Theme Thursday -- Shapes -- Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

Hosted by Reading Between the Pages
Rules:
*A theme will be posted each week on Thursday
*Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading that features the theme
*Post it and don't forget to mention the author and title of the book
*Event is open for the whole week
*Link back to Reading Between the Pages
This week's theme is shapes.

Cover of Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

More than one account mentions her skill as a quilter.  One says that when the refugees were hiding in the woods by day, "she pulled out her patchwork, and sewed together little bits, perhaps not more than an inch square, which were afterwards made into comforters for the fugitives in Canada."  (There is no evidence, however, that quilts hanging on clotheslines guided Tubman or any other runaway on a journey to freedom.)

page 120, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

I chose this quote because I'm always fascinated when I accept a given story or explanation as fact only to learn, many years later, that perhaps it's not all so clear cut....  I'm intrigued by the notion that quilts were never used as a form of communicating to fugitive slaves -- especially considering how often I've seen it presented as a fact.

Book Beginnings & Friday 56 -- What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by A Few More Pages. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence, or two, of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading.

Henry James was drunk.

The room where he was drinking looked familiar, but he could not place it.

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice. Check out the rules and join in the fun.

Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
Turn to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog. Post a link along with your post back to this blog.

Then, when another came, we thought she'd rally, but she didn't.

Set in London during the Jack the Ripper murders, this book has all kinds of name-dropping -- Oscar Wilde, Samuel Clemens, etc.  The main characters are Henry James (author), William James (psychologist & theologian) and Alice James (invalid sister).  The books follows the three siblings in their attempts to solve the Ripper case. 

A fun read, nothing spectacular.

Last bath at Tim and Amy's

Fiona and I moved in with our friends Amy and Tim (and Mark and Lilly) in October.  On Sunday we moved much farther north -- from Highlands Ranch to Lakewood -- to our friend Jen's (and Josie's and Kellan's) house.  We are blessed with wonderful and supportive friends.  We will miss being with A, T, M, and L, and we will like being with J, J, & K. 

Our last night with Mark and Lilly, the kids had a final bath together.  Fiona and Mark were doing some sort of "cool thing" and Fiona wanted me to take pictures so I headed to the basement to get my camera.  However, when I got back upstairs, Lilly had pooped in the bathtub and bathtime was over.  :) Here are two pictures of what I saw instead:

An Expo Washable Dry-Erase Marker House Party at Sadie's (naturally)

We took the bus to Sadie's house and spent some time on the 16th Street Mall for a bit on the way.

How cool is this piano?  We saw two scattered along the Mall and I think there must be more, just available for people to play.

Sadie had this whiteboard easel set up for finger puppet plays.

Yummy snacks.

Revelations by Laurel Dewey

With Revelations, Laurel Dewey brings us another installment in her Jane Perry mystery series.  When a small town police chief calls in a favor owed by Jane's colleague, she finds herself along for the ride. 

From the back cover:
Jake Van Gorden, the fifteen-year-old son of a prominent area businessman, has disappeared, and all signs point to his abductor being Jordan Copeland, a man who committed a similar crime decades ago.  There are indications that Jake is still alive, so the clock is ticking, but as Jane investigates Copeland, she begins to have doubts about his guilt.  And at the same time, she begins to uncover trails of devastating -- and even deadly -- secrets all around Midas.

Meanwhile, Jane must deal with two considerable secrets of her own.

The Jane Perry series is plot-driven and fast-paced. I find myself identifying with her cynicism more than I would have 10 years ago, which is interesting to observe. Dewey is skilled at closing her books with giant cliff-hangers and though it's not my favorite series, I'm intrigued enough with the mysteries in Jane's life that I will probably pick up the next in the series when it comes out.

3/5 stars

A trip to Redstone Park with Gemma, Digby, Ned, and Beatrix