Quilts and Books

Sharon Sala (aka Dinah McCall) is a new-to-me author. I ran over to the library to pick up her latest book after seeing the very hilarious Author Talk interview with her, found here . The Healer is a wonderful story that I read in a day and thoroughly enjoyed. The Healer is the story of Jonah Gray Wolf, a man with very unusual gifts: he can heal people's injuries and illnesses through touch and he can communicate with animals. His life is destroyed, however, when Jonah heals a man who believes that he can achieve immortality if Jonah is under his control. Jonah goes on the run and stays on the run for 10 years until he winds up in a small West Virginia town. This is where the main part of the book begins and here is where he meets Lucia Andahar, a woman who has experienced trauma of her own. At the time of their meeting, Lucia is being stalked and she is increasingly fearful due to the threatening notes the stalker keeps leaving her, as well as an attempt to kill her dog. Sh...

It's been awhile since I posted any quilt pictures. Here are some small things that I recently finished: I posted a picture of this back in April when it was just squares up on my design board . This was a gift for a co-worker's baby shower. I made another "Waffle Time" table runner. The first one is here . I do like this pattern and I'm sure I'll be making more of them. Anyhow, here's the latest: Both quilts above were done entirely by machine. Here's one that I did entirely by hand. It is only 15" x 15", so it didn't take very long to make it. I have a friend who re-did her kitchen and collects roosters for it. I found this rooster fabric and knew I had to make something for her. Just because. I do do something besides read all the time. Ha!

Elizabeth Boyle writes that style of romance that I consider “Regency Lite.” I honestly don’t mean that in a derogatory way, although some may take it that way. Her books are usually fun and easy to read, but because there’s a bit too much 21st century sensibility, they aren’t stellar historicals. Nonetheless, I am a fan of Ms. Boyle’s writing because I like her voice and her humor. I remember buying this book when it was published, but there were some disappointing reviews of it, so I didn’t get around to reading it until now. I must add that I am enjoying going through my TBR shelf each month trying to decide what to read this time around. This Rake of Mine is loosely related to her series of books on the Danvers family as well as the book previous to this, Something about Emmaline. However it stands on its own quite well. The back blurb tells the story well enough, so I'll be lazy and copy it: When the rakehell Lord Jack Tremont kissed Miranda Mabberly, mistaking her for...

I discovered Lynn Kurland’s books around 4-5 years ago and blissfully read my way through her entire back list. I’m unabashedly a big fan of her writing. A couple of years ago on a reader forum somewhere I read that her books are full of anachronisms and I realized that she has quite a few harsh critics. But I love her stories and characters so much that I just cannot get worked up about the stuff that obviously bothers others. So because this one wasn’t available on Fictionwise the day it was released I did something I never do anymore—I bought it in print. And I am so glad I did. I had to force myself to read it slowly as it’ll probably be a year until her next release. With Every Breath is another of her time travel stories, pulling in characters from previous books and novellas. While this stands alone quite well, it’s certainly more entertaining if you’ve read the other related books. Heroine Sunshine (Sunny) Phillips is the sister of Madelyn, heroine of A Garden in the Rain . Sun...