Trials and Tribulations with Quilting, Machine Embroidery and Sewing
Posted in Book Review on Apr 24th, 2008
I’m a bit of a Janet Evanovich fan (in some ways it’s a bit like saying I’m an alcoholic!). Someone from my book clucb recommended them about six years ago and I’ve been addicted ever since. They are all the same (I think there is 15 of them now), but as Dorcas Lane says in [...]
Posted in Book Review on Apr 1st, 2008
I bought this book because the Australian Book Review claimed it was an outback Pride and Prejudice. Definitely misleading advertising! Unless their talking about the small cast of characters in a country village or maybe the annoying mother. Here’s the blurb “A quirkily engaging comedy of small town manners. Set on a Victorian family vineyard [...]
Posted in Book Review on Mar 29th, 2008
I chose to read this book because Jane Brocket (The Gentle Arts of Domesticity) recommended Elizabeth Taylor – she recommended At Mrs Lippincote’s – however, The Blushwas the only Elizabeth Taylor book I could lay my hands on (I bought it from Ebay). Here is the blurb on the back … In these short stories, [...]
Posted in Book Review, Inspiration on Mar 12th, 2008
This book was my latest treat and a treat it is – the pictures are stunning. I don’t need another quilt book, but I couldn’t resist this one. In the first section Fassett writes about the two themes of the quilts (triangles and framing colour or print). The first image below is one of the [...]
Posted in Book Review on Mar 10th, 2008
I try to read the Man Booker prize winners – I think it makes me appear vaguely cultured (probably just pretentious). I seem to like about half of them – I hated The Sea (John Banville), but loved Possession (A S Byatt) was indifferent to The Life of Pi (Yann Martel), but enjoyed The Blind Assassin [...]
Posted in Book Review on Mar 6th, 2008
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell. I chose to read this book because Cornflowerwas reading it for her book club - of course they had all finished it before I even started. It was a difficult book to find in Australia, but eventually I tracked down a copy in Borders. It was set in America [...]
Posted in Book Review on Feb 25th, 2008
I bought three books from Persephone Press - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Family Roundabout by Richmal Crompton. The service was fabulous and the books arrived within a week and they are beautiful! Each with a book mark that matches the end papers. So far [...]
Posted in Book Review on Feb 19th, 2008
I’ve just finished reading Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. I read it because Jane Brocket recommended it in The Gentle Arts of Domesticity (in the section on The Domestic Library page 28).I enjoyed it – it was certainly domestic. In someone ways it reminded me of E F Benson’s Mapp and Lucia novels (although less tongue [...]
Posted in Book Review on Jan 27th, 2008
As I’m a bit of a janeite, I buy every book I see about Austen. Even some rather dreadful sequels and continuations. I have even made a few cross words. So when I saw this book at Dymocks I just had to have it. I’m still collecting my thoughts about this book – overall I [...]
Posted in Book Review on Jan 19th, 2008
We’ve been reading Salvation Creek for book club. It’s a memoir by Susan Duncan who was unfortunate to lose both her brother and husband within a matter of days. This tragedy bought about a midlife crisis of sorts – she packed in her job and decided to try to find a place in the country [...]