I Really Didn't Get It...But I Truly Get It Now...

I am a reader and I am a reader who knows books and authors and what is coming out next.  I follow tons of blogs, I subscribe to Bookmark Magazine and The Strand...I religiously read The New York Times Book Review and I just literally...get it...literally eat up all things books...I buy them, collect them, cherish them...I LOVE BOOKS...I love to read...mostly fiction...but good fiction and YA Fantasy?  even this is a new genre for me...never biographies or memoirs...never books about animals getting hurt...Black Beauty was not a book of my childhood.   Reading my evil unicorn book last week...Rampant by Diana Peterfreund...was a true test of my reading stealth...I almost put it down and I hate doing that...but I read it and it was really good.  All this leads up to The Hunger Games...I heard and read all of the buzz about this series.  I didn't get it.  Too...way too dystopian for me...I don't like books about destruction and poverty and hardships almost too unbearable to read.  My sister Paula read this book and did not love it.  My sister- in- law Betsy saw a friend reading it on her husband's Kindle and went on her own personal quest of every library in Denver in order to find it.  Her friend told her it was a must read...I told her she wouldn't like it...way too dystopian...but...who knew...

I have had The Hunger Games on my Kindle since August...I felt pressure to read it...no one's pressure but my own.  I started it today and now...one quarter of the way through...I get it...I am caught up in Katniss and Prim's story and Gale and the baker's husband and the fact that they are just so so hungry and just trying to live.  I just Kindled the next two books and it will be a non stop reading experience for me until the end...

This Is Pumpkin Time!!!

I love to quilt...mostly not huge quilts...although I have made some of those...but I love smallish primitive wall hangings...and lately I have begun to work with felted wool applique...it is so much fun for me to cut and sew bits and pieces together into something unique and wonderful.  My love for anything pumpkinish knows no bounds...I just love this time of year when I can put handmade pumpkins all around the house.  The only awful thing about Fall on the East Coast is that it is often hot and humid...like today's 94 degrees.   My felted wool is sticking to me as I stitch away.  But that is not stopping me...I want to make a pumpkin a day until all of the pumpkins in this photo are all done.  Lucy complicates my stitching because she tries to attack my thread every time I take a stitch...she firmly believes she is helping me.  But one pumpkin is nearly done...one more eye and he is ready for displaying.

Finally...

I think that LucyGrace and I will share this book...and hopefully she will gain insight in how to kick her organic catnip addiction.

On The Horizon...

There are far too many books on my shelves that I want to read and far too many books on my Kindle that I want to read.  I love my new Kindle 3 because I formerly owned the dinosaur Kindle called Kindle 1...loved it but all of my books were clumped together and it was really hard to know which ones I had already read...mostly due to the fact that I have this annoying habit of needing my Kindle books to all be on the front cover of the book...just like books on a shelf...closed and filed neatly away.  But...to my delight...with my new Kindle I can make collections...neat and tidy and amazing collections...and all of my unread books are in their own collection and any book I am totally finished with is neatly archived...and laid to rest...sort of like a cozy little book heaven. 

So...even though I have enough books to read for a very long time...I am still buying those books that just sort of pop up with a ton of buzz surrounding them...that leads me to these books...

Up From The Blue by Susan Henderson

“A rare literary page-turner full of shocking discoveries and twists. Susan Henderson has created a remarkable narrator—as memorable for her feistiness as for her tenderness. Up From the Blue is going to be one of this year’s major debuts.” (Josh Kilmer-Purcell, author of I Am Not Myself These Days )

 

 

 

 

 

A Scattered Life by Karen McQuestion...for some reason this has been $2.99 on Amazon's Kindle for the longest time...

  There is a fabulous review by Carlolyn Parkhurst on Amazon's site.

So Shelley by Ty Roth 

I have read that this is mesmerizing...I am only mad that it is not available for my Kindle yet.  And last...but just for now...

The Informationists : A Thriller by Taylor Stevens...no cover for this one yet...

