In honor of the rapidly approaching first day of summer, I thought I'd talk about my summer reading, which, btw, has already commenced. As soon as we finish schooling for the year, my book consumption always spikes!
Back in 2006 I participated in an online Summer Reading Challenge run by someone in the knitting community, but thus far I have been unable to find a similar animal this summer. If you know of one, please pass the info along.
Also, for the first time in forever, my local library is not running Goodies for Grown-ups~~the adult sized version of a summer reading program. Sigh. I miss that! I love going and reading the reviews of books by other adults. The library would tack them to the wall for all to see, and I came across a number of books I was interested in that I may never have stumbled over on my own. In addition to posting the reviews by patrons, the library would also provide weekly prizes (you could only win one weekly prize~~last year I won a mug celebrating the 400th anniversary of settlers arriving at Jamestown, a commemorative Jamestown pen, and a bar of chocolate) as well as some grand prizes at the end of the summer (I won a gift certificate to a local restaurant.) I'm unclear about why the program has been discontinued~~I believe the giveaways were donated by local merchants/restaurants, so I'm not sure about expense being an issue. Maybe there was low patron participation. I just know I will miss it. So you guys get to read my ramblings about the books I read this summer.
First off, let me give you an idea about my plan. I keep a book in which I write the titles of books I'd like to read, but that my library doesn't own. I intend to read these by requesting that the library a) order them for its own collection, or b) acquire it through interlibrary loan~~a great service that my library provides free of charge to patrons in my county. So, I have a list in my book, as well as a list on my page at my library's website. Right now that list stands at over 40 books. It's an old list put together by running across books I thought I might like in various places, such as blogs or the Bas Bleu catalog (one of my favorite sources for books to add to my list.) Since my old list is quite lengthy I thought I would start culling it by starting at the top of the list and either reading the next one or removing it from the list altogether. I'm interspersing these books with others that have caught my interest recently.
Whew, onward to the actual books! We'll start with mid-May since that is when school officially ended for us. Prior to May I was on a huge Jane Austen kick~~coincided with the Complete Jane Austen on PBS this winter/spring. I read Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, am reading Emma aloud with The Teen, and am still working my way through Sense and Sensibility. In addition to these I read a bunch of Austen sequels or retellings, some good, some bad. Maybe I'll post about those later during the summer. But as you can see, the Austen-mania did continue into the first part of the summer.
May, 2008
Captain Wentworth's Diary by Amanda Grange
Ms. Grange has done adaptations of several of Jane Austen's books by retelling the story in diary form through the eyes of the hero of the tale. In this case, Persuasion is retold from Captain Wentworth's point of view. I must admit that the story of Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot is my favorite of Austen's books. Don't get me wrong~~I love Darcy and Elizabeth~~but there is just something so compelling about this story of love lost and found again after a period of years that touches me more than any other of her books. Anyway, Ms. Grange again does an excellent job of giving us insight into the life of the man behind the story. I've also read her Mr. Darcy's Diary and Mr. Knightley's Diary. The above is her most recent release of this type.
Jane Austen: A Companion by Josephine Ross
I loved this book! Lots of background information about the life of Jane Austen and the times in which she lived. The Teen was writing a research paper on Pride and Prejudice, and this book came home as one of her sources. I learned lots!
The Friendly Jane Austen: A Well-Mannered Introduction to a Lady of Sense and Sensibility by Natalie Tyler
A fun book with lots of great information about Miss Austen, as well as a chapter devoted to each of her novels. A different feel than the book above, but both are worth reading. There is not excessive overlap between the two.
June, 2008
The Pemberley Chronicles by Rebecca Ann Collins
This is a reprint of a book released in the late 1990s following the resurgence in popularity of Austen due to the A&E Pride and Prejudice from 1995. While it does not garner high marks in reviews at Amazon.com, I found the book a great read. It isn't as quick as some, although The Teen finished it in less than two days, due to the fact that there is great historical detail included. I loved this part and am investing in my own copies of the series for just that reason. Some of you may know that I am a former classroom history teacher, so the intertwining of the story of Darcy, Elizabeth, and their families with the history of the day~~the Enclosure Act, for instance~~was captivating for me. This is lengthy series~~I believe the original printing ran to ten volumes. I received the 2nd as a Mother's Day gift, purchased the 1st with a gift card, and am anxiously awaiting the next two volumes to be released in September and October of this year.
