Books - Quarter 3 - Part 2

This is my second part of the books I have read recently.  I like to break it up into quarters throughout the year to have it semi-organized.  Last year I was trying to gain at least one bit of useful information from each book I read and I am sad to say that I forgot to do that this year.  Darn!

Here are links to my other Books posting for 2013:

• Books - Quarter 1
• Books - Quarter 2
• Books - Quarter 3 - Part 1

I will resume my education through fiction books starting with my next set of books.  This was not that easy.

8. This is the start of the Kay Scarpetta novels.  This is actually book #2, where Post Mortem was the first novel.  I started with what I owned.  This was a very action packed murder suspense novel that involves the Chief Medical Examiner, Kay Scarpetta.  She gets very close to her cases to the point that she was next on her murderer's list.  Trace fibers from the victim has her and Detective Marino tracking down leads that seem to go nowhere and everywhere.  She heads to New York and even Key West and finds out the people she can trust are not the people she should be trusting and vise versa.  The victim was fleeing from a stalker that landed her in Key West.  When she returns, she is brutally killed.  The detectives find that she unarmed her alarm prior to letting in the killer.  If she was so scared of the stalker, why would she let him in?  The answer comes to Kay almost too late when she does the exact same thing that the victim did and almost was killed herself.  This novel was a hook for me where I definitely want to read this whole series. 
What I have Learned: It is hard to say what practical knowledge I have learned by reading this book, but will have to say simply that Bestselling authors are close to a sure way to know that you will enjoy the story.  I have been giving first novels a chance for about 2 years now and I am tired of not really enjoying them much.  I will try and choose more wisely.

9. This book marks a moment in history...this is my first eBook.  Yes, I have broke down and bought a tablet. I have explained my dealings with the tablet further after the book list.  This is the first book in the "Joe Pickett" series.  Joe is a game warden and he is stationed in Wyoming.  Needless to say, people are not necessarily following the law and things get "cowboy" real fast when an animal thought to be extinct has been seen and found in the area and even in Joe's own yard.  People in the area would rather see this animal stay extinct than have the government know that they are still alive.  What I have Learned: As for a practical learning experience, this was tough.  I could probably say that my attempt at going for Best Selling Authors has worked because I believe I will thoroughly enjoy this book series from this author.

10. It amazes me how many great books this man can write.  He never stops writing.  This was my second eBook, borrowed from the library.  I seem to read the eBooks in record time for me because the library only gives you 14 days to read them, then they expire and are inactive on the device.  So, I am reading under the gun.  This book is the first book in a series about a private investigation agency called Private.  Private has the edge in technology, having the best of the best PIs, scientists and doctors working  for them.  It's fiction, so of course they do.  Jack, Private's owner, has to solve his best friends wife's murder, a teenage-girl serial killer and find what his inner demons are trying to tell him.  It dives right into the first case and this book keeps running until the end.  Great story, drama, romance, suspense, right up to the end.
What I have Learned: Again, best-selling authors deliver a great story.  In addition to not really learning anything from a fiction story where everything comes out perfect in the end.  The type of problem-solving skills this books adopted are from unattainable technology that the police do not even have to use (due to a limit on government budgets).  It was an enjoyable story, but also, not very realistic.  Sometimes books are just a great way to escape and unwind and then you can go back to reality.  No harm done.

I intended to use the tablet as an eReader and if I had to look something up quick at home and did not want to fire up the laptop.  This experience was very frustrating to me for a couple of reasons:

1. I had to download the library app so I could borrow eBooks, but had to renew my library card first, personally, at the library.  Once I had that in place, I logged onto the app to set my library up.  This app is not the greatest; it does not help you in anyway.  You need to know how to navigate through it on your own.  How nice. 
2. Once I started searching, I realize that my library has a crappy selection of books.  The titles I searched for were either not listed at all or they only had a few copies and I had to get put on a waiting list.  One book, Dan Brown's Inferno I am on the waiting list as # 327.  Really!  You can have the book out for 14 days, so I could wait as long as a year for it.  Even C.J. Box's book, I had to wait for it and it is the first book in the series.  Not exactly new.  Anyway, I have not tried buying a book yet, so we shall see if that process is any easier.

After reading two eBooks, I like it, or I should say, I'm not against it anymore.  I do like the real book, so I will continue to read from my bookcase, because I have plenty of those left.

Anyone out there against eBooks or now love the eBook and never want to read a paper book again?

