Review: sailing books

I've recently read two sailing books: Fastnet, Force 10 and Love with a Chance of Drowning.

Both made extremely clear the ruthlessness of the ocean.

The Fastnet race in 1979 killed 18 people, as a result of a "perfect storm" hitting the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the UK and Ireland while the race from Cowes to Fastnet Rock was happening. The writing style reminded me a bit of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, and was utterly terrifying. The combination of relatively small ships, far out to sea, and a confused sea with spectacular waves resulted in massive boat damage and loss of life. The storm happened before I was born, but John remembers being in a harbour in France on a sailing trip with his parents, and watching boats break loose in the harbour as the waves crashed over the harbour walls.

Anyway, give it a read, preferably NOT before setting out on a sailing trip.

If you DO want a book that will make you want to go to sea, I really liked Love with a Chance of Drowning, a memoir about following a boy and a boat and sailing across the Pacific ocean.

Sign me up!

In which I finish a sweater and read several books

I finished my Blakeslee Tee a few weeks ago - it's super cozy and not too warm, but good for chilly English summer days. No pictures of it On Me yet, mostly because I still need to figure out the best angle. The horizontal stripes are somewhat chubby-making. I love it anyway, though. It was an excellently mindless knit.

The slipped-stitch stripes are so pretty, especially close up.

I've been reading up a storm, lately. I downloaded Dark Triumph, the sequel to Grave Mercy. I started reading it and realised that I really couldn't remember who any of the secondary characters were (several of whom were featuring heavily in the sequel), so I went back and reread Grave Mercy. I enjoyed it as much as the first time round, and then jumped straight in to Dark Triumph, which I loved, too.

Then I thought I'd read something improving: Crusoe's Daughter, by Jane Gardam. It was recommended on a few blogs, and reviewed favourably in the NYT when it came out. The prose was lovely but it was Utterly Dull. I really wanted to like it, too. Oh well. Who needs plot when we have pretty writing?

To recover, I read the much-recommended book by John Green, The Fault In Our Stars. It's the story of love between two teenagers, one with terminal lung cancer, and it is improbably quite funny but also predictably heartbreaking. Cathartically so.

And finally, I blasted my way through Insurgent, the second in Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy. Post-apocalyptic Chicago with teenagers and running around and kissing? Why, yes, I don't mind if I do. Too bad the third one's not out for a while. And I'm worried the movie might be crap...

Review: Divergent

I loved the Hunger Games, and I enjoy dystopian YA romps as much as the next person. I don't remember where I was recommended Divergent, by Veronica Roth, but I really loved it.

It's set in post-apocalyptic Chicago, and reminded me a bit of the Hunger Games.  Both have strong teenage girls as their protagonists, and both require them to do things they never thought possible. I've also acquired a vocabulary word: abnegation (self-denial or renunciation, to save you having to look it up, too).

I'm about to read the sequel and am rather enthusiastically awaiting the movie!

Reviews: Anna Karenina & Grave Mercy

One of my UK book group peeps saw the Tom Stoppard Anna Karenina when it came out over the summer, and suggested that we read it for book group. Thankfully, we all have kindles, so didn't have to drag hardback copies around with us.

Overall, I liked it. However, there was Way Too Much Rambling About Farming. And Russian Peasants.

Thankfully, the movie avoided the rambling, and pretty much just cut to the chase.

I'm glad I've now read it, but won't be seeking out any other Tolstoy any time soon.

I think it also may hold the record for "longest time for Kate to read a novel" - it took me nearly 6 months. Phew.

To follow, and because I felt like I needed a guilty pleasure after all that Russian angst, I read Robin LaFevers' Grave Mercy. It's set in medieval Brittany, and is about a girl who goes to a convent dedicated to Mortain, or Death. She trains as an assassin (along with the others in the convent) and is then sent out on a mission. Entertainment and drama ensue. I zipped right through it and really enjoyed it. AND I have excellent timing because the sequel is coming out in three weeks!

