Midweek: an unexpected project + reading

 

Monday afternoon:  a red admiral stopped long enough for a photo; a reddish mushroom 'protected' by poison ivy;  plantings on the restored beach.

The map: red arrow "you are here" and my finger shows where I walked on Sunday. That gives you an idea of the stretch of our lakefront.

# # # # #

There was a 2-yard piece of black pin dot in the lot I bought at the estate sale Sunday.   I put it to use with a design inspired by Emily Bailey.   But yikes! I was short 12 HSTs for the corners of the SIS blocks and 10 2.5 x 6.5 sashes.  Whew!  There was a chunk of black pin dot in my stash.  It's ever-so-slightly different but the pin dots are so small no one will notice.  

Here's the work in progress.  The horizontal sashes are pieced but not shown.    Blocks are 6".

I use the Studio 180 Square 2 ruler for SIS.

# # # # #

I finished two more Advance Reader Copies that I got at the ALA conference.

Ramona Emerson was a panelist at the Penguin Random House adult books luncheon.   

Readers were introduced to forensic photographer Rita Todacheene in Shutter ( reviewed here)  Rita is Navajo and lives in Gallup, New Mexico. She sees the ghosts of the victims whose photographs she takes for the county examiner. The ghosts tell her what really caused their deaths, and it's up to Rita to convince her superiors without revealing the otherworldly source.   

There's a parallel narrative.  A serial killer spins his story from his abused childhood to his work at a Gallup mission.  He is compelled to "release" indigent, often homeless, Native people by savagely murdering them.   The police department is stymied.   Rita is called in to help.

I'm not a big fan of paranormal fiction but I'm cheering for Rita!

~~~~~~~~~~~

In 1924 Leonard "Kip" Rhinelander, scion of an elite New York family, married Alice Beatrice Jones, the daughter of a housemaid and a taxi driver. That match became a society scandal, not because of Alice's humble origin but because her father was a mixed-race Jamaican. Kip's father threatened to disinherit Kip if the wedding were not annulled.  Alice and her family fought back.  The legal battle made headlines not only in New York but across the country.

In 1940 Roberta Taylor, Alice's long-estranged niece, is a reporter for New York Amsterdam News, a Black newspaper. Roberta is able to interview Alice to find out the entire story that led to the eventual divorce (with a settlement contested by the Rhinelanders).

Anachronisms in the narrative spoiled the story for me. (Examples: p. 9, Roberta refers to Ms. Petry. In 1943 women were addressed as Mrs. or Miss. p. 124 "thrown under a bus"--not in 1924; the phrase is from the 70's/80's. p. 131 -- "go bonkers" --origin in WWII slang, not 1924. p. 143 using a can opener to open Coca Cola; Coke came in bottles then, so a bottle opener would be used.)

However, I'm sufficiently intrigued to look up the story of the Rhinelanders and the trial.

# # # # # 

Linking up with Midweek Makers Wednesday Wait Loss 

Thanks for the shout out, Jennifer.