10 Books That Made YOU Want to Drop Everything and Read
Oh, man. How to choose! I am going to do a bit of a different take on this and go with my top 10 authors, which will still be almost impossible to narrow down, but I will try!
E. B. White – Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. Three fantastic books that I just devoured. More. Than. Once.
Laura Ingalls Wilder – The Little House Series. I have read these books dozens of times. Really. Dozens.
C. S. Lewis – The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity – books that transformed my life as a child and an adult.
Mario Puzo – The Godfather, Fools Die, The Sicilian, The Last Don. Gritty novels that grab you from the very first sentence and don’t let you go even after you are done reading them!
Hugh Howey – The Wool Omnibus. Science Fiction at its best.
Tom Rob Smith – The Child 44 Trilogy, The Farm – a new to me writer who writes a fantastic novel!
Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games Trilogy. LOVED! Such great writing. I devoured these books and could not wait to start the next one!
J.K. Rowling – The Harry Potter Series. These I loved with my children. We read them together, or sometimes out loud, or sometimes impatiently waited for each other to finish them!
Jussi Adler-Olsen – The Department Q Series. I simply adore Carl Morck and his imperfect but lovely manner.
Dan Jones – The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England is the only book of his I have read, but it was absolutely fantastic. I read this with a boss as we drove to a conference. We did not want to stop!
Diana Gabaldon – The Outlander Series. The first “romance” novels that I actually liked! I am adding this one as a bonus because season 2 of Outlander just started! If you have not read these – you should! They are so good!!
There are so many others I could add here – stories by that expert story-teller, Garrison Keillor; yarny tales shared by the Yarn Harlot; those lovely letters that EZ wrote from Schoolhouse Press; anything that Ernest Hemingway put to paper; the vivid poetry of Pablo Neruda – things that make you lose track of your day and get lost in the words of their world.
There you have my list – some timeless, some classic, some new literature – all incredible. Today is all about reading, so tell me what makes you D.E.A.R.???
After a very cold, snowy, blowy weekend a milder Monday has arrived. Milder temperatures, softer breezes, and gentle rains greeted my morning.
It was so bitterly icy and cold on Sunday morning I am afraid I may have lost my poppy and yarrow, which were growing nicely and this morning look quite miserable. I could just cry!
But, there was some fun this weekend!!
There was a simple, but delicious Friday Cocktail Supper. A bit of hummus, salami, carrots, grapes, crackers, and Manhattans were perfect to usher in the weekend.
There were new herbs obtained. They smell so much like summer! I am itching to get in my garden, but these little beauties are a nice way to pacify that urge until the weather is more conducive to gardening!
There was some spinning. I think I did a fairly good job of replicating the singles in the Briar Rose Yarn, I won’t know until I have washed the yarn though. I hope to ply and finish the sample skein later today and maybe it will be dry enough to knit a sample with it tomorrow or Wednesday!
And there was an impromptu get away on Saturday night – a change of scenery can have a positive impact! And, confession time – I took knitting, but I did not knit one stitch! There was some discussion of Sheep and Wool in Maryland, and while I know Steve is not overly thrilled about the prospect, I think we figured out an option to satisfy (okay, maybe not satisfy exactly) err, make it work.
On our way home we stopped for lunch at Fathead’s – two words – Buffalo Cauliflower. The sandwiches and beers were fantastic (I mean, a Reuben with Kimchi?? YUM!!) but the Buffalo Cauliflower stole the show! The cauliflower was not at all over cooked, and it was not breaded! I think this might be a fairly healthy option if you are a fan of wings! There was much discussion of how we could replicate this for our Friday Night cocktail suppers. I think we might have figured it out, stay tuned to see.
I hope your Monday is like the weather here today – mild, soft, and gentle.
Eating: The cold weather spell here has me craving baked steel-cut oats, but I was not in a pumpkin mood. However, I had apples and lemons and an idea in my head. I followed the shell of this recipe, but tweaked it as follows: In place of the pumpkin I added about 2 cups of peeled and diced granny smith apples (to which I added the juice of one lemon to keep them from turning brown before cooking). I cooked them until the liquid from the lemon was evaporated and then followed the recipe. Once I had added the liquids and just before I put it in the oven to finish cooking, I added the zest of one lemon – stirring it in thoroughly. In 35 minutes you have a warm and hearty breakfast with enough for leftovers for the remainder of the week! It reheats well and the apples maintain their texture.
