Nonnie's Reading Corner #2

So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books.
-Roald Dahl

Omigoodness! What would I do without a book? I'd have never met Nancy Drew. I would never had known the wonder of a poem: "The moon was a ghostly galleon..."  I would believe that one woman could raise her children on by entering word contests,  I'd never had learned the phrase '"Twas brillig and the slithy toves. Did gyre and gimble in the wabe." I wouldn't know a blind cat named Homer who could catch flies out of the air and also survive 911. And I wouldn't have met Dick Francis.

Ten Facts About Books and Me:

1. I take a book with me everywhere. 
2. I read three at a time: one to listen to, one on my Kindle and one "real" book so that I can read three books at a time!  
3. The books have to be entirely different from one another or I can't sort them out.
4. I sometimes have to keep a list of characters so I know who they are as the book progresses.
5. I forget the end of most books I read.
6. I have the advantage of reading more books than anyone because I can read a book over and over and over again because I don't remember the end!
7. The author I've read the most is Dick Francis. If you want to start on his books, read The Danger.
8. I read young adult books because they are clean. I stop reading any book that has profanity, vulgar language or explicit sexual scenes.
9. I love a day where I can start and finish a book in one day. Book defined by amount of pages being over 250 pages.
10. My favorite book of all time is To Kill A Mockingbird. It touches my soul in so many ways.

In March I read four books:

1. Black Water, D. J. Hales
2. Reality Bug, D. J. Hales
3. Bleak House, Charles Dickents
4. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

The first two books are a continuation of a Young Adult series I'm reading.

I read Bleak House as an audio book. I often read older classics this way. Many older books were first serialized and the money earned was determined by how the number of words written. It tends to have a lot of drawn out situations, descriptions, and sideways wandering but I did find that I had no problem going through books if I listened to them. Bleak House is one of these. To support and explain the premise of why I listen and why I needed to have a list of characters, here is what Goodreads said: "[Bleak House] was published in 20 monthly installments...It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon."

I fell in love with Mr. Jarndyce and the Little Woman. The characters were rich and side stories and characters all came together in the end. The ethics and compassion of Mr. Jarndyce plays against the ruination of lives that live on hopes that will never come to be. I think that one of the funniest things in the books was a part of Mr. Jarndyce's personality. Though he is a benevolent man, he does not like to be thanked. When someone starts to thank him, he starts talking about the east wind and how it looks like it might switch to a north wind soon...
I believe this book will go right up with the other classics I adore:  Understood Betsy and The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

I found the book, I Capture the Castle quite by serendipity. It was written in 1948 by Dodie Smith. I'm really not good at writing descriptions of books, so I hope, dear readers, that you will bear with me. The castle in the title really is a dilapidated castle that a very poor family lives in. Most of it is in a state of "rack and ruin,"and part of it is uninhabitable. The family just manages to get by. The youngest daughter, the heroine of the story, decides to write a journal and follows the events of her family for six months of an unusual amount of events and change. It is a very dear book and so worthy of being read.

In the beginning of this post, I named four things I would never have met if I didn't read books. Leave a comment telling me the books I was describing. The one who gets the most books correct will win a prize...a quilty surprise. If there is a tie or two or...there will be a prize for each! 

I hope you will put your nose in a book today and find yourself in another place.

The Book Corner 2018 #1

I finished my second book of the year. I use Goodreads to keep track all of my reading. Last year I set a goal to read 75 books, based on the prior years books read and now be retired. I missed the mark by 4 books. This year I set my goal to 65. I read a lot of classic literature where the page count is an average of 400 pages. I thought that missing 4 books last year just might be because I read books that are much longer and, I think, should count as 2 books! So this year I'm also counting pages read. I don't know if it will make any difference to me or how I will quantify how many current book pages vs classic books. Oh well, it may be interesting or a waste of time!

The Lost City of Faar (Pendragon #2) by D.J. MacHale 
 

My first book read this year was a young adult novel. I read quite a bit of young adult books. Those books that I read are usually fantasy and dystopian. The book I read was "The Lost City of Faar" by D. J. McHale. Pendragon is a series about a character who becomes a "traveler" and visits many other worlds besides earth in order to save them from the antagonist. It's fun to read about the different worlds that the author imagines.

