A drunkard's path

The name of the book by Clare O'Donohue which is also the name of a particular quilt. Yes another quilting mystery. Nell Fitzgerald is living with her grandmother and decides to take an art class taught by a re known artist, as she likes to paint on her quilts. Only it ends up with dead women showing up in the river, one being a student learning right along side of Nell. Nell again figures out whodunit, which I admit I was one the fence on who for a long time, while trying to tread lightly on her new relationship with the police chief. At the same time, her grandmother is becoming involved with the re known artist, an interesting development, while Nell is worried about her grandmother being hurt by him being one of the suspects in the murders. My new tidbit I learned from the book is: Trapunto creates raised areas in your quilt by using cording or small amounts of batting pushed in from the back, which apparently looks harder than it is to do. Another will and should read series and am looking forward to more. http://www.clareodonohue.com/

Weekend light reading

I hate to say this but there was another one that I started reading and it wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be and I couldn't get into it. I feel bad that I decided to not finish it because it was losing me but that is the way I felt about Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson. This one had been a 'if you liked that one, you probably would like this one' type book and I checked it out of the library, so no great loss. Again I got halfway through it and it wasn't keeping me. The story starts with the conception of a baby from the day 1 and goes from there. I think it was difficult because the main character is a fetus. I didn't finish it, so it is a don't bother. But my weekend did get better. I read Magic and the Modern Girl by Mindy Klasky and I am hooked. It is actually, I think, 3rd in a series, and I will have to backtrack the first two, (OCD) to read. The main character is a librarian, yes I gravitate to those books since I work in a library, and she is a newly unveiled witch. Her mom and grandmother have powers, too, but not as much as Jane has. I felt this book was very modern witchy and fun, with the exception of maybe her creation of a anima, kind of like bringing a doll to life thing. It seems when she was doing the spell, her mind was drifting and the purpose of her anima gets blurred and whacked out of proportion. The final showdown with the anima is a little strange but interesting. The love life issues were breath-holding and the storyline was quite good, with some historical info on the DC area thrown in. It is a should read and I will read more. http://www.mindyklasky.com/ The other book was a sure thing. I read the next in the Shenandoah Album books by Emilie Richards. These books to me are a good down home, snug in my bed, warm feeling reads. This one, Lovers Knot, takes the reporter from the last book and delves into her traumatic life. She is carjacked, while at a pharmacy getting medicine, and shot twice. She recovers only to decide that her life will never be the same. Her relationship with her husband is strained so she plans to take a timeout at her husbands' grandmothers house up in Toms River, that had been left to him along with a quilt. The quilt unravels a very interesting mystery surrounding the Shenandoah National Park and the removal of people for the building of the park. Again this is another flip the house book, a happy ending book and a very interesting historical mystery of sorts. I will continue to read the series and recommend as a must read. http://emilierichards.com/ All library books

Part two quilting

So I finally finish the second book in the Shenandoah Album series by Emilie Richards, Endless Chain. Again a long book but this one doesn't seem to be centered around the quilting like the last. This centered around a refugee from Guatemala, Elisa, who shows up in Toms Brook as a result a sort of a coup in her country. Her mother had originally been from there and so she felt she would be safe. The main story is about her and her waiting for her brother who escaped the country about the same time but they got seperated. In the process, she falls in love with the pastor of the church, Sam, where she works as a sexton. At the same time, she is working at a nursing home where interestingly her grandmother is. There is racial unrest around the church due to its mission for the Latino children in a old Civil War house, who you learn was in the Underground railroad. This is another nice read and will continue on with the series.
I also had started to read Norse Code and gave up about half way through as I was getting confused with all the history and characters. Too much information to process and I actually didn't like the story, when I thought I might. The author really didn't prove to me that Odin myths would work in today's society. So I rated it a don't bother.

