Books

Currently reading:

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Recently read:

Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin: After failing in his attempt to climb K2, the world’s 2nd tallest mountain, and being rescued and sheltered in a small Pakistani village, Mortenson returned to help build schools. Note: See Deb Robson’s more extensive review and comments from an editor’s viewpoint here.
By Jon Katz: A Dog Year, The New Work of Dogs, The Dogs of Bedlam Farm, Katz on Dogs, A Good Dog, Dog Days

For the Love of A Dog, Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.

By Margaret Frazer: The Widow’s Tale, The Traitor’s Tale, A Play of Knaves, A Play of Lords

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry; Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School, Kathleen Flinn

The Friday Night Knitting Club, Kate Jacobs

Gaits of Heaven: A Dog Lover’s Mystery, Susan Conant

A Bone to Pick, Charlaine Harris (mystery)

Puss ‘n Cahoots, Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown.

The Hounds & the Fury, Rita Mae Brown: the Outfoxed series with “Sister” Jane Arnold (mystery). If you’ve only read the Sneaky Pie Brown books, try this series too!

84, Charing Cross Road, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, and Underfoot in Show Business, Helene Hanff (1916-1997): Re-reading a couple of old favorites. A book about books – I liked 84 so much I chased down 3 other books by the same author. 84 is her correspondence with a secondhand book shop on London from 1949-1969; Duchess tells about her trip when she finally got to visit London in 1971.

Dorothea Benton Frank, The Land of Mango Sunsets; Sullivan’s Island: A Lowcountry Tale; the latest ones of several of hers I’ve read.

Rhett Butler’s People; Based on Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind, Donald McCaig: Having read GWtW (1936 edition, printing of December 1936; it has my grandparents’ names on the flyleaf, dated Christmas 1936), I’m curious about this one. I just happened to see it at the County Library today (4/4), so here goes! I was a bit skeptical, but I enjoyed it – definitely a page-turner. The author wove it around recognizable bits from the original, filling in background for Rhett and some other familiar characters, adding a few more, and continuing the story past the famous “My dear, I don’t give a damn.” I thought McCaig maintained the “voice” of GWtW very well.

Plum Lovin’, Janet Evanovich: A Stephanie Plum Between-the-Numbers novel - Not exactly reading, but an audio book edition for intensive-knitting time.

Debbie Macomber: Back on Blossom Street, Twenty Wishes, 204 Rosewood Lane (audio, fon trip).

Real Murders, Charlaine Harris

When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrugue, Murder & the New Madrid Earthquakes, Jay Feldman: The New Madrid quakes took place between 1811 and 1812

That Summer Place, Debbie Macomber, Susan Wiggs & Jill Barnett: 3 stories set in an old Victorian house on an island in the Pacific Northwest. Pure escapism, but fun

The Miracle at Speedy Motors, Alexander McCall Smith: 9th in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series.

Knitting books:

Arctic Lace, Donna Druchunas: Just the description of the qiviut in the first paragraph of the introduction makes me long to spin and/or knit some!

Armenian Knitting, Meg Swansen & Joyce Williams: Amazing projects, some of which I’ve seen at Knitting Camp; also fabulous photos!

New Japanese knitting books: Knitting Patterns Book 300, 100 Aran Knitting Patterns, New Style of Heirloom Knitting. As I’m not able to read Japanese, reading isn’t quite accurate – I’m looking at swatches and charts (which I have learned to read!) and seriously lusting after a couple of the designs in the last book.

Invisible Threads in Knitting, Annemor Sundbø

Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales; A Knitter’s Stash of Wit and Wisdom: Kari Cornell, Editor. I was particularly struck by this - wow!

From The Mysterious Stitch, by Carrie Mercer: Creating something from nothing more than colorful string and a couple of sticks—it’s downright magical.