Progress report, and a confession

I have a confession to make.  I have a feeling that a lot of you are going to judge me on it.

::whisper:: I don't really think I like Outlander.

I know, I KNOW.  I thought I would love it.  Everyone and their mother has been raving about the Outlander series.  And coming off the high that was the Hunger Games trilogy, I jumped right into another series...and I haven't finished a book since.  It's been nearly a week and a half without a book review.  I'm seriously slacking.

To be fair, a lot has been going on in the past week.  We've had several snowstorms, I've been busting my hump at work to try and keep up and cram five days' worth of work into four or three (on a bad week), David and I have been trying to spend more "quality time" together...oh, who am I kidding?  Might as well be honest.

Outlander, I am Just Not That Into You.

*sigh*

What makes it worse is that I feel like I have to finish it.  But I wonder if it might be better for all parties involved (me and Outlander, that is) to just take a short break while I...see some other books I've been meaning to get into.  I have a Kindle stocked with other books, and a bookshelf full of paperbacks just waiting for me to crack into them.  And life is really too short to force yourself into reading.  I don't know about you, but when I'm not into a book, nothing can make me finish it.  I just have to wait until I'm ready for it.

That being said, I've finally caved and gone back to my girl-crush, British historian Alison Weir.  I have read Alison's Tudor biographies to death (I've completely mutilated one copy of The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and I'm on my second copy now), but I haven't delved too deeply into her medieval Europe (with the exception of her biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine).  My latest foray?

Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster.  Katherine Swynford was the daughter of a noble, who married a lowly knight and became the governess to the children of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and the son of King Edward III of England.  When John's beloved wife, Blanche of Lancaster, died at a tragically early age, John remarried...but began an open affair with his children's governess, Katherine!  Later, when his second wife passed away, John married his most scandalous mistress, and with Katherine, fathered the children who would become the ancestors of that most famous of English royal families, the Tudors!

It was difficult getting into at first -- unlike her Tudor histories, Weir has very few primary sources from which to glean her story from, and focuses not on Katherine, but on the political arena in which she grew up.  At times I feel more like I'm reading a biography of John of Gaunt, or Queen Phillippa of Hainault (John of Gaunt's mother) than of Katherine Swynford!  Still, it's been a great way for me to learn more about medieval English history and piece together the lineage of the Tudors (of whom I am quite obsessed, if you hadn't noticed).  My interest was definitely piqued after reading The Traitor's Wife earlier this year -- Edward III plays a crucial part in this book -- and after weeks of picking up Katherine's biography and putting it down, I believe I'm far enough into it to safely say I am no longer just casually reading this.  I think it's time to put Outlander in time out for now, and just read according to my hearts' desire!

On the knitting front: I have another finished object (FO) to show you, but my camera is dead and I can't find the charger!  Considering we're having an ice storm starting tonight, I'm probably have plenty of time to look for it over the next 48 hours or so...

Film Friday: Angels and Demons

Warning: This post will contain spoilers from both the film and the novel by Dan Brown.  

This week, there's been a lot of buzz about Lionsgate finally publicizing the release date for the upcoming "Hunger Games" film.  I've read different reactions, predictably: some people are really excited for the films, some are apprehensive, and some are downright irritated that once again, Hollywood is predicted to completely destroy the real story and alter it to better suit the big screen.  The last tends to be a relatively normal reaction for lovers of literature, those people who will go see films based off of their beloved books, and then turn around and disgustedly rehash the removed or altered details, swearing that the Hollywood machine has "ruined" the story.

There are some occasions where film and literature can exist harmoniously.  And there are some film versions of books that are just...travesties.

Last night was David's regularly-scheduled Thursday EMT class.  I was alone in the apartment, knitting and bored, so I decided to Netflix a film that I had had an interest in seeing, but David did not: Angels & Demons.  Please note right here that I am not, nor do I claim to be, a film editor, and that everything I write hereon in is my personal opinion, completely biased from having read the book first.

I have to give Ron Howard credit.  I didn't think he could screw up much more than he did when he made The Da Vinci Code into a film.  I was wrong.  The film version of Angels&Demons is barely even a shadow of the novel.  Similar characters (although they have completely different names and personalities), same location...entirely different story.

Second disclaimer: I don't think that Angels&Demons is a top-quality novel.  I think it's a fun novel, especially if you get the illustrated version so you don't have to sit in front of the internet looking up every piece of art that Brown describes.  I enjoyed it more than Da Vinci Code, because I thought the story line (especially the climax -- more about that later) was amazing.  I wasn't expecting Howard to keep to the letter of Dan Brown's work.  I was expecting some changes.  I was mildly surprised that Howard removed such vital characters as CERN's director, crippled atheist Maximilian Kohler, and the scientist whose death sparks the whole charade is merely Vittoria Vetra's partner, not her father, the scientist/priest Leonardo Vetra.  I was disturbed when the Hassassin was downgraded to a nameless and motive-less Guy Pearce-doppleganger.  I was stunned when the final kidnapped preferiti, Cardinal Baggia, was saved, instead of fatally drowning.  I could overlook all of that though.

What I can't, and won't overlook, is Ron Howard ripping out the crux of the story, in the character of the Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca (renamed Patrick McKenna in the film so he could be played by a dreamy Ewan McGregor, because who doesn't like a flick involving a handsome priest?)

At the heart of the story (in both film and book) is the war between science and faith.  The pope, a progressive who is pro-science, is dead, later discovered to be murdered.  The preferiti are kidnapped and assassinated, one by one -- "sacrifices on the altar of science," as the Hassassin states.  In the book he is in league with the mysterious man who hired him, a man code-named Janus, who claims to be a member of the Illuminati, bent on destroying the Catholic Church.  At the end of both book and film, the hero, Robert Langdon, discovers that it is the Camerlengo who rigged it all, who is Janus, and who hired the Hassassin, not to destroy the Church, but to revitalize it, and pin the aggression on men of science -- his spree of death beginning with the discovery that the pope, his mentor, fathered a child, destroying his faith in the elderly leaders of the church.

The climax of the book comes when the Pope's confidante, an elderly cardinal, reveals before the Camerlengo, Langdon, and the College of Cardinals that the pope did father a son...through in-vitro fertilization, not through natural conception, because he wanted to remain faithful to his vow of chastity.  The son who was the product of that conception was none other than the Camerlengo himself.  Such possibility for filmmaking drama!

With such changes made, and the crux of the story irreparably altered, the viewer (especially the viewer who is familiar with the book) is left wondering why?  Why, Ron Howard?  Why would you change that?  Why would you turn the tortured character of the Camerlengo into nothing more than a crazed fundamentalist bent on becoming Pope?  Why would you carve the entire climax out of this film? 

Needless to say, I'm glad I never went and saw this when it was in theatres, and that I waited to watch it on Instant Queue on Netflix.  I won't be watching it again.  Shame on you, Ron Howard, for turning what was at least an interesting and enjoyable read into merely a shadow of its former self.

