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book characters

A friend of mine recently loaned me 8 books by author Jennifer Chiaverini...all quilting novels. I didn't pick them up the first week, as there was simply too much going on, but by the 2nd weekend I was exhausted and in need of a resting break (as opposed to a nap).  I know this is crazy to many people, but to me there's nothing more restful than to totally lose yourself in a book. Non-fiction and devotional books are not the genres where I can totally lose myself, and while books like the Hunger Games or Jodi Piccoulti are good, they're not exactly restful reading to me.  All that to say, I intended to read for three hours, and almost three days later I finished the third book in the series.

I can resonate with one of the main characters, even though I am nothing like her. She hates her sister's quilting (from the past and both currently looking at her old quilts) because her points in triangles are often chopped off, her seams don't totally line up, and her finished blocks are never the same size. It sounded a lot like some of my quilting, and the character's comments reminded me a lot of my quilting friend Bonnie, who is patient, direct, and very matter-of-fact in her quilt reviews. (And I must clarify before I type in...she's one of the sweetest souls I know and would do anything for a person in need...she just wants her quilts done right. :)

The fourth book struck a chord in so many ways - the researching of family history and finding things weren't as you thought, the honest sentiments about not having children and yet helping others who do have kids, etc.  For Christmas I got a DNA kit through ancestry.com, and my results finally came back last week. I know very little about our family history, but I was surprised when I got the results back, both by what was and wasn't there.  I'm hoping in the next month I can delve deeper into some census records to see what can be verified, though I think most of what I'm looking for can never be validated. But it was still neat to read a book where the thoughts of the characters, even though set in the 1800s, where mirroring thoughts I was having today.

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