Book two is this one:

The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country by Helen Russell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm about one-third Danish; my last name is Christensen. I discovered this book on happy accident and wanted to read it to learn more about my ancestral homeland. The Year of Living Danishly gave me a close-up look of day-to-day life in modern Denmark. Helen Russell, the author, was immensely readable and witty in her account of her first year in Denmark. I found traits that I have that define the Danish, such as love of tradition, family being the core of hygge which is a Danish word for contentment, togetherness & family. I almost wanted to move to Denmark just because the author's narrative from distrust to fully embracing Denmark. The pastry that she described had my mouth watering and would almost be enough of reason to move! However, I would have to pass because of the darkness for 8 months of the year! That's too much for me to survive!

A Fantastic Garage Find!

Isn’t life serendipitous sometimes? I had a moment the other day…

1964 Ford Galaxie

A little background would help. I have a husband. He has a project car, (Definition: a car that sits with all its parts removed). We have a garage. His project car resides in our garage. (See? A quilting blog you can finally show your husband! boyfriend! etc!)

Now don’t get me wrong here. I don’t want anyone jumping to conclusions or anything other thing. The car is a boat. It is so big that when you sit in the driver’s seat, you can’t lean over and touch the passenger door. It has personality. I love that car!

My husband’s car and its various, multitudinous parts occupy most of the garage. I have a quilt room which occupies a bedroom plus a closet and floor-space in another bedroom. You see? He and I both have “hobbies” and understand the necessity of space for such hobbies.

And now back to the story…a while back my husband came in from the garage with a couple of old boxes. He thought they were mine. I didn’t recognize them. I opened the first box and looked in at the eggs of the Golden Goose, the coins at the end of the rainbow, the flower wreath of horse racing.

I wrote Siggie Blocks on the box.

There were quilt blocks made by my Aunt Marie (of Marie’s Marvelous Makings). I had totally forgotten that I had her quilt blocks in the garage. The first box I opened were signature blocks. Over 300 of them!

The other box contained…a surprise for you lovely readers. I will writing a post about Box #2 in the future!

And now, I present a (very) few of those blocks!

I love the blue on the end with its nubbies!

Such a nice variety of browns!

Notice the third is a real 30s print

I love everyone of these red ones.

I had to ponder for a few months of what I wanted to do with them. I don’t belong to a guild where friends would sign the blocks. I don’t have 300 friends, much less 30. I could make a mini-quilt of siggie blocks of my friends. I don’t have a huge family who could sign blocks. You can see my dilemma.

It must have been one of those glorious days where everything went right and birds were singing. I realized what I was going to do! I am going to write all of my favorite books, one for each block.

I am addicted to reading. I’ve read ever since I learned how to read in school! A group of middle-school friends of mine went on a vacation to a lovely resort one summer, with two moms along. We had fun with the activities at the resort. But the major part of our days were spent reading!

I was thrilled to start writing down the books. My all-time favorite: To Kill A Mockingbird. Books that I bought for 45 cents from Scholastic when I was in middle-school that I read over and over. My favorite: Jennifer. My beloved Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden of my elementary school years. High school books brought me The Chronicles of Narnia and The Von Trapp Family Singers. Jack Weyland was my favorite author in college. My favorite book of his: Charly. Biographies of ordinary people in extraordinary times: The Bielski Brothers.

I kept writing until I couldn’t think of anymore. I kept writing until I had listed 252 books! Using 252 blocks would give me a beautiful queen quilt for my full-size bed.

My only quandary now is how to write the names on the blocks. It would take a daunting amount of time to embroider each book’s name. I’m thinking of writing the names with Pigma Pens. I have very nice handwriting, by the way.

Do you have any ideas of how to “write” names on the blocks? I’m not adverse to anything you suggest and I would dearly love to hear suggestions!

I’m hooking up with these lovely linky parties that have many talented and amazing quilters sharing what they are working on. You can go to anyone you choose by clicking on the sidebars on the right!

Reading to Cats

My baby cat has grown up and has just celebrated her first birthday. It’s hard to fete a cat when she doesn’t eat anything but cat food. I’ve tried turkey meat, chicken, etc. She just sniffs and walks away. Talk about picky!

The drawer was being repaired--Kaiju thought it a perfect bed for a cat!

Kaiju loves to sit in the dishwasher

I had seen a slide show somewhere on the internet and saved it for a Really Random day. That’s today!

My dog, Bambi and I, 20 yrs ago

I love to read. I somehow managed to instill that in my children, amazingly enough! And they married readers. Cool! I try to get my students to love reading as much as I do.

I loved to read to my kids, but now they are grown and live on their own. So I love this slide show of children reading to cats in an Animal Rescue.

I decided to try and take a selfie with my cat and a book. I thought it would look good for the post. I’ve only done one selfie and it was awful. I don’t think I’ve improved!

The best picture of them all

I’m smiling, Kaiju is actually looking at the book!

