There is Always Time for a Quickie….

Post! Your dirty minds should have seen that coming a mile away! 😉

I cannot believe I have somehow managed to neglect my blog for a week and a half – it this blog was a child the state would be involved. There was drama but frankly I am just not in the mood to dissect all of it at the moment (or ever). Not to mention the fact that whenever I go near my computer I am bombarded with all the things that need to be done of the silly machine like:

• Making new business cards.
• Making care instructions for all the new knits.
• Updating my Ravelry page.
• Updating my Etsy page.
• Replying to a million emails I would rather avoid (the ones I want to respond to I try to do in a more timely fashion).
• and of course…Updating my blog.

It’s been a bit of a struggle since I’ve been on a ruffle scarf binge again. I wanted to be able to buy a pair of needles for the Katniss Cowl. I got the needles but managed to much up the pattern so badly that I am seriously considering just doing it all over again – I owe it to my niece  and more importantly I owe it to Lolly over at Lolly Knits. Silly genius made me a perfect pattern and I’ve mucked it up.

Let’s talk about what the hell I’ve been up to – if you’d like to, of course.

** BOOKS **

• I read Delirium to see if it would be something Gloria would be interested in, since I have heard such wonderful things about Before I Fall. The whole romance thing is something she wouldn’t be interested in and I found it a bit lacking, especially since reading quite a bit of really good YA fiction. If this can count as a review here it is – this book is the first in a trilogy and I haven’t bought any of the other books yet. Enough said.
• The End of Your Life Book Club was…Amazing. It is one of those that after you finish reading you almost cannot start a new book, it feels too close to cheating. I love this book, and if you are a lover of books, reading, family and life then seriously go find a copy.
• I am so glad I am almost done with The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club – it’s bloody awful! Set outside of London the completely formulaic story may not have sucked that bad if the author would capitalize ever-single-solitary word she wants to emphasize. Every time I saw something Capitalized it took me right out of the story.

** MUSIC **

Imagine Dragons

Florence and the Machine

Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde

Elliott Smith

I could try to explain why I love this music but eh, I just wanna share what I’ve been listening to. Here is Imagine Dragons Radioactive though, the music video is painfully stupid but if you just listen to the song it’s all good!

** KNITTING AWARDS **

The Versatile Blogger

One Lovely Blog Award.

The Wordpress Family Award.

The Liebster Award.

The lovely bloggers who’ve nominated me for these wonderful awards deserve a proper “Thank You” shout out, which I will put in the Award section on the upper part of my blog. But if I blog it here their blogs might get read twice!

• Heartmade
• kfklever
• iknitiatives
• Me in Stitches

Go check out some amazing blogs and keep posted for their long overdue tributes on the Awards section of the blog.

** KNITTING **

• The Reversible Cabled Scarf was a stash-buster which made me so utterly happy that I made two. I found it on Ravelry originally, but when I went to find the link it’s gone. I remember it was free though so if you have an interest lemme know.
• The Herringbone Stitch cowl is made with the same roving yarn was the cabled scarves, in honor of Lolly and her Katniss Cowl pattern. Plus, I wanted the yarn out of my stash.
• The cowl was a purchased pattern from my LYS and it turned out amazing! And yes, I did find another WIP in the bottom of my bag – it’s like Mary Poppins’ freaking knitting bag!
• The baby hat was from Itty-Bitty Knits with a few alterations on my part, when the I-cord is place I will get a proper picture. I am pretty sure it is going to be adorable.

** THE END CREDITS **

If you’ve made it through my ramblings good for you because I don’t think I could! I can’t wait to get down and dirty with the Knit Along details, get some more knitting under my belt and do Lolly some justice with that cowl. You know, if I didn’t have a full-time job I could get a lot more done! 😉 Well Friends and Neighbors, hope all is well, cannot wait to catch up with all of you and hope to hear from you soon!

This is the scolding look I get from Max when I don’t blog enough. Scary, isn’t it?

Two Attempts at Book Reviews

There will be more pictures soon of all the goodies I have been knitting – I have been far more productive than normal here recently. I need to take pictures and update my Etsy store, but all I really want to do is knit….and read.

I am horrible at book reviews. Second only to reading books I love to discuss them, which typically means I am giving away the ending, spoiling it for readers everywhere. I have been pondering how to go about this weakness, how I can give you a glimpse of what enthralled me with the book without ruining the story? So, friends and neighbors, here it goes.

** Double Feature by Owen King **

You may enjoy this book if the following scenarios tickle your curiosity.

• Seeing a movie where a male satyr having sex with a tree.
• A pyromaniac ruining your life one match at a time.
• A father that is way worse than your own (or at least I hope).
• A sister who maces people at random.
•  The quirks of actors and swords.
• Anything involving fake noses or Orson Welles.
• A complicated family life that is both sweet, annoying, heartbreaking and hysterical.
• Fears of being crushed to death by a very large man’s thighs.
• My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Okay, hopefully I still have your attention and haven’t ruined anything for you yet. Let’s try another shall we?

