All posts tagged: books

Books I read and Nearly read in 2016

Published by

In 2016 I started to read 22 books and finished 12 (nearly 13).  If a book has not grabbed me by about page 50, I will put it down and move on the next.  I always have a list of books I want to read which of course is way longer than the books I have read so far, so I am never without a book to read (or at least start!). I started three books before I read my first book of 2016 which was ‘The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend‘ by Katarina Bivald.  It was an easy read and not particularly amazing but I enjoyed it. ‘A Man Called Ove‘ by Fredrik Bakman is my top book of the year, it is full of wonderful characters and is funny and heart searching all at once.  All revolving around an elderly grumpy man called Ove!  Characterful books are my absolute favorite. Having said that, I also read ‘My Grandmother Told Me to tell you She’s Sorry‘ by Fredrik Bakman and I didn’t love it …

‘I Like’ Friday.

Published by

This week I have been liking all kinds of things including autumn seed pod gathering and photographing! Here are some of the other things I am liking- I finished The Wonder by Emma Donoghue in a week which is a record time for me (remember I am the slowest reader in the whole wide world), it was so good.  The book is full of memorable characters with lots of twists and turns. I am feeding a sourdough starter as we speak using a recipe from ‘Bread’ by Dean Brettschneider . This is my second attempt as the first time I got a measurement wrong and a timing wrong on my first go.  Hopefully I will have a sourdough loaf or two in the next couple of weeks. Do you make sourdough?  I really hope it all works well after all of the feeding and measuring. I am participating in NaNoDrawMo this month and I have managed  to complete every day so far, which makes three days going strong! The Durrells in Corfu is one of my favorites to watch …

Tangling, Drawing and art journaling.

Published by

I have this ‘pretend’ friend called Jeanette who writes at Craftwhack blog and has written a rather fabulous book called ‘Tangle Art and Drawing Games for Kids‘ which I got to play with and now I am going to tell you about!   I have met lots of ‘pretend’ friends – you know the ones you meet on the inter webs but not yet in real life (no, I don’t say IRL, I am not a young person).  They are all talented and amazing and when they write a book, I want to see it! This book was no disappointment, in fact it was an inspiration from page to page.  So many great ideas and not just for kids in my opinion, I saw lots of stuff I wanted to incorporate into my art journal. So I did. The Geometry tree (#1) caught my eye and I could not stop smiling at the tangled hair project (#45), so I thought I would give them a go.  At first I decided to concentrate on the crazy …

Weekly Photos 14/52

Published by

So far I think we are having a chilly spring compared to recent years.  I am sure it is usually warmer than this here in the mid-west by the middle of April.  No complaints though, you never know, the summer might not be so brutal. I don’t know what any of these flowers are, but they are pretty and all over the park floor.  I got to stand among them for a while as the dog had a sniff about. I borrowed the paper cutter in the library to chop up my new coloring postcards this week. Some trees are still blooming, this pink one at the park is a stunner. I finished ‘A Man Called Ove’, and I love love loved it.  It is such a good read, Ove is a wonderful character.  It is funny, thoughtful and a great story. I got some clay to play with and I made some beads and pendants, fingers crossed that they all turn out, or at least most of them!  I will be sure to update …

‘I Like’ Friday. The planting, reading, sketching and eating edition

Published by

Lots of things to like this week. Flowers starting to bloom on the trees being a big thing to like.  Here are some more things to like this fine Friday. This soup from Meet Me At Mikes looks like an essential.  I just need to find fresh tumeric which I have never used before, I have only had dealings with the bright yellow powder. I bought this book called Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger and it is gorgeous as well as full of information.  More guidance than instruction and tons of inspiration. At last I have managed to read a book this year and now I am on my second.  This one is a great read, it is All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders.  It  is a little bit magic and a little bit science. These DIY affirmation cards look so lovely, I want to have a go at making a deck for myself. After taking this  Sketching class at Skillshare, I am feeling a little more confident in my outdoor …