Now that I’ve turned that into somewhat of a success, let’s look at Reading to a Cat!

A Gem of a Book

Oh my golly gosh! I finished a wonderful, fantastic, awesome, _______ (add your own adjective) trilogy.

If you look at the bottom of my blog, you will see a list of books I've read this year and last. I've already read two series of books by Garth Nix. I just finished the first books he wrote. And what books! This is my favorite of his series by far.

Garth Nix series I've Read

Here is the Abhorsen Series: astonishing, grand, stunning __________ (add your 2nd adjective) series of books. Definitely on par with the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien.  Put these on your Must Read NOW. It is a fantasy fiction genre. It takes place in a land that is divided in two: the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre. The Old Kingdom is one where the residents have a form of magic called the Charter. Ancelstierre is like our world in modern times: past or present?

Sabriel and Lirael are Abhorsens. They are of an ancestry whose special calling is to maintain the border between life and death. They are fighting against old forces of evil who possess Free Magic. It is a riveting story of people who are given an unwanted personna and how they accomplish their missions in life.

My description is bland, mundane, unworthy, ____________ (add your 3rd adjective) of the majesty of the series. Trust me, you want to read them.

It has fascinating, gripping, engrossing, _______________ (add your 4th adjective) characters. (Don't you feel like you're playing Mad Libs??) Characters such as Mogget, a magical cat, the Disreputable Dog, Sameth, the Prince of the Old Kingdom, necromancers and Nick, a conflicted man from Ancelstierre.

I hope you put this on your list of Must Read NOW list! You'll not regret it!

I'm hooking up with Let's Be Social, mosey on over and see what everybody is happy about! Click on badge in side bar.

**some of the description of plot is from Wikipedia

What Are You Reading

I'm thinking that I may have gotten my days mixed up, which is truer than I want to admit, and I thought today was Reading Day at Judy's website. Notwithstanding, I am addicted to reading and will go ahead and let you know about my reading this week.


 Iron Bay is the first in a series of novels about Cocoran O'Connor, "Cork" who lives in a small town in Minnesota. He used to be sheriff, but through tragedy lost the job. He is part Irish and part "Anishinaabe Indian". (quotes are there because that is how it is referred to in the book.) The books are mysteries, which is one of the main genres that I read.

I first read a Cork O'Connor a couple of years back. I read the fourth book, Thunder Bay. I liked it enough that I put it on my request look on Paperbackswap.com   It took a little while, but I got it two weeks ago. Within the week, the second book in the series was available for me. I read Iron Lake this past week. I started the second book, Boundary Waters last night.


I'm liking the series. It's definitely up there with Dick Francis and Sue Grafton (my favorite mystery authors) but I like Cork as the main character. There is a lot of description of the landscape of lakes, wildlife and Anishinaabe culture. It's fun to learn about all of this.

I recommend this book to mystery lovers as an engaging read with native american history and good plot lines.

If Judy shows up with What Are You Reading later in the week, I'll link you up with her site.

Happy, Relaxing and Enjoyable Reading Everyone!

Whatcha Reading?

In 1994, this is me reading yet another Dick Francis book, with my dog, Bambi on my lap. Dig that crazy couch!

I do so love Tuesday book sharing. I'm keeping a list of the recommended books I want to read on my OneNote in MS Office. I'm going to try and see if Amazon has any free loaners of books I want to read.

I was looking at my 2013 Books I've Read, at the bottom of the blog. Hmmmm. One book???? It's February 12th for pete's sake. What is going on with me? It's always the same answer when the question has to do with time. Quilting.

I don't keep house very well....why? Quilting
I don't go out very much in the evenings....why? Quilting
I am a hermit on the weekends and holidays....why? Quilting

If I didn't love it so, so much, I'd grumble a lot!

I'm still reading A Great and Terrible Beauty. I think I'm still on it because I'm not enjoying it that much. If it was deadly dull, I'd put it on my Goodreads list: "Put down." It moves slowly and the plot has not grabbed me. Mind you, I'm in the middle of the book so it has had plenty of time to grab. I think I'll make a goal to finish it over the holiday weekend. The school districts around here are taking a four-day weekend. It used to be two three-day weekends, but I like it the current way better. That should give me enough time to finish it up and start on something more interesting. If it doesn't get done, you'll know why...quilting.

I just noticed on Google that a movie is being made of this book. Obviously a whole bunch of somebodies thought it was good. In my experience, just because it is made into a movie doesn't mean the book is good. On the other hand, if a book is a treasure and they make a movie of it, they ruin it.