Books - Quarter 3 - Part 1

Wow, we are in the home stretch of the year right now.  Unbelievable.  I actually got through a few more books than expected, so I am going to split Quarter 3 Books into two separate posts.  Here are the ones I have read so far:

3. This was an engrossing scientific novel, typical from Michael Crichton.  He takes the concept of shrinking machines down to micro level and takes it one step further and shrinks people (scientists) down to micro level.  A lab in Hawaii has engineered this technology and they are recruiting.  A leader int he recruiting group is involved in a boat explosion and it appears he has died, but it is too suspicious and the scientists try to figure out this whodunnit.  During this time, the scientists are dubbed into the shrinking room and get shrunk.  This is not an accident and they are then transported to a forest where they are forced to fend for themselves against an insect world where Mother Nature rules.  It is very interesting to see the brutality of the insect world and what the scientists had to do to defend themselves.  Their goal is to get back to the shrink room in the lab and reverse the effects.  That was not going to be easy.  Great scientific spin on a classic theme.

4. This novel is a suspense mystery that I got into right in the first page.  A former detective, Elena, is living her life in solitude to atone for a drug bust gone bad in the past.  Her actions caused the death of another detective working on the case.  She had decided after her own medical rehabilitation, she was going to lay low and work at a prestigious horse stable in West Palm Beach, FL.  She had ties there and knew that she could remain hidden there, until a young girl seeks out her detective skills to help find her missing sister.  The older sister worked at another stable and unexpectedly quit and moved to Ocala.  After an internal battle with her inner demons, Elena takes on the case, even though she no longer has a police badge or a PI license.  She finds out more than the actual cops in the county.  The story revolves around the horse show trade, where horses are worth hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars and what people will do to ensure they win and stay the best.  All of the characters come to life and tell a story that is riveting and full of lies, deceit and a plan gone bad.

 5. This book is a book that I have had for awhile and believe it or not, I have a signed copy!  When Janet Evanovich published this book, she promoted by doing a book signing tour.  She was going through Boston and I got my friends Kj and Fatima to go and stand in line and wait forever to get me a signed copy.  It was awesome, I think Fatima may even have gotten a pic with Janet.  Anyway, I'm a fan of the Stephanie Plum series and am really behind in reading them.  Ms. Plum is now on her 19th numbered book and I think my last one was 10.  Got to catch up!  So I got my Plum fix by reading a "between-the-numbers" novella which was a super fast read.  It was cute and she is somewhat getting better at this bounty hunter thing she is trying really hard at to make a living with.  This took place around Valentine's Day where in order for her to get the skip, she had to play match-maker in time for Valentine's Day.  As usual, Stephanie evoked a chuckle or two from me while she was running around the 'Burg with Diesel.

 6.  This adolescent novel was one that I read in elementary school, I believe.  I came across this book at either a used book store or a yard sale.  I was feeling nostalgic, so I decided to buy it, not really knowing when I would get around to reading it.  As I was reading it, I really do not recall one thing from it, which strikes me as odd, because I was so compelled to buy it.  The title alludes to a summertime romance, but in actuality, it is about sibling rivalry with the title coming from a quote in the bible, "Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated."  Here are twin sisters, Louise and Caroline.  Caroline is painted as the perfect child, talented in music, beautiful and intelligent.  Louise is her older sister by mere seconds and has felt in Caroline's shadow ever since that moment.  Louise has held in her feelings of anger over Caroline seizing all of the attention for years.  This is Louise's struggle to find who she is and what her true calling is despite her bitterness .  I loved reading this book in which my heart went out to Louise on all the occasions that she felt wronged, down to her childhood friend falling for Caroline and not herself.  Although Louise never allows herself unity with Caroline, she is able to capture the life she was meant to lead.  

Related Links

• Books - Quarter 1
• Books - Quarter 2

Books - Quarter 2

Is this already the end of the second quarter of 2013?  The year is half over already???  I feel like I better start doing some fun stuff to make the year last longer.  Anyway, I don't know what I have been doing, but reading has not been one of them!  I only got through one book in 3 months.

2. This book was one that was on my To-Read list for awhile.  It was a good book, but not what I had in mind.  It reads part fiction and part non-fiction.  Let me explain: It takes place in the era of when the World's Fair comes to Chicago back in 1893.  It is a work of non-fiction with dramatization, not unlike "based on true story" books and TV shows.  This is true crime that occurred during the World's Fair.  The boring parts for me, but interesting because it is how history was made, were the sections regarding how the Fair came about and who was in charge of what and the difficulties that the organizers and architects faced in order to meet the Fair's Opening Day in time.  Interesting because the Fair was when the Ferris Wheel was born and other inventions such as mass electricity, fireworks and Shredded Wheat debuted.  You learned that Frank Llyod Wright was an architect that was fired from a firm that did not win the bid for Fair and other interesting tidbits of historical information.  The interesting parts were the demonic ways of a silent serial killer on the loose during this time.  He used the lure and excitement of the Fair to gain property, loans, false identities and especially women.  He would lure women with his charm, and dupe them into signing over any property they had with dreams of marriage and extravagant trips.  Once he got what he wanted he would murder them in gas chambers that he built and in other horrific ways.  He went undetected as a serial killer and only was caught when he tried to cash in a life insurance policy on someone that he killed or so it would seem they died "accidentally"; he was caught for insurance fraud .  That was when they explored his personal belongings and uncovered another world in which he lived in.  The Fair and the serial killer story lines occurred in parallel, so reading this book tended to go slow during the historical parts.  It was a good book, well written based on hundreds of letters, other types of correspondence, photographs, trips to the Chicago archives and countless other sources of information.  One must be a great writer, to piece all of these events gathers from various sources to make a book that coherently tells this story of a great World's Fair.

