Wildly Crafty

Finished my first TBR Challenge book. Today is the last day to sign up for the challenge or to edit the lists so I also went in and made sure I was happy with my choices.

 

Scaremongers 2: Redbrick Eden, Steve Savile ed.
This is an anthology of short stories that was created to help support SHELTER, which is an organization that fights homelessness in the UK. It's got quite a diverse bunch of stories, some more chilling and memorable than the others. Even some of the bigger names in horror fiction like Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman and Christopher Fowler submitted their work.

One of my favorites was Adam's Choice by Mary Corran in which a dying man goes to a sort of psychic to find out who he can be reborn as, he gets three choices but only a short time with each one to choose, and has to make his choice based on very limited information. 

I'm trying to get names together to send it around as a bookray on Bookcrossing, so far I only have three takers, all in Europe.  I guess Americans just don't care about English horror.  Not sure what challenge book I'm going to pick up next, in the meantime I need to finish the book I'm reading because I'm sending it out as a surprise, and then I have two books to read for bookgroups.  One is an online bookgroup where I'm testing the waters, it seems a little stuffy and highbrow to me.  The majority of posters appear to take themselves very, very seriously.  The book discussions are interesting, I'm just wondering if one were to post a dissenting opinion or not be quite up to the grammar police standards (where did that extra comma come from?) if one would be chastised.  For that group I'm reading Arthur and George by Julian Barnes.

 The other group is a real life bookgroup that I discovered through Bookcrossing.  I'm deliriously happy to have discovered one in my area.  I went to my first meeting last night, and I really liked the group, and they seem to read quite a diverse set of books so it looks very promising.   The Innocent Man by John Grisham was chosen for the next meeting, and I just so happen to have a copy on my TBR pile.

I think I must be channeling You Knit What, because I came across a link to this delightful sweater which creeps me out.  From the dangling threads, to the - what the hell is that?  is it a stain or just bad lighting? on the model's skirt, the sweater is just not all that attractive.  Sometimes just because you can knit something doesn't mean you should.

 As far as my knitting is concerned, I've made another dishcloth in entrelac, which came out very nicely and I've got a pair of socks on the needles.  I'm using a pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks which I've only had to modify a little to fit my size 10 feet.

Dave has the camera today, our central heating unit went out last night and he used it to take some pictures of the parts he thinks are the culprits to take with him to purchase new.  I hope he's able to get it fixed, it would be nice to not have to spend the money to replace it right at this moment.  

I so miss You Knit What. This belongs on their pages. I'm sure moments after the picture was taken the little dog either died of shame or killed the photographer.

This is from the latest issue of Lion Brand's email newsletter, and the directions can be found here, if one wants to be cruel to their dog.

Has anyone seen the contest that West of Mars is running on her blog?  Called Debut a Debut it's all about getting new writers and their debut novels read. 

Here's the teaser text - to get all the rules and fine print check out the link to Debut a Debut:

The book industry faces many challenges. People seem to have less time to read and it's tough to compete with the television and Internet. Any new or aspiring author knows how hard it is to make his or her voice heard amongst the chorus of "publish me!" "Notice me!" "Buy my books!"

In many cultures around the world, Valentine's Day has converted the month of February into the month of love. This February, two aspiring authors are taking their love of reading and their admiration for debut authors and combining them into the "Debut a debut!" contest.

Take a first-time author for a spin on your "To Read in 2007" list and give yourself the chance to win great prizes! Gift certificates to Borders and more!

I think this is a fantastic idea!  I have to check and see if I can use a review that I've written for Front Street, or if I have to go with something unpublished. 

Reviewed for Front Street Reviews

The Only Pure Thing – A Stuart Clay Mystery
By Patrick Hyde
Published by The Beckham Publications Group, Inc.


