Book Round-Up: Where Does the Time Go?

 Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher: Kingfisher's novella is a decidedly unusual retelling of Sleeping Beauty, with a heroine who is about as far from a Disney princess as you could imagine. Instead of the usual tropes, the story focuses on the folk idea of changelings and how that can devastate a family. It's melancholy and touching, odd and funny. 

Around the World in Eighty Games by Marcus du Sautoy: du Sautoy is a mathematician with a longstanding fascination with games, and here he gives an overview of the history of gaming. As you might guess from the title, he covers games from every part of the globe and as far back as the third millennium BC. His insight into why humans play games was good, although when he strayed into meaning-of-life philosophy he fumbled a bit.

The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager: This was an interesting premise -- painted figures come to life when people aren't watching, and some people can even enter the paintings -- but the resulting story was just ok; The pacing was better suited to a thriller (this wasn't) and the love story wasn't very strong.

The Mythmakers by John Hendrix: An interesting graphic novel on the fruitful (and fraught) relationship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, with digressions into the nature of myth, fairy tales, and folk tales. I had known about the Inklings, of course, but reading about the deterioration of their relationship (due to religious and literary differences, changing life circumstances, and human frailties) was sad. One hopes they are now reunited, their friendship restored to its full glory.

Golden Age Bibliomysteries by Otto Penzler, ed.: A collection of mysteries set amongst librarians, booksellers, and collectors. Sometimes the bookish element was a McGuffin, other times integral to the plot. Stories by Lawrence G. Blochman, Anthony Boucher, and Cornell Woolrich were standouts. 

Hellboy v. 5-7: Love 'em. With volume 5, the initial storyline is over -- Hellboy is no longer fated to bring about the apocalypse and he's no longer a member of BPRD. Instead we get his adventures, past and present, along with Mignola's trademark folk horror and humor. 

Untitled Red/Pink/Orange Thing

 This project has been on my mind for years. I'm using the techniques in Effie Mitrofanis's gorgeous Threadwork: Silks, Stitches, Beads & Cords. 

The first step was gathering fabrics and threads.

 Four years ago I mounted linen gauze (from some expensive curtains my cats wrecked 🙄) into a frame, tacked on a base of sheer rose fabric from an old camisole, and layered on rectangles of dupioni silks. I used a running stitch in matching pearl cottons to hold the silks in place.

 

Last year I tacked on a rose motif from a fancy scrap of polyester fabric. I couched Japan gold around the edges, filled in background sections with chipwork, and stitched the center spaces between petals with metallic ribbon. 

 Initially, I was disappointed that I didn't have any gold purl for the chipwork (this project is purely from my stash), but I like the way the silver looks.

 A couple of weeks ago I twisted silk scraps into ropes and coiled those ropes into spirals, twisting, coiling, and couching them down as I worked. What a pain in the ass that was! It made me realize I really need a proper stand for this frame. Or a third arm.

 

This past week I kind of went overboard beading a sun motif in the upper corner, using tiny scraps of folded silk (straight from Mitrofanis's book), sequins, bugle beads in two sizes, and lots and lots of seed beads. 

 

I'm ready for a break from this project, but I have a couple of ideas for it still -- I want to use more scraps to create a vine with more flowers and leaves along the bottom, and I think I will embellish the rest of the background with lots of tonal embroidery. But who knows where inspiration will take me!

Book Round-up

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg: I've seen the movie, of course, but I had not read the book until it was the April selection for my book club. Unlike the movie, the book follows many more characters than Ruth and Idgie (whose relationship is a lot more obvious), and the depictions of racism, poverty, and addiction in the 1920s and 30s are sometimes heartbreaking. I don't have a lot to say about it, but I enjoyed it.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst: Durst set out to write the ultimate cozy novel, and it certainly has all the elements -- books, flying cats, talking plants, bakeries, gardens, jam, and a gentle love story. I do wish she had put as much thought into the world-building; I don't need GRRM-levels of detail, but the characters were remarkably incurious about the political revolution happening in the background. On a nit-pickier level, I also wish she had done a little more research into how libraries work (manuscripts, for example, don't have publishers, and in a world apparently without a printing press books would be much scarcer and more expensive than they are now). Props to her, though; Meep the cactus is adorable.