I am getting burnt out on my knitting and crocheting projects, so I think I am taking a break from them for awhile.  I will do some sewing projects and some reading this summer.  I do love yarn and want to buy pattern books of beautiful pieces to create and soft yarn to touch, but I must resist!  I have a ton of yarn and a ton of books; I do not need to buy anymore.  I can finish my Scrappy Quilt that I have pushed the pause button on.  That should tide me over for a bit.

Is anyone else in a crafting slump?  Knitters block?  Eye twitching from too much reading?  Let me know...

Books - Quarter 1

Yes, I have been a big slacker...I have not been reading (in addition to blogging)...

Since my move I have been too busy to do any crafty projects.  Just unpacking and cleaning - lots of cleaning.  Hopefully I get back on track soon.

Since Christmas, or even earlier, I have not even read much.  When I visited my family over Thanksgiving, I brought a book up with me.  It took me until January of this year to finish it.  I've just been too busy to read.

The one book I finished in the first quarter of 2013 was:

1. This book was a bit dragged out in the middle part, as usual for Stephen King.  I think that is why it too so long.  I finally had to hole myself up on a Sunday in the house and finish it.  It starts off by telling a bit of history of a group of guys that grew up together.  During middle school, they befriended a kid with downs syndrome, Duddits, by saving him from the local bully.  Duddits had a special gift that can show the way (for lack of a better term).  This talent and his association with the other guys lead to each of them possessing a special mental gift.  The mental gifts show themselves at times and it prevents them from developing real relationships with people as they grow up.  They never formed friendships like they did in middle school.   During their childhood, they visit a hunting spot in the middle of nowhere in Maine with one of the fathers each year.  There is a dreamcatcher in the cabin.  They experience unique times together in the cabin.  They continue to meet once a year at the cabin, even though they have lost touch with each other as they are adults.  Fastforward to them as adults: They take their annual hunting trip to the cabin.  One of the days, they encounter a lost, unwell hunter in the woods and bring him back to the cabin to give aid.  This man has something very wrong with him and this starts the tailspin of everything going out of control.  There is an alien inside this man and it came from an alien aircraft that lands in the woods and pretends that it has come in peace.  The government thinks they know better (that the aliens do not come in peace) and want to annihilate it and all the beings in it.  The government then quarantines the entire area that encompasses the cabin and wants to kill every living thing in it.  One alien takes control of one of the hunting guys and sends him on a suicide mission to kill the government people and to want to eventually kill Duddits. The surviving main characters mentally work together to make it out alive and save Duddits.  Leave it to Stephen King to take a hunting trip and turn it into the end of the world, fighting off aliens.  It was a good read, but way too long.  I know Stephen King likes, not loves, to build each character, but sometimes it gets dragged out.  I give it 3 out of 5 thumbs up.

That book was like 700 or something pages long.  Ugh.  But, it was good.  I took equally as long to read my next book, so you will have to wait until summer to get the next list.

I found a great used book store:  The Bookstall in Brandon, FL. 

They will take your used paperbacks and give you store credit for them.  They even rent out best seller hardcover books.  Downfall is that they do not take hardcovers as used books.  In the past, I have brought in books, they look through them, select what they can sell, give me a small percentage of the cover price in store credit and I go down the street and donate the rest of the books to the library.  The library has annual book sales and the main branch in downtown Tampa has a bookstore that is open the first Sat of each month.  Everyone is happy: I get rid of book-clutter and get credit for more books and the library can sell my donated books.

Back in Mass, there is a used book store: Readmore Books.  Old, dusty building with books probably older then me in there, but they would take books for store credit and such.  I cold spend hours in there.  I am happy to have found better than equivalent to my "Readmore Books" in Brandon.

Sewing Room (Before)

Yippee, Vince and I just bought a house! 

In my newly bought house, there is an "office."  An office means it is a room with no closet.  It can be a bedroom, just put an armoire in there.  Instead of making it a bedroom, I want to make it into a sewing room.

I say sewing room, but it will be my multipurpose crafty room.  But, the only thing I have done to it so far is paint it.  Yellow.  Like really yellow...

The yellow I chose was Behr Honey Tone.  It is so nice in the pic and on the paint chip card.  In the room, it might be a bit too much yellow.  In the day, it looks really sweet, at night with the light off...it is in your face.  I'm keeping it for now, maybe I just need to change out my ceiling fan light bulbs.