** The Execution of Noa P. Singleton **

Here I am going to lay out what I really liked about the book.

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton

• The writing, while a bit stunted and jumbled, still propelled me to continue on. Lackluster writing usually puts me off a novel, but it was easier to overlook because I wanted to see what would happen next.
• At some point in the novel I wanted to 1) smack 2) hug 3) cry for and 4) condemn each and every character.
• The plot development is slow, but in a really delicious manner. There is no rush, which (for me) was how I imagine sitting on death row would be like. Why rush to the end when you know it’s coming?
• While I didn’t particularly “like” any of the characters I was still emotionally invested in them. Again, this is something rare for me.
• While the last few chapters were both equally surprising and slightly odd – I didn’t mind it. It seemed to fit with what the author was trying to get around – in a very roundabout way.
• My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars.

***********  ***********  ***********  ***********

So there it is. I have been reading more and more blogs that review books since the Read-a-Thon only to find myself envious of their ability to give a complete and compelling summary without disrupting the elusiveness of the story. I am tying to figure out how to approach review books for this blog – or even if I should be reviewing books on my blog. I love reading more than I love knitting – it has seniority in my life.

So friends and neighbors – honestly – what do you think? Any constructive criticism (or out right criticism) would be great. I want to share my love of reading the way I share my knitting and photography. What could be better? Did you like one style more than another? Should I abandon all hope and stick to knitting? Bring it on – I’m ready! 😉

The Flood

Before I begin the retelling of this story I want to get you in my mindset – why this was so frightening. Trevor. Cannot. Swim.

Something Mild

The vacation was a surprise gift from my mother and father in law, something neither one of us saw coming. After seeing how difficult this year has been for us they wanted to give us the vacation we crave, and what we craved more than anything was the cabin in the woods. This was where my family always escaped to in the summer, the place where Trevor and I went on our honeymoon. This was our happy place.

Luckily, before the sky opened up I remembered to take some photos.

As you can see the cabin we stayed in was built up on the hill, away from the lake. We never thought in our right minds that this was going to be a saving grace.

The first day it rained, but only slightly. It was more like a humid blanked had been draped over us, we couldn’t have cared less. It was our place, and it was our time to be away from phones, computers, work, money and every other care in the world. We listened to music, we danced (I know, so darn sweet it makes my teeth hurt), we cooked, we read, we walked….we did all the things we always did when we came here. This was Friday. By Saturday, things started to change.

Just Starting.

Getting Heavier.

The Downpour.

The Water got Dark.

And Things Got Bad.

By the time we lost power on Saturday we had 5 inches of rain and the lake, a runoff from the river, had risen to engulf what was left of the land between cabins. Our cabin was the highest of them all, and thus suffered the least amount of damage (and no damage to the car). We though this was going to be a great story! We played Scrabble, took a nap and went about preparing to read for 24 hours straight – heaven in our books.

But it just kept raining.

We kept reading, eating fresh fruit and drinking copious amounts of coffee, and we listened to it rain. We came to the decision very early in the morning that it was time to get out.  Well, that just wasn’t going to happen.

At this point, the Evil Dead was playing over and over in my mind. Trapped in a cabin, no phone and no way to contact our family. We were trapped here – and my husband cannot swim. I will be the first to admit that after I took the photo my Panic Monster reared its ugly head and I had a full-fledged meltdown on the road. Trevor was calming, comforting, and more than anything he was reasonable. We would go back to the cabin and read, waiting for the storm to stop. Ash Caves floods all the time, and the flash floods dissipate in hours due to the great civic engineers that plan for this.

So back to the cabin. The rain never relented its beating on the roof and slowly the pages of our books begin to wilt with moisture. Between the two of us though (I figured I should add this) we finished:

Trevor’s.

Mine.

Mine.

Trevor’s.

Mine.

By noon, the poor couple across the lake tried to make a run for it. Their car seemed to disappear into the mud and the water rose very, very quickly. The clawed (yes, they clawed) their way out of the car and back to the cabin. This is when the network of people trapped in the valley went to their canoes and began helping one another. I wish I had taken pictures of this, but truth be told I was so scared of having Trevor in that water that I forgot to breath. With my foot he was adamant I stay inside, so me and my panic attack medication became old friends again.

We traded food, books, movies (some had portable DVD players and laptops that still had batteries) and board games. It wasn’t long after this that the man who owns the property showed up in his boat, ready to get us to the pay phone to call whoever we needed. Trevor took this picture when he made it up and called our parents and my brother respectively.

View from the Phone.

As you can see the rain had finally stopped, but the damage was done – we weren’t going anywhere. The gentleman told all of us not to fret – I am going to quote verbatim here:

“Of course I’m not going to charge you! Trying to leave here is as useless as tits on a nun!”.

