Books I Have Read

... or am reading, or will read again.

I love to read.  Oh yeah, reading a book, that's a perfect summer day activity.  Or a perfect winter day activity if you include an afghan or a quilt.  Snuggled up in the corner of the couch, reading away until someone interrupts with conversation or I have to go to the bathroom.  That's my idea of heaven.

I just finished reading Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.  (I wouldn't give you 2 cents for BO'R on Fox News Network.  I think he's a pompous you-know-what.  And I don't know how much is BO'R and how much is Martin Dugard.  I could hazard a guess.  Martin Dugard is a New York Times best selling author on his own and has written historical works before.  He plays nicely with others including James Patterson.)

Killing Lincoln reads with all the excitement and tension of a novel and whoever was the brains behind it knew their stuff.

My DD gave me that book and Killing Jesus for Christmas.  One guy at work saw me reading it and said he read it too.  He also read Killing Patton, Killing Kennedy and he's reading Killing Jesus.

Unfortunate titles, I guess.  I passed Killing Lincoln along to another coworker who is also anxious to read it.

I'm also listening to an Anne Perry novel on CD in the car.  I'm excessively fond of her Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, and her William Monk detective novels.  She also wrote a couple or three World War I novels, the first one of which is called No Graves As Yet.  That's the one on the CD in the car.  So far it's good, classic Anne Perry with lots of details and very accurate historically.

When you listen to books on CD you get an interesting perspective since a lot depends upon the skill of the reader.  If they have an accent, or if their inflection is good or not so good, it can change the whole experience.  The person who is reading No Graves is a man with a British accent, and he does subtle tone changes so you can follow who is speaking pretty well, even if he wouldn't be saying "said Joseph hurriedly".

This book is about the pre-war activities at Cambridge and the surrounding area.  It's so good that sometimes I want to just stay in the car and listen instead of coming into the office!

Thomas Pitt is a detective/commoner married to a gentleman's daughter in Victorian London.



William Monk is a policeman who lost his past memory, married to a nurse, also Victorian London.

I read book books, borrowed from the library or purchased.  I'll buy second hand books or as I call them "pre-read" books.  The words are all there after all!  I tried to list all the books I know I've read on Library Thing but I exceeded their free quantity so I stopped. 

On a recent Facebook challenge for how many a person read of the 100 on this list, I read over half.  Some I've read multiple times.  I have read Gone With The Wind at least three times.  Ditto Pride and Prejudice, The Hunt for Red October, and Black Beauty. 

 

I also read books on my Kindle, and I sometimes listen to them on CD in the car.  Lately I haven't listened to any in my sewing room because most books on CD are now MP3 files, and I evidently have an ancient CD player which doesn't 'read' the MP3 files.  Maybe time to start my Christmas wish list...


Here are some more authors I love and books I need to locate and put on my 'to-do' list:

A Jesse Stone novel, now I see Tom Selleck when I read them. RBP has passed away but the new writer is nearly as good.

Stephanie Plum, girl bail-bondsman, a riot and a half.  They made a movie of one of her novels and a friend of my son's from high school played one of the characters, Stephanie's cousin the cop.

Love JK novels, most of the feature Alex Delaware, a psychologist who works with the LA Police Dept.



Another favorite author, and a detective who is very flawed and human.



The newest Inspector Gamache novel.  Contemporary mystery, takes place in Canada.

If you see me near the book racks in my local Goodwill, please walk past quietly, I'm not supposed to be buying any more books.  I currently have 50 on my bookshelf that I should start reading.

But what the heck, they don't cost THAT much...

Read on...



Three Days To Go!

It's almost here!!  That's right, Sewing Weekend starts this Thursday!  Can you tell I'm excited!!??

My favorite time of the year is nearly upon us.  Well, upon me anyway, I don't know about you.  I've signed up for some awesome classes at Sewing Weekend in Beaver Dam.  Of course I'm going to Nancy's class, and then my second favorite teacher Mary Mulari.  It doesn't matter how many times I see these ladies, they always have something new to say.

I also signed up with three people whose names I know but I've not seen them before... Deborah Jones' Letter Perfect Monograms & Lettering (I assume for machine embroiderers), Gail Patrice Yellin's It's All About Embellishment, and Pamela Leggett's Knits and Fits.

My suitcase is in the hall ready for packing and my tickets are in a safe place.

Here's what I've been working on while I'm waiting for Thursday:

This is a scarf, well actually a cowl, that I'm knitting from some of the hand-dyed yarn I picked up a the Loopy Ewe website.  It's teal and green with pale blue and some brown tossed in.  It probably will go with my gray winter coat but I bought it specifically for the brown color.  Once I've knitted the required length, it gets seemed together in a big loop, then folded in half and draped around neck and shoulders.  I have brown and teal in my wardrobe a lot so it should go with a few different outfits and match my turquoise bracelets.

