Poetry Says it Better

 

Poetry Says it Better: Poems to Help You Wake Up / Ellen Burstyn
NY: HarperOne, c2026.
258 p.

This intriguing book is a hybrid memoir/book of poetry. Actress Ellen Burstyn shares her favourite poems throughout the book, but also tells stories of her life, and why and when certain poems gained their importance in her life. She also talks about the power of memorizing poems, to have them with you when you need them. 

I loved it. I had no idea what I was getting when I picked this book up by chance. I didn't even realize that it was by Burstyn until I read the intro. I just saw that it was a book about poetry and how it can help you live life well -- definitely something I believe. So I wanted to check this out. 

It was so engaging! I just didn't want to put it down. Her stories were gentle and compelling, even while she was talking about some hard times in her life. And then she would share a poem, the one that she'd been explaining. So you can read the poem immediately, and if it touches you, take her advice and try to memorize it right there. 

Her passion for poetry was infectious. She talks about sharing it with people in her life who were sure they didn't like poetry, until she found just the right poem to reach them. I love that feeling when I'm suggesting novels in my day job and the right one hits -- I'm sure it's just as satisfying for her when she converts someone to poetry! 

Many of the poems she includes are ones that may already be familiar to regular readers -- Invictus, a few Mary Oliver choices, some Yeats, Edna St. Vincent Millay and so on. But there were also some that were new to me. I absolutely loved this book. I love seeing people share the things they are passionate about, and poetry is definitely that for Ellen Burstyn. This book is inspiring and uplifting -- highly recommend it. 

Ordinary People Don't Carry Machine Guns

Ordinary People Don't Carry Machine Guns/ Artem Chapeye
trans. from the Ukrainian by Zenia Tompkins
NY: Seven Stories Press, c2025. 
128 p.

 Moving from yesterday's 1920s Kyiv to 2020s Kyiv with today's book. This set of essays by Artem Chapeye is a straight-talking, angry book about war and the way it affects a society. It was so powerful and striking in many ways. 

Chapeye was a leftist pacifist prior to Feb 22, 2022. But the reality of an invasion of his country led him to enlist shortly after the invasion began. He has been serving in the army since. 

The book is divided into three parts: “When Darkness Comes”, about the beginning and the incomprehensible reality of war arriving in a modern European country, and the way it immediately shook everything up. “It’s Necessary to Cultivate Your Garden” takes a look at everyday Ukrainians, their survival strategies and hopes for a return to a peaceful future. Then, “People Aren’t Divided into Brands" which examines the problems of elitism and the attitudes between different levels of Ukrainian society - how those who haven't enlisted often say that they can help elsewhere, with overtones of them being more important than those on the front lines. Chapeye has years, now, of serving in the army, and he worries about his wife and children, his country, and more, even as he doesn't waver from his role. 

I found Chapeye's earlier book, The Ukraine, memorable; a mix of fiction and reportage, it was published just as he had enlisted. This book is darker, more grounded in daily experience of war and the social issues it aggravates. It's a must read, as a fluent report of the day to day life of a Ukrainian soldier, one who is also an accomplished writer and journalist. Hard to read but so vital. 

Strong Roots

 

Strong Roots: a memoir of food, family & Ukraine / Olia Hercules
NY: Knopf, c2025.
288 p.

I devoured this memoir of food, family and Ukraine. Olia Hercules is a well known Ukrainian cook based in the UK. When the invasion happened in 2022, she took part in many fundraising activities, encouraging restaurants and foodies in UK to create events and raise money. 

In this book, she shares what happened in the aftermath of the invasion to her personally and to her parents as they fled Kherson, near Crimea. And she takes that beginning and moves back into three generations of her family, their lives, experiences, values. As she notes in her acknowledgements, "Not one generation of my family has escaped dispossession, deportation or war."

This is a beautifully written family history, full of longing for Ukraine, with evocative recollections of natural beauty, food and family, and alongside that, the realities of war over a century, deportations, violence - and the way those things were not often discussed openly. She covers many years of Soviet rule, and the breakup of the regime, from her parents' experiences to her own. Her writing is so powerful I feel like I can see the places she describes for myself. She has a talent for metaphor and imagery, for tucking dark facts into lovely settings.

This is not a foodie memoir but food plays a role. Places are described using food based metaphors -- and she talks about family dinners, family recipes, about making food for her parents as they first arrive in Italy from Ukraine in 2022 -- using whatever she could find in Italy for borsch, and making bread: "Kneading dough is a sensory repetition that forces you to observe the moment, to let go of the insistent buzz of anxiety."

This is a five star read for me. The combination of history, food, family stories with the fluid writing style that makes you feel that Hercules is talking to you directly, all make this a fantastic book. I can't recommend it enough. Anyone wanting to know more about Ukraine needs to read this gorgeous story.

And if you love food too, even better. Make sure you check out Olia Hercules' cookbooks, especially Summer Kitchens, my favourite. 

