Must be late August!

Parents & Teachers Working Together – Carol Davis & Alice Yang

Every summer we have assigned professional reading for school.  Every summer I put it off until it’s almost time to go back!  Lucky for me I picked an easy read and was able to polish this book off in no time!

This is one of many Responsive Classroom books and I have read almost all of them!  I love these books because they are practical and have ideas that are new and usable!

Most of the time when I read RC books I wish I could implement everything in the book, immediately if not sooner.  This book was a little different – there were lots of great ideas of how to better include parents and foster more of a partnership but the thought of implementing every idea was enormously overwhelming!  This is one of those books where I’ll take 2 or 3 things from it and then revisit (I hope) regularly and get more ideas!

Another Lorna Landvik

Patty Jane’s House of Curl – Lorna Landvik

We I was at the library a few days ago I was looking for some new books to read and of course I totally forgot about two new authors I wanted to check out: Sarah Addison Allen and Ann Hood and ended up picking up another Lorna Landvik. 

I have totally enjoyed the others I have read by her, especially The Tall Pine Polka.  The Tall Pine Polka was one of her early novels so I' had high hopes for Patty Jane’s House of Curl because it was her 1st novel. 

My high hopes didn’t materialize.  It was a good book, however it felt like a rough draft of Tall Pine Polka!  A lot of the same themes and similar events.   I might have enjoyed it more had I not just read The Tall Pine Polka.

        

A Stitch in Crime

A Stitch in Crime – Betty Hechtman

This is the 1st crochet mystery that I checked out of the library,  didn’t realize that it was the 4th out of 4 so I put off reading it until I’d read the others.  I read the 1st and 2nd books in the series and realized that while the 1st book seemed to lay the groundwork for the series the 2nd book didn’t build upon it, since the books seemed to stand alone somewhat I went ahead and read the 4th without having read the 3rd. 

This was the best of the series so far! It had a solid story and a solid mystery!  It also, like the others, sparked my interest in crocheting!  In the back of each of the books there is a pattern and this books pattern was a small purse that I think I can make! :-)

  

Tall Pine Polka

 

The Tall Pine Polka – Lorna Landvik

This was the best book I have read in a long time! :-)  Interesting characters and a North Woods setting made me think of Northern Exposure as I read this book.  The characters were interesting and complex and the story kept me guessing. 

When the book started out I thought for sure it would be one that would get labeled “single women” but in the end it didn’t quite qualify.  Despite the fact that there was more romance than I had bargained for at first, it didn’t override the story and the falling in love, getting married aspects didn’t solve all the problems and make life wonderful.  In fact the romance aspects seemed to create more problems for the characters!

 

Crochet Mystery #2

Dead Men Don’t Crochet – Betty Hetchman

Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the 1st Crochet Mystery it had a certain appeal so I decided I needed to keep going through the series. 

This one started out rather slow and seemed to be almost the same story as the 1st one, however it improved as I read it. 

The mystery in this story was more compelling, as was the solution.  I enjoyed it more as a mystery whereas the 1st one was more chick-lit. 

One complaint was that it seemed as though the 1st book never happened.  Many of the events of the 1st book seemed to set the stage for events to come, so I’m wondering now how important it is to read them in order.

    

The Painter from Shanghai

The Painter from Shanghai – Jennifer Cody Epstein

This was our book club selection for our August Meeting – it’s not going to be my favorite book club book.  It took me forever to read.  I think part of that was that I took it with me on my 3 week RV camping/hiking trip to Washington State and spending all day hiking and exploring National Parks severely impacts my reading time! Toward the end of the trip when we were on the Olympic Peninsula I was actually thankful for the long drives to get everywhere, I had time to read.   I think being forced to read it contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the book. 

This is the story of a young lady who thanks to the generosity of a customer rose out of the a life of being a whore and went on to become a world renown painter.  Much of the book dealt with political issues that went above my head. 

I think Sara from book club said it best, parts of the book were good and I was thinking it would be a good book, other parts made me want to put the book down and not pick it up again!

    

July Reading

Well, I’m glad I parted with the idea of reading 100 books in a year because my reading has ground to a screeching halt.  I read exactly 1 book in July.  1.  For the whole month!

Hey Ranger 2

My excuse is that I was out of town for 3 of the 4 weeks – I read this one the week before I left.  I had very little reading time while I was gone, and any that I had was devoted to my book club book, which I finished this morning, Aug 1, so it doesn’t count for July!

Oh well, the trip was fun and there will be time in August to read, there won’t be time in August to hike in the North Cascades or visit Alpaca Farms on San Juan Island.