Felt Like Knitting

Taking the plunge

Well, I decided to buy a Kindle.  I didn't plan on getting one because I like reading books - holding them, turning the pages, going to the library to get them, seeing them on my bookshelves...  But then I got some Christmas money and an email from a friend.  A book she had recommended was selling for 99 cents (The Kindle Daily Deal).  I hadn't been able to find that book at the library or at used book stores.  Suddenly having a Kindle seemed like a good idea if I could get books for 99 cents (and for free, too).  I can't see myself giving up paper books entirely, but I do like having this option.  The Kindle iPhone app is great, too!  Tonight I started to knit a cabled pouch for the Kindle.  It looks like I'll have to start over because it's a bit too big.  Do you have a Kindle and do you enjoy it?

Thanks for joining me on my Drawer-A-Day Challenge (or Drawer-A-Week Challenge for some)! I'd say that misery loves company but there is no misery here because so far I am really enjoying getting things cleaned out and taking before and after photos.

I've started a blog to document my progress.  If you are cleaning along with me and want your blog in the sidebar, let me know.

 

Book Club and Berg

I've decided to join my neighborhood's book club.  When it was first started I had a time conflict and then I forgot it was going on.  But recently I saw something about it on Facebook and decided to jump in.  (Plus, last November someone was asking for directions to our house.  A neighbor knew who Steve and Emma were but not me.  Hmm... time to get a little more involved?)

This month's selection was Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, the author of The Time Traveler's Wife.  I usually do not like ghost stories, but this book wasn't too creepy.  The premise is that two twins, Julia and Valentina, inherit a London flat (next to Highgate Cemetery) from their Aunt Elspeth, who was a twin to their mother, Edie.  There is some family secret that the girl's can't figure out and strange things are happening in their new home.

I liked the character development in this book.  It felt like I really got to know each person and cared about them.  The history of the book was interesting and when I get back to London, I'd like to visit the cemetery.  I wish I had looked at the cemetery's web site as I was reading the book.  It is much larger than I pictured.

Being a person who loves totally happy endings, the conclusion left me feeling a bit hollow.  Some characters' stories were wrapped up neatly but I would have preferred different endings for others.  However I suppose it ended the way it needed to.  Wish I could be less vague but I don't want to ruin it for you if you read it.  :)

When I picked up this book, I also checked out two books by Elizabeth Berg.  Talk Before Sleep is a story of two best friends, one who is dying from breast cancer.  Open House is about a woman who is discovering herself while going through a divorce.  Both were good books and yesterday I checked out two more by Berg. 

The Fixer Upper

I recently downloaded a library app called iBookshelf to keep track of my books, people I loan them to, etc.  I have several books that I've borrowed so I decided I should read those books and return them.  The first book I chose was The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews.  (It must be a very popular book because it even has a video game based on it!) Last year I read Deep Dish and enjoyed it so I figured I would also like TFU.

And I was right.  I did enjoy this book.  (Thanks for loaning it to me, Mary!)  Living in Georgia and reading a book written by a Georgian author is always a lot of fun.  I feel like I know the characters personally and have been in their houses.  Actually, I enjoy Southern literature in general.

The main character, Dempsey Killebrew, is a lobbyist in D.C. who happens to get in the middle of a political and legal mess.  While things are calming down up north, she moves to a small town in rural Georgia to fix up a house that has been left to her father.  

Some of the plot is a bit predictable since it a romance.  But there are some fun twists and an exciting ending.  If you like easy-to-read books set in the South, this is a book you will enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Ten on Tuesday: 10 books on your summer reading list

I usually don't read except during the summer and it's a treat.  I kind of go crazy in the library and grab anything that looks good.  (I know, that whole judging a book by its cover thing doesn't really work!  But that's what I tend to do.)  Then friends recommend books and soon I have a long list of things I'll never get around to reading - kind of like my knitting pattern queue on Ravelry.  Here is what's in my "reading queue" right now:

1.  The Jane Austen Book Club - I'm reading this right now.  So far it's okay but I'm not wild about it yet.  Has anyone seen the movie?  Is it good?

2.  The Fixer Upper - I just finished reading Deep Dish by the same author and enjoyed it.  The books are set in Georgia and it's fun to see landmarks pop up in the text.

3.  The Swan House - Another Atlanta book that a friend recommended to me.

4.  Magnolia Wednesdays - This book is set even closer to home and takes place in the suburb of Atlanta that I'm most familiar with.  I'm 53 in line for it at the library right now.