Just for fun, I'm making a striped doll sweater for 'Audrey Anne', our American-Girl-From-Target.  I usually knit front and back at the same time to make them even and symmetrical, but with two colors sometimes this results in a tangled mess.  I'm trying to remember to turn back and forth at the end of each row instead of around and around.  Old habits die hard, I'm afraid...

Never being one to be happy with just one project in the works, I recently purchased this book with the idea of maybe making each block once to see if I'd enjoy making the whole quilt.  So far all I've done is pour over the book for a couple of days and think about fabric.

Maybe I'll see some I'd like to use while I'm at Sewing Weekend!

Sew on...

Nancy's Latest Book - a Personal Journey

I started to write this post on February 2, when I first saw the announcement of Nancy Zieman's biography, Seams Unlikely. Nancy Zieman has been my sewing idol (and in my opinion a Sewing Rock Star) since I discovered her program on Public Television in the 1980's.

I don't remember when I started watching, but it was before TIVO and DVDs... I would set up the VCR with a VHS tape to record it because I wasn't home during the time it was on, and I would watch it later, marveling that someone was making a television program to teach home seamstresses as we were known at the time.

At the time, I knew nothing about the industry as it existed then, wasn't aware of any organizations outside of the high school FHA groups and 4H.

If you've read my blog, you know I love to sew, and I love to read. Combining the two seems like heaven to me. In fact, I have several bookshelves in my house that are filled to the brim and overflowing with books and magazines about sewing, quilting, you name the craft and I have it. Many, many of those books are by Nancy Zieman.

Nancy was the first person inducted into the American Sewing Guild Hall of Fame. It's a virtual hall, but there isn't a person I can think of who would make a better inaugural inductee. It set the bar for future hall of famers, in my humble opinion.

I was so lucky to be in the studio audience the day that Public TV in Madison, WI, filmed Nancy's 30th anniversary shows. I was even on screen for about five seconds, in EACH episode no less!! So I guess I've had a taste of my 15 minutes of fame. :-)

I don't have a copy of the book yet, although that will be remedied soon. But you can and should go to the Nancy Zieman blog (link at the right side of this post) to read Nancy's introduction, and click through the blog tour of people in the industry who have commented on her book. Then go get it and read it... really!

I was taking business classes at the local technical college back in the 80's and had to write a paper. I made an appointment with the Nancy's Notions' advertising and publicity manager to discuss how the business started. I drove to Beaver Dam, and Kathy was gracious enough to give me an hour of her time and filled me in on how the company started and grew into a business that at the time was the largest woman-owned business in Wisconsin. So I knew some of the story before the book was published. But it illustrates so well how far back Nancy's business philosophy of sharing with everyone really goes!

I got a B+ on that paper, and if I had added my bibliography it would have been an A. But what I really got from that exercise was a good, solid lesson in how to do well while doing good.

Nancy has lots of admirers, tons of fans, and the loyalty of nearly everyone who has ever met her. And yet, she is the nicest person, so genuine and sweet.

I still want to be like her 'when I grow up'... and we could all take a page from her book. Rock on, Nancy!

Sew on...

Books and Things...

I'm currently in a mode to read lots of things.  It goes in streaks, you know how it is.  Some months I read a couple of books a week, and then I go a couple of weeks where the only thing I read is whatever section of newspaper is left in the bathroom.

The thing is, I love murder mysteries!  And I get into a series of books like the Kinsey Milhone books from Sue Grafton, or the Robert B. Parker Spenser novels, and I want to read them from the beginning of the first book, and read them in order.

A lot of research is required to read an author in order, unless you're getting each book hot off the presses, as happened with Sue Grafton.  So discovering a new author and going back can be a challenge.

I like what Amazon has done with some authors... they'll put "detective xxx number 4" next to the title for some series.  I've read some really good ones and a couple of so-so series that I didn't read too many of... some of the ladies at church recommended the Left Behind series.  Really?  I started reading the first one and could not even get through half of it.  Sorry, I've read and studied Revelation, and I don't think I pictured it quite that way.  If you enjoyed it, more power to you.  Good thing I bought the book used or I'd be more disappointed.

So authors I like/really like:

• Sue Grafton
• Sarah Paretsky
• Robert B. Parker (sadly, deceased and no new books are forthcoming) 
  

 

Spenser -- a Boston detective played on TV by Robert Urich and

Jesse Stone played in the made-for-TV movies by Tom Selleck.  Loved the movies but loved the books first!

• James Lee Burke -- hard-boiled, but oh gosh his prose is more like poetry
• Dana Stabenow -- Alaskan adventures at their most exciting
• Ruth Rendell  -- classic English mysteries
• Anne Perry -- Victorian novels in two series, I love them both
• Dick Francis -- Don't know if he's still writing but he is a former jockey, his books all involve horses and racing.

murder most foul-- these will keep you up at night!