So, I just moved in this past week, so the place is still in an upheaval.  I do have my craft supplies in the sewing room, but that is about it.

The room is towards the front of the house and opens with a pair of double doors.  The doors are solid, but I would like to switch them out with pair of windowed french doors.  When you walk in, there is a nice window to the left.  I have placed a bookcase to the right and the dark colored cabinet is a computer work station.   I was thinking of buying or making a cutting table which can double as the table for the sewing machine.  I would like to buy a glass-door cabinet and store my yarn and material in there. 

It may take some time to get this room straightened out, but I'm hopeful that it will look wonderful and be very functional.  Stay tuned for the "After" post...not sure when though!

Scrappy Quilt - Part 2

Happy Easter!

Since my quilt blocks have been done for weeks now, it is time to pick a layout and sew them together.  I first blogged about my Scrappy Quilt here:

• Scrappy Quilt - Part 1

Next step you choose a layout.  Since I chose the lap size, I only have three (3) layouts to choose from.  I mean, you can do whatever you want, but to have some pattern, there are 3 ideal layouts for this size quilt.  I will lay them all out for you and then I will tell you which one I am doing.

A neat trick I learned in quilting class, is when you have your blocks laid out and you are trying to figure out which one you like best, you look at it through a peephole.  Yup, a door peephole.  A peephole for a door can be bought at any hardware store for about $5.00.  If you work with colors and palettes, I highly recommend a peephole.  It makes everything look like a kaleidoscope.  Wait and see....

Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself.  The next actual step is to press your blocks on the wrong side to get all of the seams laying flat and pointing outwards.

That is the back of one block.  See how one seam is all crazy on the right?  You will press that down so it is neat as a pin back there.

Next you "square-up".  Squaring up is a crappy job.  Nobody likes doing it.  It is easiest if you have a clear plexi quilting square in the size of your block so you can just zip around it with the rotary cutter.  Alas, I do not have said plexi square.  When I measured my blocks, the numbers were all over the place.  I had real job in store for me.

Not sure how or why the blocks were as much as an inch off one another.  No clue how that happens, unless I cut the strips wrong, and I would have noticed a half inch difference when I was making the blocks.  Whatever, no need harping on what I can't figure out...

So, because of the measurement differences, I now had to pick a size and cut them all to that size.  In the end, no one will notice that the outer strips are a 1/4" thinner than the next one.  I cut them all to 13-1/4".  They should have been about 14".

Now for the fun part...the layouts!  You will now see why I separated the Lights from the Darks.

Layout #1: Fields and Furrows

Kind of chaotic.  Now look at it through the peephole:

Can you see the Light and Dark diagonal stripes?  Cool, huh? 

Layout#2: Timberline

That one makes one Light diagonal line with the other Lights pointing to the center stripe.

Layout# 3: All Sevens

I am noticing on this one that one block is not facing the right direction.  All Dark corners should be pointing down and to the left.  The bottom middle is pointing up and to the right.  Darn!  You get the idea!

All my log cabin quilts have been done in the Fields and Furrows layout.  Can you guess which one I am choosing to do??

If you chose Fields and Furrows, then you would be WRONG!  I'm breaking my rut and choosing Timberline.  Below is all of the blocks sewn together in the correct order.

The book explains how you ensure that your blocks are in the correct orientation when you go to sew them.  I won't explain it here.  All I have to say is pay attention when you do this.  I did make one mistake and had to take the seam ripper to it.  Also, be careful when you rip out these seams, you can poke a hole in the fabric.  Ha, trust me.

Next will be making the borders.  I will save that for some time later in April.  Thanks for stopping by!

Scrappy Quilt - Part 1

Here is the start of the scrappy quilt.  I bragged about my previous quilts in a recent post: Quilts - Brag Pics.  I got a couple of comments and a bunch of people viewed it.  It was great!  Now this quilt I'm making now takes a little bit from each one of the quilts, sort of like a memory quilt.

I am making another log cabin (they are easy and I don't need to learn anything new) and I follow the fabric needs and instructions in the Quilt in a Day book series.

This really is a great book, as you can tell in my previous Quilt post, I made several and had this book by my side each time.  This time I am choosing to make a Lap quilt size, which should be about 54" x 68".  I will need a total of 12 blocks.

Above is my collection of fabric.  Some are already cut into strips and some are still fabric that are whole pieces.  I tried to separate into light and dark.  The reason why I do this is so that you will see a distinction in the pattern when I put it all together.

I cut a bunch of strips, about 2 or three strips per fabric.

Those above are my "Darks."

Those above are my "Lights."

I chose the same fabric to be my center square.  I thought choosing the same fabric would give the quilt a focal point or points of reference that would give order in a chaotic array of fabric.  Now, I like the thought of scrappy, but I have rules to my scrappy.  They are:

1. Have to have separation from the Lights and the Darks; I could not let it be completely random
2. No two strips of the same fabric could be in the same block
3. No two strips of the same fabric can be next to each other once all together

I guess you could say this is an OCD Scrappy Quilt.

