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Summary: Mr.Steven's Book Review
Review: Alice's Tulips by Sandra Dallas is a story of a young newlywed suddenly finding herself running her husband Charlie's farm with his not-so-agreeable mother when her husband joins the Union Army. The story is told in Alice's letters to her sister, telling her all the happenings in the small Iowa town she now lives in. Before each chapter, there is a quote from a quilting book, as the book is somewhat centered around Alice's quilts. Soon, two orphan girls wander into the lives of Alice and her mother-in-law Mother Bullock. Anne and Joybell help Alice cope with her loneliness and bring a little more excitement to the farm. Trouble begins brewing when Alice meets Mr.Samuel Smead, the brother of her friend's husband. They casually flirt, but Alice doesn't mean anything by it. After a time of flirting, Mr.Smead becomes more dangerous, and eventually rapes Alice. After a couple of days, Mr.Smead's dead body is found, and everyone in the town blames Alice. The only thing keeping her from being hanged is Mother Bullock's good reputation, and she has sworn Alice's innocence. After a couple more years pass, Mother Bullock passes away, claiming responsibility for Mr.Smead's death on her death bed. Now, Anne and Alice are left to run the farm, but the town is starting to accept Alice again. After the war has been over for many months, Charlie finally returns to Alice and they live happily ever after.
I think this book was made very interesting by the format of the letters from Alice to her sister. The book portrayed the conflict of the Civil War well, as it showed how the North hated the South and vice-versa. It showed the very normal situation of a young women left at home to run the farm by herself while her husband is away fighting in the war. Also, Alice is confronted with many different issues, such as rape and discrimination. Times have indeed changed as rape back then was common but never discussed in public. Sandra Dallas did an excellent job in taking the reader back to the late 1700s and showing the conflicts that many people, especially women, endured during the Civil War. I learned from this book how power and the quest for power greatly creates coflict and resolution, such as the Civil War.
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Summary: Once you start this, you won't be ablt to put it down!
Review: A word of warning for anyone considering reading a Sandra Dallas book....Once you start, you will ignore everything else until you finish the book! "Alice's Tulips" is no exception. Following the life of newlywed Alice Bullock, who has left a more comfortable life to live in Slatyfork, and the life of a farmer's wife. Her husband joins the Union army and leaves Alive with Mother Butler, her plain speaking (if she speaks at all)harworking mother-in-law. Life is not easy foe a young bride, missing her husband, the comfortable town life she once led, and beginning to face the harsh realities of farm life. The townfolk of Slatyfork barely tolerate her:they accept her only because of her quilting abilities, and the only solace Alice find is in her letters to her sister Lizzie. This is a very fast paced book, character driven, and written in a most engaging manner. In the letters Alice writes, we are able to see her mature as a woman and really begin to face the life and changes the Civil War brings to her and those she loves. A wonderful book.
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Summary: Once you start this, you won't be ablt to put it down!
Review: A word of warning for anyone considering reading a Sandra Dallas book....Once you start, you will ignore everything else until you finish the book! "Alice's Tulips" is no exception. Following the life of newlywed Alice Bullock, who has left a more comfortable life to live in Slatyfork, and the life of a farmer's wife. Her husband joins the Union army and leaves Alive with Mother Butler, her plain speaking (if she speaks at all)harworking mother-in-law. Life is not easy foe a young bride, missing her husband, the comfortable town life she once led, and beginning to face the harsh realities of farm life. The townfolk of Slatyfork barely tolerate her:they accept her only because of her quilting abilities, and the only solace Alice find is in her letters to her sister Lizzie. This is a very fast paced book, character driven, and written in a most engaging manner. In the letters Alice writes, we are able to see her mature as a woman and really begin to face the life and changes the Civil War brings to her and those she loves. A wonderful book.
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Summary: Good read
Review: Alice's Tulips is the first of Dallas' books that I have read. I found it to be very engaging and readable. I am not normally a fan of the letter format, but it worked well in this book. The development of the relationship between Alice and Mother Bullock, her mother-in-law, was true and real. I have not read much about the Civil War from the perspective of "Yankees" and I found it refreshing.