Hawke by Ted Bell
Now for something totally different. I found this an easy, quick read, which is what I was looking for. I found a later book of his, Spy, on the library shelf and read the first couple of chapters before deciding that I really needed to go back and learn the history of the main character, Alex Hawke. I consider it a good beach~~or hammock~~read. Similar to Cussler in my mind. Another series~~I have the second out, but am holding off in favor of more variety in my reading schedule.
Murder on the Lusitania by Conrad Allen
Again, another book captures me due to the history that swirls around it. We are introduced to George Porter Dillman seemingly a first class passenger on the maiden voyage of the Cunard ocean liner, Lusitania. But there is more to Mr. Dillman than there appears, as there is to many of the passengers on board the ship. Mr. Dillman has in fact hired by Cunard to act as incognito security aboard the ship. He gets more than he bargained for as the voyage progresses. Another light mystery~~quick read. 1st in series~~again, I have the next one, Murder on the Mauretania out already.
The Loch by Steve Alten
This is the first book by Alten that I've read, and I was hooked from the moment I saw the cover. The Loch Ness monster has always fascinated me, so this book was a given when I saw it on the 'Beach Read' shelf at the library. A Scottish marine biologist has demons (or dragons) in his past~~his father, and the monster in the Loch that nearly killed him. He returns to Scotland after 17 years for his father's murder trial after losing his job and his reputation following a failed expedition in the Sargasso Sea. He ends up slaying more than one dragon in the novel and finds himself happy in the process. I finished this 470 page book in less than a day.
The Big House by George Howe Colt
This is one of those books that has been residing on my to-be-read list for far too long. History again :o) It was a great look into the past. A memoir of a Cape Cod beach house that has witnessed over 100 summers come and go. Even though my family was from a far different economic class, the book still stirred happy memories of my childhood. Very enjoyable.
Congrats if you made it this far!
There is knitting in progress, just nothing finished right now, but soon, I promise, soon!
I thought I'd better update you on a project I have yet to unveil on my blog. This is the Orkney Pi designed by Liz Lovick for the EZ as Pi yahoogroup, and which is now available for purchase. Check out the photos on Ravelry~~it's a gorgeous piece of lace. I'm using Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in autumn and Shadow in the now discontinued redwood forest held together to knit this beauty. The color at left is pretty close to the actual shade. I'm using Knit Picks Options in size 3 and have just switched to a 60" cable. At this point in the pattern, I am 2/3 of the way through my second cake of yarn~~I have three more waiting. My goal with this is to make a sofa sized throw to snuggle under in the winter. The inspiration behind me picking up a shawl of this magnitude was, of course, Jared Flood's gorgeous pi shawl. I had hoped to finish this one in time for the county fair this past weekend, but obviously, I didn't make it. If all goes well, I will enter it in the state fair in September.
After looking through my Ravelry notebook, I see that there are a couple of projects there that I haven't posted about here. The first is a stranded stocking designed by Meg Swansen. I started this back in the winter sometime at SnB one night. It took me three hours to knit one row. Never have I twisted a join so many times. This one is on hold as I am unsure what I want to personalize it with~~likely just the year.
The second is a pair of socks for Mr Fix-it. He requested another pair, but I was short on yarn, so he's getting one with contrast toes and heels. This has been languishing since my bout with hand trouble. I found the yarn hurt my hands.
Today I purchased some yarn for the February Lady Sweater. After finishing the baby sized version I began to pine for one for myself. Lo and behold, not even a week later one pops up on Ravelry! I love Ravelry. I had planned on using some Classic Elite Skye Tweed for my sweater since the statistics for the yarn would appear to be a perfect sub for the yarn used in the original, but that was not to be. I swatched and got gauge on the first try. However, the yarn just seems too heavy~~not drapey enough for the pretty little lacy pattern. So, I'll save the Skye Tweed for a nice tweedy sweater for using as outwear, and use the Berroco Ultra Alpaca I ordered from WEBS today. My choice was the oceanic mix~~a lovely shade of teal blue.
