB hand and foot through her darkest and most pathetic period of collapse. Wilson becomes thoroughly devoted to her mistress and gradually gains her trust and complete dependence, which begins to beg the question in the reader, "Just how much must a young maid of the Victorian Era give up for one's lady?"

Young Wilson is drawn completely into the lives of the Barrett family and is privy to all the familial foibles and misadventures. Key among these is the romance that develops between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.  Wilson is drawn into the plot to elope, the honeymoon journey to Paris and the trip on to Italy where the Brownings set up housekeeping.  Browning and Wilson nurse Elizabeth as she regains her health and vigor. She helps Browning wean Elizabeth from her daily doses of laudanum. Wilson helps EBB through numerous miscarriages until one pregnancy is successful and her son is born. Wilson takes on the role of  nanny to young Pen, while keeping her role as lady's maid and nurse to Elizabeth.

All this duty monopolizes her every moment. She strives to be the exemplary maid, comforting nurse, steadying nanny, discreet employee. She needs to keep her place in service in order to be able to send part of her salary home to her needy mother and younger sisters.  She is just in her 20's  and should be looking for her own soulmate, but how can she ? When she finally meets and falls in love with a fellow employee, she is placed in such a dilemma. How does one 'have a married life' and stay in service? It is at this point in the book, that the reader is faced with the inequities of class. It is all well and good for the Brownings to have a romantic and ideal married and family life, but their servants are not considered as needing the same. It is all well and good for the Brownings to travel the length of Europe to see family and socialize with their intellectual peers, however it is unthinkable that their staff wish for time to visit their families. The inconvenience would be too much for poor Elizabeth and Robert. Therefore, when Wilson marries and has a child, she is set aside and is only allowed to return to service when she leaves her own son with a sister in England and returns to Italy to take up her duties. She is separated from her husband again when she bears a second child and must leave service altogether.  Yet, she is still tied to the Brownings because of her close relationship with young Pen Browning and because of her skill in nursing Elizabeth during her long spells of collapse.

Forster has done an excellent job of portraying the class differences of the Victorian Era while telling the (mostly true) story of Wilson and her years of service to the Brownings. I was so completely drawn into the story that I stayed up way too late reading to see how Wilson's life would infold.  Having never heard of Margaret Forster, I finished Lady's Maid wondering what other books she has written. I will definitely be searching out some of her other titles to see if she can hold my interest as closely as she did with this book.