Oh, and this is what's wrong with America. French toast, with a side of bacon. It was delicious, but still.

Review: Code Name Verity

Before I start this review, I will say that I picked this up at the same time as Arthur Ransome's We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea (which is excellent, by the way), and somehow thought that I had picked up the Ransome to start reading when in fact it was this one. I was mightily confused by the opening set in Nazi Germany (and the complete lack of sailboats). Ahem.

So, if one picks up this book and is actually expecting it (and not a Swallows & Amazons sequel), it's actually rather good.

Set in England and Germany during World War II, it's a story told in two parts by two different narrators, about pilots, spies, and the WAAF. I found the WAAF parts particularly fascinating, as my mother-in-law served during the war. The characters were very well-drawn, the sense of place was well-presented, and I could tell a lot of research had gone into it. The story was heartbreaking (as were many people's stories during WWII, I imagine), and very engaging. 

I heard about it in the New York Times' list of the year's best children's books, and I love the review by Marjorie Ingall. As she says, if I told you more about the plot, I'd have to kill you!

Oh, and lastly, from Ingall's review, about Elizabeth Wein: 
"Wein’s earlier novels are set in Arthurian Britain and sixth-century Ethiopia. She has a doctorate in folklore and a pilot’s license. She met her husband at a dinner dance for hobbyist bell ringers. Nerd." Can I meet her?!

Tom Holland in Cambridge

We went to Cambridge a few weeks ago (my iPhone speaker was buzzing and I wanted to get it checked out; Apple replaced the whole phone and sent me on my way!), and we wandered in to Heffers. We were walking over to check out the knitting books, followed by YA fantasy (me) and the model train books (John). I spotted an author doing a signing, and recognised one of the books as one that we have at home (Persian Fire, the blue book in the bottom right corner of the picture below).

"Hey, husband, don't you have that book?"

"Wow! It's Tom Holland!"

"You should buy his books and get them signed!"

The line was 1 person long (not really a line at all), so we stood and chatted to Mr. Holland for about 5 minutes while he signed 2 books for John. Then someone appeared in line behind us and we stopped hogging the author.

It turns out that the copy of Persian Fire we have at home is actually John's second copy; he gave the first one away to someone who he thought would enjoy it. When we mentioned that to Mr. Holland, he looked like he wanted to give John a medal.

We now have 2 new Tom Holland books, both signed. Sweet! I haven't read any of them yet but John thinks they're great.

Review: Temeraire

I'm normally quite wary of picking up books off shelves in bookstores (I'm reliably disappointed), but when I noticed Temeraire poking out between Neil Gaiman, Trudi Canavan and Philip Pullman at Blackwell's in Cambridge, I thought I'd take a chance.

Essentially, Temeraire is an alternate fantasy history of the Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons. I know, dragons.

Temeraire's egg winds up being captured from a French naval ship by a British ship, where he proceeds to hatch and imprint himself upon a British naval officer.

The dialogue between the two of them is extremely entertaining, and their relationship reminded me quite a bit of the Saphira/Eragon relationship in the Eragon books. I guess there's a fairly standard dynamic between humans and dragons.

I really enjoyed it (and have passed it along to a number of friends who've loved it, too). I'm working my way through the series (2 books finished, 7 to go!), and by the time I'm done, Peter Jackson should be finished with the movie.

P.S. Can I have a dragon? Please?

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I've been under the weather for a few days, which meant that I read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children in one sitting yesterday. I thought it was very compelling, and scarier than the usual YA-fantasy that I read.

I found it a little slow to get started (and I wasn't thrilled with the protagonist), but about 30 pages in, it really picked up. I don't want to give too much away (spoilers!), but I thought that the premise was excellent and I can't wait for the second book (not sure about the movie, though...)

Review: EZ's Knitter's Almanac

I've been enjoying the Math For Knitters podcast (I love Lara's laugh), and most people refer to Elizabeth Zimmermann at some point during their interview (frequently as "EZ," since we're obviously all supposed to know who she is).

