Sunday Salon ~ new books and activities

BOOKS

Sister of Mine ~ by Sabra Waldfogel, 2016, fiction (Georgia)

When two Union soldiers stumble onto a plantation in northern Georgia on a warm May day in 1864, the last thing they expect is to see the Union flag flying high — or to be greeted by a group of freed slaves and their Jewish mistress.  Little do they know that this place has an unusual history.  Twelve years prior, Adelaide Mannheim — daughter of Mordecai, the only Jewish planter in the county — was given her own maid, a young slave named Rachel.  The two became friends, and soon they discovered a secret:  Mordecai was Rachel’s father, too.  As the country moved toward war, Adelaide and Rachel struggled to navigate their newfound sisterhood — from love and resentment to betrayal and, ultimately, forgiveness.  Now, facing these Union soldiers as General Sherman advances nearer, their bond is put to the ultimate test.  Will the plantation be spared?  Or will everything they’ve lived for be lost?

I bought this for my Kindle yesterday, after reading the opening pages and noticing that Sherman's men had just come from fighting the Battle of Chickamauga.  That's just south of Chattanooga, my hometown, so I can visualize the area, having been there many times.  I grew up so close to Georgia that I could ride my bicycle there ... and did, once.  This is a revised edition, having been previously published as Slave and Sister.  I'm looking forward to this one, and here's another one I added to my Kindle a few days ago.

Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero ~ by Michael Hingson, with Susy Flory, 2011, memoir

Every moment in Michael Hingson’s and Roselle’s lives seemed to lead up to this day.  When one of four hijacked planes flew into the World Trade Center’s north tower on September 11, 2001, Michael Hingson, a district sales manager for a data protection and network security systems company, was sitting down for a meeting.  His guide dog, Roselle, was at his feet.  Paired for twenty-one months, man and dog spent that time forging a bond of trust, much like police partners who trust their lives to each other.  Michael couldn’t see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and Roselle.  However, Roselle sat calmly beside him.  In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle’s judgment and not to panic.  They were a team.

Most of us remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when the airplanes hit the Twin Towers on 9-11.  Seventeen years later, I can still feel the anxiety of that day.  Yes, this should be a good story.

Crown Center ACTIVITIES

Tricia Falmer, Sandy Moreno's daughter, showed us how to make alcohol ink designs on ceramic tiles on August 29th in the Crown Center art room.  We began with a gentle mist of alcohol, and added 2-3 drops of paint.  It was odd to blow through a stir stick to get a feathery look.  We had brushes to make smooth strokes, stir sticks to drag through the paint drops, and a can of air to push the paint around.  What you see here is what I produced.

The Crown Center bus took a group of us to visit the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis a couple of days earlier.  Click the link for brighter and more colorful photos and for more information about the Basilica.

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