Dorothy Grant, An Endless Thread

 

Dorothy Grant: An Endless Thread / Dorothy Grant
Victoria, BC: Figure 1 Publishing, c2024.
176 p.

I came across this book in my library's online catalogue; until then I hadn't heard of Dorothy Grant. I'm so glad I found this! Grant is a West Coast Haida designer from what is now Alaska. She began designing in 1989 with her show called Feastwear, which launched her into a very successful career selling first in a boutique, and then via trunk shows and bespoke items.

This book is partly a memoir of her career and partly a look-book of her many pieces and designer lines. There are photos of many Indigenous celebrities and leaders wearing her work, as well as politicians -- one image of Governor General Mary Simon greeting Pope Francis during his visit to apologize for Residential School harms has her wearing a white Dorothy Grant capelet that echoes the Pope's robes, something I found fascinating.

Grant's work has also been collected by museums and galleries. Her designs incorporate traditional Haida motifs as well as garment types and kinds of embellishments like shellwork and embroidery, or traditional spruce root weaving. They play those elements off of modern design to create amazing pieces. 

This book was put together for a retrospective at Haida Gwaii Museum in 2024, so there are also essays by the curator, India Rael Young, and Haida repatriation specialist and museologist Sdahl Ḵ’awaas Lucy Bell, alongside some of Grant's own reflections and memories, and those of her longtime assistant, Haida curator and artist Kwiaahwah Jones. All this, plus the many large photos, make this book a wonderful read, with so much to examine. I really enjoyed it. If you can find a copy, I would recommend it to any fashion lover. 

You can find lots of fascinating information and fashion on Dorothy Grant's website, too,

(Flip through with more images, details and a short video interview with the author can be found on the publisher's website) 

From the Rez to the Runway

From the Rez to the Runway / Christian Allaire 
TO: HarperCollins, c2025.
272 p.

June is National Indigenous History Month in Canada. I shared a few reviews of some books by Indigenous writers on my sewing blog this month, and am going to share them here this week as well. I'll start with this fascinating memoir!

Christian Allaire (author of The Power of Style) has just published a memoir about his rise from Ojibwe teen from Northern Ontario to Vogue fashion writer -- and it's a great read! He's really honest about the trials and tribulations of reaching his goals, recognizing both his own hard work and his luck. As well as the support he received from his family and community. 

He shares how he was always into fashion, reading magazines, watching Fashion Televison & admiring Jeanne Beker, and dressing himself as style-forward as he could with thrift store finds and more. He decided to go into fashion journalism and headed to Toronto, where he found himself one of the few Indigenous students in the journalism program, and certainly in the fashion journalism subset. 

During school he also interned and worked very hard to make connections that might lead to work or further opportunities - he seems to have had endless energy and drive at this time. In this section, he mentions that the professors told him he shouldn't be working, that he should be focusing on academics instead - but that it was all the work he was doing that led to the footholds he was able to get in the industry. This is a great point for many students to think about. 

When he moves to New York to take on some internships, the stories get wilder, until he realizes he needs to take control of his life and manage addictions, so that he can succeed instead of burning out and disappearing. There are lots of entertaining stories during his internship years, including one at a magazine where a roomful of Chanel couture was inadvertently destroyed (not by him), or when a celebrity wore all the designer clothes from a shoot home, and Christian, an intern, had to go get these pieces back to return to the designers in the morning. 

But he also shares stories of how being true to himself and his Indigenous community led to opportunities, especially at Vogue. His pieces on the Santa Fe Indian Market and a variety of Indigenous beaders, designers, jewellers and more were big hits, and he was able to parlay this into the right role at just the right time. And when the book ends, he is giddy, at the peak - he's on the red carpet at the Met Gala, interviewing guests. 

This is an engaging memoir from an important voice in the fashion community right now. I enjoyed the structure and the progression of the book and thought it was well done, incorporating a variety of stories for someone so early into their career. Definitely worth a look!

Heart on my Sleeve

It's already a week into December, and so that means that I'll have to speed up and share some of my outstanding reviews for the year! I have a few books that I've read in the last while and have been meaning to talk about. So there's going to be a batch of random reads shared for the next week or two ;) I'll start with this fashion memoir by a beloved Canadian icon, Jeanne Beker -- both an entertaining and thoughtful book that is just the right topic and the right size to make a great holiday gift for any fashionistas you might know. This review was first shared at my sewing blog, and I hope you'll enjoy it here too. 

Heart on my Sleeve / Jeanne Beker
TO: Simon & Schuster, c2024. 
256 p.

This memoir by Canadian fashion icon Jeanne Beker was a delight. Unlike a traditional memoir, this is structured as a walk through memory, tied to specific pieces of clothing. It highlights how something we wear can carry history and family with it, beyond just being a piece of clothing or an accessory. I really liked this concept and the way it was carried out. She shares an item from her closet, then talks about how/where she got it and the resonances of the piece. Each chapter has a line drawing to illustrate the item, drawn by her own artist daughter. And this book sounds just like she's talking to you - the style is intimate and authentic, highlighting both the glamorous parts of her career and her personal challenges. 

