{quilt} while you're ahead

45-2015

I'm in a reading slump.

I have plenty of books (emphasis on plenty...) by my bed and my kindle is full too... I just lack the mojo.

 

Take this last one.  It took me ages to finish....  I had never read anything by Alice Munro but always heard so many good things about her writing I thought I ought to fill the hole in my reading... 'wall'... but I really struggled.  Even when her words were beautiful and insightful they just didn't resonate with me.

A bit of an uphill walk kind of thing.

What I did really enjoy recently have been the first two instalments of CJ Sansom 'Shardlake' mystery series..  Very well written, great sense of history and place (Cromwell/Henry VIII's England) and good stories.  I've been lent the third one and I'll probably start that one tonight.

Bit of a guilty pleasure.

On the subject of books... I went to the cinema last Sunday to see "Far from the madding crowd".  LOVED IT.  I had really enjoyed the book too so maybe that played a part, but I thought Carey Mulligan was great in it as Bathsheba (she has the tiniest waist I've ever seen since Elsa in Frozen),  Martin Sheen is amazing (creepily amazing)... and the actor that played Gabriel is very pleasing to the eye too (Matthias Schoenaerts).  Well casted the whole movie.  I highly recommend it.

 

 

42-2015 { crochet trivets )

One of my favourite crochet books is this one:

I can assure you it's not the only one, I have many.  Some might say too many, but hey, who are they to judge, right?

Anyway, If you're looking for a book full of stitches ideas, clear instructions both in diagram and written format, then this is your man.  Well, your book.

Enough rambling, the washing machine has just started beeping (oh Bosh people how I wish you scrapped that beep... sometimes I have three machines beeping at me, demanding attention... I can check when the cycle is finished... I will survive without THE BEEPING)... I need to write this and then I need to pick up No 3 from school and I must get in early or I'll never find a parking space and I'll be late and then we'll be late back and on Tuesday he has Latin homework and... it could get nasty!

So, crochet... ah yes, crochet and indigo.  I had this GAP jumper I never wore because, although the softest thing on earth, it was also rather chunky and I don't think chunky suits me and so I unravelled it (it could open the door to a whole new discussion on the subject "why on earth did I buy it", but that would take decades of psychoanalysis to explain and I don't have the time - see above paragraph).

There was a lot, A LOT, of cotton in that jumper.  Beautiful soft, thick cotton, which got turned into all sort of things and the last ball happened to fall into the indigo vat a few weeks ago.

Enter the above book, a large crochet hook and ta-daaahh

A simple stitch based on the UK double stitch, a few hours watching re-runs of NCIS (it's an obsession which is getting slightly out of hand... but let's not go there either) and I have a couple of thick (and soft, not that it's important here) trivet for my table.

Also... they're not really trivet though, are they?  I always thought trivets are made out of metal... or maybe wood?  What would you call them?

My mind is blank.

Shut down mode.  Zip.  Nada.  A barren desert... and yet I have a feeling there's another word out there that would describe these better.

All suggestions welcome.

 

Oh you stupid machine, STOP BEEPING AT ME!  I'M COMING!!!

 

15-2015 { crochet basket }

I don't buy many craft books.  Not because I don't like them, I do I do! but I rarely make things out of them... I have this rebellious streaks that makes me allergic to instructions.  I like doing things my way.

I do think they're a great source of ideas and occasionally I stumble upon one that makes me stop and think... and whilst I can't promise I will make any of the projects out of it I know that I will go back to this book every once in a while and will be inspired.

The book has a lot of projects  which are made using t-shirt yarn, which i love, and you can read more about the author Molla Mills here.

It happened that I had some t-shirt yarns in my stash (I bought mine from Hobbycraft) and a 10mm hook and in no time at all I made a basket:

Now I must find something to put it inside it!!

12-2015 { The first fifteen lives of Harry August }

A title like that was impossible to ignore, right?

If you like the idea of time travel then this is your book.  A new take on it, as a matter of fact it's not exactly time travelling at all, flawless plot, good characters... I really enjoyed it.

It's a very clever story.  No deus ex machina to take characters out of tight spots... it all flows.  I give it a 9 out of 10, only because the middle part it's a bit long... 

If you fancy something different give it a go.  

It would be good for as a book club choice too.  Lots to talk about!  

Have you read it? what do you think? Would you like to be like Harry? What would you do?

 

8-2015 { The Miniaturist }

Quick read.

I'd give it a 8 out of 10.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed it.  Loved the characters and the setting (I didn't know much about life in Holland during that period, exciting and stifling at the same time... how it was to be a woman rather than a man, religions and morals, very interesting.... just didn't understand too much the whole miniature thing... How important it was for the story...

No? What did you think?

But maybe it's just me.

 

(I always wanted a proper doll's house when I was a child.  My best friend had the most glorious Barbie's three stories villa... maybe now I'd be a bit spooked by them!)

 

6-2015 { Lila }

My reading year has started off with a bang.

A soft but powerful bang.  Whispered and impossible not to hear.

I really enjoyed her other books (Gilead and Home), but this is my favourite.  

