What I'm reading Wednesday...

I feel like all my posts lately have been either book or craft related.  Hmmm...I wonder why.  Snowed in with no TV, that's why!  LOL  Today was blissfully warm and sunny, and a thunderstorm overnight washed away the last remnants of snow.  Lunch with old friends today was just the medicine needed to cure cabin fever.

Now, this is what I've been reading:

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize...somebody PLEASE remind me not to read prize winners again.  I am always disappointed and wonder, 'Who was on this judging committee?'  This was pretty dark.  A novel told in short stories.  While I have really enjoyed this format before in other books, I was disappointed in this one.  I'm glad I stuck it out, because I liked the second half much better than the first half.  I rate it: 7/10 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I've tried this one before, but gave up a chapter or so in.  I put it on my 2014 Goals list, so I'm giving it another try.  Making more headway this time at least, and am about a third of the way through.

Sunday Stealing: Books Meme...

Oooooh, I haven't done a Sunday Stealing post in a long while.  When I saw this week's topic over on Mum of 4 was 'book meme', I had to join in, so here goes...

  1. Favorite children's book: Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

  2. The last book you've read: last one finished was The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion...right now I'm reading Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

  3. Books on your to-read list: 2014 

    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

    To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
    Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
    Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
    The Call of the Wild by Jack London
    Lord of the Flies by William Golding
    Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
    Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
    Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
    A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
    Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

  4. Top 5 authors: Ken Follet, Susanna Kearsley, Barbara Delinsky, Thomas Perry, Bess Streeter Aldrich

  5.  Favorite genres: I am kind of all over the place, but I do really like historical fiction as well as time travel. 

  6.  A book that has made you extremely mad: The Land of Painted Caves by Jean Auel...ugh!  She should have hung up her typewriter on this series several books back.

  7.  A book that you've cried over: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

  8.  A book that made you laugh out loud: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

  9.  Fiction or non-fiction: mostly fiction

10. First book you've read by your favorite author: The Eye of the Needle by Ken Follet

11. Best book-to-movie adaptation: Not technically a movie, but I love the series based on the Call the Midwife books by Jennifer Worth.

12.  Do you read comics/manga?  No.

13.  Hardcovers or paperbacks? Paperbacks

14.  Do you buy books as soon as they come out or wait awhile?  Usually get on waiting list at library, but if a much-hyped book is a Kindle Deal of the Day I will definitely buy it.  For a favorite author, I might even pre-order.

15.  Do you buy books spontaneously without any prior knowledge of what happens in it?  No...I usually read books that have been recommended to me or books where I have heard the author interviewed.  I for sure read the cover description, and almost always check out the reader ratings.

16.  Have you ever bought a book based on the cover alone?  Hmmm...I can't think of any off hand, but I would guess that I probably have.

17.  Where do you usually buy your books?  Library book sale...Half-Price Books...Amazon

18.  Book that had a strong impact on you: The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

19.  Historical or Science Fiction: historical, but I do like a good time-travel story

20.  Dystopian or Utopian? Dystopian

21.  Worst book-to-movie adaptation:  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

22.  Book that should have a movie adaptation: I hate to answer this question, because I'm always afraid that they will really mess up a good story by making a bad movie out of it.

23.  First book you've fallen in love with:  The Collector by John Fowles

24.  Humor or angst? Humor

25.  How many books do you own?  For sure hundreds...including children's books and Kindle books probably over a thousand.

26.  Do you go to the library?  YES!

27.  How many books do you read a year?  Last year I think it was only around 40-some, but I had a really difficult schedule.  This year I think it will be substantially more.

28.  Favorite 'required reading' book:  I loved The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, and I had a thing for Sinclair Lewis' work.  I'm sure both authors were assigned.

29.  Favorite quote?  I have quoted long passages that really meant something to me in previous blog posts.  But the one that pops into my head that is short and easily remembered was a joke that one character told another in a Fannie Flagg book:  "Why did the wife shoot her husband with a bow and arrow?  ...She didn't want to wake the children."  :)

30.  A book you absolutely hate:  Poison by Sarah Poole

I give it a ten...

On a scale of one to ten, I could count on one hand (and maybe have one or two fingers left over) the books that I have considered a ten.  I am a tough grader...it has to be a real standout for me.  And most importantly in order to get a ten, it has to be a book that I would be happy to read over again.

I have just added one to my short list:  The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.  It is funny and intelligent and sweet (but not sickeningly so).  The characters are very likable, and it was just delightful.

If you have a Kindle, the Kindle version is available on amazon.com for just $1.99.  WELL worth the money.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

This week I finished Tess (yay! another of my challenge books down), and glad I am that it is done with.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Then I browsed the titles on my Kindle and found this one that I had purchased fairly recently.  I am loving it.  I have laughed out loud many, many times.  I wish I could stay home and read today, but I have a party to go to, and it is sunny out today, and I am not taking THAT for granted by staying indoors!

Making it Monday...

Another Pinterest project (2 down / 12 to go)!  I made these cute little guys today...minions a la Despicable Me fame.  Toilet paper rolls, scrapbook paper, googly eyes, and cellophane.  So much fun to put together as they each have a personality that emerged in the making.  I tucked $5 inside each and mailed them (and their friends the matryoshka dolls) to the fab five for Valentine's Day.

Pretty awful photo, but I was in such a rush to get them to the post office this afternoon, that I didn't remember to take a picture until I was warming up the car...so there they sit on the dash, looking very happy to see the sunshine we enjoyed today.

A bit of handwork...

Oh how I love Pinterest.  I spend much more time browsing its pages than I do making the lovely things I find there.  But here is proof that I do actually follow through on occasion.  I couldn't resist these little matryoshka dolls made of felt.

This first one is a bit of a prototype.  I don't have access to a printer here, so though I found a pattern, I couldn't print it out...so I had to draw my own.  Once made up, I found a few spots that needed adjustment.

Ah...much better.

Going together much more smoothly and quickly now.

These could become habit forming.

And that ticks one item off of my goals for the year:  Make fourteen Pinterest projects...one down, thirteen to go.

Monday...

The landscape is triggering happy childhood memories...fields covered with smooth blankets of snow, frosty windows, crunchy footsteps.

I feel that I have retreated from the world.  Very spotty internet access.  Very little television...some Netflix and Amazon video, but only when there is internet access.  What would I do without my smart phone?  Even it has its limits...I've used up 3/4 of my data for the billing month.  Internet tech due out on Thursday, so hopefully that will improve things.

Not getting out much due to the weather.  Yesterday I did run to town, but when I got back, I almost didn't make it back up the snowy driveway incline.  When the other Kathleen returned later, her neighbor came out and gave her a push up the drive.

I have been reading and making cards.  I have sewing projects about to commence.  I have ordered some necessities...crafting necessities.  :)  Need to get busy as they are valentine related.