books

Listening to Ese Edugyan's Half Blood Blues, 2011, and it's o.k. but I cannot follow it - it seems plotless. I'll finish it but don't understand why it won so many awards.

But, I am really liking Mother's Milk, the 4th Patrick Melrose book by Edward St Aubyn. He is such a good writer and the characters are not quite so hateful as the previous three books.

Listened to the latest book by Louise Penny,The Beautiful Mystery: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, 2012. It was good, a bit long, but still good. Interesting setting and the same trusty characters.

Standing in another man's grave by Ian Rankin, 2012, was good too. Rebus was back! Fox was not really there, not sure why he was in the book at all unless he's setting him up for the next book. Anyway, Ian Rankin is writing well and it was a good read.

books

The House of God by Samuel Shem, written originally in the early 1970s. Entertaining enough, well enough written, and it read like an honest account of the hell of being an intern, but it's not a great book. Good, but not great.


Some Hope by Edward St, Aubyn, 1994. He's written a trilogy or a tertology or a bunch of books with connected characters and he writes very, very well. But his characters are hateful. I keep wanted to chuck the book but he's got me hooked. Really good writing about aristocratic, dreadful people that I'd like to kill off.

spinning

beautiful Falkland Island fleece, lovely to spin.

Singles

Tanis Fibers Superwash merino, pretty pinks

books

Alan Hollinghursts's A Stranger's Child, 2012 listened to the whole thing and am not sure why. It was not a particularly interesting story, nor did it have any interesting characters. The writing is pretty good, but it did not improve as it went on as I was so hoping it would.

I am really enjoying Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson, 2011. He writes really well, it's easy to read and he goes all over the place. Feathers on dancers, how to dye feathers, fly fishing feathers, fossils of feathers and where they came from. A very interesting book.

good audiobooks

Just listened to Jason Isaacs read the first three Jackson Brodie books by Kate Atkinson. I've read them all before, and have seen the TV procuctions as well, but enjoyed hearing them again read by him. Case Histories, When Will There Be Good News, and One Good Turn. It was hard to find a copy of this, but Amazon UK came through for me.

Finished reading The Measure of a Man by JJ Lee, 2011. Very good book, interesting to read about tayloring, suits, design and his life.

Just started Feathers, The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, very interesting book, 2011 by Thor Hanson. Amazing things, feathers.

books, not so good

Read half of Alif the Unseen, Willow Wilson, 2012. It was a good enough story but not good enough to finish.

Read half of, and listened to more than half of The Free World by David Bezmozgis, 2011. Could not finish it in either form, it just wasnt' that interesting and there were no characters I cared about.

But, am in the middle of two good books, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit by JJ Lee, 2011. Very interesting, reading about the art and history of suits, plus his story.

Benjamin Black's latest book, Vengeance, 2012 is also good. Like those dark characters.

knitting

Scratchy wool from Faroe Islands, but love the colours

Piper's Journey

working on Kate's blanket

spinning

Bluefaced Leicester

lovely to spin, very well behaved roving.







My summer favourite - Lincoln from Oregon, from North Valley Farm. I bought a fleece.

Books

Many books read, let's see if I can remember them all:

A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter by William Deresiewicz, 2011. Excellent book, really liked it. Liked the way he connects what's happening in Jane's life and in her characaters lives with his life.

Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill, 2011. Really interesting book about tree planting in Canada. Well written and thought provoking.

Broken Harbour by Tana French, 2012. Good mystery, she writes well about very flawed characters.

How it All Began by Penelope Lively, 2012. A really good novel, the kind where you think she's inside your head. The kind you don't want to end. Likeable characters, irritating characters, believable characters. Good story.

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penny, 2007. Half way through but it's a very interesting mystery, set in cold early Canada, European immigrants living on the 19th-century Canadian frontier.

The Hare with Amber Eyes, by William de Waal. Fascinating book, about the collection of netsuke he inherited from his great uncle. He follows the collection as it gets passed down through his family. It is an interesting historical and artisitc journey and the netsuke are beautiful.

The Flight by M R Hall, 2012. The fourth Jenny Cooper book, anxious, somewhat obnoxous coroner who sticks her neck out and gets into trouble again. Very good read, I like this writer.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Icelandic mystery writer, my first of hers and I like it, Last Rituals, 2009. It was a bit too gory, not sure I'd want to read any more by this author.

beautiful fibre and striped socks

First pair of striped socks, I like the colours, I like the stripes, but I do not like doing the afterthought heel at all.



Bluefaced Leicester, Merino, Silk and Alpaca blend; love it



Alpaca, Legalots

4 mysteries, 3 good, 1 so-so

Start with the good. I am thoroughly enjoying listening to The Coroner, 2008, the first of the Jenny Cooper mysteries by M. R. Hall. She's one anxious, drug-laden, obnoxious protagonist! But likeable nonetheless. Good reader too. He's an interesting author, has a good website

The next good one is the Newfoundland based Undertow, 2002, by Thomas Curran. Good writing and interesting historical facts mixed into the story. It's set in the late 1940's in St. John's.

Woman Chased by Crows, 2012, by Marc Stange. Canadian, set in small town Ontario, Dockerty police chief Orwell Brennan is very busy. So far an interesting plot.

