Mary by Janis Cooke Newman

This is a fascinating book about the life of Mrs. Abe Lincoln.  Not being american I didn't know about her other than her existence.

Regarding her first sight of Abe, 'the ugliest man upon which I had ever laid eyes,'  How could it be worse after that...?
Apparently she was the first to be called the First Lady.

I liked how she took a list of statistics of a woman who lost 3 children, loved seances, loved shopping....

And changed her from a pariah living in an insane assylum into a believable and misunderstood character.

Baby & Kids Quilts (Best of Fons & Porter)

Super cute baby quilts, wouldn't you know it came from Fons & Porter.  I hate their website but love their shows and now apparently their books.

Super-cute Pincushions/Shape Workshop for Quilters

Ok, both worth a quick look.

The pincushions are really of cute but who is going to make all those peas for the pod??

ShapeWorkshop for Quilters from Fat Quarterly the e-zine folks.  It's interesting but just for looking...

Jesus by Deepak Chopra

Very nice.  He takes a difficult perhaps intimidating personage to write about but he's already done Buddha so I guess he's OK with it.

Blue Moon Promise by Colleen Coble

I just looked back to the last one I read by Colleen and realized that this one has the same problem.  I think it is the covers -- I love them.  They are somehow sooo attractive to me I scoop them up.  She starts strong but kind of fizzles but I did manage to read the whole thing this time.

Free Motion Quilting with Angela Walters

I think she says with instead of by because of the great way she has of making you think you could actually do this with her help...I love it.

Look what I Found

So I was reading 'Fresh Air' on my Kindle and came across the words, 'skipjack corum' in a sentence with little context I googled the words and lo and behold the first hit was the book -- wait for it-- called 'Fresh Air'...upon scanning the other hits I realized that it probably was referring to eats as in a type of tuna and that corum seeds are a type of spice similar to cumin....interesting....but of course I had to look at the pdf of the book I am actually reading and one thing led to another and I landed here...

Who wouldn't want to read this? Here's a hint, chocolate...

So I did and it was cool in a nostalgic sort of reminds me of the library in our one room school (a bookcase actually)  It smelled like this books looks - old...

By the by this is a pic of the Weeks Plantation house we visited in Louisiana to put you in the mood...

Fresh Air by Sinclair Lewis

Fresh Air is a travel book written in the 20's in the common vernacular.  It is really cute and a bit of a love story I guess.

T and I were watching Boardwalk Empire on HBO and he noticed Jimmy reading this book while travelling by train to Chicago... of course I had to look for it at the library. They didn't have it but it was a free download for my kindle.  Sweet.

Follow the adventures of Claire driving her father and herself in an imported Gomez-Deperdussin with an American made body.  Yeah almost another language. 

When I mentioned it to my Mom she recognized the author. 

J.D. Robb, Time of Death

More candy, this one has 3 books in one...

Yeah...

a lot like chocolate

The Lightkeeper's Bride by Colleen Coble

I liked that has a cool job like a telephone operator.  But as with Colleen's other book that I read recently, called Lonestar Sanctuary, I found myself loosing interest.  Maybe the stories are just not long enough for a full length novel.  I don't know I just started to loose it around 2/3 through.

Facebook Marketing/

I am very fascinated by what is happening in the marketing end of the world.  I'd like to understand how the internet will convince me to look at their ads.  Ok, not counting those really cute dog ads at Subaru...

Then I thought that the facebook one was too specific for me and this one might be more readable...

Quilt Fiesta by Cheryl Lynch

Surprising Designs from Mexican Tiles indeed.  I was very impressed at how much these fairly simple blocks looked like the Mexican tile walls and floors we saw in Mexico.  Very interesting.  I think she did an extremely good job of the fabric selections that carried out the designs.

Open Road's Best of Paris

Yes, I am planning a trip

A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriquez

I am just getting into this.  I can barely put it down to write this.  Deborah does an amazing job of setting the scene of a part of the world I have never been to.  But I have been to Turkey, I wonder if her cafe is on a street like this...

Wow, now I have read the whole thing.  It was just too good to put down.  I suspect that it is a pretty good insight into life in Afghanistan.  It fit with my current idea that sometimes people need to figure things out for themselves.  

Orphan Blocks / Quilt a Gift

These two books were ones I picked from the library website but both fell a little short.

The orphan blocks one didn't help much with the single orphan my sister sent me from Texas.  And the baby Quilt a Gift for little ones was too fussy....

I love Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale

What great reading or maybe just looking...

Three Quilting Books

Circle Play is an old friend.  I just get it from the library again and again.  So simple but well thought out idea.  I will get to trying this I am sure....someday....

More Loose Change was not so great.  Okay, in that all quilting books are, but... the content was a bit done over....

Quilting Among Friends was very good.  Lots of inspiration.  Somehow it appeals to my sense of 'I could do that but what if I just changed this...'

Hattitude by Cathy Carron

Really interesting.  There are lots of variety in shape which I especially appreciated but it turns out my head is very close to 23" in circumference and its not too clear how to make that work.  Of course my problem is that most hats are too small.

I think I could work with this.

The Society of Steam Book one

An automaton named Tom, hmmm.  Okay, I have tooo many books right now so this one is going back...but the first couple of chapters were good.  Maybe I will get it again...

New Nine Patch Magic

Wait till you see what I am making...

Spud & Chloe and Mug Hugs

Both about knitting.  Super cute knitted doll & pet sheep with a cartoony story besides. Spud & Chloe is the brand of Alpaca yarn...

Mug Hugs are super cute too.  I actually thought I might make one for my morning cup of joe.  Most of my mugs are tapered tho and these patterns are mostly for straight up ones.  Does this mean I have to BUY a NEW coffee mug???

Most of the mug patterns could be easily adapted for a scarf - you know longer and maybe not sooo narrow, but...

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

This was on my list at the library for a while and I finally got it.  Did you know that you can make Baking Powder??  Well the single action stuff anyhow.  Then you double the amount called for in the recipe and put it straight into the oven.

This might be the book I need for reference at the cabin.

The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel

The Magic of Ordinary days is a lovely story of the prairie farmer and the healing that can be found in peace and continuity.  A young lady, Livvy, is taken in by a fast-talking casanova and is sent to Ray as a wife.  I watched the movie first.  It was great too.

Andrea Wulf

I read her other gardner book called, Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation.  It was fascinating look at how the US developed from the 13 statesand through confederation and the laying out of Washington, DC..  Andrea has a wonderful way with storytelling in the realm of truth.  Her research was extensive and it sucked me in from first page to last.

Her description of Monticello (Jefferson's home) and Washington, Adams, and 

Now for this one actually written before Founding Gardeners.

...well still good but not as riveting as the Founding Gardeners.  Maybe it's the subject of the other one I liked so much.  The Brothers is also interesting but...

DVD Brides Maids

Funny but very sharp.  I thought the girls were very over the top.  Not a keeper although I liked the chubby one who is Molly in Mike and Molly.

Two Romances

This is an old reprint of a 1997 title for ms. Palmer.  I don't really like when they do those reprints.  I'm pretty sure I'd read it before but it was still OK.

Carolyn Brown of course is super cute.  LOTS of swearing tho/  It got a bit overwhelming at the end...