I borrowed her Knitter's Almanac (the Dover commemorative edition - woot!) from the library (and have renewed it twice...erm, I think maybe I should buy it), and loved it. She was a blogger before there were blogs. She writes in a very conversational style, and intersperses knitting patterns with random daily-life anecdotes. Also, she is somewhat obsessed with socks. And buttonholes.

There are a few problems with the book.

First, you cannot read it on a train, in public, or with anyone who is a non-knitter. I laughed until I cried, and poor John bore the brunt of my renditions of the particularly amusing bits. Except that they're not funny if you're not a knitter, apparently.

Second, it is expensive. Not the book, but the fact that you will want to go out and Buy More Wool to make everything that she writes about, as well as Buy All Her Other Books because she's so darned clever and interesting to read.

Third, I will never meet her. And she's not going to write any more books. (She passed away in 1999.)

Fourth, she pointed out that one can knit and read simultaneously. SHUT UP. Viv, I know you could already do this. I have discovered that I can only do it if either someone is holding the book for me and turning the pages, or if I am reading on the Kindle. Obviously, this will also become expensive, since I either have to pay an underling to hold the book for me, or buy more books on the Kindle.

Ok, so none of those are really problems. EZ, you and your "unventions" are pretty fabulous. Knitters who haven't read any EZ, get thee to your library (or yarn shop or bookstore) and remedy that. You'll be glad you did.

Review: Bitterblue (and Graceling again)

I've been reading Kristin Cashore's blog since shortly after finishing Graceling. She's a great writer and finds fun things to link to. I really loved Graceling, and so have been pretty excited for Bitterblue since she announced the title. It is a great story with compelling characters (I really just wanted to drop myself into their world for a week or two and just chill with them all), and is expertly constructed.

Telling the story of Queen Bitterblue of Monsea, Bitterblue picks up about 8 years after the end of Graceling. Some familiar characters, some new ones, and a very strong feeling of reuniting with old friends.

My first action after finishing Bitterblue was to download Graceling to my Kindle and reread it. I'd forgotten so much...I think it's time to reread Fire! 

The reviewer in the New York Times loves it, too. HOORAY!

The finished scarf above is nothing to do with Bitterblue (except that it's blue). Ravelled here (the Anzula For Better Or Worsted is SO soft).

Random book review: Jean Auel

I've been working my way through Jean Auel's series, starting with The Clan of the Cave Bear. They're a little bit repetitive, and not particularly intellectual, but I seem to find them a rather guilty pleasure. My favorite one so far was definitely The Valley of Horses, but I've enjoyed them all. If you want to just escape rather wholeheartedly into prehistoric (i.e. before Teh Internets) fiction, go nuts. If you want a high-brow thinky book, leave it. I had a geeky few weeks when Alice Roberts was doing a documentary on the evolution of humans from apes right through HomoSapiens, and she got to the part where the Neanderthals and the early Humans were living in the same areas, simultaneously. Shut up. Just like the books! 

The fourth fifth (really? I've read 4 already?) one is en route to the Stowmarket library. I'm pretending not to be excited. 

Oh, and my mom remembers reading them when they came out and were super popular, back in the dark ages (aka the 1980s).

And now, for a completely random picture of Soho, on a winter afternoon. I love New York.

Reader, I finished Jane Eyre

I'm industriously working my way through the classics on my Kindle. I've read Sherlock Holmes, Northanger Abbey, Tess of the D'Urbervilles (mostly, I gave up 3/4 of the way through because I HATED it) and I've just finished Jane Eyre.

I saw a play based on Jane Eyre when I was about 9 - all I remembered from it was that it was really scary and that there were waif-like orphans all over the place. So I was a little bit surprised when the book left the orphans after a few chapters, and that it was decidedly un-scary.

I liked it much more than Wuthering Heights - I thought Jane was surprisingly spunky and independent.

