Merry Christmas!

November Reads

Sorry this is late! All fiction this month:

- Summer of the War - Whelen; 3.75
- The Trophy Wives Club - Billerbeck; 4.0
- The Patron Saint of Liars - Patchett; 4.0
- The Good Wife - O'Nan; 4.0
- The Dogs of Babel - Parkhurst; 3.75
- Me and Emma** - Flock; 4.0

(Totally unexpected ending in that last book! Even though I was prepared to expect the unexpected, it still surprised me!)

**Favorite book of the month

(Ratings on a scale of 1-5)

October Reads

All I can manage to post lately is my monthly reads. Sorry about that, and sorry I haven't been commenting much in your book blogs either. I am in a very busy season of my life - homeschooling the senior year of my son and deciding on college for next year and preparing myself for him leaving me (sob!); chasing around a very smart, active 4 year old daughter and a busy, "gets into EVERYTHING" 2 year old daughter; taking care of house and home and trying to fit in some time for myself - reading, knitting, crocheting, computer, friends, etc. I thought about ditching my family and book blogs altogether, but I will hang on to them, post when I can, and hope that some day I can devote more time to them again. With that said, here's my list of October reads:

FICTION

Calm, Cool, and Adjusted by Kristin Billerbeck - 4.0
Winter Birds by Jamie Langston Turner - 4.5**

NON-FICTION

For the Love of Knitting, A Celebration of the Knitter's Art - Kari Cornell, editor - 4.0
Stitch N B---- Nation by Debbie Stoller - 3.75
Not Tonight, Darling, I'm Knitting by Hosegood - 3.5
Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair (The True Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After he Split) by Laurie Perry - 3.25 (I love a good glass of wine but she drinks a ton! Also I can't believe people share with the whole world about their s*x lives outside of marriage.)


It was a weird reading month. I read like normal the first half then not much the second. We went to visit friends in NC for just over a week and I didn't read at all while we were gone. I feel like I haven't read anything outstanding lately. Been reading a ton about knitting the last few months as you can see but am running out of those types of books. I'm so in the mood for a good, uplifting, doesn't have to be Christian fiction necessarily, redeeming read. Usually Jamie Langston Turner's books fit that bill perfectly for me, and while Winter Birds was very good, it wasn't the same as the last 4 I read by her.

**Favorite book of the month

(Ratings on a scale of 1-5)

September Reads

FICTION

Death Comes As Epiphany by Sharan Newman - 4.25
The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood - 4.0

NON-FICTION

Confessions of a Slacker Wife by Muffy Mead-Ferro - 3.5
The Joy of Knitting by Lisa Myers - 3.75
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - 4.0
Nordies at Noon by 4 women - 4.0
Mason-Dixon Knitting by Gardner/Shayne - 4.5
Dear Exile by Liftin/Montgomery - 2.0 YUCK
Stitch "N B---- by Debbie Stoller - 4.0
At Knit's End by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee - 5.0**


**Favorite book of the month

(Ratings on a scale of 1-5)

Dear Exile

My last book for the Non-Fiction Five Challenge was Dear Exile by Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery. I really liked the first book I read by Liftin - Candy and Me - so I saved this one for last in the challenge thinking I would like it too. Well all I can say is YUCK! I didn't care for this book at all. The book is "The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) By an Ocean." Hilary lives in New York and Kate, in the Peace Corps, is in Kenya for a year with her husband. The letters from Kate were somewhat interesting - she talks a lot about the terrible living conditions and the harshness of the schoolmasters, but I didn't really like her writing style. The letters from Hilary are filled with her casual sexual exploitations and other things that didn't interest me in the least. I am just shocked that in today's day of STDs and AIDS that people sleep around like this, and then actually make it all public in a book! I don't want to read about it, thank you very much.

Back to my knitting books!!!

Harry Potter, one more time

I finished the first book last month and although I liked it okay, it didn't really thrill me all that much. (Controversial stuff aside, it wasn't that, I just really didn't care for the book that much.) I decided to at least read one more and decide where to go from there. Well I'm about 1/3 of the way through the second book and I still don't care for it. It just doesn't interest me.

So....one more time.....do you think there is still a chance I will like it eventually, should I keep plugging along for awhile yet? OR, if I don't like it by now, do you think I probably never will?

I know you can't know for sure if I will eventually get into it or not, but, take a guess! :-)

EDIT: Thanks to all who commented for your input on my questions. I think I will indeed bring this book back to the library unfinished. Maybe someday if I'm stranded on a deserted island with nothing but the Harry Potter series, I will read it then. Thanks again!

August Reads

FICTION

-Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier, 3
-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, 3
-The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling by Neta Jackson, 4
-The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, 3


NON-FICTION

-Confessions of a Slacker Mom by Muffy Mead-Ferro, 4.0
-To Love, Honor, and Vacuum by Sheila Wray Gregoire, 3.5
-Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, 5 **

**Favorite book of the month

(Ratings on a scale of 1-5)