Here is the "Center."  It was one of the main colors in Alex's quilt. 

Once the center is cut into a square, you need another set of squares to be your first addition strip.  I chose two different fabircs, so they don't look that different yet.

Above is adding on the second strip.  You pretty much go around the square adding on either a Light or a Dark strip until your block measures about 14" x 14".

The beauty of strip quilting is that normally you make the blocks all the same so you sew them all at the same rate.  The challenge with this scrappy way is that I wanted each block to be unique, so I was dealing with having to constantly grab new strips rather than the same one.  Might not sound like a big deal, but it was a bit of a hassle.  A labor of love, that's all I can say.

Almost there...

Here is one finished block.  I have finished all 12 blocks.  You will have to stay tuned to see how it progresses.  I will leave you with that one block to fantasize how scrappy the other 11 blocks are.

Toodles!

Books - Quarter 2

A busy knitting and crocheting life means a slow reading life.  I don't think I have ever finished this many knit/crochet projects in such a short time, so that being said: I've hardly had time to curl up with a book.

I have finished a couple books since March, and so I will share them with you today:

 5. This is book three of the Hilda Johansson series, in which the head housekeeper keeps finding dead bodies and solves the crime.  This book took place in the early 1900's when women doing the jobs of men was not received very well.  It starts out with Hilda (a Swede) and her boyfriend (an Irishman) go to the Carnival/Fair where the Irishman's uncle is planning a political speech.  Before the speeches are started the uncle's political rival is found dead and the uncle goes missing.  The uncle has been set-up and it is up to Hilda to prove it and find him.  Everyone is against this sort of behavior because she is a worker helping out a rich family and publicly dating outside of her nationality.  This also makes her a target and gets kidnapped herself.  She is locked in a basement room with only drug-laced water to drink.  She eventually discovers the real murderer and where the uncle was stashed, in addition to earning herself respect within the community.  This book was not as enjoyable as the first novel I read at the beginning of the year, but not bad.  I give it 2.5 thumbs up.

 6. My new bible.  Since I have discovered that I am gluten-sensitive last winter, I naturally had a lot of unanswered question on why there is a gluten/wheat allergy and how does that affect people, exactly.  This books has all the answers (or all the ones I knew to ask and ones I did not know to ask).  It goes over what it is, how the body deals with gluten in us sensitive folks to ones that suffer from full-blown Celiac disease.  It discusses the many forms gluten can take on, what they are named and how to avoid them in our everyday lives.  It gives hints on how to alter the way one bakes using different rice and nut flour blends in addition to where to shop for the gluten-free alternatives to our favorite foods.  Most importantly, it helps you accept this new life style change by giving you the facts you need to process the huge life change.

What have I learned as a result of reading these two books?  Well, for the first one, it is a bit of a stretch, but when you are locked in a large dark room, unstitch the lace edging from your underwear and use it as a "find your way back to your original spot" string so you don't get disoriented from the darkness.  (Yes, this is what Hilda did when she was locked in the basement.  She must've had some pretty frilly undies!)

I have learned a tremendous amount from the Gluten Free book that I cannot possibly list them all out.  One important thing is to not assume that something does not contain a wheat ingredient.  Even food items such as soy sauce and lots of creamy salad dressings has wheat or modified food starch (yes, it's often derived from wheat).  The onus is on you to figure it out by asking a ton of questions and read food labels very carefully.  Lots of people do not know what gluten is or how that affects people so you may order a salad and ask to hold the croutons, but you may get them in your salad anyway.  I am not that sensitive to it that I could not just pick them out, but not the case for all affected people.

I am currently reading two books that I just cannot get into.  One is a murder-drama novel that the murder happened in the beginning and nothing else since.  C'mon, will there be another murder; will all the excitement be squeezed into the last two chapters, as is typical with so many first novels?  Then the second one is a fiction novel based on a true story and it's just not that interesting.  I already gave up reading another book because it was just plain dumb in the first two chapters, that I was like, "Forget this!  There are way better books on my shelf than this waste of paper." 

I may have to say the same thing about the non-fiction/fiction book I mentioned before.  I think I'll just give it back to the gal I borrowed it from and know not to mind her book suggestions.  I don't mean that in a rude way, it's just that we apparently are not into the same style of writing. 

I hope you guys are having better luck with your book selections.  Happy reading!

Books - Quarter 1

I'm off to a steady start with my reading list.  Even though the quarter isn't technically over yet, I am only half-way through my current read, so I won't be finishing it this week because I'm putting in a lot of time knitting the Seafoam Lace Scarf from last week's post.

Here is what I have so far....