When is Hollywood going to stop tearing our literature apart?

Currently Thursday (Jan. 27, 2011)

Sorry for my lack of update.  Too much snow + too many long books I'm trying to attempt at once + 1 broken camera does not = great blog fodder.  So since it's Thursday, and the snow is currently up to my knees outside (and that's in the non-drifting areas), I'll post some currents.

Currently Feeling...pretty damn tired!  I woke up this morning to the huge amount of snow we had outside, and would have liked nothing better than to crawl back under the nice warm blankets into bed (which today was occupied by my husband, since he's off work, the lucky dog).  Instead, I showered, dressed, and went outside...to face the insane mounds of snow, mostly covering my car.  It took me, David (after I unfortunately had to wake him up to help), and our nice downstairs neighbor to dig out the car and get me on my way.  Got all the way into work...and realized that I was completely SOL.  We weren't plowed out.  But I had to get to work...so I drove home, got David to drive me in, and waded through the snow to my office.  And here I am.

Currently Reading...Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  I decided to read a snippet of it on Kindle, and see if I liked it.  I liked it enough to pay for the full download (this is only the second Kindle book I've paid for, usually I go for the free ones).  Unfortunately, with work, snow, and everything else being what it is, I haven't had too much time for reading, and I'm only at 11% (according to the Kindle).  It's a historical fiction novel about a former World War II nurse, Englishwoman Claire Randall, who on a second honeymoon to Scotland with her husband when she is mysteriously thrown back in time two hundred years and finds herself an "outlander" in the midst of a Scottish/English war.  I really think I will get into it....when I get a chance to read it.

Currently Knitting...the Bella Baby Bonnet (Ravelry link) from The Knitter's Book of Wool by Clara Parkes.  I like this book; it was a gift from my brother-in-law last Christmas.  It's a good background of the wool industry and an introduction into working with fibers other than merino.  After finishing Saroyan (still unblocked, pictures forthcoming), I still had a rather large amount of Socks That Rock Heavyweight left over, in the "Rose Quartz" colorway.  Definitely enough to make a cute little pink bonnet for whenever a baby girl decides to make an appearance in this family.  It's largely quick, easy work; I started the bonnet two days ago while David was at his EMT class, and I'm at the short rows now.  If David has class tonight (which is anyone's guess), I'll probably be able to make some more headway on it.  I need to pick up some pins so I can block Saroyan...hopefully I'll get to that this weekend and my first lace project(!) will be ready for its big unveiling!

Currently Thinking...that it is so quiet here (except for the sound of plows going outside), and I really, really want to go back home and change out of my wet clothes, snuggle down with some knitting and Outlander...and really relax.  At least the weekend is coming soon.

I'm so glad they made me read...

I haven't "had" to read a fiction book in forever.  I was going to say, since undergrad, but there was one semester of graduate school where I took a course in Romantic literature, and let me tell you...I loathe Romantic literature.  The archetype of the idle rich, Byronic hero?  Please, just stick a knife in my temple and let me end it all now.

Anyway, it's been forever since I was made to read a fiction book, from cover to cover, that I didn't want to read in the first place.  Which in a way is a relief, as it means I won't have to read anything like Lord of the Flies again.  But it also puts the burden of expanding my horizons upon me.  Which really meant that, until this year, when I joined the Nest Book Club, I wasn't going to be reading anything new, without really being prodded.

It really makes me appreciate those high school teachers who assigned books I had no interest in reading...and made me read them.  And makes me appreciate those books that I didn't want to read, and ended up loving.

The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan.  This piecework of short stories about a quartet of Chinese immigrant ladies living in San Francisco and their struggles to raise their daughters with a proper mix of American lifestyle and Chinese heritage is really a gem.  I had to read one of the short stories in it -- "Two Kinds", about the teenager Jing-Mei and her mother's futile attempts to turn her into a child prodigy -- and promptly took the whole book out of the library.  I've read it several times in the last twelve years of my life.

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles.  This book is difficult to get into -- the first chapter is all descriptive paragraphs, with no dialogue at all -- but once you get past that, this book is an absolute tear-jerker.  It's a tale of two boys attending an expensive preparatory school in the eastern United States, at the dawn of World War II, and a jealous rivalry that sets in motion a tragedy that will change their lives forever.  You can read it dozens of times, and still find something, some symbolism or hidden gem, that you'll swear you never noticed before.  I remember recommending this book to my younger sister, after I finished it for school, and she ate it up and loved it even more than I did, if that's possible.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry.  When I read the opening passage of The Hunger Games, I thought immediately of The Giver, the tale of a futuristic world where there are no colors, no memories, and nothing belongs to anyone else.  Where a small 12-year-old boy named Jonas is handpicked to train under the Giver, a citizen of supreme importance who opens Jonas' eyes to what is right, what is wrong, and what he is truly missing.  I've been a fan of Lois Lowry since childhood (if you like The Giver, please do yourself a favor and go out and find Number the Stars, which would be on this list if I hadn't picked it up for pleasure reading rather than a school assignment), and a hundred years from now, this will be the book she is remembered for.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.  (You knew this was coming, didn't you?)  Though I know such people exist, in my twenty-seven years I have not yet found one person who read To Kill a Mockingbird and thought it was garbage.  Harper Lee's "simple love story" as she referred to it, of the Depression-era South as seen through the eyes of an innocent tomboy, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, is moving and completely unforgettable.  Scout's father, widower and lawyer Atticus Finch, has voluntarily taken up the defense of a black man charged with raping a white woman, and this unheard-of breach in social order sets fire to the little impoverished town of Maycomb, Alabama.  This book was not entirely forced upon me -- it was indeed summer reading but I was happy to read it and plowed through it in two days.  This is one of my all-time favorite books, and Atticus Finch is my all-time favorite book hero.

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger.  The end-all, be-all, of adolescent literature.  There are some people who hate this book (to my surprise, but you know, there are people who love Twilight, much to my shock, and I certainly won't judge someone on their literary preferences).  There are some people who are obsessed with this book (just check out the reviews on Goodreads, you'll see a few Mark David Chapmans in there, which is just scary as all hell).  I'd like to think I fall in neither category, but in the much larger "middle" section -- the group of people who think this is just a damn good book and are really grateful that their schools ignored the Banned Books List and put this on their syllabus.  Love him or hate him, Holden Caulfield invented jaded adolescence, and he's never had an equal.

What are some of your favorite books that you were "forced" to read?

Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (also, wrap-up of The Hunger Games series)

So, here we are.  At the end of a trilogy.  The last book.  The end.

Unfortunately, when it comes to good books and characters we come to love, we all want happy endings.  The problem is, they're not practical.  Especially when they come at the conclusion of a particularly dark tale, such as The Hunger Games.

