Needlework Inspires Spring Fever by Janice Clauser

            As spring begins, the Sugar Creek Quilters welcome us to a colorful and satisfying experience viewing their latest creations at the Crawfordsville Library. The Mary Bishop Memorial Gallery is filled with clever handwork of various sizes. Just inside the entrance to the east is the large white-on-white piece called “Welsh Beauty.” The titles suggest the makers’ themes like “20 Blue Pinwheels,” “Mom’s Twenty Antique Handkerchiefs,” “Australian Spirit,” “Southwest Symbols,” “Out My Windows,” “Florence,” “Jellyroll 1600’” “Western Sky.”  These artists share very special work involving many hours of designing, locating materials, and careful stitching. The beauty of spring is right there to see. This organization invites “anyone interested in learning about and/or creating quilts. Beginners are welcome!”

           

 

 

 

 

 

            Fiction has its themes too. Paul Doherty’s story “The Straw Men” is dated January, 1381 as John of Gaunt’s personal acting troupe performing in the Tower of London is interrupted by the violent death of two VIP guests. Could there be a spy in the heart of the royal court? Has that happened before? Robert Cargill’s “Dreams and Shadows” follows two boys from their star-crossed childhood in the realm of magic and mystery to their anguished adulthoods; it’s about “the magic and monsters in our world and in our self.”

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

            Ron Rash’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” holds 14 stories about lives haunted by violence and tenderness, or full of hope and fear, in Appalachia from the Civil War period to the present day. ”Middle Men” by Jim Gavin offers seven stories set in California about men as they make valiant forays into middle-class respectability. A  James Joyce “Ulysses” quote heralds the theme: “Every life is many days, day after day.  We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.” Short stories from the long war are called “Fire and Forget.” Edited by Roy Scranton and Matt Gallagher, these 15 are introduced by Colum McCann who says “All stories are war stories somehow. Every one of us has stepped from one war or another.” Sue Grafton’s “Kinsey and Me Stories” begins with nine tales in her private-eye voice, then 13 more written in the decade after her mother died, featuring Kit Blue, a younger version of Sue herself. They have emotional impact. These stories reflect her passage as a writer who reads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If a Stranger Approaches You” by Laura Kasischke exposes the heart of the domestic, reminding us of the bizarre and the ordinary, always at play. “Her writing does what good poetry does - it shows us an alternate world and lulls us into living in it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Patterson’s “Private Berlin” tells how tragedy strikes the Berlin headquarters of the world’s most powerful investigation firm and exposes a hidden past. “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” by Ayana Mathis portrays the children of the Great Migration. In 1923, a 15-year-old girl flees Georgia, settles in Philadelphia and marries a man who brings only disappointment, as she raises many children with grit but without tenderness, preparing them for the sadness of life in a world that won’t be kind, a certain world of racism.

            Kristan Higgins’ romance “The Best Man” is a Blue Heron novel about a young lady, having been jilted at the altar, who returns to her family’s vineyard to confront the ghosts of her past.