5.  Jane Austen in Boca - Okay, I know you are seeing a theme here - Southern books or Jane Austen books.  :)

6.  No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club - The cover and the title caught my eye.  It had mostly good reviews on Amazon, so I'll give it a go.

7.  Verbena - I'm not sure what drew me to this book.  I guess the cover...

8.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and the The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Mary recommended these to me.  I watched the little video on Amazon and I think my husband might enjoy these on video tape.  Does anyone know if a guy who enjoyed the Bourne books would also enjoy these?

9.  Outlander - This is also on the list Mary shared with me and it has a ton of good reviews on Amazon.

10.  The Other Boleyn Girl - I saw this movie so I'm not sure about reading it now.  But it's also been recommended to me and had great reviews on Amazon.  Any thoughts?

Well, my list is longer than ten but I'll play by the rules and stop here.  (Sort of - I guess I cheated on #8!)  If you'd like to share what you're reading, head over to Carole's and add your post to her list of contributors.  If you'd like to participate regularly, Carole now has an email list that automatically sends out the topic on Sunday.  Thanks, Carole!

Book review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

A while ago my mom told me about a book she really enjoyed, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  Then recently Molly also told me how great it is.  So I checked it out of the library.  I finally got to start it yesterday and finished it today.  It's not a long book and it was so good that I read instead of knitted while I waited at Emma's dentist appointment and a meeting she had.

From the book's website:

January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.

I highly recommend this book!  I enjoyed the history, the stories, and the friendships.  In some books it can be distracting to have chapters change points of view, but it works in this book through letters written from one person to another.  The difficult part of this book was the violence of WWII.  Not everything has a happy ending in the story but I guess it wouldn't seem right to have it that way.  All in all, it is a wonderful read!

My mom and I discussed the book this evening and decided to have a long distance mother-daughter book club.  We are first going to read Pictures from an Expedition by Diane Smith followed by Home by Marilynne Robinson.  Let us know if you'd like to join us.  We can have a long distance mother-daughter-friends book club.  :)

Common school questions

When Steve's grandmother and grandfather died several years ago, his mom gave me some of their books.  I'm not sure if it's because they are school books or because they are old.  Whatever the reason, I am honored and pleased to have them.  I got them out yesterday to display (more on that later) and thought you might enjoy seeing one of them:  Craig's New Common School Question Book.  I'm surprised to see that it's still in print.  If I had the recent edition, it would be fun to compare the questions in the current edition to those from long ago.  But we can at least see what students in 1900 needed to know...

Wouldn't you know I'd get a picture of missing pages?

  I should take a closer look before I snap a photo.

• United States History
• Geography
• Reading
• English Grammar
• Letter Writing
• Orthography, Orthoepy, Phonology
• Written Arithmetic
• Theory and Practice of Teaching
• Bookkeeping
• Drawing
• Alcohol and Tobacco
• Civil Government
• Physiology, Anatomy and Hygiene
• Participles and Infinitives
• Writing
• Test Problems (mathematical problems)
• Parliamentary Rules

While many of the answers would be the same today for history, geography, etc., there are some topics that give a glimpse back in time.

From the chapter on Theory and Practice of Teaching:

8.  How can we estimate a nation's place in the scale of civilization?

We can judge it by the history of its schools, the universal distribution of the same general knowledge.  Knowledge is the lever that controls the progress of the world.  It is the sword of success, the armor of defence, and that power that prevails.

17.  What should be done for the school grounds?

They should be thoroughly drained, dry, level, sodded, ornamented with shade trees, neatly fenced, and supplied with pure water.

From the chapter on Alcohol and Tobacco:

1.  How and by whom was alcohol discovered?

It is said that Paracelsus, a chemist of the fourteenth century, accidentally discovered alcohol, and upon testing its power boasted of having found the essence of life, the power to cure the weak, and the great benefactor of mankind.

10.  What is the difference between food and alcohol?

Food nourishes and sustains the body; alcohol excites the nervous system, clouds the intellect, poisons the blood and injures the body.

From the chapter on Geography:

347.  What can be said of New York?

In wealth, population, and commercial importance, it holds the first rank in the Union.

353.  What is the estimated population of the City of New York?

It is estimated about about 3,500,000.  (In 2008, the population was estimated to exceed 8.3 million.)

Do you feel more learned now?