I'm definitely going to watch the 2011 adaptation - I had been waiting to finish the book before watching the movie.

Any other classics that I might have missed?

I have two quilts to bind, so what am I up to? Starting a new knitting pattern, obviously!

Reviews: two excellent books

The last two books I've read have both been excellent. I almost wish I had spread them out a little bit with some mediocre books in between, so I could have appreciated them even more.

This week, I finished The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett. Like Her Fearful Symmetry, a main character dies in the first sentence. By page 2, I missed him. I found the book to be captivating, well-written, and entertaining. There were vivid descriptions, so much so that I had the odd moment where I looked up from the book and was startled to find myself in my bedroom or at my desk at work, rather than in a farmhouse in Nebraska. My only complaint is that the cover image of the edition I had from the library (not the one on Patchett's site) had a very misleading farmhouse picture. Oh, well.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, has had a huge amount of press over the last year or so. Justifiably. It's the best non-fiction book I've read in a long time. I started it while standing at the leisure center, waiting for James to finish a climbing-wall morning, and was completely captivated. I ended up going to sit in the car so I could have quiet while I was reading.

Skloot tells a very-well researched tale of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancerous cervical cells have made huge leaps in scientific research possible. Skloot also sheds light on the story of the rest of Henrietta's family and the effect the cells have had on them. I was astounded by some of the writing from various poor Southern adults, which is reproduced verbatim in the book. Whatever America's doing to educate poor people in the South, it's not working.

I'd recommend them both, enthusiastically!

(Random picture of flowers follows)

The Night Circus: A Marvellous Book

As Audrey Niffenegger writes on the front cover, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is marvellous. I picked up a signed copy (missed the author by 2 days, thank you for not providing an author-tour rss feed, Waterstones) when we were in Norwich a few weeks ago. The chap at the checkout was really enthusiastic about it, and there were recommendations by Neil Gaiman & Audrey Niffenegger on the promo posters. Well. That meant I had to buy it.

I was initially irritated by the fact that the edges of the pages are printed in black, but it turned out to add to the atmosphere, especially on the few occasions that I let the integrated red ribbon bookmark trail across the page.

It's set in the 1890s, around a world-travelling circus with real magic. I found it really atmospheric and entertaining, with likeable characters and very well-drawn scenes. The reviewer in the Guardian mentioned that she could smell the circus at certain points, and I agree with her. It was dark without being gloomy, and magical without farce. Highly recommend. [C, I think you might be annoyed by it, but try it anyway!]

I've also started on my brother's Rangers quilt...here goes!

Review: Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson, had been on my to-read list for a while. And no, it has nothing to do with Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day.

I should have taken the hint from Alexander McCall Smith's blurb on the front, "A beautiful little love story."

As AMcS says, it's a love story, set in a village in Sussex, typically English (including the underlying currents of xenophobia and a healthy dose of NIMBY).

Major Pettigrew reminds me a little bit of my mom's cousin, Charles - extremely well-mannered, chivalrous to a fault, and very distinguished. I loved the character, and found his hapless son deliciously bad.

My only complaint about the book was the continuous rant against Red Brick Housing Estates Built On Former Fields. Well, I'm sorry, English Countryside peeps, but not all of us can afford to live in country houses.

Harumph.

My mother-in-law makes the Best Pies Ever - I helped with this one (I made the decoration) last weekend at a big family supper that we had. YUM.

On my Kindle, I've been plodding through Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I quite liked the first half, but have now given up. Hardy just put one block after another in front of poor old Tess - I got tired of it. I was bad and gave up and read the Wikipedia entry about the plot and will now be moving on to the next book. Sorry, Tess.

Review: Trudi Canavan miscellany

I arrived rather late to Trudi Canavan - John read most of the books when they were first released, but they weren't really on my radar. I finished reading the Black Magician Trilogy a few weeks ago, and bought these right after TC visited Bury St Edmunds for a book signing (damn you, Waterstones, for not telling me about it until afterwards). At least I have the signed copies.

