What a great book month! I only finished 7 books but that was because some were long and also, it's football season. It's the time of year when I take off the headphones to sit in front of the TV. 

Of the 7 books I finished I was only disappointed with one: The Sentence. I just didn't get the point of that one but I enjoyed all of the other books and my favorite is probably The Improbability of Love.

​What books did you love (or hate) this month?

Fingersmith
By Sarah Waters, Read By Juanita McMahon

If Charles Dickens wrote a psychological thriller, it would be this book.

In Victorian England, Susan Trinder was orphaned as a baby and raised by Mrs. Sucksby, who she views as a mother. Mrs. Sucksby along with a few other well-trained pickpockets and con artists. One day, fellow con, Gentleman, arrives with a grand plan to use Susan to swindle a young woman out of her inheritance.

Susan will become the Lady's personal maid and help convince her to marry Gentleman and will share in the riches. It's an elaborate scam that is in jeopardy when Susan forms a bond with the Lady.

This is one of the most unique and interesting books I've read in a while. It's a long one so if you are considering it, be prepared to devote over 23 hours to it.

The story is told alternating between Susan's story and the Lady's story. When it first started with Susan's story I really couldn't figure out what could make the book so long. Then part 2 is the same story told from the other perspective. Each one revealing a very surprising twist. 

There are a couple of pretty steamy scenes and there's a very interesting storyline involving Victorian pornography. So be aware of that if it offends you. It's definitely the seedy side of Victorian London. I enjoyed it. It was a fresh story, not just another rehash of so many common plots.

The Ice Princess
​By Camilla Lackberg, Read By David Thorn

This book was translated from Swedish so the names are all Swedish and sometimes hard to follow, but it's a fun mystery read.

Erica Falk has returned home after the deaths of her parents to clean out the house. While visiting, her childhood friend Alex is murdered. She and Alex haven't been in contact in years but Alex's parents as Erica to write a biography of Alex.  Information about why Alex disappeared from her life is starting to come out.

Meanwhile, detective Patrick Hedstrom thinks his boss has the case all wrong and is investigating separate leads on his own. He and Erica also have a connection from their youth.

​It was a good general mystery read.

The Sentence
By Louise Erdrich, Read By Louise Erdrich

I loved Erdrich's book, The Roundhouse, and was really looking forward to this one. Boy, was I disappointed.

Let me start my comments by saying that this book gets rave reviews so take my opinion as just that: opinion.

The premise of the book is that Tookie has just finished serving a long prison term which she survived by voracious reading. Now that she's out, she has gotten a job at a Minneapolis bookstore that specializes in indigenous authors. One of their most frequent customers dies on All Souls Day in 2019 and begins haunting Tookie at the store. What follows is just a weird rambling through the events of the next 12 months including a very large dose of pandemic, George Floyd, riots and BLM. By the end, I didn't even care about the point of the ghost. I just wanted it over. If the summary had mentioned anything about the pandemic storyline I would have never picked it up. Maybe in 20 years I could read about that but, at the moment, I'm not interested.

The author narrates it and, frankly, it's lethargic. I have never had to speed up a book to 1.25x to make it tolerable but I did with this one. There are also lots of lists of books. I think this book was a vehicle for the author to share her favorite reading lists. I kept listening to see if there ever was a point. I think it's intended to have some deep meaning and to make the reader have some deep reflections on something but I didn't get it.

The Girl on the Bridge
By James Hayman, Read By Stephen Mendel

​This is #5 in the McCabe and Savage series.  I needed a fast paced mystery after The Sentence and I got exactly what I wanted. 

12 years ago Hannah Reindel was drugged and raped at a college fraternity party. When she reported it, 4 months later, she was not believed. She has dealt with the trauma ever since and on a December night she reaches a breaking point and jumps off a bridge into a freezing river.

A month after Hannah's death, Joshua Thorne, one of the alleged rapists is reported missing in Portland, Maine. During the investigation, McCabe and Savage discover that another of the rapists has recently died in New Hampshire. That one was reportedly an accidental death. The local investigator isn't so sure.

This story moves fast, has a couple of nice twists and the characters are interesting and, mostly, likable. I like all of the books in this series and this is the last one.

The Improbability of Love
By Hannah Rothschild, Read By Adam James and Kirsten Atherton

I loved this book! 
Annie McDee is trying to get over a failed relationship, living in a crummy London flat, dreams of being a chef but is just barely getting by as a film maker's assistant.

She's in a new relationship now and is planning a nice birthday dinner for the man. She stops in a thrift store and finds a painting that she thinks he might like and blows her last $75 on it. Sadly, he's a no show and she's left to pick up the pieces of another failed relationship.

Now this painting is hers and her alcoholic mother is trying to convince her that the painting might actually be valuable. Unfortunately, the painting seems to bring her nothing but bad luck and it gets worse as people start to realize what it is and everyone wants it.

If you like art and history, you will love this book. It has one feature that is usually a big turnoff for me but it works in this book. The painting, called The Improbability of Love, narrates part of the story. The painting is so witty that I don't mind it and it was a great way to introduce the history of the painting into the story. 