I've read her earlier memoirs (such as Finding Myself in Fashion), and some of the stories here are repeated from those earlier books, but still just as enjoyable. The chapters are short, but cover a range of life moments. From the satchel her parents brought with them when they immigrated to Canada as Holocaust survivors, containing the small amount of family items they still had, to a Chanel dress given to her by Karl Lagerfeld, this book moves from touching and serious to funny & fashion-related. The pace is good and the book shares so many elements of her life, from the personal (her parents, partners and children), to the many famous fashion people she met and befriended in her many years of hosting FashionTelevision. 

There are some great moments included, from the unexpected generosity of Karl Lagerfeld (one of my favourite stories from past books too) to her interviews with fashion greats or music luminaries like Paul McCartney, Keith Richards and more (she worked on MuchMusic before fashion). I really enjoyed the way she started with her wardrobe and let each piece draw out recollections - we all have the experience of knowing just when and where we wore something, and what the meaning of it was to us; some pieces that we've kept forever because of those memories, and some that we could never wear again. 

This covers fashion history, Canadian history (a fun story about Pierre Trudeau, for example), family stories, and traces the development of Canadian media in a way, too. I thought it was a great read, and one I'd recommend to anyone interested in fashion or Canadian women's lives - especially if you were a fan of FashionTelevision in the old days like me ;) 

(review first appeared in slightly different form at FollowingTheThread)

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

 

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop / Alba Donati
trans. from the Italian by Elena Pala
New York : Scribner, 2023, ©2022.
194 p.

This charming memoir will appeal to booklovers who might also dream of opening a tiny bookshop in the middle of nowhere -- and having it actually become a success! 

Alba Donati worked in the publishing business in Milan, but decided to move back to the tiny Tuscan village of Lucignana (pop. 180) where she was born. She builds a tiny bookshop on a hill, stocking it only with the books she loves. And plenty of lovely additions, like local jams, calendars and literary stockings, too.

The bookshop becomes a success, drawing people from many nearby regions. This book is structured in diary entries, relating everyday events from small to dramatic, like a fire in the shop. Each entry ends with a list of the daily orders, a great way to find out what her customers are reading (and build your own TBR as well!) 

But even though there is a lot of charm just in the descriptions of the bookshop and its gardens, and of course in Donati's talk of all the books and bookish customers involved, there is also deep reflection on Lucignana itself, and all her family ties in the village. There is history, biography, and self-reflection mixed in to this escapist dream, showing that it's not easy, but returning to her home village and creating positive change was worth it. 

We finish up with her after a year of hard work and exponential success, with Donati still making plans for more bookish delights -- new titles, writer events, and growth. If you're a booklover and want to live vicariously through Donati's journey to create this destination bookshop in the hills of Italy, you won't want to miss this one. 

Food Was Her Country

Food Was Her Country / Marusya Bociurkiw
Qualicum Beach, BC: Caitlin Press, c2018.
176 p.

I read Bociurkiw's first memoir, Comfort Food for Breakups, a decade ago, and have intended to read this one ever since! But I think I read it at the right time, as I found this so powerful and engrossing when I picked it up a few weeks ago. 

Her essay in Unbound, which I recently reviewed, has a lot of crossover with this book -- some of the same material. If I hadn't read them coincidentally at the same time, I might not have realized! But it's wonderful writing so I didn't mind at all. 

Her writing is smooth and engaging, even as she talks about parents aging, family estrangement, issues of identity and sexuality, and difficult memories. She also talks about building new relationships both with her family and with chosen family, lots about food of course (she is an amazing food writer), and lots of fascinating background on being Ukrainian Canadian. She grew up in Western Canada but has lived in Toronto for a long time, so there is also that element that shapes her relationships.

There is a lot to take in here. There are many life events she shares, often using food as a connecting link. The main thread in this memoir is her relationship with her mother, and her mother's past -- both as a Ukrainian and as her specific role in their family. She and her mother communicate with food, and the writing here does not strain the metaphor at all, but makes it so beautiful. Bociurkiw's voice is gentle, honest, and grounded. You can tell she knows herself and is centred, even while ranging over her past.  

If you are interested in thoughtful, poetic examinations of family, or food, or the second or third generation immigrant experience, you will also love this. I was very taken with this one and would reread it in a flash. Very impressive style and substance, too. 

Education of a Wandering Man

 

Education of a Wandering Man: a Memoir / Louis L'Amour
NY: Bantam, 1990, c1989.
272 p.

Something you might not know about me is that I love reading Westerns. Mostly the newer, modernized Westerns but I do have an abiding fondness for Louis L'Amour. My dad had many of his books in the house when I was growing up, and I started reading them young, enjoying quite a bit about them. Reading them as an adult does change the perspective a bit, but I still like his writing style and his constant refrain of the importance of reading, books, and education. 