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Summary: Marvelous, well-written story
Review: Alice's Tulips was not the first book I've read by Sandra Dallas, but it is definitely my favorite. The book is a series of letters, most of them from one sister to another, who are separated when the younger sister marries and moves to an isolated farm in Iowa. The younger sister, only 16, writes the sort of callow, self-centered and judgemental letters that only a sheltered 16-year-old could write, but she has a kind heart and a good brain, and it is a true joy to watch her learn the sometimes painful lessons of adulthood, especially in the trying times of the Civil War. The characters were all so real, so well-defined and true that it was almost impossible not to think of them as real people, and to think about them long after I completed the book.I recommend this book for quilters, for readers of women's fiction, and for anyone who enjoys Oprah's picks but who also likes a novel that ends on a positive note.
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Summary: SANDRA DALLAS NEVER DISAPPOINTS
Review: As a great fan who has read all of Dallas's works, I keep waiting for her to fall short. Happily, she never does, and with "Alice's Tulips" you are once again sent back in time to read history through intriguing characters. Through a series of letters, Alice Bullock takes us back to the Civil War. Hardships, grace under pressure, laughter, births, deaths and even supense, propell this story into page turning reading. By book's end, you will be so pleased you treated yourself to this highly entertaining story.....the memories will remain sweet upon your thoughts.
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Summary: A wonderful read...
Review: Darn! Sandra Dallas has only written four novels--and I read three of them in the past two weeks, after discovering her. I can't fathom romance novels, and the classics and "great literature" get so heavy sometimes. Her books are just great reads about interesting human beings. There is a touch of history in this one and "...Mattie Spenser" which makes them worth reading. And I like this letter format as much as the journal format in "...Mattie..." She understands the female psyche so well, and transfers that knack onto the page. Give us more, Ms. Dallas!
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Summary: As usual, another great book from Sandra Dallas
Review: I enjoyed this book very much and during the times when I had to put the book down, I would think about what was happening and reflect on that era during the Civil War. I appreciate the sacrafices all the people of that time endured, and I realized how *easy* we have it today.
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Summary: Hoping For A Sequel
Review: I have read all of Sandra Dallas' books (and have enjoyed them all) since finding a copy of "Buster's Midnight Cafe" at a used book shop many years ago. "Alice's Tulips" is a delightful book about women, friendship, quilting, the Civil War, and murder - although not necessarily in that order. When we first meet Alice, she is a newlywed who - since her husband has enlisted with the Union - has just moved from the city to live with her mother-in-law (Mother Bullock) in the farming community of Slatyfork. Even though the story is told in Alice's voice through letters she writes to her sister, Alice comes alive as a charming but flawed individual. At the beginning of the novel, she is vain, immature, quite a flirt, and not an entirely good judge of character. As the War continues, Alice must face a number of challenges and re-examine her relationship with Mother Bullock. It is their growing respect for each other which neither is willing or perhaps able to express that forms the core of the story. It was refreshing to read a novel where characters change and grow with such believability. Throughout the novel, a good deal of information is given about quiliting, which is Alice's passion - and her refuge. I read this novel aloud to my wife and we both agreed that are only disappointment was that it was too short. Hopefully Ms. Dallas will let readers know what happens to Alice and Charlie, Piecake and Harve, Annie and Joybell, and the irrepressible Miss Kittie.
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Summary: Civil War and Quilting--What's Not to Like?
Review: I just finished reading Alice's Tulips last night, and of the four Sandra Dallas books I've read, this was far and above my favorite. The characters spoke to me more than those in the other three novels. Two of my passions are quilting and studying the Civil War, and Alice's letters and the chapter introductions were filled with references to both. I'm purchasing a copy of Alice's Tulips to send to a friend in Fresno who is another Civil War buff. I think she will enjoy the Civil War connection, and the quilting references will help her understand me better.
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