1.  I started reading this in December and only just finished it in February.  This is the second book in the yarn series by DM (first book was The Shop on Blossom Street).  In a nutshell, women who have something going on in their lives (divorce, reluctant reunion with an ex-husband, overweight teen starting in a new high school & a bad break-up) join a knitting class at the yarn store on Blossom Street.  This class brings these unlike women together to form a lasting friendship.  I chose this book because I had read the first one and because the class they took was a sock knitting class.  Remember, I was knitting my own socks about the time I started this book (which, I still need to finish...)
It was enjoyable, but a bit slow.  I give it 2.5 thumbs up.

2.  I bought this book at the library sale because it looked interesting; I had never heard of this author before.  Apparently in 2008, this was a best seller.  The author wrote this book while he was in medical school, during his residency.  You quickly see the sort of thing they teach you in med school/working in the ER, in the first few pages of the book.  It goes into detail about how he dislocates a mugger's elbow in the parking garage.  Basically, the doctor in this book is an intern at a hospital in New York and his past reveals that he used to be a hit man for the mob, where he is now in Witness Protection.  He runs into a patient who knew him in his past life and now the intern must outrun the mob guys that are now trying to kill him.  This novel is very graphic with blood and body-related medical tricks that he uses to get him out of precarious situations.  I would say this is a high intensity read and I recommend it.  It even has it's own website with a game (BeatTheReaper).  I give it 3 thumbs up.

3. Here is a book that I came across at a yard sale and I couldn't not buy.  The Nancy Drew series is what got me into loving reading in the first place.  Originally published in November 1930, this book has sold over 2.7 million copies as of 2001.  Rereading this book as an adult, I still find it stimulating.  Yeah, it is written for young readers, but so was Harry Potter and Twilight.
This book introduces Nancy as an 18 year old that gets interested in a case that her hometown of River Heights is upset over when an inheritance of a recently deceased townsman was willed to a very snobby and social-climbing family.  Nancy and others do not believe that the heirs are truly these people and goes in search of a newer will that must exist.  I really did not remember any of the details from when I read this book at the age of 10, so it was very nostalgic to reread it again.  I will always love my Nancy Drew stories.  Fun-fact: Carolyn Keene was just a pen name given to the variety of ghostwriters that wrote the stories.  There was up to 11 different writers.  I give it 4 thumbs up.

4. This is the first book in a mystery series.  It takes place in the year 1900 in Indiana, when houses still had servants and maids.  The head maid, who is the main character, Hilda, finds a dead body in the lilac bushes.  The person is unrecognizable due to the gruesomeness of the crime.  You soon learn that it was an affluent neighbor's sister who has just returned from China.  This novel takes you back to a time where servants were not seen as equal, so Hilda has to sneak around to solve this murder.  The police are corrupt and her friends and family thinks she is crazy for trying to help.  She gets herself into several sticky situations but eventually solves the murder and is able to keep her job.  I thought that the ending and conclusion were rushed.  I was on the last two pages of the book where the conclusion came together, then the book just ended.  It was still enjoyable, though.  I have the third book in the series so I might as well read it to get it off my bookshelf.  A funny note about this book: it takes place in a section of IN called South Bend and that was a crossword clue in my daily newspaper the other day.  It said to name the school in South Bend; which there is a scene where Hilda walks across town to Notre Dame to gather clues.  If I was not reading this novel, I would not have known that!  I give it 2.5 thumbs up.

So, apparently, you can learn life lessons reading fictional stories.  Let's go over what I have learned:

1. I can make friends by joining a knit class.  Well, not always true.  Some women that visit yarn stores on a regular basis tend to form a clique and not welcome you right away.  I don't want to offend anyone by saying that, but I find that to be true in my neck of the woods.  In MA, the Wool Patch was very open to my friend and I when we went a few times to the Thursday Sit N Knit.  So, not every shop is like that.  Take away lesson:  you can't be shy when you go in...just act like you know yarn and talk to those ladies about their projects and you'll do fine.
2. I can make weapons out of my own bones, if I do not pass out from the pain first.  Yes, in the Reaper novel, that is just what the main character had to do to save his life.  I would pass out at the sight of my own blood, never mind having to actually cut myself deep enough.  So, that lesson is not that practical.
3. That riding around in a convertible is way cooler than a regular car and it does not cause any extra attention to you when you are tailing bad guys.  Hmmm, I always found this funny that an 18 year old drives a convertible and nobody thinks this would stick out.  Yes, Nancy Drew's father is a lawyer, but back in 1930, wasn't convertibles really expensive?  I also learned that a closet clothing rod can be used as a lever to pry a locked door from it's hinges when you are trapped inside.  I will try to remember that the next time I break into an old house to find a clock. (psst, the will was hidden in the clock)
4. Finally, I can pick a lock with the stays in my corset.  Well, I wear an underwire bra these days, so I guess that would be the next best thing.  Picking locks sounds fun, but I'm not sure if I have the patience to do it under pressure.  I will rip apart one of my old bras and try breaking into my own house.  I'll report back later.