By Mockingjay, Katniss Everdeen has already been to hell and back.  Now she is forced to bear the weight of an entire nation on her shoulders.  Portrayed in the mass media as "the Mockingjay" -- taking the moniker of the only animal to live outside control of the totalitarian government of their society -- Katniss finds herself walking a fine line between hero and scapegoat of the people who support her.  The realization that she is now responsible for hundreds of thousands of souls, all pushing her to lead them -- as well as for the deaths of many innocents -- is a weight almost too heavy for Katniss to bear.  Yet she must fight on, now more than ever, since the one person who believed in her the most is now at the mercy of the cruel tyrants whom she opposes.

Mockingjay is easily the darkest and most heartbreaking of the trilogy.  The author of one of the blogs I follow finished this a few days before I did, and mentioned that she was in tears for most of it.  I didn't believe that I would be.  Ha.  Pride goeth before a fall.  This volume, especially the final few chapters, is moving and heartbreaking.  And without spoiling anything, I warn you here, as author William Goldman did in The Princess Bride -- "some of the wrong people die."  Yet, I'd be remiss if I said that the entire book is dark, with no redemption or light.  There is both, but it comes with a price.

I am so thankful that I finally listened to my cousins Mel and Jen, my aunt Cathi, and oh, everyone else in the literary world, and picked up this series.  I loved it, from start to finish, and I was completely glued to it.  I read three books in three days.  It was excellent.  I highly recommend all three.  Please do go out and try them.

I laugh though, now, because I, like people on my friends list on FB and Goodreads, are left wondering "What to read next?"  Finishing up a series of books is always difficult, even when some things are tied up.  You've come to identify with the characters.  You're left feeling that something's amiss.  Where do you go from here?

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but today I pulled out that most famous trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.  I made it through one of the books like, four years ago, but now I'm determined to finish them all.  I started The Fellowship of the Ring today.  We'll see where this takes me.

But I really will miss The Hunger Games.  Until I read it again, that is.  :)

Rating: **** (for Mockingjay), **** 1/2 for the trilogy as a whole)

That woman who makes the crazy baby hats

Warning: If you are a member of my husband's family who is expecting a baby this year, and has somehow stumbled upon this, you'd better clear out now.  Last warning!



For those of you still here -- I have a question for you all.

As I mentioned in this entry, three very special ladies in my husband's family (and now, of course, my family) are expecting babies this upcoming spring and summer.  Two of these babies are going to be boys; the sex of the third baby will remain unknown until s/he makes his her or her appearance.  Since they are going to be special babies indeed, and since one of the mother's has hinted that she'd like a handknit baby article, I've been searching online for cute and memorable baby patterns -- namely, hats.

One baby is already getting the pumpkin hat I finished earlier this month.  That set the bar.  I could always make rudimentary baby hats, you know, the traditional cast-on, knit-until-it-covers-Baby's-ears, decrease-and-bind-off sort of hats.  I've done it before, they've been well-received.  But I want to do something a little different.

Please, tell me if these ideas I've found are crazy.  I won't be hurt.  Please tell me know, before their mothers do (or don't, and try valiantly to look happy while inwardly wondering what they did to deserve a psychotic cousin-in-law who knits weird baby garments).

Option 1: Dinosaur Hat
This could easily be a girl's hat as well as a boy's, but the colors and the dino theme scream "boy" to me.  So this would probably go to a baby of definite boy characteristics.  I think it's cute and different without being too over-the-top.  Most children go through a dinosaur phase at one point or another in their lives (I did, for awhile, and so did my sister -- there was a time when she would drag our old Childcraft book on dinosaurs out, toss it into my lap, and demand that I read her the goriest stories in it every.  single.  day).  If I were to make it, though, I'd make it with a boy in mind -- and probably stick to the green and orange color scheme, although I might pick a rustier shade of orange, closer to red (but not so red that people would be reminded of Christmas).  What say you?  Too weird?

Hell, if you think that's weird, you'll think I'm completely off my rocker when I present you with my second (and favorite) baby hat idea.

Option 2: The Baby Sushi Roll Hat

I know.  I KNOW.  But how freakin' adorable is this?  It's a little roll of sushi!  This I think would be an excellent choice for the baby of unknown sex, since I plan on knitting and sending the hat far in advance of the birth.  Everyone likes sushi, right?  Well, except me and the husband -- neither of us are huge fans of the taste of seaweed (in my defense, I have to say that I have never taken a mouthful of sushi and spat it out onto my own plate immediately afterward -- classy, dear).

Is it weird to knit a child headgear in the shape of a raw fish delicacy originating in Japan?  Or is it, as I believe it to be, cute?  And if it is cute, and I'm not completely off my rocker here, is it unisex?  Can a girl wear this hat as well as a boy?  Are the colors okay for both?

...Am I a lunatic who is going to spend the rest of her life in this family branded as "that crazy knitting lady who knits weird hats for babies and shouldn't be allowed near infants anymore?"

Help me out here!  Click on the poll below and let me know your opinion!

What should a crazy knitting lady do?

Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Book 2 of The Hunger Games Trilogy)

The second part of a trilogy is bound to be difficult, for writer, for poet, for filmmaker, and for the audience.  A delicate balance must be achieved.  The creator of the trilogy has to give the audience enough to satisfy their curiosity, but leave enough questions unsolved that the audience has no choice but to continue.

Like many other "second of three" stories that come to mind (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers, or the film The Empire Strikes Back from the Star Wars Trilogy, Catching Fire is dark.  It has to be.  In the final pages of The Hunger Games (its predecessor), the heroine, Katniss Everdeen, through desperate means, has done something so unexpected and revolutionary, that she has accidentally thrown the inhabitants of her world into a deadly combat, from which there is no escape.  And for her actions, the powers that be decide, she must be punished.

I was not expecting a happy ending.  You really can't, from a second-of-three.  Catching Fire, like The Hunger Games, leaves you on the edge of your seat, constantly wondering what's going to happen next to Katniss and the others.  It is a fast-paced story of survival in the face of the impossible.  And yes, it does leave you hanging.  Shortly before dinner last night, I found myself on Instant Messenger, begging my cousin Jennifer to send me the third and final book in the series, Mockingjay.  I started it last night -- and since I am home today, with a relapse of my spinal pain -- expect a review tomorrow.

Catching Fire is good, but I liked it a little less than The Hunger Games -- if only because it does leave so many questions unanswered.  But of course, this is to be expected.

Rating: **** and 1/2

Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I don't read a lot of YA literature anymore.  I've already talked about the hate/hate relationship I have with the Twilight saga, and it frustrates me that any time I walk through the YA section of a bookstore, every single book features vampires or other supernatural beings.  Maybe the tweens are lapping this up, but I'm certainly not.  Which is why, when The Hunger Games first appeared on my radar, I figured I wouldn't read it.  Some gentle coercion from my cousins and aunt, as well as almost everyone on The Nest Book Club singing its praises, I took the plunge.