Finishing: I, at long last, finished Kirsten Kapur’s 2014 Mystery KAL – just in time to send it to my sister for her birthday. I think it turned out quite lovely and it is my hope that it will make her feel extra special for this birthday. Truthfully, I would love to keep it for myself, however, this will be a rough birthday for my sister and I want her to know that she is well-loved. Aren’t those always the best gifts anyways; the ones you would rather keep?
Watching: I sped through season 2 of Bosch on Amazon Prime and I liked it as much as I did season 1. I am trying to savor season 2 of Hinterland (Y Gwyll) on Netflix, but really – it is such good television! What is not to love? Wales countryside and Richard Harrington make for perfect viewing! The Americans (currently on FX), if you have not watched any of this, season’s 1-3 are on Amazon Prime. It is a compelling drama about the cold war years. And, finally – Grey’s Anatomy…at times I feel like I should have stopped watching this a couple of seasons ago, but yeah. Still there watching! My hope now is that Meredith and Alex will figure out what the writers have been hinting to the viewers.
Anticipating: The new seasons of Turn and Outlander. The weather being consistent – 70 one day and snow the next is no fun at all! The weekend and especially getting back to the regularly scheduled Friday Night Happy Hour (post Easter and Steve’s Birthday weekend).
Attempting: To build this pergola with Steve. The true test of any relationship, how well you build something together…or maybe not, lol. Anyways, all we can do is try! I will be the one trying to keep their mouth shut as well as my ears so as to not listen to whatever Steve yells at me for! LOL
Planning: Something fun and exciting for this summer – you will have to stay tuned, but I think it will be lots of fun!
How ironic that yesterday’s post about things to calm me down would be needed the same day in full force!
Full. Freaking. Force.
The day did not start well, and I could feel the stress rising even after completing my morning meditation.
Does it seem to you that stress produces stress? My answer is a rousing YES!
And, to cap it off, after having recently frogged a good many WIP’s and having all this “wound yarn” lying around – I cast on Song of the Sea. How difficult can a cowl be, I ask you. Well, for me, apparently very. Yes, even after telling myself that casting on over 200 stitches to join in the round is the recipe for a Moebius – I made a Moebius…
A Moebius I that I, sadly, did not discover until I had completely knit the first pattern repeat.
Yeah. Color me a knitting genius!
Good thing my handspun is sturdy because it was frogged yet again.
Stress produces stress – I should have taken a page from Carole and done a bit of house cleaning instead.
Okay, maybe not! LOL
And today, I am feeling that stress trying to creep in around the edges and I am not going to give in to it! I am going to stay calm and carry on!
On my needles, I am still plugging away on this sock and doing some very belated birthday knitting (damned small needles and dark yarn!!) and last night I pulled out another OLD WIP (do you get bonus points for yarn maturation while knitting an object??), found were I was on the chart and knit a couple of rows before bed last night.
If anything is a confidence booster – it is picking up and ages old project and finding in a few minutes where you are on a chart. YES!! Moebius joins be damned!
Hopefully today’s knitting and reading kicks stress right out the door and perhaps helps me finish a project sans mistakes!
or some curtains or something to wear – it’s lovely.
– Twiggy
It’s 10 on Tuesday and this week Carole wants to know:
10 Things You Do To Calm Down
Hmmmm, calm down you say? Yes, we all need a bit of that sometimes, don’t we? Some of us (me!!) more than others.
So, what things help me regain sanity when everything around me is chaos…
Knitting – absolutely every single time. Even when the knitting is not good, the pattern is not easy, or it is just a simple swatch. Knitting is number one on my list.
Shut my mouth – stress and talking are a bad combination.
Meditation. A simple activity that centers me and helps me clear away the chaos from the inside – and if I am calm, what is going on around me is not so earth shattering. Even easier if you turn on Breathe, put in your ear buds, close your eyes, and listen.
Make bread. There is something so cathartic about the process of flour, water, yeast, and salt creating something so incredibly delicious. Stress reduction on so many levels!
Take a walk. A change of scenery just does a body good.
Work in the garden. Bonus – taking out your frustration on the weeds.
Read. Nothing quite like entering the world of the novel to clear your mind of what is stressing you.