"A terrific thriller with piercing tension, chest-tightening adventure, and a one-of-a-kind heroine I’ve continued to think about long after finishing the last page. Taylor Stevens is a born storyteller. I couldn’t put THE INFORMATIONIST down."

—Michael Palmer, author of The Last Surgeon

I Am Without Words This Wednesday...

Tomato Soup...It Is Not Just For Lunch Any More!!!

I seem to be on a food quest lately or else an amazing amount of food ideas, cookbooks and recipes are in my email this week.  I love this site called DailyCandy...newsletters daily about all kinds of interesting stuff...food, clothes, shoes, restaurants, trips and more.  I am almost positive you can personalize it to your area...I love getting news from New York and Philadelphia.   Yesterday's email contained a recipe for Tomato Soup Cupcakes...sounds yummy and healthy, doesn't it?   I happen to own the cookbook the recipe comes from...it is a bakery also and the dessert photos in the book are just so tantalizing.  DailyCandy included the recipe for these cupcakes and this photo does not look soupy at all...just looks so good!!!

The cookbook is called Baked and a link to it is in the DailyCandy link.

Hmm...A Frozen BLT!!!

I love any kind of BLT...even if it doesn't have bacon...I have eaten vegetarian ones and even lobster BLT's...but I think I am going to have to seriously draw the line at this one...but it was just too pretty not to post!!!  It comes from a site I love called FoodBuzz...

Deep In The Forest...

I really want to say that this book was a cross between a fantasy and a really good bone chilling mystery.

So…I think that is what I am going to say. I believe that this author has written other YA books but this is her first venture into YA Fantasy. I also must say that I loved it.

This book has that perfect premise…a girl…Avery Hood….raised literally in the woods by her mother and father. Her father is the editor of the newspaper and they live in a  very small town.  Her parents sort of live “off the grid”. She is home schooled until she is in high school. Her mother sells jams, bakes earthy breads and forages in the forest for mushrooms. Avery never knew how different her family was from others until she began going to school.  I love they way she said the first time she knew she was different from her class -mates was when she unwrapped her lunch sandwich and realized her bread did not look like anyone else's.  Garage and yard sales provide them with necessary items. John, the father, is always writing editorials about saving the forests of the town. He hates developers and he is very outspoken. He has enemies within the town. The girl is happy with her life…she is adjusting to school and friends and loves her life with her parents. Her father does not speak to his mother…who also lives in the town…so this causes stress within their family circle so she grows up not really knowing the grandmother who lives close by but whom she never sees.

Then one night as Avery and her mother and father are finishing dinner…something happens that changes the course of Avery’s life for all time. The event involves mystery and tragedy and distrust. It involves sadness and loss and it also involves love.

Avery is found in the woods covered in blood…she does not remember what has happened to her or her parents. A strange red lock of hair appears in her hair and everyone at school believes she is cursed. A strange new boy begins school and Avery feels connected to him just as he feels connected to Avery.

This book involves shapeshifters in the form of werewolves but the actual story is more about the town and what is happening to it than it is about werewolves. The werewolf part of the story is very mysterious and intense and magical. The bond between Ben and Avery is explored in detail and it is very lovely…endearing, even. Ben is her protector…they feel each others emotions and he will devote his life to her. Avery and her grandmother will need Ben…and Ben will be there for them.

I loved this book…truly…it was different…unique…sad…and lovely.

I have attached an awesome link to the trailer that Ivy Devlin posted on her site.



OMG...Crack Pie...

I was watching Anderson Cooper co-host a morning talk show a while ago and he was talking about this New York bakery called Momofuko Milk Bar and how he was totally addicted to a dessert called Crack Pie.  He could not describe it other than to say it was sweet and good and amazing...so...in a newsletter from Bon Appetit yesterday they said that they were finally able to coax the chef, Christina Tosi,  into giving them her recipe for Crack Pie...it is the most popular pie ever!!! 

Check out this link for the story and the recipe!!!