2007 Recap Part 2: The Books

2007 ends with a record 98 books read. I was aiming for 1 more than last year's number of 64 and I think I've done that. Here's the list in the order read:

1-3. Jane Churchill: The Merchant of Menace, Fear of Frying and War and Peas
4-5. Jasper Fforde: The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear
6. Erik Larson: The Devil in the White City
7. Lori Wick: Where the Wild Rose Blooms
8. Lenora Worth: Logan's Child
9. Monica Ferris: Embroidered Truths
10-13. Jayne Ann Krentz: Deep Waters, Eye of the Beholder, Flash and Sharp Edges
14-15. Nora Roberts: One Man's Art and Truly, Madly Manhattan
16. Wil Wheaton: Just a Geek
17. Chris Ayres: War Reporting for Cowards
18. Joanna Weaver: Having a Mary Heart in a Marth World
19. James Maguire: American Bee
20. Connie Willis: Miracle, and other Christmas stories
21. Ben Young: Out of control
22. Jayne Castle: Zinnia
23. Hughart, Barry, Bridge of Birds
24. Patricia Cornwell: Postmortem and Body of Evidence
26-46. JD Robb: Naked in Death, Glory in Death, Immortal in Death, Rapture in Death, Ceremony in Death, Vengeance in Death, Holiday in Death, Conspiracy in Death, Loyalty in Death, Witness in Death, Judgement in Death, Betrayal in Death, Seduction in Death, Reunion in Death, Purity in Death, Portrait in Death, Imitation in Death, Remember When, Divided in Death, Visions in Death, Survivor in Death
47. Dave Ramsey: Total Money Makeover
48. Alison Mcghee: Shadow Baby
49. Mary Jane Maffini: Organize Your Corpses
50. Tim Cahill: Road Fever
51. Nora Roberts: MacGregors: Robert-Cybil
52-55. JD Robb: Origin in Death, Memory in Death, Born in Death, Innocent in Death
56. Dave Ramsey: Financial Peace Revisited
57. Sarah Graves: Tool & Die
58. Kay Hooper: Chill of Fear
59. Brady Udall: The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint
60. Salzmann, Cyndy: Dying to Decorate
61. Reichs, Kathy: Grave Secrets
62. Griffith, Marilynn: If the Shoe Fits
63. Short, Sharon: Death of a Domestic Diva
64. Hooper, Kay: Sleeping with Fear
65. Howard, Linda: Cry No More
66. Jance, JA: Paradise Lost
67. Gerritsen, Tess: Life Support
68. Andrews, Donna: Owl's Well That Ends Well
69. Reichs, Kathy: Bare Bones
70. Christie, Agatha: Murder with Mirrors
71. Rowling, JK: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Sorcerer's Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban
75. Christie, Agatha: Nemesis and Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective
77. Funke, Cornelia: Inkheart
78. Berg, Elizabeth: Art of Mending
79. Rowling, JK: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
80. Jance, JA: Dead Wrong
81. Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women
82. Wilhelm, Kate: The Deepest Water
83. Roberts, Nora: Morrigan's Cross
84. Roberts, Nora, Dance of The Gods
85. Roberts, Nora, Valley of Silence
86. Kruger, Mary: Died in the Wool
87. Christie, Agatha: The Man in the Brown Suit
88. Jance, JA: Outlaw Mountain
89. Howard, Linda: Killing Time
90. Fatsis, Stefan: Word Freak
91. Jance, JA: Partner in Crime
92. Michaels: Kasey, Everything's coming up Rosie
93-96. Nora Roberts: Rising Tides, Inner Harbor, Chesapeake Blue, Blood Brothers
97. Monica Ferris: Sind and Needles
98. Kathryn Lilley: Dying to be Thin

There are probably one or two others that didn't make it on here, but still! Almost 100 books! Sheesh. How did I get anything done between the reading and the knitting?

July 2007 recap

It's the first of August and time to take a look at what I accomplished last month:


Books I read (16)
Dying to Decorate: Not bad. I expected more of a mystery with dead bodies rather than a mystery with secrets. Christian lit and if this becomes a series, I'll probably read those, too.

Grave Secrets: Interesting read, but several different threads rather than one large rope. Not the best I've read of her series so far.

If the Shoe Fits: Christian Lit found at the library. Different for me as it comes from the viewpoint of a black woman. There were some things I had to re-read in order to get an understanding that I'm sure would be apparent to someone else. I still enjoyed it and the author has another series that I'm interested in finding.

Death of a Domestic Diva: All right. Definitely a cosy mystery, but I didn't feel like I'd gotten a good background on some of the characters to round them out for their importance to the main character.