This book is great.  Like most books in a series, it has a cliffhanger ending that leaves you -- or at least me -- unsatisfied.  I had to start the sequel (Catching Fire) last night because I really want to know what happens next.

What (in my opinion) makes Hunger Games so amazing?  It caters to people of all ages and both sexes.  Kind of like Harry Potter.  I discovered yesterday that the 8th grade class in the school across the street is reading this as part of their curriculum.  I also have friends and relatives of all ages raving about it.

Someone on Youtube asked "Is Hunger Games the next Twilight?"  I will try to keep my bias and my loathing for Twilight out of my opinion of this comparison.

It is true that both series have exploded onto the YA literary scene.  Both are written for juveniles but captivate readers of all ages.  Both are written from the first-person perspective of the female protagonist.  But there is a fundamental difference between Hunger Games and Twilight, and that is, strikingly, the female protagonist.  Twilight's Bella Swan is a mincing damsel-in-distress who is ready to sacrifice her whole future for love, despite the fact that she is only 17.  She deliberately puts herself in harm's way, just so that her hero can rescue her, over and over again.  The heroine of Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen, is as far from the female archetype of damsel-in-distress as possible.  Katniss is only a year younger than Miss Bella Swan, but she is head and shoulders above her in emotional maturity.  Her one major goal in life is to protect her loved ones.  Katniss has no time for romance.  Admittedly, she deliberately puts herself in mortal danger...but it is only to protect the person she loves more than anyone in the world -- her little sister, Prim.  In Hunger Games the protagonists are role models of unselfishness and self-reliance.  Not so much Twilight.

IMHO, Hunger Games rates head and shoulders above Twilight and most YA literature of the twenty-first century.  I can't give a complete summary until I've finished the last two books in the trilogy, but considering that I'm 22% done with Catching Fire...I have a feeling that won't be too long in coming.

Rating: *****

Currents (January 20, 2011)

I figure once in a while, every so often, I'll do a "Currently..." entry, about reading, knitting, life in general, etc.  Since I'm between books right now (more on that in a minute), and sort of in a funk lately (more on that too), I figured today was as good a day as any to start.

Currently Feeling...down.  I'm not quite sure way.  Part of it might be due to the fact that we're getting (more) snow tomorrow.  Most of New England has been buried in snow for the past week, and on Tuesday we got a clean sheet of ice covering everything.  There are icicles the size of my husband hanging outside our windows (I'm really not exaggerating)!  And tomorrow...the forecast isn't fantastic either: we're currently expecting 4 - 9 inches.  Fun fun fun.

Ugh.  Sounds like a blast.  Also for some reason, I've been feeling sort of down about the whole "almost-30, no direct life path yet" thing.  Everyone keeps telling me I'll shake out of it.  But I can't stop feeling like my quarter-life crisis arrived two and a half years late.

Currently Reading:  Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I feel like I am the LAST person on earth who has read the Hunger Games series.  I know I'm not (mainly because most of my friends haven't started reading them...yet), but still.  Everyone and their mother has recommended these books to me.  My cousin Jennifer sent me the first book, and it's sequel, Catching Fire, last night, on my Kindle (I think I'm also the last person to figure out that when you send someone a book on Kindle, you get to keep it -- I stupidly thought they were a loan, and can't tell you how excited I am that I get to keep them!).  I cracked open Hunger Games right before dinner.

Oh.  My.  God.  I can't put it down.  I really, really, really can't put it down.  I read last night until I passed out.  I read this morning before work.  According to the little ticker at the bottom of my Kindle screen, I am 48% finished with the book, and I can't wait until I start reading it again.  I'm not usually a fan of YA literature (the kids in the 8th grade at the school across the street are reading this right now as part of their curriculum), and after Twilight *shudder*, I am wary of any series of books that everyone goes crazy about.  But nearly halfway into Hunger Games, I am certain that I'm reading a winner.

More gushing (I'm sure) to follow when I've finished reading it.

Currently Knitting: Still working away on Saroyan -- I'm half a lace leaf away from finishing the mid-section and starting on the decreases.  I'm so excited about this project -- it's definitely giving me more confidence in my lace-knitting abilities.  

My goal project, my "magnum opus" if you will, is the Rose of England shawl (Ravelry link).  The page calls it a table cloth, but I can't even imagine ever putting food on that gorgeousness.  Look at it!  It is a Thing of Beauty.  Considering my love of history -- especially English history -- that project and I seem somewhat fated to be together.  I traveled to York, England, with my best friend Leni when I was 22 years old -- five years ago, although it seems much longer now -- and I have a pendant of that exact rose, in white with green leaves, from the beautiful city, one of the prettiest in England.  I haven't gotten up the gumption to tackle this yet.  Maybe a few more smaller lace pieces and I'll be ready for it.

Currently Thinking...that I'm hungry, and that I really want to bust open my Kindle and finish Hunger Games.  I'm also trying to figure out what to make for dinner for me and the husband before he goes off to his evening EMT course.  Steaks?  More chicken?  Not sure.  I'll figure something out.

What are you doing today?

Review: Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir by Cara Muhlhahn

Little-known fact about yours truly: I pretty much grew up on the maternity ward of a hospital.  My mother has been a secretary at a hospital in CT that is known for its maternity ward for twenty-years -- she's been working there since I was seven.  My aunt works there as well, as did my late grandmother.  So it's safe to say that I've been exposed to the business of birthing babies since I was seven years old, or thereabout.  Surprisingly enough, it is a field where, thus far, I harbor no biases.  I don't argue with homebirth vs. hospital birth, or midwives vs. doctors, or breastfeeding vs. formula.  I'm not a mother yet, and though I've grown up hearing the strong opinions of the strongly-opinionated women that I'm related to, I have more or less made the decision to draw my own conclusions.

This is what lead me to Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir by Cara Muhlhahn.  Since David and I are not parents yet (but plan to be in the not-so-distant future), I thought that this free Kindle book might be a different take on the business of birthing, a 180-degree turnaround from what I grew up with.

...About halfway through the book, I was so turned off that it took all my willpower to finish reading it.  Why did I finish reading it?  Two reasons: the first, because if I gave up halfway it wouldn't count towards my 100 books for the year, and I refuse to be a quitter.  The second: because I wanted to be able to write the review you see here with the confidence of knowing I read the whole book.

Yes, it is a memoir.  It is intended to be about the author.  But Labor of Love is less a story about a midwife's trials and triumphs than it is a 256-page ode to the author herself.  I have never read anything so blatantly self-centered and self-congratulatory.  The first three chapters were dedicated to her formative years -- growing up with her parents, moving around the country -- always sprinkled with snippets about how different and special and fantastic she is.  I kept hoping that we'd eventually move into some birth stories, and away from the author's self-gratification.  But it only got worse.  Muhlhahn went on to talk about her training in the medical field and her years of striking out on her own as a midwife, continuously patting herself on the back as she went.  Midway through the  book, I was picturing Muhlhahn as Julia Roberts as depicted in Family Guy.

