The Patchwork Bride

By: Sandra Dallas

Libby eBook

Published: 2018

Genre: historical fiction, relationships

As much as I loved the first Sandra Dallas book I read, I disliked this one. Why then, did I finish reading the entire thing? And why did I request it a second time after several weeks' wait? And why didn't I blog this last night before it autoreturned?

I can answer the last question. We hosted a family party last night and it was fun! After everyone left, I was tired and hoped to blog this title this morning before Libby took it back. Now I'm on a six weeks' wait to get it back! Why am I requesting a book that I didn't enjoy and have already finished reading? Because I highlighted some passages and would like to make comments on them. Because I'm apparently a bit OCD with my book blogging. Because I forget details about books I read, which is why I blog about them in the first place.

This entry will be updated after I get the darn book back!

<Above posted 7.21.2024. Below added 8.20.2024.>

It only took four weeks to get it back. Here's what I had highlighted:

Chapter 1: "Then the memories would die with her. Nobody cared about the stories of an old woman."

Initially, I was drawn to the character of Ellen (the grandmother) whose husband Ben is losing his memory. People's stories matter!

Chapter 4: "'He was cultus when he was full of busthead,' Wendell said at the supper table . . .'That means useless when he was drunk.'"

I was so glad that Lucy explained the ranch slang to Miss Nell, because I was confused! 

Chapter 7: "For a moment, Nell was speechless. She had dreamed of this, but she was startled. She'd never thought Buddy would propose at a water tank."

I'm not 100% sure why I highlighted this, but I know I got frustrated with her husband-hunting behaviors. And then I was super irritated at the "surprise" ending.

Chapter 8: "She had lost her sense of direction. But then, she had never seen a storm come on that quickly. It hadn't been five minutes since the snow started, and now it was so thick that she couldn't see five feet in front of them."

Again, not sure why I highlighted this, but dangerous weather can absolutely do this to people.

Chapter 11: :"Nell even quilted with her grandmother's stitching group. They called themselves the Pickles, after a paisley fabric one of the members had acquired."

This made me curious of the order in which Dallas has written her books. I really, really enjoyed The Persian Pickle Club. (Now that I've checked, TPPC was published in 1995 and TPB in 2018.) I'm not sure if I'll read more of her books, though.

 

Chapter  20: "The idea of finding another man scared her, but she needed a husband, and the longer she waited, the harder it would be to force herself to meet men."

This idea permeated the book. For the era and this character, it wasn't a huge stretch, but it bugged me. Especially when she had sex with potential husbands! Seriously, what were you thinking?

Chapter 20: "Then she thought of the quilt she had left behind half finished at the Rockin' A. She had begun it as a wedding present for Buddy, had pieced it and begun the quilting. What had become of it? Had Lucy finished it before she died? Perhaps it had gone into the dog's bed or had been cut in half and turned into a saddle blanket. Maybe one of the cowboys had taken it for a sugan."

This is a quilter's fear! What if someone doesn't value the quilt and uses it as a dog bed or worse? (A sugan is "a coarse blanket used by cowboys and ranchmen." according to Merriam Webster.)

Chapter 22: "Nell didn't care for sherry at all now and would have liked whiskey, but she was afraid the others would disapprove. So instead, she sipped the too-sweet drink."

Yuk. If you don't like it, don't drink it. 

Chapter 24: "The car's an Oldsmobile Curved Dash, and it goes very fast - up to twenty miles an hour."

Why would Wade buy a car when he was so traumatized over his wife and child being killed by one?

Chapter 24: "He wasn't balky like Buddy, and he didn't have another wife, at least not one that was alive, although Nell thought she would always live with the ghost of one."

 

I was really glad Claire ended up with Wade - he was a good guy. 

 

SPOILERS!

 

Chapter 25: When June called out her grandma on being Nell in all her stories. It just wasn't the powerful reveal Dallas made it seem. I didn't get especially attached to any of the characters. Later in the chapter, June does some math and realizes that Ellen / Nell left the Rockin' A already pregnant with June's dad. Buddy / Grandpa Ben married her in 1902. Happy Ever After.

Hardscrabble

By Sandra Dallas

Libby ebook  

Published: 2018

Genre: historical fiction, early 1900s

I really like this author! In this story, a family is heading west to join the father who is homesteading in Colorado. Mom is bringing the oldest daughter Carrie, 12 year old Belle (our protagonist), three younger children, and the baby. They are not quite ready for living in a sod house with neighbors few and far between.

Chapter Two: The Girl Homesteader 

"'So we're not poor?'

'Not poor at all,' Carrie insisted, turning to look at the family. 'How could we be when we have each other? It's just that we don't have money.'"

I love the idea of this! I liked saying to my young children that we were rich! We had a home to live in, we had a loving family, we had enough food to eat . . . that's wealth.

Chapter Two

"It's a hardscrabble life, but I love it."

The speaker is neighbor Lizzie, a young woman who is farming her own homestead. I like to see where a book's title originates. This is it. Lizzie is a fantastic character and a huge blessing to Belle's family.

Chapter Eight: A Homesteader Party

"A man stood beside the car, looking embarrassed. Frank called out, 'Get a horse!' as they passed. That was what people always yelled to a man whose motorcar had broken down."