It's a book to savour and read slowly.  It leaves images lingering in your minds and you get to know the characters so well.

Try it.  You won't be disappointed.

 

And then from the sublime to the ridiculous... well not really ridiculous, but... you know how I love YA fiction, right?  Well, sitting in the car park at home I managed to read 4 novels on my kindle... First love, extra human powers, adventures and travels.  What's not to like? (oh and not a vampire in sight.  Not this time, but don't diss 'Twilight' to me or we might stop being friends!)

They're all from a British writer called Joss Stirling and although slitghly formula (ahem..) they're also quite well written.  Pure escapism.  For an adult.  I would have loved them 30 years ago!!

(Her website is here)

(141)2014

I don't really read in during the day except when I wait for No 3 to finish school.  20 minutes  at most.  And at the moment it's really hard because I have so many good books waiting for me...

But life is busy... especially this time of the year and even though I count myself 'on top'... that doesn't mean I have spare time.  This morning for example I have popped in to see a friend's new home, did some food shopping, cleaned the oven (are you one of those people who cleans the oven after every time they use it? Nahh, me neither, which probably explains why it took so long... ahem...) and cooked stuff for next week when we have visitors.  And then suddenly it's the afternoon and I'm taking five minutes to have a chat with you all and then it's back to homework and pick up this one and collect that one and then it's the Carol Service (not to self, wrap up warm) and blah blah blah.

See? no time to read.

And it's a real shame because I have a lot of good books  to read at the moment... sigh... Mr M has bought me "The Miniaturist" as a Santa Lucia present... can't wait.  And then I have 'the first fifteen lives of Harry August" waiting for me and the last three Booker Prize shortlist novels.  See?

(I'm currently half way through 'J' by Howard Jacobson... which is totally weird and have no idea of where it's going but it has got this undercurrent of doom that it's quite disturbing.  I also wish that Margaret Attwood had written it because it would have been better... Sorry Howard.  Good story... just not enough details and too much impending tragedy.  I'm not too good with tragedies).

Recently though I've been reading a couple of books in Italian.  I've kind of lost touch with Italian authors and who's good, who's new etc. so I always rely on the few I know.  Camilleri, the two brothers Carofiglio (either, both, whatever) and Baricco... the one who wrote 'Silk' (amazing, a must) and 'Sea, Ocean' (totally weird, one of my favourite books ever).  Baricco's latest book is a collection of newpaper articles he wrote during the course of a year, one a week, about books.  Each week a different book.  Some I have never even heard of, some I would never read, but some we both liked (Wolf Hall, Olive Ketteridge for example) which made me feel good.

I like books about books.

At one page Alessandro Baricco describes the feeling that we get at the end of a really good book, when after reading the last page we just sit there in silence, staring into space for some time.  The reading equivalent of a standing ovation, he says.  I so know that feeling.  I last had it after finishing 'The narrow road to the deep North' a few weeks back.  That book stayed in my head for days... I couldn't read anything else...

Anyway, I'm rambling and I need to get changed to brave the cold of a Medieaval church and a long Carol service.

If you're still here, have a good evening.

 

(Has anybody seen the TV serialisation of Olive Kitteridge?  I've recorded the first episode but haven't watched it and I don't want it to ruin the wonderful memories I have of the novel...)

(133)2014 - The vanishing act of Esme Lennox -

Another great read.

Two in a row... I ought to get a lottery ticket this weekend.

It's not a new book, it came out in 2006 and with all probability you've already read it twice, wrote an essay about it and bought the t-shirt.

but for me it was a serendipitous purchase in a charity shop.

Fab.  

Seriously, one of those books that will find you cooking and reading at the same time or sneaking a few pages  here and there during the day.  And you will NOT expect the ending.  But in a good way.  I think.  I didn't anyway.

Very enjoyable.

And you know what they say about clouds having a silver lining?  Well, it's true.  Today is very VERY cloudy, and windy, and cold, and drizzly.  BUT the rugby match has been cancelled (by the other school, our boys are 'ard' they laugh at bad weather) so I don't have to stand on a windy/cold/drizzly sideline for an hour.

Yes, yes, I know... it's what put 'great' in Great Britain... but still... it's ghastly out there, let me tell you.

Yesterday of course, when there were no matches the weather was like this:

 

Well, not much else to report today... I have beds to make and a delivery to wait for... very exciting.

 

(130)2014 - Narrow Road to the Deep North -

You simply have to read this book.

Simple.

It is the worthy winner of this year Booker Price and it's amazing.

Reductively described as a love story is so so much more.  (And I love a good love story...give me a  love story anytime..).  It's about human nature.  The good, the bad, the evil.  War, hate, forgiveness, resilience, deceit, heroism and the everyday.  And the heroism in the everyday.

It's all in there.

You will look at people (and history perhaps) in a different light.

So go on.  Please.  

Read it.

(117)2014

A very very good read:

Seriously beautifully written and observed.  Original story line (I didn't not see THAT coming type thing).

Totally recommend.

* * *

No 1 has just finished the Maze Runner trilogy... I found dystopian teenage fiction totally addictive. (One day I will grow up, I promise).