Monday, August 25, 2014

A Good Read

At our last book club meeting when we discussed Orphan Train, which we all enjoyed, Nat gave me a sort of a recommendation.  She looked askance, and was curious about what I would think of it.

We are reading this book for next book club and the name of the book is Afterwards by Rosamund Fulton.  I enjoyed this book so much I also read her first book, Sister.  Both books are a bit quirky in concept but, since I love characters, and these books are definitely filled with characters, I was a happy reader.

In other news, I was gifted last Sunday with a laundry basket's worth of cut flannel strips.  So I have 68 pieced 6 inch blocks for a nice warm toddler sized quilt.  I think.  Perhaps.  We shall see.

Stay tuned.

Friday, August 1, 2014

What are You Reading Now???

I made a comment in a post on Ravelry yesterday that I save my rants for my blog.  I don't rant nearly as much as I THINK about ranting, because that just alienates people.

But we were discussing books that we enjoy that are labeled as Young Adult reading.  Even though I don't seek out stories that feature fairies, vampires, ghosts or zombies (who are also showing up in adult fare), I think that a well-written tale is suitable for all ages.

Looking at the above list, I am particularly resistant to zombies.

Gretchen Rubin, a favorite of mine, is a great lover of kid lit, and has started groups of other adults who admit to the same addiction.  Some of our favorites at Book Club have been books we never got to as children.  Anne of Green Gables, for instance.  (Sometimes you get tired of crime, gore, forensics, abuse, and evil---and escape to reading.)  Sometimes you'd just be happy to hang out in a sunny place with kind people and bumptious children.

Online we have been reading The Book Thief and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.  I enjoyed both of these books immensely---though I had to listen to the Major as an audio book.  Slow going compared to the pace at which I can read.  Supposedly I can knit while I listen, though.

After that I read a couple of quickly read library books on my Nook, and I have at least three good reads stacked up from books I was given in swap packages.  One by Kathy Reichs and one by Phillipa Gregory.
I don't catch people using the Little Free Library, but the contents of it change from time to time and it must be visited.

One day two young girls stopped and knocked at my door to ask if they could really "just take a book??"
I told them by all means, if they could find anything suitable for them to read.  I should go check out a used book store and put some kid lit in there on purpose.  They were really cute though, because they were so excited about getting something for nothing.  Sort of like finding a dime on the sidewalk.

We read Orphan Train for our August book club meeting.  That's another book I'd recommend, both for its historical perspective and to highlight the plight of present day foster children.  There's that "higher purpose", but I just liked the characters.

(If you want to leave a comment, Jane, just leave one as "anonymous" and put your name at the end.  That's what Sandy does when she comments.)

Pardon the personal message inserted above, but my family say that they read my blog, but that commenting is made difficult by Google.  That may be true, but I only avoid commenting in places with "verification" which drives my astigmatism crazy.  I suppose some famous people get a lot of nasty spam and they have to do that, whereas I am basically anonymous.  It suits me fine.

Read on.  It's still summer after all.  Thanks for reading to the end.