I picked up this memoir of sorts a while back, and found it illuminating. There is so much that L'Amour did in his own life which colours his writing. From boxing to freight train hopping, to ranch sitting, travelling the world as a working sailor, a stint in the US army, and more -- so much going on in his life, alongside his writing. By the time he died, with his own ranch, his personal library was 10,000+ volumes large. This book looks at his life story through the lens of education; what he thinks education really is, and how to obtain it. 

He started his writing career with adventure stories, and then when the public appetite for those was dropping, he switched to Westerns, and hit it big with Hondo. He liked to tell stories of men who had character, were adventurous and usually some kind of loner, with places also important in these stories -- you feel like you got to know the landscape in his books. 

This memoir talks about his growing up -- his family, and why he set out on his own quite young, and the thirst for new things that drove him. He shares stories of his experiences as a sailor or as a cattle wrangler or a boxer, all of which sound like something in one of his novels. And he talks about life once he'd settled down a bit later on, with a wife and family of his own. It was compelling reading. 

The one quibble I had was that it was a little bit repetitive. It could probably have been edited down a bit, as some of the same refrains appear in a few different spots throughout the book. But if you know someone interested in Westerns, in L'Amour himself, or in lives that incorporate the unexpected -- with a side of book love -- then this one is a good choice. It's an older book but quite common to find second hand. I found it really interesting putting together his life stories with some of the elements of his novels, and seeing his own voice and character in this book and how it shows up in his fiction. Fascinating!

Some quotes to end with:

“Books are precious things, but more than that, they are the strong backbone of civilization. They are the thread upon which it all hangs, and they can save us when all else is lost.”

“If I were asked what education should give, I would say it should offer breadth of view, ease of understanding, tolerance for others, and a background from which the mind can explore in any direction....  Education should provide the tools for a widening and deepening of life, for increased appreciation of all one sees or experiences. It should equip a person to live life well, to understand what is happening about him, for to live life well one must live with awareness.”

The Fight of Our Lives

The Fight of Our Lives / Iuliaa Mendel
trans. by Madeline G. Levine
NY: Atria/One Signal, c2022
208 p.

This is a fantastic read, one that hits the current moment perfectly. It's an engaging read, a mix of general politics, a closer look at Zelenskyy's character, and the author's own life. She combines them to create an informative and easy-to-read political memoir. 

Her story is pretty fascinating - she worked as Zelenskyy's press secretary for two years, after winning a competition for the role. From her inside vantage point, she talks about how Zelenskyy's election was a turning point, a rejection of the Russian focused oligarchs and a loud call for a European government. And she shares the hard work required to change entrenched corrupt practices, including things like hiring the right people, making processes more transparent, and the huge shift in digital access to government services (right now it's easier to access government services online in Ukraine than in most of North America, for example). 

Her own life was disrupted by the war, as her fiancé went to the front lines in the beginning of the invasion. Her view as a young professional woman who was directly involved in the Ukrainian government is fascinating and thorough. She isn't speaking on anyone else's behalf; she is clear about the positives and the flaws involved in such a huge turnaround effort. But you can also feel the respect she has for Zelenskyy's leadership and the care he puts into every interaction.

It's a great read if you're interested in current events and how Zelenskyy came to power, and where the country wants to go. It's also very useful in getting a feel for the realities of Ukrainian life now and in recent decades. I feel that reading this will enlighten and inform anyone who is trying to understand Ukraine more clearly now. And it's also well written, with a narrative that flows and carries you forward. Recommended!

Stalking the Atomic City

Stalking the Atomic City / Markiyan Kamysh
trans. from the Ukrainian by Hanna Leliv and Reilly Costigan-Humes
St Peters, MO: Tantor Audio, 2022, c2015.

I shouldn't have liked this one, really -- it's not my thing, a memoir by a disaffected young man who likes to take illegal trips into the Exclusion Zone around Chornobyl to get drunk and wander through abandoned buildings, while avoiding police patrols. 

But I did like it. Markiyan Kamysh's father was one of the men who cleaned up after the Chornobyl disaster, and perhaps that's why he feels drawn to this space. Also, he takes groups through the spaces he knows, acting as a bit of a tour guide for those foreigners who want to explore abandoned places. It's a certain type of younger man who seems to be drawn to these kind of adventures, whether Ukrainian or not. And a lot of his story covers his drinking binges in Chornobyl, or the hours of struggling through hip deep snow to get to a lodging. Hiding from or being spotted by patrols. Finding new locations to scout, drinking directly from contaminated rivers, or burning random items to keep warm in a 'camp'. And he throws in quite a lot of cursing, and some questionable comparisons of inanimate objects to women's anatomy. 

So I'm not entirely sure why I listened to this almost all in one go, and thought it was really interesting. There is a sense of longing and nostalgia for a frozen past, one in which there are no people to mess it up, and no expectations on the resident/observer. And I can understand the fine edge of seeing abandoned places and feeling the haunting sense of the past through them. I feel like this emotional element is perhaps tied to his father's role in the days following the disaster somehow, but rather than be straightforward about the sadness or the emotional ties to this landscape, he uses tough language and a dismissive attitude toward what is really a compulsion to keep returning to the exclusion zone. 