I finished The Ambassador's Mission last night - I didn't like it as much as The High Lord (my favorite), but it scooted along very nicely. I think I wish it were more about the main character's parents, but I think he's going to feature rather heavily in the next few so I'd better get used to it!

Look - all signed!

I've also picked up the last (NOOOOO!) Eva Ibbotson, One Dog and His Boy. I think I'm going to have to save it, as it was published posthumously and there definitely won't be any more. Must not panic.

One more thing: welcome, new arrivals from ModernDayQuilts. Thanks for coming to visit! It'll be a miscellany of books, quilts, cooking, expat living, and general musings, if you'd like to stick around.

Review: A Discovery Of Witches

Alice (La Bibliofille) is a fount of good books. (For those of you who think I come up with my own ideas, think again - it's all Alice!)

She recommended, quite recently, A Discovery Of Witches. After reading her review, I was pretty sure I would like it. I reserved it at the Stowmarket library (new book with not too much buzz = short list!), and carried on reading my other book. Then I got impatient and downloaded a sample chapter on my Kindle, just to see if it was worth lugging the 500+ page tome up the hill from the library. Oh my, was it worth it.

I blasted through the sample chapters, and thankfully the book came in at the library. I, um, kind of abandoned everything. I went to work (but read in my lunchbreak AND at teabreak), read over breakfast, over dinner, on the train home, before dinner, after dinner, when I should have been varnishing, while waiting for other bellringers to show up in the churchyard, when I should have been doing laundry, and a few other non-normal reading times. 

The good news (for the rest of the world): I finished this morning (over breakfast, of course).

The bad news: I finished the book this morning. NOOOO!!

The good news: It's the first in a trilogy and the next one's coming out next year. Write faster, Deborah Harkness, please!

So you will have read Alice's review. Go on, the link is up there.

My review-in-a-nutshell: Intellectual Twilight for Grownups. With Witches. And a fabulously haunted house. LOVED. IT.

Sigh.

Some sewing may be in order

I'll be on the lookout for The Perfect Fabric to sew this skirt (thank you, AnnaMaria!). Something tells me I won't be the only one.

Maybe one of these fabrics?

Oh, and in case you didn't believe me, here is the fab Eva Ibbotson short story that Persephone treated me to two weeks ago. Sigh. I might have to read it again now.

A Grand Day Out

I had an exceedingly stressful week at work - taking on a huge pile of new work, with very little handover. Lucky me! It'll all sort itself out at some point.

The Husband decided on Friday evening that I needed a mini-vacation, so suggested a trip to London on Saturday. Woot. However, spontaneity and National Express East Anglia do NOT mix. John checked the NXEA website for the train schedules (rather than creating a "journey" on their journey planner), and announced that the trains departed Stowmarket at half past every hour. So we drove to the station, paid for our parking, and walked over to the ticket office.

Hmm...what are all those busses doing there?

[epic rant] 

As NOT mentioned anywhere on the National Express website, they were doing engineering works AGAIN, so there was a bus replacement service to Ipswich, where we could catch the train to London. Since we had the car anyway, we figured we'd just drive to Ipswich. I was checking my Trains app to see when the next train was due to leave Ipswich, and tripped over the curb and skinned my palm and my knees. OW. And I blame the evil Train people for mucking us about. See? My injured palm? (I'll spare you the pictures of my skinned knees.)

Skinned knees be damned...let's still go to London. So we drove to Ipswich, where they announced that the normal trains weren't running and we'd have to take a puddlejumper to Stratford and change to the Central line. We'd already gotten this far, so figured we'd go for it. Plus, I still REALLY wanted to go to London. The final insult to (actual) injury was that our two tickets to go 70 miles on the Slow Coach cost us £73. That's over $120. Granted, the puddlejumper took FOREVER, so maybe that's why it cost so much. National Express East Anglia, I hate you. Especially since you've raised my commuter ticket (one way) from Bury to Stowmarket to £5.10. ONE WAY! And there's no way to buy a ten-trip. Can we borrow some Dutch train-experts to come sort things out, please? Thx.

