Jennifer Chiaverini

Reading The Museum of Lost Quilts is like catching up with old friends. All of the Elm Creek Quilters were introduced and a bit of their history given in the beginning of the book. A bit like a reunion with old friends catching up where you left off a few years earlier.

I usually, read books quickly, but in this case, I am only reading a few pages to a chapter at a time, only to savor the delicious writing and stretch out my enjoyment of this book.

Though this is an installment on the series Jennifer Chiaverini masterfully introduces the cast of characters in the first couple of pages. So, if you have not read any of the other books, you have a brief introduction to all the great quilters of Elm Creek. And also, if you have not read any of the other Elm Creek Quilt books, I whole heartedly recommend you take the time and do.… (more)

Jennifer Chiaverini has written more than forty books, but she is a new-to-me author! I will definitely be on the look out for more of her titles. The Museum of Lost Quilts is a part of the large Em Creek Quilts series, but I was unaware of that until I read the author's note at the end. It worked very well as a stand-alone read. I found it enthralling. Summer Sullivan is struggling to complete her masters thesis, having lost the heart for it has brought on a bad case of writer's block. Looking for a place of peace and refuge, Summer returns to her home among the Elm Creek Quilters. Once there, she quickly gets side-tracked with a project for the local historical society, collecting quilts of historical significance and curating an exhibit of these quilts. That in itself is a great undertaking, but a local businessman is determined to make it even more difficult.

Not only did I immensely enjoy the well-written story, I was very interested in the object labels for he exhibited quilts. Their descriptions and history were intriguing. I highly recommend The Museum of Lost Quilts to readers of women's fiction, to those who have an interest in historical artifacts or quilting, and to those who enjoy stories of finding one's true self. I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of this novel from William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.… (more)

Most Americans have heard of Rosie the Riveter, the icon for women workers in U.S. factories during World War II. But have you ever heard of Canary Girls?

I never had! "Canary Girls" was a nickname for a particular group of munitionettes, which in turn was a name used for women who worked in British ammunition plants during World War I. Canary girls did some of the most dangerous work, filling bomb shells with explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT), which also turned their skin and hair yellow - hence the nickname. In some cases, though, canary girls suffered more serious health problems.

The story is told through three main narrators - April, a former housemaid; Lucy, wife of a soccer (British football) player and mother of two sons; and Helen, a second-generation German who is the wife of the manager of one of the munitions plants. April and Lucy are canary girls; Helen joins the plant administration to be their advocate. All three play for the plant's women's football team, trying to win the (real) Munitionettes' Cup. Other women working in the plant and playing on the team, as well as a few men (Lucy's and Helen's husbands, and one of the latter's assistants), round out the minor characters.

Author Jennifer Chiaverini herself described the book as "Rosie the Riveter meets A League of Their Own" (the movie about women's professional baseball during World War II), and that's pretty accurate. Although I'm not a sports fan, I really enjoyed this story.… (more)