Quilts and Books

You know how it is when you wait ever so long for something that when it finally arrives whatever you've been waiting for simply cannot live up to expectations? I was actually afraid to pick this up and read it after it arrived in the mail a week ago. But 24 hour after it arrived I started in on it and I wasn't disappointed. It was trademark Carla Kelly all the way and full of the things that make her a distinctive writer and one of my top 5 favorites in any of the romance sub-genres. It was in turns funny and poignant. It's a lovely character-driven romance, which seems to me to be rather rare these days. The hero, James Trevenen was an officer in the Royal Navy who was marooned on a small, deserted island in the south Pacific for 5 years prior to the beginning of the story. He is on his way to London to receive a medal for a paper he wrote upon his return to society about a species of small crabs he spent many hours observing while alone on his island. I loved the ...

When I came back to romance reading a number of years ago, I stuck almost exlusively to historicals. So even though her books are everywhere, I never read a Nora Roberts book until Angels Fall last summer. And even though I really liked it, I had so many books in my TBR pile, I wasn't ready to start in on her backlist. But with the Lifetime movies this month I figured I'd at least read those 3 books prior to watching their adaptations. I finished Carolina Moon last night and I wasn't disappointed. I loved all 3 books. So here are some random thoughts based on my NR mini-glom: Unlike some readers, I love all the head hopping and various POVs. I like her style that gives us a glimpse from the perspective of so many characters. Blue Smoke was my favorite of the 3. Reena's family made that book for me. I have read too many books with characters coming from dysfunctional families. I loved seeing that you could have this strong heroine who certainly had experienced trauma ...

I really like this one, but it had to be the most frustrating thing I've quilted to date. I went through a dozen needles and countless starts and stops with the way my thread kept shredding. It was the coolest, hand-dyed thread that matched the blues so well. But I'm not sure I'll try to work with this thread again. The fact that I was using batiks didn't help. Definitely a learning experience. The quilting itself is boring--just basic meandering. I seem to lack the courage to try something more complicated. One of these days....