Books

Finished Michael Ondajte's The Cat's Table and liked it. Good thing I started again from the beginning.

Ian Rankin's latest book about the Complaint's department, The Impossible Dead, 2011 was good too. He writes good mysteries with interesting characters and good plots.

Really liked the booker prize book by Julian Barnes, 2011, a first - I usually hate the Booker books.... The Sense of an Ending, 2011. It gets better and better as you read and by the end the characters are stuck in your head and you are wondering about them. How fallible we are.

Half way through a mystery by Laura Lippman, Baltimore Blues, The First Tess Monaghan Novel. I like that she talks about libraries and book stores.

Just started a really good book, main character has Alzheimer and her best friend was killed. Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante, 2011. Really interesting to read.

Good book

Anne Patchett's latest book, State of Wonder, 2011 is good. It was rough going for awhile as the characters were unappealing but by the end she's got you totally involved in all of them. The Amazon sounds overwhelming and too wet and hot and dangerous! It's a good story; the ethics of pharmacology, fertility, malaria, exploitation of people and places.

A fast but interesting read is the book written by a doctor, recommended by Abraham Verghese; Anatomy of a Kidnapping: A Doctor's Story by Steven Berk, 2011. He was taken at gunpoint from his home, and survived to tell the tale. It's well written - a good read.

and knitting, a present made:

finishing things

Books and knitting...
finished reading the last Troy book, John Lawton's series following Frederick Troy. Sad to not have any more to read, I do like his writing. The last book was A Little White Death, written in 1998. It's set in the early 60's in London mostly. Troy seems to have survived TB, only barely. The plot meanders about, but he pulls it all together in the end and the characters are interesting.

Finished Graham Hurley's book about Joe Faraday's latest case: Borrowed Light, 2011. Set in Portsmouth UK, always interesting because his characters are flawed and believable. The plot doesn't really matter much, just a good mystery. He has a knack for ending his books as cliff hangers, good thing the next one is already in print.


Mitts finished










Blanket







Also finished Charlotte Gray, 1999 by Sebastion Faulks and started his newer book, A Week in Decemberr, 2010. I do like the way he writes. Good storyteller; always my favourite. I'm glad I started reading his books.

blanket and mitts

Kay Gardiner's Mitered Crosses Blanket so far. Love the pattern. I'm using left over and thrift shop sweater undone finds. Sock yarn doubled for a few squares.










and Kate Davies, mittens only I am making them fingerless

knitting

Stephen West scarf


Backlogged because I have not got the camera out to take pictures.
The baby sweater and booties were knit in September. I am working on 4 other things. Fingerless mitts, mitered square log cabin blanket almost finished. The bottom shawl is supposed to be Catkin but I am modifying it - did not like the way it was turning out. I do like the Stephen West scarf, Spectra - it just keeps getting left behind by other knitting.

unneverving book

Zoe Heller, What Was She Thinking; Notes on a Scandal, 2003. Narrated by a dreadful controlling woman who is telling the story of a total flake of another woman, there are no redeeming qualities in either of them and yet the book is compulsive reading. Or listening. It certainly is perceptive and well written but it's not a pleasant experience.

Bought this book yesterday, Spinning Wool, beyond the basics by Anne Field, 2010. It's a beautiful book that I've had from the library, hope it will help me learn to spin.

I did enjoy listening to Michael Robotham's first mystery, The Suspect, 2005. A detective, Joe O'Loughlin, really a London psychologist, loves his job and loves his family but he's got troubles; Parkinson's and someone trying to destroy his life. Good plot, good characters.

Good book, not-so-good book

The Sister Brothers by Patrick DeWitt, 2011, may be up for many awards but I sure didn't like it. Listened to most of it and finally gave up because I didn't find it interesting in any way. I don't get it.

But I listened to Trustee from the Toolroom, Nevil Shute's last book written in 1960 and loved it. Read it over 40 years ago so I knew the story but what a welcome relief after that other book.

Finished Old Flames so I started my last Frederick Troy book, A Little White Death, by John Lawton. Who knows when he wrote it. Early 2000s I think. The poor guy has TB now and is going crazy in a sanatorium in the early 60s. I like the way the plots meander around and you get this story, that story and finally things come together.

Also started Michael Ondaajte's latest book, The Cat's Table, 2011 and I like it so far.

And then the library book I loved, I thought it was a book for adults but it's not, it's for kids. Beautiful photos and a great story, in which the black Labrador's true worth is revealed. What's not to like? Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz, 2011.