The combination got to me. And I could feel the strong draw of this sense of time stopping, a slowing down of the frantic pace of life -- and a dare to the dangers of radiation, a young person's bravado that bad things won't happen to them. There was just something about this storytelling that I found mesmerizing, and have thought about some scenes often since I finished it. It's a completely personal story, no wider meaning or references to politics or history or patriotism or anything else of the sort. Just a young man returning and returning to a dangerous and mostly abandoned place for reasons he can't quite articulate. And yet, it resonates somehow. 

 

Totto-Chan: the Little Girl at the Window

Totto-Chan: the little girl at the window / Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
trans. from the Japanese by Dorothy Britton
NY: Kodansha USA, 2011, c1981.
229 p.

This is a Japanese classic, a memoir of childhood by a very popular actress and talk show host, written in the 80s. It was written chapter by chapter as a series of articles for Kodansha's Young Woman magazine in 1979 & 1980, and then released as a complete book in 1981. Thus the chapters are complete stories in themselves, but as a whole give a wonderful picture of Tomoe Gakuen, the experimental school that Totto-Chan attended for only a couple of years just prior to WWII but which shaped her life irrevocably. 

It's a really charming book, disarmingly simple but full of nostalgia and an examination of children who didn't fit into the regular school system but flourished at Tomoe. Totto-Chan herself was enrolled in grade 1, as the regular school she was at expelled her (in grade 1!) because they couldn't manage her free-spirited ways. She couldn't fit in to the regimented school day, having boundless curiosity, restlessness and an inability to leave anything unexplored. The headmaster of her new school was a gentle man who loved nature and music, and followed natural methods of teaching children led by their interests.

The chapters cover her home life, adventures at the school from daily routine to field trips to sport days, and draw portraits of her fellow students and her beloved headmaster. Exploration of nature, music, books, social skills and more were highlighted, and when a child did something that might be considered "naughty" (many of which Totto-Chan was prone to) they were not punished but rather talked it over and had to make it right. It seems idyllic in many ways, but she doesn't gloss over the difficulties of some of the students, or the sad things that happened in those years. Also, the war was on its way, and the book ends with the end of Tomoe, bombed and destroyed, and Totto-Chan evacuating on a train in the night. 

If you're interested in personal memoirs of childhood, or in alternative education, this is a must read. It has a calm, appealing style which feels gentle and clear. This has been on my shelf for a long time; I'm so glad I finally read it -- I was completely drawn in to this life story. 

Dressed in Dreams

Dressed in Dreams: a Black Girl's love letter to the power of Fashion / Tanisha C. Ford
NY: St Martins, c2019.
246 p.

I really enjoyed this book by Dr. Tanisha Ford, who I first heard about when I put her award-winning  academic study Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul on my to-read list.

But I was able to get my hands on this particular book first, and it is much more conversational and chatty than academic; I found it a quick, entertaining and enlightening read. It's a mix of memoir and fashion history -- Ford takes a specific item of fashion as the theme for each chapter, then talks about whatever it is, ie: dashikis in the first chapter, sharing information about that fashion moment and why it is important or culturally relevant, and then how it plays out in her own life.

I found this mix really interesting. From dashikis to baggy jeans, tennis shoes to knee high boot, and Jheri curls to Afro puffs, Ford takes on elements of fashion that she explored in a search for her own identity as a Black woman coming of age in the 80s and 90s in a Midwestern factory town. She explores how fashion reflected her own growth as she reached out for an identity beyond just an Indiana girl. And she reveals how pop culture trends, in both clothing and hair and makeup, are strongly related to racial identity, as Black styles are adopted by the (white) mainstream and only appreciated after that.

Each chapter has a sketch of the item in question at the opening, done by Veronica Miller Jamison, and they are charming. And the subtitle of the book is perfectly descriptive; you can tell that Ford loves fashion. She says:

Our garments are archives of memories- individual and collective, material and emotional- that tell these rich, textured stories of our lives. To make it plain: our clothes makes us feel things. All the things.

This isn't an autobiography -- more a set of personal essays on a theme. In telling her life story, Ford skims over some years and highlights others. It's organized around memories of the fashions, in clothing and hairstyles, that defined parts of her life from the 80s to the current day -- a final chapter talks about the hoodie and the start of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. It's not explicitly shown how Ford moves through some of the challenges she discusses, but it's clear that her love of fashion as expression is essential to her life. The stories of her parents and her relatives, and some of her school friends, add depth to her stories and create an engaging and wide-ranging look at style and life as a Black woman in these years, and how dress was politically charged even if she didn't want it to be.

