Detail of my latest finished quilt. When I saw this fabric collection based on Alice, just had to get it and make something out of it! “Happy unhalloween “!

Still reading, just not posting as much on all forms of social media even though Litsy is still my favorite💖 📚

My birthday was yesterday (thank you all who gave me bday wishes) and reading this last night really struck me. Time goes on, no matter what!

From Mary Oliver‘s essay “Of Power and Time”. As a poet, she definitely brings the feel of poetry into her essays.

I didnt know this memoir, in transcribed oral history format told by both sisters, is intended for middle grade readers. It‘s short but powerful & poignant. Renee (hearing) and Herta (Deaf) live in then-Czechoslovakia with their Deaf parents during the Holocaust. They use sign language. And they are Jewish.

As a Deaf person, I appreciate that their story has been published. I recommend for all ages. Incidentally Sept. is Deaf Awareness Month 👇

“Read books. Try to understand the reason why things happen, why they are as they are.” Quoted from the tagged book. RIP David McCullough.

(Admittedly, about four books from this stack still TBR)

Was recently in NYC for 24 hours and finally got to hit the Strand Bookstore (on 12th and Broadway — not Columbus which is the only tag option Litsy has) !! I‘m obsessed with my new tote bag ?. As it was 95° and we still had a lot of walking left to do, did not want to schlep lots of books around. So I got the one. Also a Strand sticker and bookmark ?. Hope to get to spend more time there next time — I think we were there only 45 minutes.

My youngest and I do a informal buddy read every summer. He has been interning in DC all summer. So, we are reading the first in the autobiography series by Robert Caro about LBJ (tagged). I found my copy in this quirky bookstore in Burlington, NJ (where I was visiting a quilt shop). I don‘t recall it‘s name but it‘s on the same street as the quilt shop. Caro is very detailed, but a great writer. Not sure if we‘ll finish by the end of summer 😜.

Summertime and the reading is easy 📚 😎 . At least when I‘m by the pool!

Got to visit George Washington‘s Mount Vernon last weekend (scaffolding is for repairs to the back of the house). We were there 5 hours and still didn‘t get to see everything! And had to rush through the shop so didn‘t have time to browse their book selection as I normally would. But did grab an autographed copy of the tagged book which is a DAR book club selection. About GW and his first cabinet.

@mrsmarch have you read it yet?

When people ask me what it‘s like being Deaf, I try to say it‘s much more than just degrees of hearing loss, but being part of Deaf culture & dealing with audism by the non-deaf (such as language deprivation due to the emphasis of oral methods) . Nyle covers all this very well but stays positive. He also covers his sexuality & how it‘s perceived within Deaf culture. I recommend this book —he also reminds us that Deaf people are not a monolith. 👇

I had a (mostly) wonderful time in New Mexico and Colorado the past couple weeks visiting family! A bit nerve-wracking at times since they live near the current fires and had to prep for potential evacuations. So far they‘re ok. Anyway, came back home to learn my hubby had flooded the basement due to our faulty washer (I told him before I left that it wasn‘t working. long story). Some of my quilt books got warped 😢. But they‘re still readable.

Reading this while I‘m on my layover in Austin 😂

My airport/airplane read! Visiting family for the next couple weeks. I‘m not normally a celebrity memoir type, but will make an exception for Nyle 🤟 !

My youngest (L) is a big Pearls Before Swine fan. When he learned that Stephan Pastis would be in Philadelphia for a talk and book signings (and as luck would have it, while he was home for spring break), of course we had to go! A fun evening.

Being Deaf myself, it‘s not often I get to read an excellent novel with more than one Deaf character & also written by a Deaf person. I had my hands slapped & forced to sit on them when caught signing in school. That controversy has always been around sadly. I‘m so lucky that my hearing parents & sister learned ASL. My Deaf friends loved them because most of their families didn‘t sign. Thanks Sara for writing this novel. More👇

This book has occasional visual info interspersed— so don‘t do the audio version if it‘s available.

The author informs on Deaf culture and language within the story, but without it feeling as if it‘s info dumping.

Excited that my pre-order of True Biz arrived today (release day)! Definitely starting this ASAP. Wish it didn‘t have the Reese logo though. As Sara and I are both deaf, I have followed her a long time. She lives 45 minutes away, although I haven‘t met her yet.

Background is part of a crazy quilt wall hanging I made for a Deaf Quilt show many years ago — indicates going crazy trying to read lips.

The Seed Keeper, a novel by Diane Wilson a Dakhóta tribe member, shows the strength & resilience of indigenous peoples, focusing on the women in the multi-generational story around Rosalie Iron Wing. Rosalie learns more about her heritage & herself through seed-keeping and the need to care for our earth. This is so good & I‘m not doing this book justice with my summary. I highly recommend! Borrowed, but definitely getting my own copy. More ?