But (astoundingly) her arrogance wasn't what I considered the worst part about her book.  The worst part?  The blatant lies she tells about the statistics of birth.  Muhlhahn claims that when a woman conceives a child past the age of 40, the chance of the baby having Down syndrome is one in 1.

...Yeah, you read that right.  If  Muhlhahn's statistics were true, 100% of babies born to women over the age of 40 would have Down syndrome.  I guess my cousin Nicholas, born to my aunt Cathi when she was, you guessed it, 40, is a genetic miracle then.

She has a personal agenda towards anyone who doesn't think like she does: the hospital approach to birthing as a whole, women who used epidurals and pain medications, doctors who perform episiotomies and cesarean sections, family members who don't want her going through their refrigerators looking for something to eat, and the state of New York for not understanding why she is so damn important (she's saving lives, people!) that she needs special plates for her car so she can park anywhere she damn well pleases.

Can you tell I didn't like this book?  I don't, and judging by the reviews on Amazon.com and GoodReads, there are a fair number of people who agree with me.  Many of them recommended the book Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent as a palate-cleanser after Labor of Love, and I might just take them up on that suggestion.  I'm fairly certain that Muhlhahn's arrogant attitude doesn't speak for the entire field of modern midwifery.


Rating: *

Review: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Readers are familiar with the pattern.  You go to a bookstore or a library, looking for something new to read.  Your eyes are caught by the cover of a book that is familiar to you, though its contents are not.  You've considered picking this book up before, but always passed it over, for one reason or another.  Not this time.  You take it home, and you read it.  Sometimes, this book is terrible, and you feel let down, your expectations completely unmet.  Other times, it's passable, sort of mediocre.  Or it's just okay.

And sometimes you read it, and it's absolutely phenomenal.

I first noticed The Pillars of the Earth when I was a kid.  I don't even remember how old I was.  It was a huge book, daunting even in its paperback binding, and completely unremarkable -- except for the simple fact that both of my parents had read it.  My parents had literary tastes absolutely opposite each other -- my mother had a bookcase full of trade paperbacks with heaving bodices and long-haired ruffians on the dust jackets; my father collected the works of Graham Greene and James Clavell, and attempted to read only what he considered 'brain food'.  That they could find a book that catered to both of their tastes was surprising and unexpected -- which is why the novel stuck in my head, although at the time I had little interest in it.  It slipped out of my mind for close to twenty years, until the miniseries was released.  Of course my parents watched it, my father raved over it, and it was around that time that he gave me his old, dog-eared copy, the one I had seen so many years ago, and suggested I give it a try.

The book is huge -- 983 pages.  It did not matter.  I did not care.  Twenty or so pages in, I was hooked.  And today -- stuck at home in the middle of an ice storm -- I finished it, five days after starting it.

This book is fantastic.

I don't even know if I can write an adequate review.  To summarize this novel into a couple of words is almost impossible -- there is too much, there are too many characters.  The synopsis from Goodreads is surprisingly brief:

In 12th-century England, the building of a mighty Gothic cathedral signals the dawn of a new age. This majestic creation will bond clergy and kings, knights and peasants together in a story of toil, faith, ambition and rivalry. A sweeping tale of the turbulent middle ages, The Pillars of the Earth is a masterpiece from one of the world's most popular authors. 

This is the second Ken Follett book I've ever read (I tackled Eye of the Needle when I was twenty-one, in an attempt to stave off the sad feelings I had after graduating college and leaving Rhode Island), but it is head and shoulders above anything I've previously enjoyed reading.  Would I read it again?  Absolutely.  And I'd recommend it to anyone, as well.  It's long, but its longevity hardly matters.  This book is a winner, and a tale that will live on forever.


Rating: ***** (and if I could, I'd give it more)

The top hundred books

According to the BBC, this is a list of the top 100 books that everyone should read.

The ones I have read already are bolded.

The ones I have started reading, but have not completed, are italicized.

The ones in regular print, I have not read yet.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling (all)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Travellers Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma- Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - William Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martell
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson
74 Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie & the Chocolate factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


Total completed: 22
Total partially read:11
Total unread: 67

Eek.  That's rather embarrassing.

I'd like to say I'll make it through this list.  But I'm fairly certain it's not true.  I didn't like Lolita or Captain Corelli's Mandolin enough to make it through the first time; I don't think that a few years has changed that fact.  And I've gotten to the point where I've accepted that life is too short to spend reading books you really don't like.

Still, there are quite a few on that list (Rebecca and The Kite Runner, and everything on there by Jane Austen, come to mind) that I really do want to read.  Plus I have about twenty books on my Kindle that I've yet to crack.  So I'm going to be very busy, even without reading the BBC's top list!

I won something!

Well, look at that.  Three weeks into the year (and into my reading challenge) and I won my first book giveaway from Pixel of Ink.  For those of you who aren't familiar with POI (I wasn't until a friend tipped me off a week ago), it's a great website for people who use the Kindle e-reader.  If you friend POI on Facebook, you'll get live updates on your feed about what e-books Amazon.com has on their limited time offer or temporary free release list.  Also, they sponsor authors who run free giveaways of their books to subscribers.

I decided the other day, what the hell, might as well take a chance.  And I was one of the five winners!

The book in question is Sin and Vengeance, by C.J. West.  I don't know much about this book, because, like I said, I saw a contest and decided what the hell.  If I read it and end up hating it, well...it was free!  But there's always the chance that I read it and end up loving it!

The description of this book on Goodreads is as follows:

When his knee shatters on the playing field, Charlie Marston is plunged into turmoil. His perspective suddenly shifts from sports superstar to regular (albeit wealthy) winemaker. He enters the world of work by way of the family winemaking business. The closeness of day to day operations with his parents illuminates qualities in them that he had consciously denied until now...moreWhen his knee shatters on the playing field, Charlie Marston is plunged into turmoil. His perspective suddenly shifts from sports superstar to regular (albeit wealthy) winemaker. He enters the world of work by way of the family winemaking business. The closeness of day to day operations with his parents illuminates qualities in them that he had consciously denied until now. Soon his youthful passion seeks a new outlet to replace the football career he's lost and he finds a new friend named Randy Black. Randy is part stunt-pilot, part Casanova, and part drunken Pied Piper. Randy leads him into terrifying predicaments that become more exciting and more dangerous with each passing day. Charlie doesn't resist until an ill-conceived stunt, compounded by drunken judgment, explodes in consequences that chase Charlie and Randy back home to Massachusetts. Charlie must eventually decide where his moral boundaries should be drawn as he contends with the after-effects of a half dozen mistakes that threaten to engulf him and his family.