These are valuable lessons that I may need to reflect on in the future.  So don't ever think that reading novels is a waste of time.  If you are reading anything now or have just finished one, please share what it is you have learned, however unpractical.

Books - Fourth Quarter

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and hope that you are not wasting this Sunday recuperating!  Today officially leaves 2011 behind.  It was a good year for me, so I hope that 2012 will be just as good or better.

I had a goal of 17 books this year, because that was one more than I read in 2010.  The total is in and I did not meet the goal.  I did match what I read in 2010, so I'm still content.  Here are my last 3 books of 2011:

14. This book is considered a "Romantic Suspense."  It had some mystery with a sex scene or two thrown in there - I liked it!  A woman moves from the city back to her small hometown in Georgia, where she is opening up a B&B in the home that was her grandmother's.  She instantly is attacked by her teenage crush because he is now the town sheriff and she is a suspected burglar. Of course, the teenage crush is the best-looking bachelor in town who is afraid of commitment.  As predictable as this book was, it was enjoyable with the mystery of who keeps breaking into her B&B and why?  She and the hunky sheriff solve the crime and hook-up.  I give it 3 thumbs up.

15.  I can't tell you enough how much I love reading Jodi Picoult.  Her books get so deep into a subject that is not all that common that you actually learn a thing or two.  This story is about a high school that had the ultimate act of violence occur at it: a shooting.  A troubled teen heads into the school one morning and shoots and kills 10 students and harms several others.  One of the main characters is an eye witness who can't remember what actually occurred that morning.  This story has you feeling sorry for the kids who die along with the student who killed them.  You are immersed into seeing the school system, the police investigation, the court system and how teens really feel inside even though they may not portray it on the outside.  You will have to read the book to find out what is "nineteen minutes."  I give it 5 thumbs up.

16.  This was a fitting book for winter.  I also enjoy reading Nevada Barr.  I had read most of these books, which is a series with the character Anna Pigeon.  She is a park ranger who is assigned a three month assignment on Isle Royale National Park, located in the middle of Lake Superior, in the winter.  The park has a 50-year scientific study to study the behavior of wolves.  Think camping in negative degree weather with hungry animals roaming around you.  Not my idea of a good time, but people do it!  The study is being threatened by Homeland Security and the scientists are not happy.  One of the scientists is ravaged by what appears to be a wolf, but it is very suspicious, then a second scientist goes missing.  Anna tries to be careful while trying to find out who and why someone may be the cause of these "mishaps."  No longer is it just cold outside, but also in the heart of someone at the island.  I give it 3.5 thumbs up.

I enjoy reading but I also enjoy knitting and sewing, so it is hard to find the time to do all of them, never mind all of them at once.  I have so many books on my book shelf, that I do not need to buy another book for a few years, if I read at the rate I'm reading.  I love books though, and can't resist buying them and borrowing them. 

I am not going to set a goal for 2012.  Actually, my goal is to relax more and not worry so much.  That is a challenge all in itself.  So, setting a goal for a leisure activity, like reading, is not something I am going to repeat.

As for the Craftolutions....we'll see.

Books - Third Quarter

Since I have been a knitting machine lately, I have not had a chance to read very many books.  Yeah, I slacked off a bit these last few months.  I did get to two books, so here they were (I'm continuing the numbering from where I left off last):

12. I got this book a million years ago from my friend Kj.  After my last book, I needed something light.  I have read many, many Jennifer Crusie books, so I knew what to expect.  This is a romantic comedy, but not really chic-lit.  A woman and her two friends hang out at a bar.  She just got dumped by a guy that she really did not like that much; she's ticked off.  He also goes to the same bar and makes this bet with a guy, that is not his friend, but not a stranger either, that he can't get that woman (his ex) into the sack in one month.  She overhears this bet and she plays along when he asks her out.  They are not each other's type.  They both end up having feelings for each other but they won't admit that to themselves or each other that they do because of the bet.  There are quirky scenarios and funny lines that are enjoyable for a happily-ever-after ending.  I rate this 3.5 thumbs up.

13. This is the sequel to Gone, Baby Gone.  That first book became a movie with actors that I did not picture in my mind's eye.  But, I had read that book so long before it was a movie that I did not feel nutty about not watching it.  This book series is about two private detectives that are freelance and don't always go by the book when getting info.  They are a bit edgy, but in the movie, they were shown as just regular people, like you or I, doing that job.  Eh, not what I pictured, but okay.  The background is that a little girl goes missing, reported to the police and hired the PI by the girl's aunt.  They find the little girl, but it did not turn out to be as anyone ever suspected.  Doing the right thing did not mean that it was the right thing to do (read the first book, you'll get what I mean).  This book takes place 13 years later, and the same girl (now a teenager) goes missing again.  This book takes place in Mass, so I always get a kick out of the lingo and knowing the locations that they describe.  Some scenes seem a bit far-fetched, but some people's lives very well might be that violent.  This was an excellent sequel that I would recommend.  I rate it a 4 thumbs up.

