Back In The Saddle

Taking care of Jellybean has put a serious dent in my reading. What little spare time I do get I usually spend knitting. But I keep seeing yummy books pop up on my friends Goodreads accounts and on  my favorite blogs. I decided to just get over myself and get back on the horse!

First up, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

  
I’ve finished this one already. It took me awhile to get into the story but I enjoyed it. I’m waiting for the e-book copy of book two in the series to become available at my local library. 

In the mean time I’ve picked up Yarn Over Murder by Maggie Sefton.

  

I’ve been devoted to this series and this is book 12? They are light, fluffy, and I can predict the killer from a mile away. But I still love them. It’s just about the right amount of brain power and attention I can spare at the moment.

What are you reading?

A Little Post Winter Pick Me Up

I managed to get my mitts on a new book. And I’m beyond in love with it!

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Knit to Flatter by Amy Herzog!! I’ve only had time to read the first few pages and flip through the designs. I did manage to snag my seamstress/genius mother to take my measurements and plug them into the measurements page.

I’ve already fallen in love with some of the projects. How amazing is this Flutter Pullover? I’m not ready to dive into a sweater project just yet. So I’m content to just drool for now.

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Has anyone else out there knit a project from this book? I’d love to hear your experiences!

Recent Reading Obession

I LOVE having a library card!! But just like my queue on Ravelry, my reading queue is daunting and I don’t know where to start. A girlfriend found me standing helplessly staring at the mystery stacks in the library and gently helped me away from the edge of the abyss. She a put a Janet Evanovich novel in my hands and pointed me to towards the checkout desk.

I had heard of Stephanie Plum series before so I wasn’t unfamiliar. But I’m glad I picked up the series. The books are seriously addicting to a murder mystery buff like myself. So far I have read:

  • One for the Money
  • Two for the Dough
  • Three to Get Deadly

The author has a great sense of humor. The characters are reasonably well developed and I find that I like that they are all a bit flawed. Most of all the books let me loose myself in them. That’s all I ask of a book, take me away to an imaginary world for a few minutes and forget my real world stress and problems. I like my books with a little mystery, lots of humor, nothing gross, nothing scary, and not so easy that I can pick the killer out on page 40. I’m a fluffy chic murder mystery kind of girl, lol.

For me this series is a winner and I can’t wait to keep reading. Novels four and five are waiting for me to pick up at the library as we speak.

What kind of books do you like to read? Anything I should read?

Falling in Love with Blossom Street

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I am now the proud owner of a library card! I have been meaning to get one since I finished graduate school and I lost access to the campus library. No excuse for taking this long but I digress!

The husband took me and we had a date night last week browsing the stacks. My taste leans towards murder mystery and fiction whereas the husband likes sci-fi and non-fiction. Browsing the electronic catalog I found the Blossom Street series by Debbie Macomber via a keyword search for knitting.

I’m addicted. No seriously, I have read the first seven novels in the series in the past two weeks. When I can lose myself in a good book I can devour them. These fiction novels start out about knitting and friendship but as the series progresses they cover so much more: life, death, love, heartbreak, change, illness, and so many more. I have laughed, cried, giggled, gasped, and fallen in love with all the characters. I love how she keeps introducing new characters and relationships but they are always connected back to Blossom Street and original story. I highly recommend this series to all fiction lovers!!

Having access to such a huge library is awesome and I can’t wait too see what other treasures it holds!

Happy Tuesday!!

Author Review: Richard Castle

I know, I know Richard Castle isn’t a flesh and blood author but I couldn’t resist the kitchy-ness of a book series based on fictional TV characters. It’s like story within a story wrapped in humor. The husband and I have become obsessed with Castle lately. We started with re-runs on cable and now we have watched the first three seasons on DVD. I can’t wait to see the rest of season four and start five. One a whim at Barnes & Noble I picked up the first three novels.

Heat Wave

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Naked Heat

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Heat Rises

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And I bought Frozen Heat on Kindle

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All books are written and formatted as if Richard Castle wrote them in real life. There are few wink wink/nudge nudge passages in the book that allude to the real life actors and people. ABC or whoever wrote this book really went the whole nine yards on these. In researching for this post I found whole websites also dedicated to Richard Castle. And in keeping with the books they are presented as if Richard Castle is a real life persona. It was kinda trippy but I like it because I like a a little “suspension of disbelief”. Maybe it’s the theater diva in me?

I am a big fan of the murder mystery genre and I loved all four books. And these books allowed for me to combine three favorite things: Knitting, TV, and Books. They are fairly well written and if you are a fan of the show you can pick out little hints to events in the TV show. I love to knit and watch Castle re-runs. I mean who doesn’t like looking at Nathan Fillion, Jon Seamus, or Jon Huertas!? The show has enough crime and mystery to keep it interesting but has humor enough to make it too dark or gritty.

If there are any Castle lovers out there in blogger land, the books are definitely worth the read!! And even if you aren’t a Castle fan and just like murder mysteries the books are still perfect. Very well thought out and written series even if you don’t know the TV back story.