All of her stories highlight the importance of various fashions in African American life, from the dashiki to things like nametag jewelry and bamboo earrings. Each one is tied to her life experience and the black society she found in the different places she lived while going to college and beyond. As expected from a history professor and pop culture specialist, her knowledge is wide and here it is sprinkled in among the personal stories to create a warmly informative, fascinating, sincerely told story. If you're looking for an illuminating read about Black women's lives, this is a great choice.

(first published at Following The Thread)

Some Girls, Some Hats & Hitler

Some Girls, Some Hats & Hitler / Trudi Kanter
NY: Scribner, c2012
272 p.

This was an unusual read -- a memoir first published in 1984 in England, then rediscovered a decade or so ago and republished. It follows the life of Trudi Kanter, an Austrian milliner who used her business to escape Hitler's incursions into Austria (after many struggles). 

It has a different take on WWII; Trudi is very focused on her business and her relationship, not so much on politics or social action. This story is about her. She's a regular person trying to keep her head down and not get involved in everything that's going on, rather, she wants to keep her life the way it is and continue her sewing and hatmaking without any disturbance. 

Unfortunately for her, being in the midst of Germany's invasion and being a Jewish woman, that doesn't happen. 

The story is full of incidents told clearly and plainly -- how she talks her way into a buying trip outside of Austria even when travel is restricted, how clients in England assist their escape, and how her parents stay in Austria thinking it can't possibly get worse (they do eventually get out). She describes her workroom and the women in it, and the way that some of them remain loyal to Trudi despite everything, and some not so much. The discussion of her business and the day to day work, and her own clothing as well as her husband's outfits, is of course of great interest too. 

I've seen some readers mention that they felt this was too 'lightweight' to be a proper WWII memoir, but I think that might be a bias against fashion as a serious topic coming through. Trudi does not hide the difficulties they faced, but she does use her connections and her own chutzpah to get them out of the country before they face any deportations or camps -- so that there is no element of that level of suffering here. That doesn't make her story any less compelling. 

The style is also very good. It moves along quickly, it has an intimate tone that draws you in, and her observational skills are finely honed. People leap to life in her words. The final chapter or so, describing their postwar life in England as businesspeople and refugees, is not quite as intense or complex, but hearing about how Trudi got them back on track after being displaced makes you admire this tough woman who could take care of herself. 

I thought it was a good read, another viewpoint via a personal account of those years from someone outside of Germany but still caught up in the growing disaster. If you're interested in millinery, women in business, the Austrian experience of German invasion, or a look at people with all their flaws showing, this will interest you.

*****************************

first published at FollowingTheThread.ca Nov/19

Grace: A Memoir

Grace: A Memoir / Grace Coddington
New York: Random House, c2012.
416 p.

I picked up this book at the library as I've always been interested in fashion and especially Vogue. If you've seen The September Issue, then you'll have met Grace Coddington, model turned fashion editor turned long-time staple at American Vogue.

Don't be misled by the size of this book -- although it's 416 p., that's 400+ pages of wide margins, lovely little sketches done by Grace, and pretty easy reading.

I wanted to love this book. And I did love the first half. The story of her childhood could be a book in its own right. It was dreamy and lovely and extremely intriguing. Then she heads off to London at 18 to become a fashion model. She succeeds, despite a disfiguring car crash early on, bad relationships, and more. Most of the second half of the book is about her movement in the fashion world -- names, companies, photographers, various boyfriends/husbands, working for different bosses and then Anna Wintour. The route her career took is a bit unusual, and the minutiae of daily life in this high fashion world is very different to  anything familiar to me. I was interested in all this; if you're not into the everyday of fashion magazines, it might grow a bit wearing for you as a reader. 

One thing that caught me right away was the entertaining chapter headings, in the style of 19th century writers, ie: Chapter One: in which a young girl leaves home etc etc. I don't have the book with me so it's not exactly that but has the same phrasing -- and each one is pretty much a summary of the chapter so you could easily skim through it just with chapter headings.

I thought that the addition of her quirky, individual sketches was a great idea, as she says herself that she is a visual person, not a word person (and says that she's only read 2 books as an adult - can't relate!) . But this is also the downfall of the book -- the lack of facility with words and storytelling structure. There are ellipses in her story; things happen but we're not sure why or what she learned from them; weight is given to slight stories and more serious and devastating events are mentioned in passing. There's a sense that she is quite private and didn't want to tell-all in this memoir. So why a memoir at all? The most emotional truth and sense of narrative is definitely in the beginning, before she leaves home. 

Unfortunately, she doesn't take this opportunity to reflect much on Fashion as a business, or the demands made on women in this profession. She seems to take it all at face value for the most part, and not question much about the expectations of this world around physical appearance or work loads. 

So, while I enjoyed it overall, I'm also glad that I got it from the library, and was able to enjoy the parts that were engaging and skim over the parts that were not (a chapter on her cats and her cat psychic??). I still enjoy Vogue and following fashion, but I don't think we can expect great literature from this venue.

this review first appeared at Following the Thread

The Sculptor's Daughter

The Sculptor's Daughter / Tove Jansson; translated from the Swedish by Kingsley Hart
New York : William Morrow, 2014, c1969
192 p.