• John Sanford
• Michael Connelly 
• Elizabeth George
• Robert Crais
• Lee Child
• James Patterson  -- I like  almost anything he writes and now he's writing for kids too

Here's a list of light mysteries -- sometimes someone dies but it's not gruesome and gory most of the time:

• Diane Mott Davidson -- her chef Goldie Schultz solves crimes
  
• Monica Ferris -- knitting and crime solving
• Maggie Sefton -- knitting and crime solving
• Jennifer Chiaverrini -- quilting stories, sometimes a mystery, sometimes historical

So when I go to the used bookstore, Downtown Books in Milwaukee, I gravitate to the mystery section, and I'm always on the lookout for a new author.  Someone at work told me about Louise Penny.  He says she writes the same type of books as Elizabeth George and Ruth Rendell.  I'm about to meet her detective, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec in the first novel, Still Life.

He also says the BBC is making the Inspector Gamache series into movies or TV shows and they'll probably be on PBS at some point.  I'll let you know how I like this author!

Reading makes you beautiful!  Or so I keep telling myself...

Sew on!

Are You A Reader? Or Book TV Viewer?

I love to read, and I love to read good, old fashioned paper books!  I buy books all the time, both new and used.  I've been known to read an entire book in a weekend, or to stay up until the wee hours on a weeknight to finish one I cannot put down.

And don't even get me started on books about sewing and knitting and crafting!  I never met a bookstore or in-the-lobby book sale that I didn't like.  Like the one in our lobby last week Thursday, where I picked up a copy of J.A. Jance's Fatal Error.  I started reading it at lunchtime and finished it up on Friday evening.  It was a page-turner!!

This weekend, while I was knitting a scarf for Miss E, I watched some Book TV on CSpan 2 on cable TV.  For those of you who have never watched, it's normally 48 hours of discussions, lectures, reviews and more about non-fiction books that runs on the network that usually carried live coverage of the US Government during the week.  Yeah, boring but true, Congress has its own network.

On holiday weekends, it will be 72 hours, beginning on Saturday morning at 6 a.m.  I tuned in this weekend.  They were interviewing one of the librarians from the Library of Congress about an exhibit at the library of Books That Shaped America.  And if you don't happen to be in Washington D.C., you can check it out at the LOC website at www.loc.gov/bookfest .

Off I toddled to check out the entire list.  The librarian had talked about a few of them, and why they were chosen.  Somehow I thought there would be more, but there were only 88 books.  But what a bunch of great books!  I discovered that I have heard of most of them, and I have read 28 of them.  Books like Catch-22 and Beloved and Goodnight Moon.

There is a wonderful interactive list that can be sorted by book, author or year, and if you click on the book title it will tell you why the book was selected.  For example, the book Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (maybe you saw the movie) was a satirical treatment of military bureaucracy that made the title a catch phrase for the eternal do-loop. 

If you're interested in books of all kinds, there is a Festival Of The Book coming in to the National Mall in Washington D.C. on September 22-23.  I bet it will be televised on Book TV.

Google book festivals, I'll bet there's one near you!

Sew on!

Yay, Amazon!

I got home from work today and there's a box from Amazon in the kitchen.  Yay!  My Bonnie Hunter books are here!  I posted about ordering them last Wednesday or Thursday.  I ordered them on Thursday, and here they are!

   

I'm going to take my iced tea over to my favorite chair and give them a good read.  I love books, and books about sewing are a little piece of heaven!

Then I have to get my butt to the basement and put a hanging sleeve on the preschool quilt.  I'll post a picture tomorrow.  Susie B did a great job on the quilting and binding.  I hope the parents like it and they raise a bunch of money for the preschool when it goes to auction.

Friday News...

If you're reading this early and the ASG blog hasn't updated yet, please go back a little later today.  Those of us who check EARLY in the morning sometimes beat the postings, but Samina at ASG promised it will be there today.  And E and I thank you for your interest in her progress!

I mentioned this week that it was Administrative Professionals Day on Wednesday.  I got a nice bouquet of flowers from one of the execs I support, and in the afternoon I received an email from Amazon.com Gift Cards that said

from the managers in the office for all your efforts every day making the office run smoothly.

So I went right out and bought a copy of Bonnie Hunter's book,

... which I have been lusting after and somehow never ordered.  Her books almost never go on sale anywhere.  Then I added



because if I'm getting one 'free' with my gift certificate, that is the same as getting two for one, or half off both!  I'm very happy and expressed my gratitude to Chuck, Kevin, Paul, Mike and Jim, a bunch of truly great guys to work for!  If you have to work outside the home, it's good to be in such great company.