“Bloodied Ballys don’t prove murder”

Veteran criminal attorney Patrick Hyde’s debut novel introduces us to defense attorney Stuart Clay.  It begins with the discovery of a headless body in a parking lot.  When Cleveland Barnes, a mildly deranged homeless man, is found wearing the dead man’s bloodied Bally loafers, Clay is assigned to convince the court that Barnes is innocent of any crime worse than robbing a corpse.  As he says in his first press conference: “Bloodied Ballys don’t prove murder”

Clay, with the assistance of investigator Cindy Oh, immediately begins to research the backgrounds of both the deceased and the accused.  They soon discover that nothing is as it seems.  Is Barnes really as odd and detached from reality as he seems to be?   What are the New Columbians?  Who is the pretty blond woman that left the club with the victim moments before he became a corpse?  Why does a Mafia Consigliere insist on having a chat with Clay at gunpoint? Clay and Oh find some answers but mostly discover more and more questions. As they attempt to answer everything, they are led under bridges in the dead of night, into conflicts with one of the FBI's most wanted, and on a tour of a vividly depicted sex shop before they finally stumble upon a fatal mis-step.

The author takes the reader on quite a journey through the court systems and seedy underbelly of Washington D.C. in the pages of this book.   His descriptions are very realistic and compelling, and the twist ending is well conceived.  Very noir in style, The Only Pure Thing is reminiscent of an earlier era of crime authors, such as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.  The legal jargon was a little distracting, as the reader has to remember or guess at several acronyms and their meaning throughout the story.

Obviously familiar with his setting, the author pulls from his twenty plus years of experience as a criminal and labor lawyer to tell his story.  A nicely put together piece that will hopefully be repeated in additional books featuring protagonist Clay.  This reviewer looks forward to reading any such future endeavors.

Looks like Peter Jackson has picked up an option on the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.  Could be pretty awesome, or at least one hopes so:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

Link to the page that has my reviews of the three books in the trilogy so far.  I see at the bottom it says she's working on number four, woo hoo!

I'm joining a read a book a month from your TBR pile challenge.  They have a tbr_challenge Yahoogroup, and the challenge is only open to new signups until the end of January.  I thought this might be a good way to get around to reading some of the books I've been carting around for years and years unread..

I have two bookrays to finish and pass on before I can get started.  I still think there's a pretty good chance that I'll be able to get  one of these read in January though.  If not, I think there's a little wiggle room for catching up.

Here's my list:

1. Buried Alive – Jan Bondeson
2. The Antipope – Robert Rankin
3. Scaremongers 2: Redbrick Eden - Steve Savile, ed.  (Finished - January)
4. The Constant Gardner – John LeCarre
5. When Rabbit Howls – Truddi Chase (Finished - February)
6. Stone of Farewell – Tad Williams
7. Beach Music - Pat Conroy (Finished - March)
8. At the Foot of Dragon Hill – Florence J. Murray M.D.
9. A Great Deliverance – Elizabeth George
10. The Visitor – Sheri S. Tepper
11. The Fig Eater - Jodi Shields
12. I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots - Susan Straight

I hate it when the Bookcrossing database is down and you can't register any books, make any release notes, or even make any journal entries.  I'm going to the doctor this afternoon, and I actually remembered to pick out a couple of books to take with me to release at the office.  So I go to Bookcrossing and try to make some notes and all I get is the "Sorry, we're down for database maintenance" screen.  Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!

This throws me completely off because even though I've written the titles and numbers down on a Post-It, I'll surely never remember to enter the details later. 

I just contacted the owner of the Front Street Reviews website to let her know that I'll be available for  work again.  I'd taken some time off because I was getting too far behind on reviews, and books that I owed to people.  I've since caught up and don't owe anybody anything, which makes me feel really good. 

I've decided that my one book resolution this year is to cut down on the number of books coming into the house from Book Relays, swapping and trading.  I'd like to get more books out of the house than I take in, so I'll probably be sending out RABCK's and possibly trying out some more wild releasing.   

I've already been offered two books to review.  I'm probably going to accept them both, and not take any more on until I've finished with them.  Gotta dip my toes slowly back into the pool.

 Knitting

Haven't finished sewing together the baby duds.  I really need to get cracking since the shower is the middle of the month.  Everything is completed I just need to sit down and sew.  Ok, Ok, this week I promise!

I did make a dishcloth.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  But Dave really does like the knitted ones better than sponges since they harbor less bacteria if you use one and toss it into the laundry.  I tried a new technique (new to me at least), shadow knitting.  I think it's pretty cool that you can only really see the cat face at certain angles.

Stackable Cats 

Think I should submit this to Stuffonmycat.com?