JUDITH
MILLER
NANCY MOSER
STEPHANIE GRACE WHITSON
Synopsis
from back of book:
With
the country embroiled in civil war in 1862, a group of women formed
the Basket Brigade and boarded trains to minister to Union soldiers
transferring from overflowing hospitals in the South to northerly
locations. The Basket Brigade offered fried chicken, pickled peaches,
pound cake, and other dainties to men who hadn't eaten a home-cooked
meal since enlisting. The women of Decatur, Illinois, served nearly
two thousand meals to wounded warriors.
Three
bestselling authors were blessed and inspired by the words written by
the actual women who organized and participated in relief efforts
during the Civil War. They have penned their stories in honor of
them.
Stats
for my copy:
Trade paperback, Barbour Books, 2015.
My
thoughts: Three
separate stories, from three new-to-me authors. While each story is
about a different woman in Decatur, Illinois, there are several
characters who appear in all three books, most notably Mrs. Collins,
who reminded me of a less offensive Little House on the Prairie Mrs.Oleson. In each story she was a spiteful, self-centered, full of
herself woman, who then exhibited some humanity at the end of the
story.
The
first story, “A Stitch in Time”, by Stephanie Grace Whitson,
centers around Lucy, whose deceased father left her a dry
goods store and a small fortune thanks to some savvy investments.
While volunteering with the Basket Brigade one day, she is appalled
that the soldiers traveling on the hospital train don't have enough
blankets or socks to keep warm, and she comes up with the idea to
open her home as a meeting place for any of the women of Decatur who want to volunteer to sew socks and make quilts and blankets to be distributed
on the trains. Jonah is the manager of her store, and has
been in love with Lucy forever, but because of a leg injury that
keeps him from enlisting, and the differences in their stations in
life, he doesn't expect his love to ever be reciprocated. While this
was a sweet story, I didn't really connect with Lucy, who was
completely oblivious to Jonah and his feelings until the very end.
The
second story, “A Pinch of Love”, by Judith Miller, was my
favorite. Sarah's mother is one of the organizers and leaders
of the Basket Brigade, and when she falls ill, Sarah has to take her
place. Sarah has avoided volunteering, as she doesn't think she can
deal with seeing the wounded soldiers, but she sucks it up and does
her duty. Jacob wants to be fighting at the front,
and is disappointed to be assigned to travel with the hospital trains
to look out for the wounded soldiers. Until he meets Sarah, of
course. I very much liked both Sarah and Jacob, and they slowly get
to know one another and develop feelings for each other. Their
growing relationship appealed to me more than the non-existent until
the end relationship of the previous couple, and the obstacles they
had to overcome – another young man who wants Sarah for himself and
pretty much stalks her and lies to her, and Jacob's still hurtful memories of his former fiance who turned around and married someone
else – were very well written and more realistic for me.
The
third story, Endless Melody, by Nancy Moser, seemed to drag on too
long, but I think that had less to do with the length of the story
and was more because the main characters were living completely
separate lives, withe him in another city, and were kept apart for most of the story. Zona and
Cardiff were planning to marry fifteen years ago, when Cardiff
suddenly left to fight in the war between Texas and Mexico, leaving
Zona angry and heartbroken. Cardiff wrote many letters to her, but
she never replied, which left him angry and heartbroken. As the story
progressed, I kept waiting for them to be reunited, and in the
meantime I didn't find either character particularly appealing. I was
a little more sympathetic to them as the reasons behind their
behavior was revealed, but they never fully resonated with me, and
when they did finally meet again, the story was suddenly and abruptly
over.
Despite
the book's title, this isn't really a Christmas story, or rather Christmas
stories, as the season wasn't mentioned that often. The third story
does have Zona putting together a Christmas musicale, and some of her
group of singers serenading the hospital trains with Christmas carols, but there isn't much else Christmas related.