What I'm Reading

Every night before I go to sleep I spend 15 minutes to a half hour reading something.  Anything.  Lots of things.  I just cannot hit the pillow and drift off unless I'm super tired.  So I read until my eyes start closing, turn off the light and sleep.

I tried making a list of all the books I've read in the past year.  I went to a site called Library Thing and used their search function to list the authors and books I've read in the last decade, and topped out the 200 things you can put in for free.  If you want to list more you have to pay.  So that ended that.

On my nightstand right now:  Nights in Rodanthe, The Woman Who Heard Color, Legacy of Ashes - the History of the CIA, and V is for Vengance.  I started The Woman Who Heard Color but the beginning is kind of choppy, so that one sits while I read Legacy of Ashes.  I'm holding V is for Vengance for next week.  Then today a guy at work stopped by my office with a Steve Berry novel, asking if I'd like to read it.  Historical Fiction, you bet!  I can read several things at once and keep them straight.  If something gets juicy or really interesting I'll read that until it's done, but I'm good at multi-tasking.

My favorite types of books are (in no particular order) biographies, mysteries, detective novels, historical fiction, history, drama and comedy.  I think I've read everything Agatha Christie wrote, and nearly everything by Robert B Parker and James Lee Burke.  I love the victorian novels of Anne Perry and the ones by Elizabeth Perry, and I don't think they're related.  And Dick Francis wrote the best novels ever about horse racing.  I read Julia Child's bio before they made it into a movie. I've read all the Harry Potters, all the Nancy Drews, and all the Anne of Green Gables too.

Did I mention I like books about sewing and knitting?  Oh yeah, I love those, shelves and shelves of them.  I have two five-shelf bookshelves of books about crafting.  Embroidery, quilting, garment sewing, applique, knitting hats and mittens and scarves and on and on and on!  When someone I know needs a reference book, I probably have it.  I do use them, probably not as frequently as I should.  However, I did teach  myself to knit socks, do redwork and Sashiko embroidery, and Hawaiian Quilting, all with books I own.

I'm passing on the love of books to the grands.  They all get books from me for birthdays and Christmas, and I buy them books I can read to them and with them.  They love reading together.  I tell them "reading makes you beautiful".

I love book books, real books with paper pages.  I was given the gift of a Kindle when they first came out with the small version.  I like the size of it, and it beats lugging a bunch of books around on airplanes and car trips.   Sometimes the Kindle version of a book is free or less than the price of the paperback.  Sometimes the idea of a pile of books is nice and other times not so much.  On the Kindle at present I am reading the Biography of Benjamin Franklin, The Egyptian Cat Mystery, Here We Go Again by Betty White, and the Bible. 

I don't mind used books.  I buy used books quite frequently.  Downtown Books in Milwaukee has an awesome selection, as do a few other places.  And after all, the words are the same the 19th time they're read as they were the first time.

The library is also a good place to get books -- that is, if your card is current.  I have to check on mine, I think it may have expired.  Besides, they want you to bring those books BACK!

Here's my favorite quote about books:  Outside of a dog, man's best friend is a book.  Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

On your mark, get set...

Welcome!  This blog is an attempt to bring a slightly old school woman into the 21st century!  OK, I'll admit it, I love READING blogs.  I've become a follower of a couple of really good ones.  I admire those people immensely.

Having done the FB thing for a while, I don't want to become one of those tiresome people who has to publish what I have for breakfast each day. 

Who am I, and why would you be interested in reading this blog once, let alone repeatedly?  Let's see, I'm a wife and mother, grandmother of four, the Executive Assistant to a very senior manager in an international engineering firm, a sewing enthusiast, a knitter and crochet-er (is that even a word??).  I love to read, mainly mysteries and non-fiction but I'll read other things too.  I love the novels of Jane Austen and James Lee Burke, J.K. Rowling, Robert B. Parker and Charles Dickens, to name just a few.  I once tried to enter all the books I've read into one of those library programs and maxed out before I even scratched the surface.

I've always been interested in sewing... I wanted a better wardrobe than our family could afford so I started sewing in high school.  I figured if I could do it for my dolls, I could do it for myself.  But I'd never want to sew as a business -- then it would be too much like work!  I'm primarily a garment sewist but with the advent of grandchildren I branched out into children's wear and quilts.  An I run the best darned stuffed animal hospital in our town.

I think I'm creative, and I admire creativity in other people.  I try to learn at least one new thing every day.  My pet peeves are people who think that if they're right it means that everyone else wrong, mean people, and those who use bad grammar when they know better.

My motto is "blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape".  Expect a blessing every day, and see the glass as half full, that's the way I try to live.

When I 'grow up', I want to be as good a person as my grandchildren think I am...