Heckling isn't the nicest thing to do, but this hit my funny bone anyway.

Chapter Eleven: Staying with Lizzie

". . . she'd had (sic) dug behind her house."

Pet peeve alert: typos in action. "She'd had" is redundant . . . she had had . . . ugh. I should get over this, though. More and more with texting and using finger swipe to spell, I find typos in my own writing and even in my blog entries! I should edit my own work more carefully instead of just hitting "send" or "publish."

Chapter Thirteen: Becky

"'It means difficult,' Lizzie explained. 'You have to work hard to make it out here. Life isn't easy. You've already learned that. The land itself is hardscrabble - tough and dry as a board. And it has no mercy. Sometimes things are so rough that you want to give up, but you don't. You keep going, and you know what, Belle? It's worth it. I've learned that. So has your father. And maybe you have, too."

 

A further explanation of the title. Belle asks Lizzie about the word. Lizzie says more great stuff, but I'm moving on. Read the book! It's good.

Chapter Fifteen: The Rescue

"Bell (sic) studied the bed coverings. They were pretty, with bright designs, and the stitches were as fine as Mama's."

 

Okay, again with the pet peeve. A main character's name is misspelled. How does this happen? I also loved the quilts in this story. They weren't as prominent as in Persian Pickle Club, but the details make me happy!

 

Chapter Nineteen: Hank Comes to Mingo

 "Maybe she could be a cowboy - a cowgirl. Belle laughed to herself. There was no such thing. Girls didn't work cattle."

This whole thought process goes on but raises some great questions about gender roles, skills, etc. I love Belle's observation that Lizzie is "as good a farmer as Papa" and "Mrs. Spenser seemed to know as much about ranching as her husband."

Chapter Nineteen: Hank Comes to Mingo

"'Women out here sure are independent.' He turned to Lizzie. 'I guess we can fix that.' He grinned at Lizzie, and she smiled back."

This made me think, "Oh no! Don't marry him, Lizzie!" I won't put any spoilers here, but I do like this book a lot . . . I'll definitely read more of her books, but I'm playing catch-up right now.

 

The Persian Pickle Club

by Sandra Dallas

Hennepin County Library paperback 196 pages

Published: 1995

Genre: realistic fiction, historical (1930s)

I don't remember where I heard about this book, but I really enjoyed it. I liked it enough to look up the author - she's written a lot of books! The quilting in this story is probably how it came to my attention.

Queenie Bean is a young farm wife in 1930s Harveyville, Kansas. The Dust Bowl following the Great Depression is making life hard for everyone. But getting together with the other women of the Persian Pickle Club helps her stay positive.

Page 4: "I'd never met a woman who didn't sew. None of us had, and we stared at her again, until Ceres Root said with a nice smile, 'You modern women have so many interesting things to do. In this day and age, there's no good reason to make thirteen quilt tops before you marry, like I had to when I was a girl.'"

I love that it's one of the elderly women who breaks the silence when Rita, Tom's wife, admits that she didn't sew.

Page 4: "There wasn't a quilt top turned out by a member of the Persian Pickle Club that didn't have fabrics from all of us in it. That made us all a part of one another's quilts, just like we were part of one another's lives."

I love that they share fabric scraps the way they share their lives as they sew. Camaraderie!

 

Page 13: "She'd start coming to club after she found a husband. It was marrying that made women appreciate other women."

 

That made me laugh. Not every woman wants to get married or have friendships with other women.

 

Page 31: "I'm the same. I look across the land, and all I see are quilts. I carry my scrap bag in the car so's I can go to patching while Blue drives. If I didn't have my quilting, I'd have gone crazy with all this moving around."

I loved the scene where Queenie and her husband Grover meet with Blue and Zepha and little Sonny. This was one of my favorite aspects of the story!

Page 42: "When he went to town one day, she asked him to bring her back a piece of fabric she'd admired. Instead of a length, he brought her the whole bolt of cloth. It was Persian pickle, what some call paisley."

It's fun to find out where the title of the book originates. In this case, Ceres' husband made a purchase that gave the group their title.

Page 132: "When there's trouble, women just naturally think of food, although there was no need for it this time."

Food is one of my love languages! I love offering nourishment to people. It was wonderful how the women reached out to one another in times of trouble.

Page 141: "You can stay locked up here feeling sorry for yourself like Lizzy Olive would have done, or you can put the bad time behind you like Ella did and thing about all the good things the Lord gave you. And He'll keep on giving them to you if you'll let Him. But how can you take advantage of His opportunities if you're sitting behind the kitchen door with the hook on?"

Mrs. Judd was so bossy, but she made things happen!

Page 150: "'Oh,' I said, wondering why women like Velma and Rita, who didn't want children, got pregnant, while God denied me a baby even though I wanted one more than anything in the world. He even gave five at one time to that Dionne family in Canada. Was that fair?"

Those are the kinds of questions to turn over in prayer! It is painful to see people who do not value children at all having them and neglecting or abusing them, while also being aware of people who struggle with infertility.

Page 168: "I took the bundle from Grover and untied the string, putting it into my apron pocket to save."

This caught my attention because those frugal 1930s habits (like saving a piece of string) is what I grew up with! It's hard to not save every little thing when that's what you've known.

I am definitely interested in reading more of this author's work!