Tag Archives: Books

Somehow, my friends Kris, Amy and I ended up forming the most depressing book club since the invention of the printing press. We are currently reading Gulag: A History, Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 and Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Suffice to say that I will never use the phrases “I’m freezing!” or “I’m starving!” casually ever again. Actually, all three books are worth reading, but, as Kris said, they should come with a side of Lexapro.

I am also really enjoying Tartan and Felt, both part of the Textiles that Changed the World series. And honestly? How could anybody not love something with a subtitle like that?

Coincidentally, my friend Jen hooked me up with Indigo: The Color that Changed the World and it is — hands down– my favorite book of 2013 so far. This book is full of gorgeous photography and illustrations and is wonderfully written. If you only order one coffee table book about a color this year, make it this one.

In preparation for my trip to Scotland this summer, I am reading A History of Scotland: Look Behind the Mist and Myth of Scottish History. This book is the most readable of the Scottish history books I’ve picked up and it’s fun! Highly recommended, even if you are an arm-chair traveler.

Also because of Scotland, I picked up the first of the Inspector Rebus series by Ian Rankin today,Knots and Crosses: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels). My friend Jen is a big fan, and we are total reading twins (see Indigo above) so I’m sure I’ll love it. Plus, from what I’ve heard, Edinburgh is practically a character in the books.

Finally, I picked up Island of Bones today at the bookstore based entirely on it’s cover and spooky name but everything I’ve read about it since sounds really good.  I needed a book to read on the plane, because I hate having to sit and do nothing during take-off and landing when you aren’t allowed to use your Kindle.

Got any recommendations for the rest of us? Hook us up, please!

I have been bingeing on Agatha Christie books for the last few weeks, though I’ve read most of them a dozen times or so. The thing about Agatha Christie is, even when you know who did it, the writing is really good. I find something new in her books on every reading and the characters are so well developed. To me, that’s the mark of a great book.

I also appreciate that the murders very rarely happen “on screen”, as it were. I’m interested in mysteries but not gore.

These are the ones I return to again and again.

Mrs. McGinty’s Dead

Murder Is Easy

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

A Pocket Full of Rye

A Murder Is Announced

I just received three new knitting books that I am super excited about:

Scottish Knits: Colorwork & Cables with a Twist. My friend Kris and I are going to Scotland in July and I consider this book research. Look at all that gorgeous color work! I am completely obsessed with fair isle right now and you can expect to see lots of it in our Fall 2013 collections.

This book is just plain fun! Medieval-Inspired Knits: Stunning Brocade & Swirling Vine Patterns with Embellished Borders is as lovely as it can be, and I give mad props to Anna Karin Lundberg and Trafalgar Square Books for putting out such a daring title in the current publishing climate.

Shades of Winter: Knitting with Natural Wool

Knit to Flatter: The only instructions you’ll ever need to knit sweaters that make you look good and feel great!

Okay, this book isn’t going to be released until April 2nd but I have already ordered my copy and you should too. Amy Herzog is a knitwear designer who has created lovely, wearable patterns for ages, and her book is going to be a smash hit!

Stylish Dress Book: Wear with Freedom

I would really like to become a good (or even competent)garment sewist, but I never seem to have the time to sit at the sewing machine and work at it. On the other hand I have plenty of time to drool over the Japanese pattern books by Yoshiko Tsukiori. Her simple design make sewing look so easy! Maybe one day I will find out if they actually are.

Are any books inspiring your crafting these days?

What Katie Ate: Recipes and Other Bits and Pieces is mine and Amy’s new favorite favorite cookbook of all time ever. The photography is just brilliant and so inspiring. I keep it next to my bed. The best cookbook I’ve purchased in ages.

Spilling the Beans: The Autobiography of One of Television’s Two Fat Ladies Over the holidays I watched the entire Two Fat Ladies tv series and something Clarissa Dickson Wright said in it made me curious about her. So, it turns out that she’s from an insanely wealthy, eccentric British family and drank away her inheritance in 10 insane years (she’s been in recovery for ages now.) It’s light read and very name droppy but in an interesting way.

Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The Story of the Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind I haven’t read this next, but it’s on deck. My sister is currently reading it, and she starts every sentence with “Did you that…”. From Amazon: “…a fascinating chronicle of life’s history told not through the fossil record but through the stories of organisms that have survived, almost unchanged, throughout time. Evolution, it seems, has not completely obliterated its tracks as more advanced organisms have evolved; the history of life on earth is far older—and odder—than many of us realize.”

The Uninvited Guests: A Novel  Everybody and her sister has been raving about this book, and I have to admit that it caught me completely by surprise. The beginning is a little slow but stick with it and it may catch you by surprise, too.

After I read The Uninvited Guests, Amazon apparently thought they had my number and they recommended Miss Buncle’s Book. And maybe they did have my number because I found Miss Buncle’s Book a sweet and delightful read!

 ”Barbara Buncle is in a bind. Times are harsh, and Barbara’s bank account has seen better days. Maybe she could sell a novel … if she knew any stories. Stumped for ideas, Barbara draws inspiration from her fellow residents of Silverstream, the little English village she knows inside and out….To her surprise, the novel is a smash.”

As you would expect, all manner of hell breaks loose in Silverstream and hilarity ensues. This is the very definition of light reading but I enjoyed it very much and will be reading more from the Miss Buncle series.

A couple of you have asked how I managed to read so much while getting everything else done. The answer is that 1.) I’m not really doing as much as I used to since I’ve been sick and 2.) I have pretty much given up on keeping up with the news, which really freed up some time for me.

Ever since a Connecticut elementary school was shot up right before Christmas, I just find that I don’t have the heart (or maybe it’s the stomach?) for the news anymore. It was causing me too much pain and I’ve decided to disengage for a while while I figure out how to have a healthier relationship with it.

As a former network news producer and obsessive new consumer, it hasn’t been easy to kick the habit, but I have found myself feeling a lot freer since making the change. We’ll see how it goes…

Dinosaurs in the Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History

I will admit to being a total sucker for books that give you a “behind-the-scenes” look into public institutions, and this is one of the best I’ve ever read. ”Dinosaurs in the Attic is a chronicle of the expeditions, discoveries, and scientists behind the greatest natural history collection every assembled. Written by formerNatural History columnist Douglas Preston, who worked at the American Museum of Natural History for seven years, this is a celebration of the best-known and best-loved museum in the United States.”

Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum

Are you sensing a theme here? Dinosaurs in the Attic lead me to this book, which is just wonderful! “The Natural History Museum is, first and foremost, a celebration of what time has done to life,” writes Fortey, whose engaging book similarly commemorates the vast record of life on Earth. As he meanders through the halls of the museum’s back rooms, Fortey proves to be an excellent, witty guide to the scientists and specimens that give testament to this history. Far from being a dry read, Dry Storeroom No. 1 weaves together colorful anecdotes about the scientists, their research, and the value of museums, defending evolution while admitting how much we still don’t know about the Earth’s species (starting with beetles, for example).” Loved it!

Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy

This is the most charming book I’ve read in ages, sort of a British Little House on the Prairie, and “what may be the quintessential distillation of English country life at the turn of the twentieth century.” The characters are charming and the details about rural life are absolutely fascinating. There is also a BBC series based on the book, and it’s good but lacking in the details that make the book so lovely to me.

The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape

This book was recommended by a friend and I expected to hate it. I was pleasantly surprised by The Geography of Nowhere and now I recommend it to everyone. “

“The Geography of Nowhere traces America’s evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular, where the cities are dead zones and the countryside is a wasteland of cartoon architecture and parking lots….In elegant and often hilarious prose, Kunstler depicts our nation’s evolution from the Pilgrim settlements to the modern auto suburb in all its ghastliness. The Geography of Nowhere tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection.”

Home Made Winter

I am a big fan of Yvette Van Boven’s Home Made, a cookbook unlike any other I own, filled with hand drawn illustrations and lovely photographs as well as really original and interesting recipes. So I was thrilled to see Home Made Winter in a bookshop the other day. This is a cookbook for curling up in front of the fireplace with a cup of tea and a wool blanket. Just completely lovely in every way. (I’ve already pre-orded Yvette’s next book, Home Made Summer, due out in April.)

What un-put-down-able books are you reading? Hook me up, please!