The Invisible Woman

Recently, I was tagged by Moo and Jessica for a book meme.  The idea is to turn to page 161 of a book you're reading and post the fifth sentence.  (Feel free to play along if you like.  I've decided not to tag anyone.)  I thought I wasn't reading anything then I remembered a little book that a friend recently gave me called The Invisible Woman.  It's a short book, so I'll use page 61 instead.

In various forms they are shouting into the world, or whispering into our hearts, "We see you."

This refers to a group of female artists who have created works "from an unseen place, trying to make their way in the world."  The author, Nicole Johnson, mentions Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, Janis Ian, Georgia O'Keefe, Flannery O'Connor, and Carole King and says that all these women have created art out of feelings of invisibility.

Have you ever felt invisible, like nobody sees what you're doing or notices you?  Maybe you ask your family to turn down the TV and nobody listens.  Or maybe the laundry gets done but nobody seems to care.  The author says that God sees and cares.  He sees the work you do and the piece of art you are becoming.

I'll close with an encouraging excerpt:

I'll keep building away, pouring my heart into this life, trusting that it is not in vain.  I'll carve tiny birds into things that few eyes will ever notice.  I will see my work as prayer, and trust that His eyes miss nothing.  I will resist the temptation to live only in the now and keep reminding myself that I cannot see how wide the influence of my life could be, nor the length of my possible legacy.  Those are not for me to know.  It is for me to keep building, and pray that long after I'm gone, my work will stand as a great monument to an even greater God.

Finished

E and I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this morning.  We both really enjoyed it.  But I always end up crying when I read and this book was no exception.  I cried when it was sad, when it was happy, when something sentimental happened, and when it ended.  It's all done, you know?  No more HP books to look forward to.  Sigh...  We're going to buy the book on CD for S so he can listen on his way to and from work.

We got a cool package today.  Katie did some custom embroidery for me and sent some goodies along in the package.  I haven't taken a picture yet, but you can see something similar here.  Aren't they cute?!  I'll be sure to post a picture soon.  Thank you so much, Katie!  (And I can highly recommend Katie's embroidery skills.  I can't show you a picture of the project because it's a secret right now.  But it turned out beautifully!)

One last thing...we are finally fed up with AOL and plan to change our e-mail addresses.  So I now have a new blog e-mail address:  feltlikeknitting [at] gmail [dot] com.  I think having a separate e-mail for blogging will help me a lot.

Snowflake Bentley

In the days

when farmers worked with ox and sled

and cut the dark with lantern light,

there lived a boy who loved snow

more than anything else in the world.

Snowflake Bentley is a wonderful book about a man who dedicates his life to capturing pictures of snowflakes.  Ann over at Mason-Dixon Knitting captured some wonderful snowflake pictures that reminded me of this book.  No two snowflakes are alike and he documented so many shapes.  Wilson Bentley even published a book of his photographs which can still be purchased or checked out of the library.  I thought I saw a flake or two this morning, but I never could be sure.  Snowflakes in Atlanta are kind of rare.

Last night, S asked if I would knit him a scarf!  Yea!  He never asks me to knit anything, so this will be a treat.  I'm thinking of knitting the Brioche scarf from Weekend Knitting if Malabrigo will work for the pattern.  That was one of two specifications - the yarn had to be soft.  It also cannot be pink.  :)

Enjoy your weekend!  (Ours is really busy.)  And stay warm!

Reading and seeding

I ordered some books and they finally came the other day.  (It seems like Amazon items used to get to me a lot faster than they do now.)  I'm looking forward to reading the two knitting books.  I am determined to finish the socks I started, so the sock book will come in handy.  It explains about short row heels (and toes) and I like the look of that kind of heel.  I've heard so many things about Knitting from the Top that I wanted to have it around, too.

I couldn't help myself and started the third book, Hart's Truth, right away.  This book was written by a friend of mine, Kelly Long, and I'm really enjoying it.  It's about a new doctor and his first job in a small Pennsylvania town in the 1920s.  It's one of those books that you can't put down.  I almost hate to admit this, but it won out over knitting yesterday afternoon when I had some free time!  I hope that I'll have time to finish it tomorrow.

Okay, why are the books posing by the dirt?  It's aerator weekend here in our neighborhood.  S rents the aerator and our friend Paul schedules the other neighbors to use it.  This year there are 20+ people using the aerator.  There's a lot of raking and seeding going on around here!  I'm happy not to be involved this year!

Update:  I just looked closely at the picture.  Just in case you're wondering, the little brown things aren't dog poop.  They're the soil plugs that the aerator pulls out of the ground!