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama: A cozy fantasy manga series about a little girl who accidentally turns her mother into a statue and must attend the titular atelier to learn how to undo the spell. It was cute, but I don't feel the need to read the <checks notes> … next 14 volumes.

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells: I love these novellas so much I've started buying them rather than getting them from the library. This one is as funny, thrilling, and even heartwarming as the previous ones (don't hate me, Murderbot!).

Hellboy v. 1-4 by Mike Mignola: A reread, just because. Love both the unambiguously good (despite his name and appearance) hero and the mix of folklore and horror.

Meet Me in the Moon Room by Ray Vukcevich: A collection of very short, very odd stories. Vukcevich specializes in speculative, almost absurdist fiction. The stories were hit-or-miss for me; some were quite affecting, but others were clinical, sometimes quite cold and cruel. A riff on Frankenstein ("Rejoice") was excellent.

Pussy Willows (a Little out of Season)

 I love decorating with pussy willows late winter/early spring, and I've long admired DusiCrafts's beautiful patterns, so I bit the bullet and bought one. And then I made two ornaments, one for my mom and one for me:

The nice thing about DusiCrafts's patterns is that she offers a lot of options -- several different versions of the pussy willow branches, some with buds and some just with catkins, Easter eggs to add to the design, and different sizes and shapes for the ornaments themselves. I liked being able to customize them a bit!
 

Book Round-Up

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans: An absolutely lovely epistolary novel about an elderly woman looking back on her life, and the wonderful, difficult, troubling relationships she had. It was well worth the months-long wait at my library.

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry: I’ve only loved Henry’s odd-numbered books, but this (her 6th) broke the pattern. Probably because it was also a departure for her, with a good chunk of the novel devoted to another elderly woman reflecting on her life and relationships (a theme this month, I guess). I know some were put off by that, but I was ok with it, especially because I tend to prefer romances that are secondary, not primary, plots.

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett: Of course I read a book about a woman who runs a cat shelter and her wizard landlord. I'm loving Fawcett's take on romantasies -- fewer assholes, more humor.

Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros: I don't know why it took me so long to read Cisneros, but I absolutely loved this collection of vivid, evocative, heartbreaking, and funny stories. My favorite was "Little Miracles, Kept Promises."

Men of Maize by Miguel Angel Asturias: Considered to be possibly the first magical realism novel, it's not nearly as famous as 100 Years of Solitude, probably because the text is quite challenging -- a loose understanding of time, opaque (to me) allusions to Guatemalan political history, extensive references to Mayan folklore and religious beliefs, and an impressionistic approach to language use. I'm so glad I didn't try to read it in the original Spanish, a particular dialect with lots of Mayan vocabulary. This edition was heavily annotated and had several essays on the author, text, and translation, which allowed me to understand much better Asturias's themes of colonialism and the degradation of the environment and left me with a desire to learn more about the Mayans. (Interestingly, there's a section very similar to my favorite Cisneros story.)

 

I Made a Book!

The pattern is from The Barmy Fox, based on a simple folded paper booklet design she used to make for her young students. The embroidery uses a wide variety of stitches, although I made some changes to suit my own preferences. For stability and opacity, I inserted stiff interfacing between the pages.

This is such a clever but simple way to make a booklet, and I have so many ideas I want to try with it. 

 

Cross Stitch Diary Part 2

 I've been making and reading, just not quite having the energy to post. (Sometimes I post on Instagram or Substack.)

A piece of cranberry pie for Thanksgiving.

Candles for Advent.

A Christmas tree.

A blue SUV because the brakes failed and we had to cancel our trip to see family.

A wedge of cheese because we celebrated New Year’s Eve with a charcuterie board (we are old and/or tired and/or introverted).

A crown for Three Kings’ Day.

A birthday cake for my oldest.

A star for Minnesota, l’Etoile du Nord (so proud of Minneapolis).

A stack of books for the ones I read in January.

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