Sleeping with Fear: Read this to try to finish up Kay Hooper's Bishop series (there are still a couple I need to read). I used to have a number of them, but decided they were books I'd rather borrow than own. Still feel that way since they have a paranormal element.

Cry No More: I enjoy Linda Howard, but this one was . . . meh. I prefer when I can identify with her characters or they just flat out make me laugh. This one, not so much. Actually, not at all.

Paradise Lost: I've read JA Jance before (a single book long, long ago) but it was for the JP Beaumont series. This one is from her Joanna Brady series and I've found a new series to collect. Enjoyable, realistic characters, good storyline and I wasn't tempted to set it aside for other books. Yay! Thanks local library!

Life Support: I'd heard Tess Gerritsen books were good. This is early on in her career and I'll check out another from the library to see if I enjoy it. Seemed a little slow in some spots and I was seriously tempted to just skip sections to get to the end. Glad I stuck it out, but want a second taste to clarify her style for my tastes.

Owl's Well That Ends Well: Donna Andrews. Meg Langdon series. Love Donna. Her books do what Cry No More (see above) didn't do for me.

Bare Bones: Another Reichs book. This was a re-read to get me caught up on the books I own so far in the series. A decision on her love life (left hanging in Grave Secrets), some interesting info on the black market animal trade, and just an enjoyable read. Time for a trip to Powell's and the next book.

Murder with Mirrors: A Miss Marple book I have owned but haven't read. Dame Christie is wonderful. If not a little short when compared to today's books.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Some I expected, some I didn't. The last chapter, the epilogue, was rather a let down. I expected more. The series started as a children's book, built up to be more than that in each subsequent book, but that last chapter felt like a return to a childrens book. Still enjoyed it, but . . . .

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Started the series over again.

Nemesis: Dame Agatha Christie. Have had this book for a long time as well. Definitely from a different time and place, but I could easily see how some things remain the same.



Knitting I finished (not a whole lot, I'm afraid)
10 dishclothes of various colors and patterns. Peaches & Cream, Lion Brand Cotton in various colors.

1 baby sweater

1/4 of a blanket for my niece. Well, technically, I didn't finish this. It's still a WIP, not an FO.

What's upcoming for August?
Finishing the niece's blanket
A second Pirate hat
Harry Potter books 4-6 if possible
Finding software or building a database myself for our bible study ministry group
Getting prepped for the Fall study while finishing up the Summer study
Finding ideas for Winter and Spring studies
Four meetings/training sessions for our leadership team
Getting started on my prep work for the October women's event ticket sales
Increased visibility at work with upcoming products and technologies and subsequent management of those programs
Oh yeah, 20 year high school reunion.

Pray for me.

Catching Up

Yikes, I looked at the date from the last post for this blog. I'm cringing at the thought of all of the things that have gone on and no mention here. Well, let's get caught up, shall we?

Let's see, I still haven't taken a picture of Shedir and I've set aside the kitchen curtain. I started a scarf in Karabella Breeze, a luscious cashmere/silk blend, knitting on size 4s. It's my "I've got nothing else to do" knit. At roughly 2 feet long, I still have a bit to go. It was a Spring Breeze Scarf kit I bought at last year's Stitch N Pitch in Seattle from Hilltop Yarn.

I did get a little Top Down Bonnet done in Tahki Cotton Classic for a baby. Still have the hat though. Hmm, kid's probably outgrown it by now. I haven't embroidered a face yet, so I'll set this aside and decide later.

I did get pictures though of some other yarn:


I had a bunch of soaps from Mom and a variety of Peaches & Cream purchased without thought. But a group of June & July birthdays were coming up for my ministries team and it all came out for grouping. I only bought 2 additional plain white skeins.

This is what resulted:


Each woman received 2 coordinating washcloths with a bar of soap. They were gifted in plastic Chinese take-out boxes from the Dollar Tree. You can see 3 of the boxes in the left photo above.

I've also finished a 5-hour Baby Boy Sweater. It's knit in Reynolds Utopia and I need to seam up the sleeves (I couldn't figure out how to make the suggested slip stitch closure to avoid cutting the yarn look good enough for me) before I take a picture. This *will* go to the baby not getting the anime hat.

But I also need to start on Miss Samantha's birthday gift:

This is her drawing of the ideal blanket for this year's birthday gift. So I have yarn to haul out, patterns to peruse and a blanket to complete by the end of July.

But I've also been reading when not knitting. I'm caught up on the JD Robb series, read a Kathy Reichs book, enjoyed Brady Udall's The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint and read a few others. I'm now at 60 books this year. I could back off to 1 a month to stay with last year's number, but that's not likely. So we'll see where it goes from here.