I like Friday the Art Journaling book edition

Published by

Books are the best thing aren’t they!  Especially books which teach you stuff.  Especially books which make you go ‘oh yes, I can do this’. Today I pulled some of my favourite creative books out to share with you.  I have recently started to do lots of art journaling and I get so much inspiration from all kinds of art style books.  Journaling with art is a lovely and creative release and it allows me to try all kinds of styles and techniques. I also want to learn specific things like drawing figures and faces as well as lettering and doodling.  I am no natural doodler, so I need some help!  My first book is a wonderful tool to encourage and guide the reluctant doodler like me. Craft-a-Doodle by Jenny Doh The book is by Jenny Doh who brings together various artists with examples of their work as well as a guided finished piece for the reader to create.  I like this book because it is as inspiring as it is instructional.  Neither overwhelms the …

My favorite books of the year 2015.

Published by

I don’t read lots of books because I am a ridiculously slow reader, but I have read some really good books this year.  So I thought I would share them with you on this rainy, stormy Christmas Eve eve! Three of my favorite novels have been ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr, ‘The Martian’ by Andy Weir (I still haven’t seen the film, but then I do know how it ends!) and ‘The Heart Goes Last’ by Margaret Atwood (I whizzed through this one in three weeks – see, that is me reading fast!!). Three of the best non fiction books for me this year were ‘Big Magic’ by Elizabeth Gilbert, ‘Everyday Superfood’ by Jamie Oliver and out of a ton of art books this one is a beauty, ‘Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces’ by Jane Davenport. We do tend to read lots of kids books because I still read to my youngest every night.  Favorite children’s books have been ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ by C.S. Lewis, the ‘Harry Potter’ books by …

A Bloggers Year in Books (so far).

Published by

I have just finished my latest read which was ‘Half Broke Horses’ by Jeanette Walls, it took me a monumental time to read as I started it while we were on vacation and every time a another book came into the library I wanted to read, I put done ‘Half Broke Horses’ to read the new book. The crazy reasoning behind this is that I own ‘Half Broke Horses’ and the books from the library are usually on a two week loan which is quite the deadline for this slow reader.   The thing was, I kept starting new books and putting this one down, but a week later I would ditch the new read and carry on with ‘Horses.  In this time, I started ‘The Library at Mount Char’ by Scott Hawkins which I gave up on because it was just too darn odd and violent for me.  Odd I can easily deal with, I even like odd, but with violence, not so much.  So back to ‘HBH’ I went.  Then I started ‘Our …

I am reading these books and magazines.

Published by

I thought I would share some reading matter this week. What are you reading? Do you read books? One at a time or can you keep up with more than one? I can read one at a time, I think my brain would pop if I tried more! I do read kids novels to my son at night, so I kind of read two books at once, one to him and one to myself. I love magazines but I have to have a novel to read a bedtime, reading a magazine at bedtime gives me so many ideas and inspirations, they almost stop me sleeping. Consequently I don’t get through as many mags as I would like and sometimes I don’t even get through the ones I buy before the next issue is out. In fact the new issue of The Great Discontent is due out soon, so I had better get cracking and finish this one! I discovered The Great Discontent when I came across The 100 day Project which is hosted by the …

My Childhood Books

Published by

I was digging around and found some books from when I was little, I still have a few, some paperbacks, my first cookbook and a ‘Magic Roundabout’ story book! Sadly, I don’t have any books from the ‘Ant and Bee’ series which was my absolute favourite when I was a kid and learning to read. I remember visiting the library and making a beeline (ha! see what I did there) for the ‘Ant and Bee’ books. They were lined up on the top shelf and I gathered all I could and checked them out at the desk where the librarian took the tickets from inside the books and stamped the return date on the label inside the front cover. Remember when libraries were full of tickets and drawers and it was all kept track of by pieces of paper which were taken in and out of books as they were borrowed and returned? Of the books I have, I think I have read most of them to my kids and my youngest and I are …