The Quilter's Quarters, introducing my new series

 

Guest review by Jeanne Claire Probst, a fellow author:

"I just finished reading The Quilter's Quarters  (Mysteries in The Quilter's Quarters) by Terry Crawford Palardy. As I was with other books I have read by this amazing author, I was again entertained and was left with memories of a warm heart who shared her love and appreciation for people down through the years.

Her ability to make a quilt and tailor them to the personality of the recipient was not only creative, but an inspiration. Dealing with everyday life around the trials and challenges of Multiple Sclerosis, Terry again shows her strengths and is a source of encouragement to all who know her.

This book is a must read and whether you like to make quilts or not...it will move you to look for ways you can reach out to others around you. Thank you, Terry, for your fine writing and love for people."

~ Jeanne Claire Probst, Author The Fifteen Houses, A Novel

This book is available at Smashwords for all e-book versions; you can also find it at Amazon for an unexplicably expensive paperback edition, Kindle and free preview you can also shop for it at my website where you'll find an autographed paperback with full color photographs of quilts at a reasonable price. Your choice! :)

I timed the release of this new mystery series to coincide with the opening of our own new quilt shop, the model for that of "Henry and Helen" in the story. You can take a visual tour of our shop at this link; it begins with a slide show of still images, and when you scroll down, there is a video-walk-through of our shop.

Stay tuned for more adventures of Henry and Helen as they enjoy their happily ever after years while struggling through the challenges of this new millennium.

The Garden Club Gang, by Neal Sanders

The Garden Club Gang is the book that introduces us to the group of women "of a certain age" who decide that it is time for some excitement in their lives. Neal Sanders is the author who has created the community of Hardington, Massachusetts; a town where, as in many like it, the haves and the have-nots show a mutual dedication to their town's curbside appeal. They are all members of the Hardington Garden Club.

The four women live differently despite the homogeneity of small town life. Some have money, some have not. Some have or have had children, and others not. But for reasons as uniquely different than each other's, all believe it is time to take a risk ... bigger than any risk life has thus far required of them.

They are friends committed to helping each other realize this shared goal. They decide that they are "invisible" to society, and so have an advantage. They plan a heist.

Not a simple shoplifting tour ... nor a local grocery (heaven forbid!) They choose to target an armed truck picking up the receipts at the County Fair. It will not hurt the fair, they reason, for the money will have been handed over to the trucking company. The robbery will not hurt the trucking company because it will have insurance. The daring risk will not hurt the insurance company because it will simply pass on the cost to the policy holders via an increase in premiums. It will pinch the many policy holders but in a very small way, and it will fulfill the "Garden Club Gang's" need to plan, orchestrate and execute, without being caught, the risk that now sits at the top of all of their bucket lists.

As in his later books, Neal Sanders sketches out his characters with careful detail, leaving enough for the reader to color in with their own reactions to each one. His invented town of Hardington is the setting for at least two more of Sanders' books, and I've put a link below to my reviews of those titles.

Enjoy this read, and imagine yourself having the gumption, the guts and the generational confidence to carry it out~ but be careful what you wish for~ you may be as surprised as these ladies are!

Here are links to my reviews of other books by Neal Sanders:

Murder in the Garden Club (set in Hardington)
Murder for a Worthy Cause (set in Hardington)
Deal Killer

Charley, an historical fiction by Donna Marie Seim

Armed with knowledge and experience, local author Donna Seim has written a number of books for children. Her most recent, Charley, captivated me as it is a story of a middle-school-aged boy living over a century ago in Boston, the city where I grew up over half a century ago. The cover of the book initially caught my eye, with the lines of laundry hanging between tenement houses in Boston at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. The cap on his head is so similar to the one my dad always wore and probably had worn at Charley's age. The character is based on family recollections of their dad and granddad.Charlie would have been about fifteen years older than my dad ... and no doubt living in the same part of Boston.

Charley is a street-kid. He'd hop the trolley cars when he needed to get somewhere in a hurry. He'd sneak into the neighborhood bakery to swipe sweets when his stomach and those of his friends were empty. He'd bring stolen bread home to his younger sister, older brother and their father when he could.

Donna Seim captures the colloquialisms of urban children of the streets. She describes succinctly the physical settings in the City of Boston (as my father always referred to it as such.) She understands and depicts clearly the emotional turmoil and loyalty to to each other of children who have grown up and suffered the loss of first one parent, and then the other. The stories of these children are familiar to her, as she has worked as a social worker with families living such stories.