Love this quote. Yes, there‘s something magical about that little brown cap on a seedling.

Getting started on this book, a buddy read with @Lynnsoprano . Off to a promising start!

Visiting my oldest son who lives in Nashville. Wow, Parnassus Books is such a lovely bookish place! Ann Patchett is the owner and all of her books for sale here are autographed. I bought her latest, *These Precious Days*, a pin, a sticker, and another book *The Secret Lives of Color* by Kassia St. Clair.

My first finished fiction book of 2022! In between quilting projects & reading non-fiction, this chunkster took a while! Not my favorite in the series but I‘m still continuing! Have the next one by my elbow but will wait to start it. Wanted to point out a historical discrepancy here. In colonial America, people didn‘t piece together quilts using cut-up fabrics. Fabrics were too precious, so quilts were whole-cloth using one piece for the top! 👇

I‘ve been quilting far more than reading lately. This is my latest completed project. My daughter and her partner gave me a kit (fabrics for the top plus instructions) for Christmas. Turned out great!
I feel like I‘m making up for lost time re: quilting— had done almost none for about 5 years. Now a lot of my reading material is quilting-related 😂. Also w/hubby WFH, it‘s nice to retreat to the basement to sew.

Hi everyone! I know I have really been MIA here lately. I‘ve recently gotten my mojo back with my other long-time hobby, quilting. Almost done with one project…stay tuned. Today I sneaked off to Baldwin‘s Book Barn to take a look at the quilting books. Was good and just got these two. They had copies of this magazine (middle). Their three employees are (L-R) 81, 88, and 82. Clearly, being in a wonderful bookish space is good for us 😊📚📚📚!

Oh yes, there is. I‘ve been experiencing it the past few months. Article delves in the neuroscience behind this: https://bookriot.com/is-readers-block-real/

And it didn‘t help that my entire family including my 80-yo mom visiting from NM all recently came down with Covid! Symptoms were that of serious colds and we‘re all pretty much recovered now. I still have some lingering fatigue.

Hope you‘re all managing to do relatively well 📚 💖 📚

My reading has been almost nonexistent in the past few weeks, and probably will be until after the New Year. This is one of the reasons! Just finished this quilt recently. I‘ve been spending more time with my sewing machine than with books. It‘s been more fun as my mom gifted me with a brand new Bernina that sews like a dream 😍. Plus, there‘s the holiday season right now.

Opened my iPad just now and this seemed a bit funny to me. 1) just because I read a couple books by him on this app doesn‘t mean I *like* him that much and 2) it makes it seem like he‘s still writing books today! 😂

How are you all? Im fine but I barely read this month 😔. So much distracting me!

Starting this for #authoramonth. This will actually my third read of The Shadow of the Wind! First time was when it first came out (2004) second time was I don‘t remember when 😅. And I‘m not normally a re-reader. I even have the other three books in the series, but for some reason have avoided reading them. I want to refresh my memory with this before finally getting to the next one (The Angel‘s Game).

A harrowing read about World War I by a German author who went through it. Very well written, but reading this made me have to set it aside now and then. Read for #1001Books

Top: 1982 edition
Middle: 1989 edition
Bottom: 2018 edition

Not only do clothing and kitchen styles change over the years, so do tastes. My current edition (found used but like new) for example has Buddha bowl recipes which are a thing now 😊.

Happy Halloween everyone 🎃 👻 🧛‍♂️ 🧙 🍁 🍂🦹‍♀️🧟🎃

This was the only scary read this month for me. But what a story! I found the dysfunctional human relationships just as scary as poor rabid Cujo.

I read this many years ago in HS so it was like reading for the first time 😱 except for a couple incidents I vaguely remembered.

Got my haircut today and of course had to stop by the used bookstore nearby! Their sales benefit our local senior center, so I shouldn‘t feel guilty right 😊? $20 for this fill-a-bag deal. Pleased to find the Ali Smith book (tagged). Picked up the SK and Blood of Abraham by Jimmy Carter for my Global Politics major son — bonus is that the Jimmy Carter is autographed! When I texted my son, he responded “Holy Moly” 😊

Approximately 400 women stayed at the Valley Forge encampment with the troops (of which there were 14,000 men). More is known about women like Martha Washington being there, so a lot more in this short book is about upper class women married to officers. That is not the author‘s fault, as the more “common” women such as washerwomen and cooks often didn‘t read or write, so no letters and such were left behind. And although they worked hard 👇

I very nearly bailed on this when I realized it was more of a stream-of-consciousness style. So glad I stayed with it. Interesting how the real stories of a mostly forgotten 1960s female artist and also Brexit are integrated into the lives of fictional characters Elisabeth and her elderly friend Daniel. I‘ll definitely seek more of Ali Smith (a couple of her books— not this one— are on the #1001Books list).