 

I have quite the number of books on my must-read list right now, so it will be a while before I am able to get around to this.  But it's nice to know that it's on my list, waiting for me to get to it.  Right now I'm in the middle of two books: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet (love it thus far!) and Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir by Cara Mulhan (good, but like other reviewers on Goodreads, I was hoping for more about the philosophy and action of homebirthing and midwifery than of the childhood of the author).  So a lot on my plate right now, but I can hardly complain; it's all very enjoyable!

Review: Yarn Harlot (the Secret Life of a Knitter) by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Yay for Friday!  I'm so glad that it's the weekend, and not just any weekend, but a three-day weekend!  It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday in the States, and my office has all government holidays off.  So I'm very much looking forward to three glorious days off.  Especially tomorrow.  David isn't working, we're not traveling out of state...this is a good thing.  I'm very excited to curl up in front of the TV tomorrow with my knitting.

And speaking of knitting...

Considering that the title of this blog is Read~Knit~Blog, it was only a matter of time before I read a knitting-oriented book (not a pattern book, I don't think those count) and reviewed it.  It was the first book I purchased for the Kindle (still happy in its little green case), and I finished it during the snow day we had on Wednesday, along with the other two books I was trying to finish all at the same time.

I discovered the Yarn Harlot (real name: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) in early 2008.  My apartment  had been broken into (on Christmas Eve, no less) and I was feeling very violated and uncomfortable.  I met up with a dear friend of mine at Atlanta Bread Company in Manchester to do a little knitting.  It was then that she wrote down the words "Yarn Harlot" on a scrap piece of paper and told me to check out her blog.  And it was really all downhill from there.

I never knew that knitting could be a lifestyle.  I never knew that there really were people out there for whom knitting was that important.  Stephanie's blog was funny, endearing, and inspirational.  To a knitter (like me) who was still struggling with the fear of branching out past the garter stitch scarf...Stephanie was like a knitting goddess.  Not only did she knit pretty much everything, she wasn't scared to try new things.  She said "If you screw up, you pull it out and start over.  It's just knitting."  And the realization hit me, over time.  If I screwed something up, if I dropped a stitch, if I knit where I should have purled...oh well.  Nobody was going to die because of my mistakes.  Yeah, I'd be irritated, but if that's the worst than could happen?  Clearly it wasn't the end of the world.

This isn't the first of Stephanie's books that I've read.  I picked up Knitting Rules! last year and read it from cover to cover in about a day.  All of her books are quick reads, but Knitting Rules was more of a book about the philosophy of knitting itself.  Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter, Stephanie's first book, is written in the exact style of her blog entries: snippets of a life lived after falling headlong into knitting, and having no shame of it.  It's not a book so much as a collection of short stories, where Stephanie endearingly pokes fun at herself as she encounters one knitting escapade after another.

I doubt anyone who isn't a knitter would pick up Yarn Harlot, as it is primarily found in the knitting or craft section of bookstores and libraries.  But feel confident in saying that anyone who has a passion (re: obsession) for a craft or skill would understand where Stephanie is coming from when she writes.  I haven't met her on one of her many book tours (yet), but I would be honored to make her acquaintance.  She is not only a wonderful writer and a sometime comedienne, she is a huge philanthropist.  In December of 2004, in response to the tsunami disaster, Stephanie founded Tricoteuses Sans Frontieres (English: Knitters Without Borders), to raise money for the international foundation Doctors Without Borders -- medical staff that travel to places in extreme need of disaster relief.  In the six years and one month since their inception, the Knitters Without Borders have raised $1,062,217 in funding for MSF.

Good on you, Steph.  This wasn't my first Yarn Harlot book, and it won't be my last.

Rating: ****

Review of the Kindle case, and what I'm knitting now

The world is still buried in snow, but not to the point where I couldn't venture out to the mailbox at my parents' house and pick up Amazon's Kindle cover with light, which arrived yesterday during the snowstorm.

It's better than I even expected.  The case is made of sturdy leather (which has that fantastic "new car" scent to it), and the inside cover is very soft, almost felt-like, which keeps the Kindle screen from scratches and damage.  The elastic cord wraps around the case to hold the cover in place, whether you choose to close it, or hold it open behind the Kindle for easy reading. 

The light is somewhat difficult to pull out of the case the first couple of times.  But it is so worth it, and I am now so happy that I can read at night in bed without the overhead light on.  I haven't used it long enough to see if it really does drain the battery as quickly as a few of the one-star reviews on Amazon.com, but I have high hopes for it.  I can't wait to use it on trips -- I've had difficulty reading at night in the car because using the car light distracts David while he's driving. 

All in all, I think it was a great investment.  It was a little more expensive than I would have liked, but I think it was really worth it.


On Sunday, on a whim, after seeing it on SpillyJane Knits, I decided to cast on for Saroyan, a truly beautiful little scarf-shawlette made with worsted-weight yarn.  I chose to go down a size in yarn and needles, because I have two hanks of Socks That Rock Heavyweight in "Rose Quartz" that I really wanted to use. 

So far?

Well, I think it's coming along as well as can be expected!  (Sorry about the cat in the picture -- our kitty Tempest has a hard time steering clear of any knitting project, and also from the fleecy blanket that I have placed the knitting on.)

The leaf lace pattern on the edge of Saroyan pops beautifully in the STR yarn.  I'm really happy to use it for this project.  I love the color, it's soft and light and very pretty.  I'm not quite halfway done (this is a long scarf, and the middle stockinette portion can be downright dull, although it lends itself well to television knitting).  I'm looking forward to wearing this as a late winter/early spring scarf.  It's got just enough ruffles to be flirty and pretty, but not too many -- it doesn't look froufy.  I've had trouble knitting lace or lace edges in the past...let's knock on wood that those are over, at least for this project.

Review: Don't Die, Dragonfly by Linda Joy Singleton

To any and all people in New England -- that was one hell of a snowstorm, no?  Schools in CT are STILL closed today, even though the sun is out and shining and the roads are clear, but I am back to work.  There is about three feet of snow on the ground.  I wish I had brought my camera to work today, the snow on the brownstone church is beautiful, like something out of an old-fashioned picture.  But it's also bitterly cold out today -- not sure of the temp., but definitely cold enough that I don't want to go out in it!

My "snow day" yesterday was great.  I got to relax my poor spine, and finish three of the four books on my "currently reading" list on GoodReads.  I also started two new ones (I like to have a little variety on my plate when I read).  So I'm going to review one of the books today, and the other one probably tonight (when the husband is at his EMT class) or tomorrow.  Here goes.

Another free book from Amazon.com.  I downloaded Don't Die, Dragonfly by Linda Joy Singleton a few days ago, not expecting much from it.  I'm not a huge fan of the current YA literature.  I loved the Harry Potter series, I loathe Twilight, and I don't understand why 90% of the YA literature currently out is about vampires.  This book was blissfully devoid of vampires or the living dead, so I decided to give it a shot.  It's the first book in the "Seer Series" by Singleton, so I figured if I liked it, I'd give the others a shot.