There are few exceptions to this:




I will mention here that To Kill A Mockingbird is my favorite book and movie of all time!

Check out other books being read and get ideas for your reading list at Patchwork Times (click here)

Whatcha' Reading?

I'm joining up with Judy at Patchwork Times (click here) to share what I'm reading.

I finished V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton this week.

I just got myself a Kindle Nook last week. I finally caved in when I joined Amazon Prime. Those who have that membership can borrow books from Amazon, just like a library. They also have free or very reduced price books all the time.

I've never been one to want a book reader. I get all my books through online used book sites or through this great website, PaperbackSwap.com click here). I love this site! You give a list of books that you are willing to swap. At the same time you create a list of books you want. If someone posts that book as available, the site sends you an email to confirm you still want it. Then voila! A little bit later you have the book. If someone requests it, the website sends you an email. You send it off and you get a credit for one book. You earn credits by sending books, use credit to get books. Everything is the same: 1 credit = 1 book. It can be hardcover, softcover, mass market paperback or an audio book; they're all one credit. The site is very controlled so you don't get ripped off. I've belonged for a couple of years and have no complaints.



But I digress. This week I am reading in a physical book with covers, etc., A Great and Terrible Beauty. It's another teen/young adult book. Goodreads gives this synopsis: "A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy--jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel." I'm enjoying it so far, but am only about a quarter way through.

I also had a free book on my Nook. I liked the story, but gave it up. I don't like my books to have over-the-top profanity or vivid, detailed sex. I prefer it to be like the old movies: they kiss with intensity and next you see is the couple smoking cigarettes! I don't have the name because the book is in the other room and I don't want to walk in there to give you the name of a book I put down.

I just want to go quilt.....bye.

Whatcha Reading?

Judy, over at Patchwork Times, has started a new weekly feature called, "Whatcha Reading?" Fantastic ! She wanted to do something on Tuesdays and had readers submit ideas for the topic. By vote, What Am I Reading won. Hurrah ! It was the one I voted for. I love to read. It is my first love.

I can't remember when I didn't love to read. By the time I was in third grade I was reading anything I could get my hands on. By fifth I was heavy into Nancy Drew. I bought my books from the Sears Catalog. We lived in rural Northern California and had to drive for almost an hour to get to the Sears outlet to pick up our orders. Guess what I did on the way home?

Today my loves are mysteries, biographies about normal people going through extraordinary times, history, Church books, young adult fiction, well-written novels and the list goes on.

Right now I am reading one of my favorite authors, Sue Grafton. She writes the alphabet mysteries. I started right at the beginning with her first mystery, A is for Alibi. I've worked my way through, waiting impatiently for each new volume to come out. I'm reading V is for Vengeance. I'm almost through and can't wait until tonight when I can get home and finish it.

I don't know what's up next. I honestly have a stack of books, waiting to be read, two feet high next to my bed. And I still keep perusing books sites thinking to buy more !

Coast on over and take a looksie at what others are reading at Patchwork Times (click here).

Changes Are Coming!

I am definitely a spotty blogger. Mostly what I post is for my family. I plan on getting back to my original plan for this blog:

Quilting 

I'm currently working on finishing three quilts: 

Spiderweb Quilt

 

Marie's Square-in-Square

 

Bricks and Stones

 

 Movies

I've watched two movies this week...a treat I can only do while I'm on vacation.

Dark Shadows & Dark Knight Rises

 

 

Books

Just finished reading: Memoirs of a Geisha

Currently reading:  Mr. Pettigrew Takes a Stand, New Testament, Book of Mormon

Next: A Grand and Terrible Beauty

Parenting

Here are my babies!

Nancy Drew at 2 years old (now 33)

Noel Heart at 2 yrs old (now 35)

 

 

 

Talented Geek Son at 2 yrs old (now 31)

  Now What?

My dilemma then was what to do about posts for my family? The answer is to create another blog for our family. I'm very excited about this venture!

What will the family blog be? Stories about our family. I have some pretty amusing stories about my children. I will have to keep my children anonymous (see how long that idea lasted?) since they would be embarrassed if their circle of friends knew the family skeletons! Now I'll have a place to post videos I like instead of emailing them. I send them lots of emails with things I find interesting. I'm sure they're not always thrilled, and maybe get tired and don't even look. I know how much they look forward to each of my emails to find what new amusing, interesting and weird things I've found.

Family blog= stories, amazing videos, jokes, recipes, eclectic items and  inclusion of the weekly family letter.

Oops! Don't tell anyone! They don't even know my New Year's Resolution to write an old-fashioned letter to all of them. Shhh!