One of the best descriptions of October I‘ve ever read.

Not as cute as my last post, but still dog-related! Found this hardback (book club edition) at Goodwill recently for 99 cents 😳. Snapped it up right away. My younger son is on a mission to collect all SK‘s hardbacks but I‘m reading it first. I did read many years ago from a paper back.

I was telling @Megabooks that her new doggie Molly looks like my sister‘s dog, who is a daschund/beagle mix! Well, here is Zoey who just turned 5. Maybe the coloring isn‘t exactly the same but there are similarities 💖

Hi all! I didn‘t realize how long I was away from Litsy until now. Thanks @Suet624 for checking in on me. I was really busy, traveling in September helping my mom get settled in her new place. In my last post 2 mos ago, I mentioned I would show you all the quilt made for her. Here it is! Mom on left, me on right. I‘ve also just not had much reading mojo lately. Thanks to all of you & @LitsyBirthdays who wished me happy birthday last week 💖 ! 👇

Arrived today! A recent blog post by the Daughters of the American Revolution‘s President General discussed Ellen Hardin Walworth, one of the DAR founders. This book title was mentioned. Very intrigued!

Vent about USPS : I have “informed tracking”, and it keeps telling me they‘ve delivered items when really they arrive a day or two later. This book was one 😡.

Background is back of a lap quilt I‘m making for my mom. Will post pic when done.

This vignette-filled short novel should really only be read during summer time 🌞. The relationship between Sophia and her grandmother, on an island home in Finland, was touching— but yet not saccharine.

I‘m surprised by the low overall Litsy rating on this one, which is also a #1001Books.

Just learned that yesterday was #nationalbookloversday . But that‘s everyday for us, right 😉?

📚📚📚📚📚

The 3 large oak bookcases here were built by my dad (who would have been 82 in two days ) ❤️

Tagged book is my current read.

Good writing, but I really didn‘t care for any of the characters. This is a novella that is on the “1001 books you must read before you die” list. Got another one knocked off that list!

I had started another #1001Books before this one but someone made a major spoiler in a Litsy review 😕 .

Didn‘t realize (even with the title) that I read two dysfunctional wedding books back to back 😂. (One before this was The Guest List). This one however is a little novella first published in 1932. The bride to be is downing rum as she gets ready and her oblivious family flits around the house. Some lovely passages and the entire tone of this book probably was more meaningful back when it was published. Today it feels a bit dated. Almost a pick.

This had me engaged all the way to the end. Maybe too many coincidences cascading towards the end, but a good read during my recovery from Lyme. Felt okay yesterday but today, not so good🤷🏻‍♀️

This novel looks at opioid addiction in the Kensington area of Philadelphia (about 45 minutes from me). Although I guessed whodunnit fairly early, this was a good read about how hard it can be to escape addiction.

Still resting under my “sick blanket”! Next up is another #botm thriller The Guest List; my brain can‘t handle anything too complex at the moment.

If you want to know more about the War of 1812, this is it.

Yes that‘s a blanket underneath—-I‘m cold! I have stage 1 Lyme Disease right now, and on day three of antibiotics! Ugh. This is the sickest I‘ve felt for a long time. My next read is going to have to be a light one.

Our book haul from our vacation in NY/VT last week! Hubby‘s choices on left side, mine on right side. Although I‘m interested in reading some of his choices, too. All from indie bookstores or museum shops. Some used, some new. 📚📚📚

When we were on vacation, of course had to stop at local bookstores! Will show book haul in next post.

Top L: window display Bookmobile Books, an used books store in Rutland VT (had a quick day trip there)
Top R: Phoenix Books in Rutland, VT w/ a marble/granite book sculpture. The area is/was known for quarries.
Bottom L: interior of Crow Bookshop, Burlington VT
Bottom R: Phoenix Books; Burlington VT

 @Suet624 thanks for the recs of bottom 2!

On Vacation in Vermont, and got to meet up with @Suet624 (right) this morning! We had a wonderful time chatting over breakfast. I feel lucky to have met through Litsy 🥰

My book haul! See previous post for back story. Not much of a non-fiction selection (the top three books) as they normally would have had. But I‘m sure it‘ll get better once they start accepting donations again in August. Son got five books (not pictured) which he has already taken to his room. They were all part of their fill-a-bag deal.

This bookstore finally reopened today after having to close March 2020. You can bet son (pictured) and I were there! Even though neither of us “need” more books 😂

They couldn‘t reopen when most shops did, because it‘s under the umbrella of the local Senior Center, and also the Department of Aging, which finally gave them the green light to open again. For now open just 3 days a week but we‘ll take it! Picture of my haul to follow!