And to close for the grandparents, pics of the grandkids from their auntie:

Giving her a second chance

I was checking over my list of books and the actual entries I've managed to blog this year and noticed I'd forgotten a book to include in the sidebar (War Reporting for Cowards). I've also managed to read a couple of Patricia Cornwell books this week.

I read the Scarpetta series as they came out, but stopped shortly after beginning Unnatural Exposure. I'd lost interest in Kay and felt a little like the series had jumped the shark. But I'm re-reading since I do want to finish the series, or at least get caught up.

So I picked up Postmortem this week and have finished it and will have Body of Evidence completed tonight. I'll start All That Remains this weekend. I enjoy the science side, the mystery of who and why and the discovery of the who and the determination of the why. I'm looking forward to re-examining Kay's relationship with Lucy and what I think of Cornwell's handling of relationships. I do feel like there are some stereotypes going on, but I'm trying to just enjoy.

On hair, yarn and books

So, the hair has grown out since the last photo back on the 18th. It's growing fast, but definitely not lying down. It's still on the bottle brush side of spiky, but I have hopes!


I have been knitting:


This is the Flower Basket Shawl completed in Feb? March? Knit with size 3 needles with KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in Tidewater. I knit it in just a couple of weeks and donated it to a silent auction at church to benefit women's ministries. It sold, but I refused to see how much it sold for - I didn't want to know what price someone had placed on my time.

I've also knitted a little sweater for a baby born to someone at church. Noelle is the 4th child and the first girl - definitely deserving of a sweet lilac sweater. I was a goob though and completely forgot to take a picture of the sweater. But Dayna has told me that Noelle has been wearing the sweater. Awww!

I knit the sweater on size 8s using a pattern from Style Your Own Kids' Knits with Sirdar Snuggle Baby Care in Shade 0219.

I've also finished a SuperHero Cape from Vickie Howell's New Knits on the Block. It's knit in Bernat for the Kruz man to go with the Superman jammies I bought him.

One thing that I was knitting was a pair of socks in TOFUtsies... but they are at a temporary standstill.
Can you see it?

How about now?


A hole chewed by the still living, but only by God's grace, Tribble. She's taken to going after the natural fibers - this yarn, the tiny cake of the Alpaca Cloud remaining from the shawl, and Peaches & Creme cotton.

The socks are on hold until I have the energy to rip past the hole to the ribbing and pick up the stitches to continue on. We'll see what year that happens in.

I have been getting some reading done as well. I re-read Amaryllis, the 2nd book in Jayne Castle's (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) futuristic/romance trilogy on St. Helens. It's a series I enjoy revisiting from time to time.

I also finished American Bee by James Maguire about the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I borrowed this from the local library and was fascinated by the history of the Bee and enjoyed reading of the backgrounds of the spellers. I had been looking for Word Freak, about competitive Scrabble, and found this instead. Borrow this book!

Just finished this week is Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds. Love, love, loved it. Had heard it was good and had wanted to read Rob's copy of it, but he didn't care for it and had gotten rid of it. But bless him, he re-purchased the book when I expressed my dismay. There are two more books continuing the adventures of Master Li Kao and Number Ten Ox and those are going on my wishlist.

I just started Inkheart last night and am enjoying it so far. Kind of wish Meggie would quit the attitude, but hey, she's only a kid. And she and her father show their love of books the way Rob and I do - with piles of them around the house. (Have I shared that our personal library has over 600 books? And it's that low only because we ruthlessly culled it down to the ones we love)

Mom? How's this one?

It's been a little while since I last posted, so here's a little update:

Knitting - finished the knitting portion of the program for the Flower Basket Shawl and now have only the blocking part to do. I need to have FBS done for "show & tell" on Monday night. It's going to be part of my talk on busyness and how it can interfere in our Christian walk. The FBS is going to symbolize that busyness can be OK when your daily life shows less you and more of God and how His pattern shines through when you allow it. Since lace is how the absence of stitches highlights complexity rather than the stitches themselves, I really felt it would be a good example of how less of self allows God to shine through a person's life.

I also have one of the Cigar gloves done up to the point of needing to separate the thumb stitches to work on the hand. And I casted on (again!) for a pair of socks from my ball of Opal Tiger, this time on #2 needles. The socks were cast on because I needed something simple to work on while traveling to a wedding. They also came out at the reception and led to a lovely conversation with another knitter.

Reading - I added a few more books to the sidebar, 4 of which were read in the last week or so. Loved the Wheaton book. Grabbed Embroidered Truths as a quick easy read, and then got sucked into reading through some of my Krentz books as well. I'm trying to finish up the Weaver book, have another one waiting to be read before Monday and I'm grabbing little bits here and there of War Reporting for Cowards.

