Elm Creek Quilts #21

When I first discovered Jennifer Chiaverini's first Elm Creek Quilts novel, The Quilter's Apprentice, back in 1999, I devoured it. I anxiously awaited each subsequent entry in the series. As I was browsing in December, I saw that there was a new addition to the series, The Christmas Boutique, and got myself on the waitlist at the library.

Chiaverini said that she wrote the book because so many people said they missed the stories of the quilters. But the book didn't really deliver. The storyline was about a Christmas boutique that needed to get relocated to the manor when the church where it was to be held got flooded. Otherwise, there was nothing new in this story. It was really a rehashing of bits and pieces that had been in other books. So in that way, it was very disappointing. It was also a lot more tell than show.

Much was left hanging at the end of this book. How will Matt choose between Sarah and his father? What's going on with Summer? Are Anna and Jeremy a couple? I guess this leaves room for book #22?

A Taste of Sicily

I'm planning a return trip to Sicily, the birthplace of my husband. When this memoir popped on to my radar, I quickly requested it from the library... and promptly forgot about it. Until it arrived. At which point I devoured it. Like a good Sicilian meal.

I'd never heard of the actress, Tembi Locke, but I found her memoir, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily and Finding Love captivating.

As an overseas college student in Florence, Tembi, an African-American from Texas, meets Saro, a chef from Sicily. They fall in love. They settle in California. They marry. Saro is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. They adopt a baby. Saro dies. But that's not what this memoir is about.

Saro was on the outs with his family in Sicily after he dared to fall in love with a woman from Sardinia. But now, he's in a relationship with Tembi, a black woman from America. You can imagine how they might react. But again, that's not what this memoir is about.

This memoir is about Tembi honoring the deathbed wish of her beloved husband to have his ashes buried in Sicily. It's about spending subsequent summers in Sicily, forging a relationship with Saro's mother, his family and their neighbors. It's starts as a story of connection based on mutual love of Saro, but it shows how love and acceptance evolves. It's a bittersweet story to be sure.

I was able to make many personal connections to what I was reading although my own story about being an American Jew married to a Sicilian is quite different. But it's got me excited about my planned trip to Sicily. I made note of some places I'd like to visit and foods I'd like to try. (I printed out three of the recipes from the back of the book.) It's made me sad that I don't speak Sicilian.

An American Marriage

Shortly after An American Marriage was published, I happened to catch Tayari Jones being interviewed on the radio. Her observations on the life of black men in America was thoughtful, as was most of her interview. I mentally added this to my list of books to read. It was available at the library last week. I gobbled it up.

The story was sort of basic, the plot followed a mostly expected (although not totally predictable) course. But I really wanted to see and understand the finer details of how Jones took the story from point A to point B.

Yes, marriage was the main focus of the story. But this novel was about so much more than marriage. It was a story about fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters, mothers and sons and about friendship. It was about life paths. How do we get to where we're going? Who helps us along the way?

It doesn't appear as though my community book club is going to choose this as a book to read, but this would make one awesome book to have a conversation about. There's so much meat to this story. I highly recommend. And if you do read it and want to chat about it, give me a holler!