Yup, so there is my huge list.  I know, slacker, right?  Well, I'm back with my nose in a book after that last one.  I love how books can make you forget everything around you; that is a sign of a great storyteller.  I hope my next 4 books are just as great as this one.

Has anyone gotten into the other Dennis Lehane novels such as Mystic River or Shutter Island?  Let me know how you liked them. Does anyone know any other books that take place in Mass that you enjoyed?  Let me know that, too!

Happy Reading!

Sissy Socks

It has been a long time since I had a guest blogger and I'm happy to say my sister has finally been convinced to write one!  Yeah!  Here is her post:

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Once Nanc heard I was on my 4th pair of socks, she asked me to be a guest blogger.  I was a little apprehensive, since my brother, who lives in New Mexico, had to talk me through downloading the pictures over the phone.  I wasn't sure how successful this would be, so here goes...

I started knitting socks 3 years ago.  I bought this great book, 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes.

You use 1 pair of 40" circular needles, using the Magic Loop method, you knit 2 socks at once.  The author talks about second sock syndrome, and although I had never made socks before, I could totally picture myself having a pile of socks that were missing their mates; only because I would dread making them.  My first attempt was a pair of socks for my husband.  It took me almost a month, but I did it and he wears them proudly.  Even though it was tricky, in the beginning, to learn the two at a time method, once I learned it, I will never make socks any other way.  Now I am a little faster and it takes maybe 1-2 weeks to make a pair.

This past Christmas, Nanc bought me a knitting book.  Ironically enough, it was the 2-at-a-time Socks book.  Since I already had it, I exchanged it for another book.  I ended up choosing Socks From the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson.  Great book!  Highly Recommend it!

The patterns are easy to read and can be adapted to whichever knit method you choose to use (I, of course, use the Magic Loop two at a time method).  This book also gives you a great formula on how to make a sock for any size foot.  Genius!  The toe up method is great, since you don't have to worry about running out of yarn when you get to the toe.  If you start running low on yarn you can make your cuff and be done!

So, to get to my project...I am knitting a basic sock with a slip stitch heel.  I used Berroco Sox yarn on size 2, 40" long circular needles.  This gave me a gauge of 8 stitches/inch (the pattern actually called for a size 0 knitting needle but I had to go up in size since I tend to knit on the tighter side).  I was a good girl and actually knitted a gauge swatch, which I never have the patience to do (for those that know me, I know this shocks you).  The pic below is of the toe.  I used the Turkish cast-on for these socks but the book details 4 or 5 different cast-on methods you can choose from.

Step 1: The Toe

Through trial and error, I figured out how to cast-on and started knitting my socks from the toe up.  After the initial cast-on, you knit a round and increase on the next round, repeating these 2 rows until you get the desired number of stitches.

Step 2: Finish Toes

Once you have your magic number of stitches, you knit every round until you are 3" shy of the length of the sock.

Step 3: Foot Length

You are ready to increase for the gusset.  Once you have increased for the gusset, you then turn the heel.  Turning and slip stitching the heel is done one sock at a time.

Step 4: Turning the Heel

I know this sounds silly, but the heel and the gusset make the sock!  You don't really feel like you have made progress until you get the heel and gusset finished.

Step 5: Finishing the Heel

The heel is the hard part. Once you have completed the heel on both socks, you knit every round until whatever length you desire.  I stopped 1" shy of the total length of the leg of the sock for the cuff.  I did a k2, p2 ribbing for 1".

Step 5: Cuff

Loosely bind off and WAH LA!  You have a brand new pair of hand knit socks!

Finished!!

I have to appologize for the darknss of the last 2 pics.  Once I downloaded the pics, I realized they were wicked dark, but didn't have the patience to take them over and re-download them (did I mention earlier my brother had to talk me through downloading the pics?).  So, I'm lucky I even have pictures to show you...lol...

So that was my project!  I want to thank Nanc for letting be her guest and I hope I didn't bore anyone.  Enjoy and keep knitting and hail to the Sisterhood of the Clicking Sticks!




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Thanks Kathy for having the patience to write this blog post!  No, that is not us knitting back in 1950!  She gave me a coaster tile with the Clicking Sticks Sisterhood on it and I love it.  

Reading this post, I may try a pair of socks...someday!  It looks intimidating  at first because the needles are as thin as a toothpick, so I assume you are knitting for a million years.  My sissy is a fast knitter and crocheter, so her 2 weeks is like my 2 months.  Sad but true, for me.

Now that I have had 2 guest bloggers...do I have any other takers?  I would love to show off what my readers have been doing. 

Hail to the Siterhood of the Clicking Sticks, Ladies!