I’m hoping the come out with more!!!

(All photos are from RichardCastle.net and full credit goes to them)

Book Review: A Life In Stitches

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I’ve had Rachel Herron’s A Life In Stitches on my bookshelf for awhile. For some reason I had the urge to pick it up this past week. I read the whole thing in two days

This book was amazing! It was the right book for my life right now. Rachel Herron is awesome. Her essays were heartwarming in one chapter and heart wrenching in the next. This book literally made me cry. Not cute little dab-your-eye tears but actual crocodile-check-your-makeup tears. This book explores the highs and lows of life and how knitting intertwined with it all. And even how knitters can build a community and friendships without ever meeting in person.

EVERY KNITTER NEEDS TO READ THIS BOOK! But beware, grab Kleenex and a good glass of wine. No spoilers here, just a wish to share this wonderful book. I stumbled upon it on Amazon mostly because I’ll buy most any book remotely related to knitting, lol. I connected very powerfully to the family stories in this book and its helping me process my Grandmothers passing and even my Mothers current grief.

Won’t you please give it a read?

Author/Book Review: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

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Using some of my wonderful Amazon gift cards from Christmas I picked up a few volumes written by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot! I had been interested in reading her books as she is the reigning queen of knitting books.

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At Knits End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much is AMAZING!! I finished this text in less than a day. It’s full of snippets of wisdom, humor, knitting lessons. This is destined to be read over and over again. Not to mention it’s earned a permanent place in my collection. I highly recommend this book to knitters of all ages and skill levels!

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Yarn Harlot: the secret life of a knitter
This volume explores the different facets of knitting life. I connected a great deal to this book as my knitting habit has reached a level that one (not me) could call obsessive. Each chapter is a delightful, poignant, or instructive story about knitting that intertwined into a volume on the highs and lows of knitting. Another great read that didn’t take me very long to read!

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Things I Learned from Knitting… whether I wanted to or not
A list of 44 things every knitter is bound to learn through their knitting adventures. Each chapter is prefaced with pearls of wisdom like, “beginning is hard, continuing is hard”. This book is more than just knitting, it’s a commentary on how knitting is like life. Stuff happens and how you deal with it is all that matters. This is a great coffee table book, sure to start great conversation especially among knitters!

All three books were excellent and I can’t wait to track down her other books!! Now I need to do some knitting so I have a few FO posts later this week!

Happy Sunday and Happy Knitting!

Christmas Preparations

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My unbelievably wonderful husband decorated our entire house all by himself. I’ll admit to being a little grinchy, but his wonderful surprise helped me beat the grinch! So I did the last of our shopping today, wrapped all our gifts, and cleaned the house.

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As a reward, I treated myself to a homemade mocha, some scarf knitting, and my newest book! So here I sit relaxing under the stockings waiting for Christmas to get here…..

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Are you ready for Christmas?

Review: The Friday Night Knitting Club Series

I finished Kate Jacob’s series of books on The Friday Night Knitting Club! I read them all in a matter of four to five days actually. I don’t so much read books as I devour them. Especially when it’s a topic I love! When I was a little and learning to read, I struggled tremendously. I vividly remember the special classes and hours of flash cards with my mother. I HATED it at the time, but age has shown me the wisdom of those lessons. I can now speed read….and for comprehension. This skill greatly enhanced my test taking skills as a student and continues to aid me in my professional life.

Having said all that, I would also like to point out that I am not literary stickler. I don’t read for grammar, punctuation, or structure. I read for fun, to be pulled into the story and create it in my head. After years of stage acting and script reading, I read books to get lost in the story and put myself in the footsteps of the characters. (I will note as a disclaimer that several other readers in their review of this series HATED the way Jacobs writes in fractured and incomplete sentences. Ha, I didn’t even notice!)

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I personally loved this series, especially the first book The Friday Night Knitting Club. The book follows a series if characters in a knitting shop and in their lives in New York City. The main focus is the shop owner, Georgia Walker and her daughter. I found all the characters to be well developed and unique from one another. The knitting references were accurate and sounded super adorable. No spoilers, but the end of the book really threw me for a loop.

The second book, Knit Two, picks up five years later with the same characters dealing with the ramifications of book one. I enjoyed this book (not as much as the first) and still found I was invested in the character stories. Both books are full of love, angst, family drama, knitting, and friendship. I blasted through the second book in less than a day.

I got a little lost in book three, Knit The Season. This book tried to wrap every characters story up with a nice neat bow. Life doesn’t always work out like that but it’s nice to pretend once in awhile. This book did stir up some feelings/memories about the holidays and family. That was both nice and bittersweet for me.

As a whole, I recommend this series to knitters of all ages and skill. All three books include recipes and knitting patterns for items referenced in the story. Nothing I just had to make right away, but lovely all the same! I plan on keeping these novels on my shelves and I bet I reread them in the future!

Happy Knitting!