Charley loses, again and again, people he loves. He is taken in by the Home for Little Wanderers in Boston (which, in later years, was a parochial grammar school that I attended, still bearing the stonework carving of that name from those years as an orphanage.) He then loses again, as his young sister is placed with a Boston well to-do-family, and then his young brother is sent to a farm family many miles west of Boston, and then loses yet again the new relationships he has forged in the orphanage when he himself is sent to live with a family in Maine. 

Charley does have some blessings in his life, and one is his remarkable Irish voice. Charley can sing like his own dad sang ... and like my own dad did, too. And he is a likable sort, easy to make friends and eager to find fun with them, either on the streets of Boston or on the farm in Maine. 

Charley's story is believable because it is based on real people, in a setting so very real to me. I was mesmerized by Seim's ability to recapture those memories that lay nearly forgotten in my own past. The book is so well written, and so carefully and concisely illustrated by Susan Spellman, that people who hadn't grown up on those city streets can still envision them through Charley's eyes. I give five stars for this wonderful book, and am happy to learn that some middle schools are beginning to add it to their recommended reading lists for ages 8 to 12. I believe many older readers will enjoy it as well. 

Thank you, Donna Seim, for this treasure of a book!

The Fifteen Houses

The Fifteen Houses

 by Jeanneclaire Probst

I met a new author at the New England Authors Expo at the end of July. Jeanneclaire Probst is one of the many authors exhibiting books at the Danversport Yacht Club, hosted by Chris Obert of Pear Tree Publishing. Jeanneclaire was there to introduce her debut novel, The Fifteen Houses.

Jeanne grew up in western Massachusetts in the same years that I grew up in South Boston. Though our settings were vastly different, we were both children during the fifties, and teens during the sixties. The story told in Probst's novel is fiction, but resonates with many readers who shared those childhood years.

Jeanne tells the story of Julianne, a young girl with sisters and brothers, parents and step-parents, happiness and tragedy, strength and trauma. The family described in this book are living in denial of their reality: secrets are to be kept within the household and not shared with the community. Julianne is a child living in a confusing adult world; she attends a primary school in Massachusetts where lessons are taught in French. When her family makes one of their many moves to a neighborhood of English-speaking families, she must begin to learn to read in a second language. She also has a hearing deficit, and is fitted with a strange appliance for most children: a hearing aide that draws negative attention rather than sympathy from her fellow students. Learning is hampered by this impairment, and punishment for being less than perfect is swift and physical.

Through the many moves, from one house to the next to the next, the family profile emerges as one less typical than many in the "Happy Days" decade of the fifties. Wife-swapping, parental discipline, school discipline, social situations ... some things change suddenly with each move, and yet other things remain painfully the same.

This story is the beginning of a series. Probst has several appearances scheduled to give her the opportunity to share her character's story and life lessons with many audiences. You can read about her local appearances in Massachusetts at her Amazon Author Central page 

When interviewed on a local cable television episode, she hints that there are eight or more books ahead in this family saga, each one focusing on one of the main characters in the family of Julianne. It promises to be a series that captures American life in the second half of the twentieth century ... my century. Read along with me!  Five stars for this debut novel, and for all that it promises to reveal in later books.

Daughters (The Sequel to The Coach House) by Florence Osmund

Daughters

by Florence Osmund

Florence Osmund's DAUGHTERS, is a well written sequel to her first novel, THE COACH HOUSE. Osmund's writing style has developed in this second novel. This book could easily be a stand-alone novel, as it is not dependent on the original story for character development.

Osmund does not weary the reader with tiresome repetition of the earlier book's details; rather, she accomplishes these reminders subtly in conversations between characters.

Marie is the female protagonist of both books. An unusual background presents us with a well-educated single woman in her mid-twenties with her own business, living in the growing post-war economy. The time period is well researched and replicated by the author, and the reader is comfortably introduced to the issue of bi-racial identity.

Civil rights, gender roles and political postures are carefully, realistically and sensitively present in this story. Marie grows through each experience her new family has offered. This novel could well fit into a "coming of age" literature syllabus for young adults.

I unequivocally recommend this author's books for young teens and adults who want to learn more about the American life in the mid-twentieth century. There is something for every age to clarify in this story. Introspective thoughts cannot help but surface after following Marie along her path.

Five stars for content, style and value.

Read my review of her earlier novel, The Coach House by clicking here.