The so-so was by Peter James, Dead Man's Grip, 2011. It's part of a series, maybe I needed to have read the other books. Maybe it was the reader - didn't like the accents.

Good books

I have really enjoyed listening to Derek Jacobi read. First I was listening to him read some Sherlock stories and they are great. But now I am listening to him read The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. What a great book. Alan Grant, Scotland Yard Inspector is confined to bed in hospital with a broken leg. Bored and restless, he becomes intrigued by a reproduction of a portrait of King Richard III brought to him by a friend. He prides himself on being able to read a person's character from his appearance, and King Richard seems to him a gentle and kind and wise man. He tries to figure out what really happened from his hospital bed. What a great way to read about history. She wrote it in 1951.

Also really enjoying Blackout by Connie Willis, 2010. Also history woven into a mystery. Very entertaining. Part sci/fi, part mystery, part history.

beautfiul fibre to spin

Merino Cashemere Silk from Corgi Hill but my spinning is still not good enough, too lumpy, too thick. Sigh. Love the fibre still though.

Books

Listening to Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick, 2011, in the car. Not sure I like it, not sure I like a single character. Do like the piano's presence. Not being a particularly literary person, the remix of a Henry James novel means nothing to me. It's certainly well written though.

Thoroughly enjoying a new mystery writer to me, M. R. Hall. I'm listening to the second of four books he has written about the cornoner Jenny Cooper. The Disappeared, 2010, is good. Set in Wales, characters are flawed and interesting.

Finished the 3 books my Jennifer Worth, very good books. What an interesting world the East End of London was in the 50s.

Reading a Canadian mystery that I like too - Undertow by Thomas Rendell Curran, 2002. Good writer, interesting to read about Newfoundland, set in the 50s too.

Really enjoying Natural Order by Brian Francis, 2011. Set in small town Ontario, main character is old, looking back over the her life, and that of her gay son. Very perceptive writing.

Love my spindle

KCL Woods

Spinning and socks and a vest

Spinning, practice

Vest for Mum

Tangent, by Ruth Sorensen. Interesting pattern, all one piece

Bosenberry

Ladybug Fiber Company

many good books

Really like Andrew Westoll's The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, 2011. He is a good writer and it is a great story. Very glad I bought this book. He spent months at Fauna Sanctuary, a refuge for thirteen chimps rescued from a research lab, as a volunteer caregiver and he tells their stories and the story of Gloria, the woman who set it up.

Hot Art, by Joshua Knelman, 2011. Really interesting book about the black market that thrives in the Art World. He's done good research and tells the tales of stolen art all over the world. Well written book.

Listened to a bunch of books:
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth, not sure when she first wrote it. She writes well, about her early midwifery world.

Louise Penny, A trick of the light, 2011. Good mystery, interesting to read about artists. I like the foray into the alcoholics worlds too.

The Secret in their eyes by Eduardo Sacheri. Not sure when he wrote it. I wasn't going to listen to it, because the movie was so good, but once started could not stop. A good book.

more too, can't remember.....

Vest and socks

Started Tangent by Ruth Sorensen. Fascinating pattern, a bit tricky to figure out but intesting to knit.

















Finished socks for Bran, Wendy Johnson's Diamond Gansey Socks, a favorite pattern of mine. It's hard to see the pattern in the varigated wool.

holey scarf

Having fun making the Swiss Cheese scarf






and reading Fauna by Alissa York, 2011 about a likeable crew of characters and animals living alternate lives in the Don Valley in Toronto. Not plot driven, but a good book. Has a half-newfie in it so of course I like it.

Test

Can I blog from my iPad?

scarf, hat and books

Family Album by Penelope Lively, 2009. Bit too close to home, re: messed up family. An uncomfortable read but it's a good book.

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, Wade Davis, 2011. Very interesting book, just started it and it's going to be a long listen, but it's a good story and he tells it well.

Sheepy Haty

Different lines

baby sweater

2 books

Death Comes to Pemberley, P.D. James, 2011. PD combines Jane Austen with a mystery, and it's very well done. It feels like the same characters. Started reading it but am now listening to it and think I like it better that way. Nealy finished and am wishing there would be more books to follow.



Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter by Carmen Aguirre, 2011. Interesting book, her story is a first hand account of living as a revolutionary while growing up and it's a good story. Not that well written but worth reading.

a long long book

Oh my, 1Q84 by Haruki Muakami, 2011, is long. I listened to it and it seemed to go on forever. I couldn't stop listening to it or skip parts, even though is slow and repetitive, sort of chant-like. It's not a great book, but it does hang on to you and won't let you go. I'm just glad it's over.

Started Sebastian Barry's earlier book, Annie Dunne, 2003 and it is such a relief to be reading such good writing.

Read earlier this year but did not note, On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry, 2011. Really liked it. A sad tale but he writes so well. I read the Secret Scripture, 2009, a couple of years ago and liked it as well. I like the way her writes about women, old women.

And on the mystery side, I am really enjoying A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths, 2012

knitting - 2 hitch hikers

Love knitting the hitchhiker pattern by Martina
Behn and want to make another one.














































Socks for brother in law.

Started a sweater, Kate Davies pattern;; Boreal, beautiful wool/ alpace mix.









Second try at making a glove.
First was too big, this one is too small and I have to undo it and start again.