Goldmine of info

Wow, it is Wednesday already. Seems like I lost a day. I just finished a 'hankie-read'. Now it is my goal to find out what the true hankie rating is and maybe who started it. But I have continuely read where someone gives a book a 2, 3 or 5 hankie read rating. With me, it takes a lot to get me crying, where this rating gets its start. How many hankies it takes to read the book. The book is 'Prayers for Sale' by Sandra Dallas. I was drawn to this book because it is set in early 1900's Colorado mining towns. Hennie is the person in the story who has the prayers for sale. Actually she has a sign on her house that states that but she will pray for you for free, and tell you lots of stories. I really liked the flow of the story from her life in the confederate south, losing her daughter to drowning ( a small hankie part) and husband to the war and then being encouraged to move to Colorado, where the men out number the women 10 to 1. I guess you could say she ended up a mail order bride. Anyway, she ends up in Middle Swan and I was drawn into her life and struggle at the time. Accidents in the mining business were plentiful. But she is the encouragement of the town and well liked. She befriends newbie wives and married prostititutes and will help them out with supposed old handmedowns which in reality she has purchased from Sears catalogue. And the story centers around quilting. The clincher for me. This was a good read from the library and have one of the author's previous books in my To Be Read stack.

Laid back weekend

I think with the threat of a tornado on Friday kind of set the tone for the whole weekend. I really did not get much accomplished. Except sleep. But I did watch a new movie. Yes, Man with Jim Carrey. I like Jim Carrey and I really liked this movie. Probably because it didn't have the slapstick stuff as much as he usually has in his movies. I suppose he is slowing done. But it was a cute movie. The premise of a man who is basically letting life slip by him and is in a hole. He says no to everyone about everything, thinks up excuses not to do stuff. Along comes a new idea: Open yourself up for life's unexpected pleasures by saying yes to everything. Without thinking about it. Well, that gets him into some trouble and it actually is a thought provoking premise. Ultimately in the end it works out, of course and it is a hoot.
And I reread a quilting mystery book, Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue, because I actually couldn't remember reading it. Sad, but true. I think I was halfway before I was absolutely positive I had read it before but I read it anyway. Nice light read mystery and start of a series. http://www.clareodonohue.com/
Lastly it is with sorrow that I mourn the passing of many icons that I enjoyed - Farrah Fawcett, Ed Mcmahon and Michael Jackson. I really loved MJ's music and wish he had had a better life and dealt with stardom better. It is sad. RIP.

Quilting fiction

Another confession. I seemed to have become obsessed with quilting fiction and the rich history that goes along with the quilts and makers. The ones that I have read and kept up with are : Elm Creek Quilts series by Jennifer Chiaverini, Harriet Truman/ Loose Threads Mysteries by Arlene Sachitano, Quilting mysteries by Terri Thayer, Someday Quilts Mysteries by Clare O'Donohue and purchased used: Quilting Romance Series set, produced by Jove Publishing. Now I don't know how to quilt at the moment. But I want to. I am already collecting fabrics to produce a multitude of quilts. If I learn how. Of course, that will be the first step. But I wanted to mention a new set of books that I just started reading by Emilie Richards called Shenandoah Album. The first book is Wedding Ring, which is a type of quilt of intertwining rings. TBA on the rest of this blog.
Sorry, I started writing this in the middle of the book and the book ended up being a little intensive. Anyway, here is my review: This is about 3 generations of women in the Henry family. All had issues with their marriage and all needed to resolve them. Grandma married her honey, Fate, the day before he shipped off to WWII and had one night of sex. He died in the war and she was preggy. Never really got over it and sheltered herself from everyone including her daughter. The daughter now has issues with expressing feelings and married her husband because she got knocked up. It was a marriage of poor girl, rich boy. They had basically a show marriage. And then then daughter, who has the best marriage out of the bunch and has a daughter, loses her to a drunk driver. Their marriage ended up each handling the loss differently. So ultimately in the end, all the women are changed, as a result I would say, of the quilts the grandmothers has made over the years. Many, many quilts that sound absolutely stunning. Good book but long. http://emilierichards.com/index.htm