I read this charming memoir at Christmas, which was suitable because it's so dreamy -- I think looking back at childhood suits the nostalgic nature of the season. Also because this book ends with a chapter about Christmas in Tove Jansson's home (also her parents' studio), featuring a large Christmas tree & an unusual celebration of the season.

I dipped into it again recently so I could share it, and it is just as fascinating on a second look. Tove Jansson (probably best known for the Moomins) was an interesting woman. A visual artist and a writer, she was a Swedish speaking Finn, and lived with her partner Tuulikki Pietilä for over 30 years. 

In this short memoir, she shares memories from her young childhood in short, discrete chapters. Each one shares a moment told in the perspective of a child -- they are startling and dreamy, unexpected and strange. Her imagination turns a carpet into a rolling sea, a small grove into a chapel, and more. 

There is also a lot about her upbringing in a family of artists and nonconformist types. Her father was a sculptor and her mother a successful graphic designer who among other things designed bank notes and stamps for the government. And her mother supported the family financially through this work. Tove's parents both hoped for their children to also become artists and supported their creative explorations with freedom to wander, think, and make as children. This tendency comes through strongly when you read the Moomin stories, where the family is a strong unit but everyone can do their own thing as they wish to. 

Reading this is fascinating because Jansson's voice is so particular. She is able to create a vivid setting in just a few words, and is able to convey the felt experience of childhood in these essays, not just recalling them but re-experiencing them. The 'aliveness' in them is arresting. 

If you have any interest in Tove Jansson, or in shared childhood stories, this is definitely one you'll want to read. It's a life that is so different from modern childhood, but one that seems universally appealing. I really liked it. 

Roy's Enchanted Summer

Enchanted Summer / Gabrielle Roy; translated from the French by Joyce Marshall.
Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2004, c1976.
125 p.

I first began reading this little tale of a summer in the Quebec countryside ages ago, in an old hardcover edition I'd found somewhere. Then I got to page 80 and realized that the book had a misprint -- the signature repeated itself and then jumped to the next, so I could reread the beginning and skip over most of the middle if I wanted! Well, of course I didn't, so I laid it down, and only began reading it again recently when I came across this little New Canadian Library (no.155) edition, with two collected short works included. 

I am generally a fan of most everything Gabrielle Roy has written. There are some works that are stronger and some that are not quite as strong but still charming and enjoyable to read. This is one of the latter for me.

It is made up of short pieces describing a rather idyllic summer she spends in the rural countryside of the Charlevoix region of Quebec. The narrator introduces us to her friends, to the locals, to visitors and to family - not to mention a heavy rotation of pets, wild animals, bugs and birds. It's a style of impressionistic writing that makes me think of the nature writers of the 70s overall, a kind of sun-washed, floral, almost naive style. Though Roy never backs away from the realities of life and death and much in between. 

We begin with the two friends encountering a bullfrog on an evening walk, in a humorous moment, which turns to pathos by the end when the bullfrog is gone - in all likelihood eaten - by the next summer. An elderly aunt comes to visit and a big production is made to get her down to the river one last time, the great St Lawrence River of her childhood; and as it turns out it's the last time she ever sees it. The book also includes a flashback to the memory of a teaching post in Manitoba when as Roy leads the school children to the home of a dead classmate to say goodbye. It's considered natural though tragic. There is a sense of the sublime in these essays - how the world in its own rhythms towers over our small lives. But there is also some humour, much charm in her descriptions of crows, cats and more, and an almost overwhelming nostalgia - one of the signatures of her style. 

I am glad I persevered and found a readable edition of this book - it's the perfect book to read when your own summer vacation is much more urban and truncated than this lengthy rural idyll. The weekend feels much longer when you spend it in Roy's company. 

Cait Flanders' Year of Less

The Year of Less / Cait Flanders 
Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, c2018.
189 p.

These kind of minimalist books always appeal to me in a weird way -- since I am not a minimalist, and I dislike the obsession for getting rid of All The Things.

Still. Thought I'd give this one a go as everyone was talking about it in my library. There's a long holds list for it as well, so I guess others are also compelled to read these stories of decluttering in hopes of catching the bug.

The summary for this book reads:

The author decides that for twelve months she will only buy consumables, consume less of many other things, declutter her apartment, get rid of 70 percent of her belongings and learn to repair things as opposed to tossing them away.

I can get behind some of this. I'm all for buying less, and repairing instead of throwing away. Most of my own buying happens at thrift stores these days, either that or fabric stores! There are frequent "shopping bans" in the sewing world, with people pledging to buy no Ready To Wear clothing for a year, or going on fabric or pattern fasts, etc. So I see people wanting to buy less, even while consumerism rages all around us and tempts even the best of us to overspend & overbuy.