Now, since all you've gotten is a shopping list update of my knitting and reading habits, here's a quick pic of the nephew. He's wearing the Hot Head beanie I made him and watching Cars.

Cough, hack, read, knit

This sums up our weekend.



I spent a great deal of Friday and Saturday camped out on the couch. Three of the 4 books you see in the pile under my soup bowl were checked out from the library on Thursday and finished by Saturday. I knitted, I snacked, I blew my nose constantly and drank glass after glass of delicious juice. Rob is also suffering, but I've chosen not to photograph his little germ-laden portion of our world because, well, it's not as messy as mine.

I did, however, finish Rob's hat:



It's knit with 1 skein of Manos in Color #104 on size 6 needles. I picked up stitches along the bottom and did about 3" of stockinette that I tacked to the inside as I bound off. It's sure to keep his ears warm.

So what have I read in the last few days?

Lori Wick's book, Where the Wild Rose Blooms, the first in her Rocky Mountain Memories series. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it coming off of the other Christian romance I'd just finished reading. But this is a well written historical that does a good job creating likable characters. I've found myself wishing I hadn't imposed my book buying moratorium, but the other books in the series will go on my to-read list.

I've read three Jane Churchill's as well from her Jane Jeffry series. War and Peas, Fear of Frying and The Merchant of Menace. These aren't psychological thrillers, highly forensic tales or serial killer novels. These are fun, cosy mysteries that I've highly enjoyed. I try to purchase these when I can, but I've borrowed from the library in keeping with no-buy dictate I've made.

I've moved on to this:


I'm knitting on fingerless gloves for Rob out of some Galway wool I had on #5 needles. Pattern is the Cigar gloves from Knitty. I'm currently reading Wil Wheaton's book reading Just a Geek. I've been reading his blog since Allison posted about it and have enjoyed it very much since then.

I've been knitting and reading. Rather boring on the surface, yes?

I'm wrapping up a hat in Manos for Rob; he picked a beautiful autumnal colorway I never would have selected for him myself. I had thought of the Manos as a bulky yarn, but it's more of a thick/thin. While it's lovely to handle, I could do without the constantly changing thickness.

I need to get knitting on some items for my talk to my Bible Study group. We're doing Cynthia Heald's Becoming a Woman of Freedom study and I've got the chapter on busyness. Can't imagine what I'd talk about having *never* suffered from busyness ::wink::

It's going to be a good one for me to study up on and find verses to encourage a more peaceful way to live, even if it's continuing to live in a busy world. I've lots of ideas and verses floating through I just need to get on to paper.

I finished Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City this weekend. Wonderful book - I loved the juxtaposition of the Chicago World's Fair (The White City) with the horrible things going on with H.H. Holmes (The Devil). It was a well-written account of a period I hadn't given much thought to regardless of knowing historical figures of the time. I found myself reading little bits out loud to Rob.

I also read Logan's Child by Lenora Worth. Not a book I bought for myself, it was a book passed on by my MIL who likely didn't read it herself. I originally thought it had been written in the 80's - Trixie, the female character, was innocent, unaware of things going on around her and that innocence used to keep her in the dark. I caught on quite early to the source of Logan's (the male character) anger - Trixie, though, remained in the dark until the last 50 pages or so. Blech. The book was actually published in 1998 so I expected a little more than I got. But the blatant emotionalism at the end *did* get to me and I shed a few tears. Still not a satifactory read overall, especially coming off the Larson book.

Tired of being Physically Phffft

I'm getting back on the WW wagon. I'm tracking again on my PDA, trying to watch my portions, choosing broth based soups over creamier options. I need to add more veggies and do better on my water, but I am making progress!

I started the year at 199. Not my all-time high, but too close for comfort. Or comfortable clothes.

I've managed to drop 3 lbs and I'm contemplating a yoga class at the Y with a friend. She's making it easy by offering her free passes to try it out. I know I need to say yes.

After reading about http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ at Rachael's blog, I've found some walking routes around my house that keep me on sidewalks or wide sidestreets for 1.5 to 3 miles. That will be easier to do once spring and summer roll around. It's tough to get out when it's dark when you get up and when you come home.

I'm knitting again, too. Took a few days break and have only completed some Natalya gauntlets for Erin. I've picked through my stash and I'm knitting the 5-hr Baby Sweater again for one of 4 babies that are due in the next 3 months. I'm using some leftover lilac Red Heart for this one for a little girl due in just 3 weeks. I'll probably do the Baby Kimono from MDK's book, too.

On the reading front, I'm reading The Devil in the White City. It's caught my interest and kept it with the descriptions of Chicago and the people during the time frame of the 1893 World's Fair. I hadn't known of the serial killer using the fair as a hunting ground (don't think they mentioned that aspect in history class), and I'm finding it fascinating.