I didn't like it.

The synopsis from GoodReads is this: After getting kicked out of school and sent to live with her grandmother, Sabine Rose is determined to become a "normal" teenage girl. She hides her psychic powers from everyone, even from her grandmother Nona, who also has "the gift." Having a job at the school newspaper and friends like Penny-Love, a popular cheerleader, have helped Sabine fit in at her new school. She has even managed to catch the eye of the adorable Josh DeMarco.  Yet, Sabine can't seem to get the bossy voice of Opal, her spirit guide, out of her head . . . or the disturbing images of a girl with a dragonfly tattoo. Suspected of a crime she didn't commit, Sabine must find the strength to defend herself and, later, save a friend from certain danger. 

The difficult part for me was in relating to the characters.  I don't think that, at 27, I am too far-removed from my teenage years to understand where an emo 16-year-old is coming from.  I couldn't relate to Sabine and I found it hard to give a crap about what she was thinking or doing, or her plight.  It's also really obvious that Singleton had Edward Cullen of "Twilight" in mind when she invented the character of Dominic.  Sullen, mysterious, and with a strange knack for always being there when Sabine needs him.  Although Sabine and Dominic don't hook up in Dragonfly, it's pretty obvious that Singleton is setting them up for true love in the next few books of the Seer series.

...which it doesn't look like I'll be reading.  The one thing I can say about this book is that it's quick; I read it from cover to cover in under two hours.  But it doesn't do anything for me.  I feel like I should keep this blog balanced, and read some more YA or contemporary fiction, so don't worry -- it's not all going to be history or historical fiction.  But I'll be steering clear of the rest of this series.

Rating: **

Review: Richard the Third by Paul Murray Kendall

FINALLY.  I am so glad to see the end of this book.  At least, I was, when I completed it last night, but being too doped up on drugs for my back, I didn't have enough faith in myself to write a review right then.

When I received Richard the Third by Paul Murray Kendall from my parents for Christmas, I went into it with the expectation that Kendall would write a sturdy, generic account of the life of Richard, Duke of Gloucester and later King of England.  The king, whose reputation is a byproduct of Shakespearean legend, who is known always as a villain, the usurper of the English crown who would not even hesitate to commit murder to get what he wants, even the murder of his two nephews, King Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, the tragic children known as the Princes in the Tower.  It's a story I felt I knew inside and out.

But.  I was wrong.

Kendall is no unbiased observer.  His goal is simple: to tell the story of what he feels is the real Richard III, and to debunk the rumors as nothing more than what he calls "Tudor tale(s)."  Instead of the vicious usurper, Kendall writes about the sickly boy who idolized his older brother Edward, the talented soldier and charismatic ruler who seized the throne and became King Edward IV.  In Kendall's version of events, the true villain is Edward's wife, the infamous and beautiful Elizabeth Woodville, the first commoner who ever took the title Queen of England.  Elizabeth, and the rest of the Woodville family, metaphorically castrate King Edward and ruin his reign, leaving him soft, emasculated, and disrespected.  Upon the king's death, his twelve-year-old son, Edward, is left to manage as king, with his uncle Richard as Lord Protector of England until Edward reaches adulthood.  Kendall argues that Richard's decision to take the crown from his nephew was really an unselfish attempt to recuperate the image that his brother destroyed.  Kendall's theories are best explained in the following passage:

...The passionately loyal brother who was Constable of England and commander in his teens, who indefatigably bolstered Edward (IV)'s throne and won the devotion of the North, may readily be traced in the King earnestly seeking to dispense justice to his subjects and exerting a prodigious vitality to deal with the problems of his government.  But between these lives stands the Protector who usurped the throne, the brother who thus doomed, if he did not murder, the boy king who was Edward's son.  The dislocation of this middle moment can be divined, if true, in the progressive corrosion worked upon Richard's relation with his brother by the direction of Edward's later life; and its consequences plainly show themselves in the King's labor to atone for his rupture of the succession, in his compulsive reliance upon loyalty rather than force, and in the haunted and feverish pursuit of well-doing that wore out his heart.  Yet it is a fractured life, and the man who lived it must also have been, obscurely, fractured. (Kendall, pg. 389)

Flaws: This book is long, and it is dry.  Also, in his attempt to change history's perceptions of Richard, Kendall puts off talking about that most juicy and intricate story of the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower.  There is a blurb at the end of the book about it, where Kendall tries to exonerate Richard of their murder -- which is good, providing you have the patience to read Appendix I:

It will perhaps come as a surprise to the reader accustomed to the absolute assurance of history texts and guidebooks that there is no proof that King Richard murdered the two sons of King Edward IV.

Kendall's theories are interesting.  Unfortunately, the prose of his book is rather less so, and he is fighting a losing battle in trying to prove the innocence of one of the most notorious reputations in the annals of history.  To those who are interested in biographies and history, particularly British history, this is a must-read.  For everyone else, skip it.  You probably won't even make it to the Battle of Tewksbury, much less Bosworth Field.

Rating: ** and 1/2

Updates of the not-very-literate kind

All of New England is going be getting a snowstorm tomorrow.  I can't express how happy I am to work at a job where I'm not required to be here if it snows, and to have a boss whose motto seems to be "If it snows, go (or stay) home."  With the expected snowfall of anywhere between 8 and 20 inches, I'm very much looking forward to a day of sleeping in, watching TV, knitting, and reading.

This snow day is coming at a most auspicious time, considering that I went to the doctor yesterday about my back and was diagnosed with scoliosis and early-onset arthritis of the spine.  The picture here shows what scoliosis looks like.  My back x-rays, which I got to see, look a lot like this picture.  Scoliosis is when the spine is angled to the side.  Looks fun, doesn't it?  Blech.  As for the arthritis...when I told my mom that I was diagnosed with it, she told me that my pediatrician had predicted spinal arthritis when I got older, for whatever reason.  I guess they never thought I needed to know about it!  (Well, truth be told, I didn't, since it's not exactly something that can be easily avoided...).

Right now I'm on painkillers that are so weird that I can sometimes feel my heartbeat in my face (just go with it), and knock me out for 10 hours at a time.  Good stuff.

Reading, unfortunately, has been slow going.

I have never, ever gotten my butt kicked by a historical biography as I have by Richard the Third.  Not even kidding -- it is SLOW GOING.  I love history, I really do, but this book is dry.  And I've never blanched at a book as much as I did when Paul Murray Kendall admitted that no part of this book (save for Appendix I) would speculate as to whether or not Richard III murdered the Princes in the Tower.  Probably the biggest mystery of his reign, and Kendall glosses over it.