​I got hooked for the start and couldn't put it down.

None of This is True
By Lisa Jewell, Read by a cast

Lisa Jewell is one heck of a writer and she's produced another winner with this new book. 
Alix Summer is celebrating her 45th birthday at a local pup when she meets Josie Fair. They discover that they were both born on the same day at the same hospital. They are birthday twins.

Alix is a podcaster and just finished a series and is looking for another idea. After meeting Josie listens to all of Alix's podcasts and, when they meet a few days later, convinces Alix that she would be a good subject for her series. Josie says that she is going through big changes in her life.

The next thing she knows, Josie has entwined herself into Alix's life. 

Some people in the reviews commented that they felt the ending was unfinished. I thought that the ending was perfect for the character. I couldn't put it down and stayed up very late one night to finish it.

The Fires of Vesuvius
By Mary Beard, Read By Phyllida Nash

If you are into Roman history then this is the book for you. If you are British then you are probably very familiar with the author, Mary Beard, and will know that this book is going to be thorough and accurate.

Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE and destroyed Pompeii. Most of what we know about early Roman life is information gathered from unearthing Pompeii. In this book, Beard makes sense of all of that information separating fact from speculation. 

I thought it was organized really well and was very informative. 

Last night we went to a farewell part for a friend moving to Florida so I spent part of the day making deviled eggs, a great Southern party favorite. I can't eat them so Chris did the quality control for me. We didn't bring any home so I think everyone loved them. In between that and picking up sticks in the yard (it was  LOT of sticks), I got to worn on this quilt a bit. This is a fundraiser quilt that our quilt club is making for the local food pantry. All I accomplished yesterday was getting the SID work done around the borders and blocks but it was something. I hope to spend a lot of time with it Saturday.

Today is my knit/crochet group in Ashland and, by the time I return, the fabric I need for the sashing for the Paula quilt should be in the mail. So my weekend will be the Paula quilt and the raffle quilt and football. That should be about all. Sounds pretty perfect.

Hallelujah! The 3 newest are on the top row. Now onto the sashing and border.
That's all I have to show for my time the last 2 days.

I was hoping to get all of my "paula"blocks done this weekend but I came up 3 short. I ended up spending a good chunk of Saturday dyeing 7 quilt backs for veterans quilts. But I did get 9 of them done and I'm really happy with how they are looking. #10 is underway.

I've got a newsletter to write today and will go visit my friend's new puppy so I might not make progress on these again until Wednesday. I still want to have the top together by Sunday and I think that's totally doable.

This week's inspiration is a hand appliqued wall hanging by Ann Jensen. She used Pumpkin Patch and Navajo (discontinued) Gradients.

For sharing, Ann received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. 

I'm usually a big time procrastinator when it comes to the annual Paula Nadelstern quilt but this year I don't have time for that. I decided on a traditional layout with 3 x 4 blocks and some sashing and a border. I will make this to eventually be a veterans quilt.

Yesterday I had a little warm up session and got 2 blocks made. I can't show you the fabrics in color but I figure black and white might be OK.What are they going to do? Fire me from a volunteer job? 

I'm happy with my first 2 blocks and hope to get all 12 made by Sunday evening. 

Yesterday was a long dyeing day so I didn't get into the sewing room at all. I finished dyeing right before dinner and, after that, only had the energy to sit and listen to the latest Lisa Jewell book and crochet some on the baby blanket. This pattern goes really quickly because it's all double crochet and the stitches are in groups of 3. Three together, three DC in 3 sts, three DC in on stitch. Nice and mindless so I could keep my focus on the book. I was so hooked that I had to stay up to finish it.

Today I start making blocks for the Paula sample quilt. I'll share black and white photos as I go along.

This week's inspiration comes from Patricia Caldwell. She made this quilt for New Quilts from Old Favorites 2024 at the National Quilt Museum. The theme is Roaring Twenties. This is her interpretation of the Sunburst Block. She will find out if it's accepted in January. She added feather quilting in the design and freshwater pearl beads.

She used Black By The Yard, Blue Sky Shades and a Stars (one yard cut).

For sharing, Patricia received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount.

Thank you to Cheryl B-J for sending us these two lovely quilts for our veterans quilt project! I got the quilting finished Tuesday so I could take them to the meeting Tuesday night and got two volunteers to do the binding. These will be ready for our veterans soon!

Quilts based on 12"blocks always seem to make really nice quilts and these are no exception.

I quilted both with my favorite patriotic star and ribbon motif. I've probably quilted that pantograph about 100 times! I might need to start looking for a new patriotic pantograph just to have something new and different.

We gladly accept donated tops for our project. The optimal size is 48" x 60". Since most of these go to cancer and dialysis patients, this is the perfect size for them to take with them when they are getting treatments. You can contact me if you want to donate a top and I'll give you the details.
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The following winners of the Moving Week giveaway have been notified. 

​Thank you to everyone who entered! If you didn't win, don't worry, there will be more giveaways to come!