[/epic rant]

Anyway, we DID eventually get to London, where we proceeded to have an excellent time. We stayed on the Central line to Chancery Lane, where we got off and walked up towards Lamb's Conduit St (great name, btw), on our way to Persephone Books. More about them in a minute.

John said, "I'd quite like a coffee and a bun." And magically, Bea's of Bloomsbury appeared out of the mist. (Yes, I look like I weigh 400lbs in my green jacket, but it was FREEZING yesterday). We knew the cake was going to be good when they asked us if we had a reservation. We didn't, but they found seats for us anyway.

I had an extremely large slice of carrot cake with cream cheese icing, which was delicious, and John had a seriously rich piece of chocolate cake with chocolate ganache icing and caramel and coconut filling.

Sigh.

I should have brought the big camera...

Newly fortified by our cake, we made our way up Lamb's Conduit Street to Persephone Books. According to their website: 

Persephone Books reprints neglected classics by C20th (mostly women) writers. Each one in our collection of 90 books is intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written.

I agree wholeheartedly. I bought a book, to be reviewed shortly. They also gave me a copy of the most recent Persephone Biannually, which featured a short story by none other than the wonderful Eva Ibbotson. Really? I couldn't have planned it any better. Run, book geeks, run to Persephone Books!

Since we were in his 'hood, we stopped by the British Museum to visit our buddy, the Horus. Unflappable, as ever, and most definitely still in charge of the museum. We had a little chat.

We meandered our way across Soho, to Liberty. Where I really wished that I had brought the big camera. [Camera geeks, any suggestions for a small-ish non-fugly bag that fits an SLR, a paperback or Kindle, and my wallet, phone, Burt's Bees and some kleenex? Thanks.]

Elephants!

And stairs!

And lots and lots and lots of fabric. Didn't buy any, but window-shopped extensively.

I checked Pinterest for London suggestions before we left yesterday morning, and found Tokyo Diner in Chinatown. It reminded me of the places I used to eat in New York - reasonably priced and very yummy. They had a power cut just as we were finishing, so we ended our meal by candlelight. How romantical!

We were pretty much zonked at that point, so we made our way back to the Central line and back to Stratford and back to Ipswich (on an express that only stopped in Colchester, Chelmsford and Manningtree, woot!), and then back to Stowmarket. A supremely Grand Day Out, once we actually made it to London.

Winter warmers

I read another Eva Ibbotson novel last week, The Morning Gift. I love her writing - it is so witty and entertaining. I don't feel like I read her books, so much as I go and live inside them for a while. When I googled her to see if she's working on any other books, I was heartbroken to see that she died (peacefully, at 85) back in October. There were obituaries in the Guardian, Telegraph, and the New York Times. I've read about 12 of her books, which means there aren't many left. I'm going to have to ration myself.

In other book news, Jane Brocket of Yarnstorm mentioned that she is going to be at Persephone Books for an open day on Tuesday 14th December. Oh, that I had a spare vacation day. Persephone WILL be on my To Visit list for the next time I'm in London. I love that they have gift recipient suggestions for various books in their catalogue, and I think the "a book every month for 6 months" is a fantastic present. Definitely going to keep that one in mind.

I bought this (wool? fiber? stuff?) to knit some scarves with at Halfpenny Home last weekend (I also found some amazing buttons for the Owlet sweater I'm knitting. It knits up in ruffles and looks adorable but is MADDENING to knit with. I like to be able to just plough ahead and knit without watching, but with this stuff I have to Look At Every Stitch, Closely. BAH. Maybe once it's knitted into a scarf I'll love it? I hope? Since I bought two balls (that's two scarves to knit, if you're counting), both intended to be Christmas presents, one destined for New Jersey? Maybe our house elf will knit it for me while I'm sleeping tonight.