And yet, I'm still intrigued.  This is the book that those who believe in Richard III's innocence  have been looking for.  Kendall crushes speculation of the diabolical rumors surrounding Richard, Duke of Gloucester's life as "Tudor tale(s)" and tries to explain the reasons behind Richard's seizure of the English throne after the death of his brother, Edward IV.  The villain in Kendall's biography isn't Richard, it's Queen Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV and mother of the Princes in the Tower, the lovely commoner who dared not only to marry a king, but to push her family into places of power they did not deserve.  Seeing Richard painted in a positive light is unusual and refreshing.  I've got about 200 pages left to go.  I'd love to finish it either tonight or tomorrow and have a complete review.

I have a few other fiction pieces on deck, since I know histories and biographies aren't for everyone.  But I'm not allowing myself to read anything but Richard until I'm finished with it (it's the only way it's going to be done).

Finally, I caved in and ordered a cover for my Kindle!  I've been carrying Annabelle Lee (yes, it's from Poe; yes, I took some artistic license with the spelling) around in her box ever since I got the Kindle for Christmas, but I've been planning on buying a good, sturdy cover since that day.  I was planning on buying the cheaper version of Amazon's cover, but a lot of reviews said that it short-circuited the Kindle when used, so I spent the extra $20 to buy the more expensive version.  And this one has the book light, which (though it says it will drain the battery faster) will be useful for night reading, especially when David and I drive to and from his family's home in Massachusetts.  He hates it when I turn the inside light of the car on to read (says it distracts him), so now I won't need to do that.  Unfortunately for me, the cover won't come until tomorrow, according to Amazon.  And since I don't trust the mail at our apartment, and it's going to my parents' house...and we're getting a snowstorm...I probably won't be able to get it until at least Thursday.  Boo.

Oh well.  I've waited more than three weeks for it, I can wait a day more :)

Review: Heidigger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank

Like Sweetie by Kathryn Magendie, I picked up Heidigger's Glasses by Thaisa Frank for one single reason -- it was free.  I started it on the way home from a friend's birthday party on Saturday night, and finished reading it early this morning.

Heidegger's Glasses is set in Germany, late in World War II.  Anyone who has seen any Indiana Jones films has heard that Hitler and some of his commanding officers in the Third Reich were obsessed with the occult and the supernatural.  Preoccupied with their fears of keeping the Final Solution a secret from the world, Commandants Goebbels and Himmler worry that the ghosts of those who died in the camps after sending letters to loved ones will haunt and reveal their plans, so they (somewhat ludicrously) remove dozens of individuals from the death marches, those who are bilingual or speak obscure languages, and move them into an abandoned mine shaft, converted into an underground village.  The Scribes, as the Reich calls these lucky few, have only one duty -- to write letters back to the dying or the dead, to keep angry souls at bay.

The ludicrous premise of the book leads to an interesting and rather haunting story of dozens of misplaced people struggling to survive, celebrating as the Third Reich crumbles around them.  It is the story of Elie, a young Polish girl who is bent on saving as many people as she can, and her lover, former solider Gerhardt Lodenstein, who wants to understand Elie through his love for her but can't quite manage to figure her out.  In the midst of their struggles, a letter arrives from the philosopher Martin Heidigger, to his Jewish optometrist who is now incarcerated at Auschwitz.  His letter starts off a chain reaction that puts the lives of all the Scribes in danger.

This book was interesting.  It's another book that I probably wouldn't have given a second thought to, had it not been a freebie on Kindle, but I'm glad I read it.  I would recommend it, especially to anyone who is interested in historical fiction or World War II.

Rating: ****

FO: Baby Pumpkin Hat

It's been a rough weekend here, unfortunately.  I've been laid up all day with a sharp pain in the center of my spine, which is probably going to require a trip to the doctor (on the advice of a good friend who is an EMT).  I've been intermittently reading, watching my favorite TV show (The Tudors), and knitting.  But it's not all been a complete loss...today has brought me my first FO (finished object, in knitting lingo) of 2011, thus bringing the title of this blog full-circle.

There's going to be a whole bunch of babies born into this family this spring and summer -- not ours, not yet!  David's three cousins' wives are all pregnant, and due in April, May, and June.  There will be two boy babies (April and May) and the one born in June will be a surprise, since Mom and Dad are choosing not to find out in advance.  There's something so delicious about baby knitting -- it's quick, it's (relatively) simple, and you're left with a finished object that you just can't help squeeing over.

Exhibit A: the Baby Pumpkin Hat.

I started this yesterday -- Saturday, January 8 -- and finished it today, after knitting sporadically on it.  Using worsted weight, held double, with US 9 needles, and considering that this is a project that is already tiny to begin with, this thing flew off the needles.

And it is so adorable!  I can't wait to give it away.  One baby knit down, two more to go!

Specifics:
Pattern: Pumpkin Hat by Susan Esser
Yarn: Cascade 220 in 7824 (burnt orange), 2429 (irelande), and 2431 (chocolate heather) -- less than one ball of each
Needles: Takumi bamboo needles, US 9
Modifications: None, with the exception of the leaf.  I didn't like the directions given with Susan Esser's pattern, so I used the pattern listed here.

My feelings?  Obviously I think it's precious.  Knit baby hats are freakin' adorable to begin with.  I'd knit it again, but probably not right away...there are three babies to knit for and I'd like to knit them all something different!

Review: The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

Everyone loves a good fairy tale.  And as you know, I love good historical fiction.  The Healer's Apprentice is described on  a spin-off of the classic Sleeping Beauty story, set in medieval Germany.  And, well, there heroine's name is Rose (much like the Briar Rose of the original story).  That...is pretty much where the similarities to the original Sleeping Beauty end.

If one goes into The Healer's Apprentice with an open mind, the story is quite charming.  Rose, the daughter of a poor woodcutter, is the 18-year-old apprentice to Frau Geruscha, the ducal healer, but she can't help feeling lost in her chosen path.  She grows nauseous at the sight of blood and has very little faith in her healing abilities.  When Lord Wilhelm Hamlin, the duke's son, is injured and comes to her for treatment, Rose finds herself strongly attracted to him.  Unfortunately (for Rose), Wilhelm is already betrothed to the mysterious "Lady Salomea", whom Wilhelm has never seen, but who he has vowed to save from the murderous vengeance of an evil conjurer.  Unfortunately (for Wilhelm), one look at Rose, the poor healer's apprentice, and he's instantly smitten.  But what to do?

Warning: this is not another Ella Enchanted (note: I'm talking about the charming YA fairy-tale spin-off of Cinderella, not the horrific watered-down film of the same name).  The Healer's Apprentice deals with a number of heavy-handed topics that wouldn't appeal to young readers or their parents, including religion, possession, demonology, prostitution, and open marriage.  The religious aspects of the story can get a little heavy-handed at times, and the latter half of the book drags a bit, but I can never knock a good fairy tale, especially one with a little history thrown in!  I would recommend it, but I don't know if I'll read it again.


In other news, Richard the Third continues apace...although it's starting to get to the really interesting (re: gory murdering) parts.  I should have a wrap-up of that within the next two days.  Tomorrow I'm off from work, so here's hoping!

Rating: ***