But both this book and Marie Kondo's book left me cold. Both authors seem obsessive to me, using decluttering as just another extreme lifestyle choice. Flanders notes down what percentage of her belongings she's removed at the start of each chapter. After a year it's 80%. Either she had hoarder level stuff in the beginning, or she now lives like a Zen monk.

I don't feel that the advice for extreme clearing out will really help that many people. Maybe a few with the same personality type. But I'm never going to have a wardrobe of 23 items -- I love clothes and sewing. And I'm never getting rid of 80% of my books. The whole point of having books is that you haven't yet read them. 

That said, I could do with a general clearing out. Some of the ideas are useful. Consuming less to begin with is a fine idea. I am also reading through some books on sustainable fashion right now, and many of those have the same direction -- buy less & take care of your belongings. 

This book also delves into Canadian author Flanders' own life and personality, though. Her struggles with family dissolution, addictions and other troubles explain a lot about her need to place limits on herself in the area of spending, which may not be the same for other readers. The book thus has a little more complexity than simply a decluttering story. If you are interested in a memoir of better living through drastic decluttering, this one will be for you. 

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Further Reading:

The obvious readalike is Marie Kondo's Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up -- but for some reason the memoir part of this book also reminded me of the tone of Clara Hughes' Open Heart, Open Mind, a story of her journey through a difficult life and her successes in the sports world.

Tangles: a Story about Alzheimer's, my Mother and Me

Tangles: a Story about Alzheimer's, my Mother and Me / Sarah Leavitt
Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, c2010.
132 p.

When the author's lively, clever mother starting showing signs of forgetfulness, her family thought it was probably just stress or overwork or something like that; sadly, it was the beginnings of a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's.

This fearful situation is honestly and lovingly described in Sarah Leavitt's words and pictures. The art is very basic -- line drawings, sketches -- but it captures the charming silliness and connection of this family. Somehow the very simple drawing allows for the story to emerge more strongly. 

Sarah lives far away from her family's home, so is only there part of the time, while her father and sister are more full on caretakers. This means that she sees the changes more startlingly when she does get home. Her mother Midge was an active educator, involved in curriculum design and innovations, and cared deeply about social issues. She changes dramatically, as anyone familiar with the effects of Alzheimer's will recognize -- not only memory but personality changes are she becomes fearful and distrustful. The change is clearly shown, with sorrow and love, and yes, some rage as well. 

Sarah's partner Donimo comes home with her as well, and that relationship is examined here too. They both care for Midge, in one particularly difficult scene, Sarah worries that because she is a lesbian people might think that her physical care she provides for her mother is not 'right' somehow. It's sad that this was a valid worry for her amongst all the others they were facing.

The emotional effect of this story is powerful, and makes it well worth reading for the narrative alone. Leavitt gives a sense of the results of a diagnosis like this on a whole family, not only the one suffering from Alzheimer's. It's hard to read, and terrifying, and very sad. But it's also beautiful. 

Birds Art Life

Birds Art Life: a Year of Observation / Kyo Maclear  
Toronto: Doubleday, c2017.
272 p.

Kyo Maclear was feeling disconnected, overwhelmed. Anxious about her own career and purpose, her stress is compounded by her father's terminal illness. As a writer, she was looking for something to engage with, something that would give her a sense of purpose, a project. She found it when she discovered a local musician who was equally a dedicated urban birder. She decided to follow him around for a year and see what she could learn. 

And this small book consisting of her thoughts and meditations around this project was the result. It's a memoir of the "one year in a life" sort, so many of which exist now. But this is not an eager, do as much as you can in a year and become a better person kind of book. It's dreamy, it's circular and fragmentary. Maclear learns to really see birds; by which, she really learns to see the small particularities of the world, to identify and name what exists around her, grounding herself in a place - even if it's an urban place in which she hadn't expected to find so much natural life.

She also finds that the habit of birding brings a state of mind that might be called meditative, or mindful. The birders she encounters think nothing of sitting perfectly still for hours, in order to spot one particular bird or get just the right photo. The expanses of time in which they sit, visibly doing 'nothing', amaze her; it's so different from the habit of guilt about not being continually productive that she has been suffering from. This slowing of the pace of life is soothing, allowing her to rest, to reflect, and to write again. 

Of course, as she slows and learns to observe birds, her observations in other parts of life grow sharper as well. She relays stories about her family - her husband, sons and father - and remembers her early life. All this in brief and poetic 'chapters', really more like sections rather than neatly tied up chapters, more like the pace of thought. Perhaps it's better thought of as an extended essay. 

I've read some of Maclear's adult fiction (ie: The Letter Opener) as well as being a big fan of her children's books, and this book is something different again. It has the hallmarks of dreaminess and introspection that I've enjoyed in her other work, though; I found it just as satisfying as her novels. 

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Further Reading

Readers of Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk may find some similarities in the theme of fathers, birds, and finding solace in the small things of the natural world. Mary Oliver's recent collection of essays, Upstream, similarly hints that the solution to life's expectations and anxieties lies in observing the natural world.