So we ate marshmallows, read, played massive amounts of Scrabble and waited for either the cabin to go into the water or the water to recede. Finally, the next day the water seemed to be going down at a comical rate, like a giant stuck a straw in the lake and was taking monster gulps. The irrigation systems were back on track, we still had no power but who could care about that! I should thank my Dad for instilling in me the need to 1) Over-pack both clothes and food and 2) have a small, odd fetish for flashlights/lanterns/candles and everything else you could need to see in the dark.

We called home again, this time able to walk more than we paddled and for the first time in days I took a big deep breath. This was still our happy place – some stupid flash flood wasn’t going to take that away from us. When we were finally able to maneuver the car out we thought we were footloose and fancy free.

Ha!

The funniest (or saddest, I am choosing funniest) is that when we hit a hole backing out the trunk popped open and the bag with my knitting and our books when right into the water. I got out of the car and just hollered and laughed, go figure huh? We waded in thigh high water to retrieve what we could (we lost two books and two and a half knitting projects) but who cared? We laughed the whole way home.

Looking back it is already taking on the quality of a good story, a damned good story in my opinion. If all works out, this is what my NANOWriMo novel is going to be this year, there are too many “what if’s?” to ignore the possibility of a great story. As for Trevor and I, we are glad o be home, clean, feed and curled up with Max who refuses to leave our side. All in all, I have to say it was a truly epic anniversary!

 

Read-A-Thon Day #4 – Book Spine Poetry & Tears on My Pillow

Okay Dokey folks, time for some book spine poetry brought to you by Oh, Chrys!! I thought about going through my library and amassing this amazing poem…then I decided that would feel like cheating. As my Summer Reading List is always evolving – based on what we get from the library primarily – I tried to do the best with the actual books on my list. So, as sad as this may be (much like my real poetry, which is why I would never share it) here is my Read-A-Thon Book Spine Poetry Challenge!

Delirium in the woods,

Gulp.

The shinning girls double feature,

The good nurse.

Wow, that was painful! Hope you’ll stay with me through the second part of this post after that atrocity! Just trying to stay authentic, that’s how I roll! 🙂

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›››› Tears on My Pillow ‹‹‹‹

• 

  The Girl in the Green Raincoat

  Author: Laura Lippman

• Style: Quality Paperback
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
• Length: 158 pages
• ISBN: 978-0-06-193836-8
• Year: 2008
• Publisher: Morrow
• Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Share a quote from your current read or tell us about a book that really pulled on your heart strings. What was it about that book/quote that made you cry?

She knew what it was like to fight for her own life, but this had been different. She was defending her daughter. Now she could only hope that she hadn’t killed her in the process.

Page 147

Obviously this quote was at the end of the book just by looking at the page number. I had invested hours of my time becoming immersed in this story – invested in the characters. Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan novels are of course part of a series, so this book brought me back to characters I have followed for years. I have been following Tess through all sorts of painful and dangerous shenanigans in Baltimore, so when this novella came out after being published in The New York Times Magazine I jumped on it.

In this book, my Tess – after years of rejecting the idea of settling down – is seven months pregnant and on bed rest. Firstly, I was amazed that Lippman went this direction with the character, as a private detective a baby just didn’t seem to fit. I went in a bit weary but Lippman didn’t disappoint me because Tess was as wary of it as I was!

This quote pulled at my heartstrings and indeed made me tear up because I understood, at a very personal level, the idea of protecting your unborn child no matter the consequences. She was so worried about becoming a mother, her lack of motherly instinct, but when the time came it just kicked in. I’ve been told that is how it really is when you have a child. We have never gotten to the baby part, and I was holding my breath to see if Tess did. Want to find out if she got there? Well…READ THE BOOK!

Read-a-Thon Day #3 – The Mysterious Page 99 Test

Since quite a few books suddenly turned up at the library today after sitting for months on our queue there is an abundance of new things to read! This is both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because books! YEA! and a curse because I really need to get on it. It seems a bit fortuitous that they all showed up during the read-a-thon. So here goes the 99 page test!

** Rules **

The object of the game is to pick a book you have not yet read, turn to page 99 and read that page. Then you give a synopsis of that page and tell us if, based only on that page, would you want to read this book.

• 

  The Good Nurse

  The Book: The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

• The Author: Charles Graeber
• The ISBN: 978-0-446-50529-1
• The Synopsis: Page 99 outlines a conversations between two employee’s discussing the accidental overdose of two separate patients in their care. This isn’t a spoiler – the guy was found guilty. The two are mumbling against one another about whether or not these deaths are not a police matter due to the type of drugs found in each overdose. Is it an accident? Is it on purpose? Well – neither know, and they are both clearly befuddled about it and very hesitant to involve the authorities. To me, they both seem like weak, resistant members of a staff that couldn’t fathom the idea of purposeful overdoses occurring on their shift.
• Would I Still Want to Read This Book: Yes! How could not want to read what happens next! Do they call the police? Do they ignore it and crazy nurse goes somewhere else? Do more people get hurt as a result of the huge decision based on what these two decided? How could you not want to know! Fact of the matter, it is going to be hard not to stop the book I am currently reading just to find out!

Read-A-Thon Day #2 – You’re the One That I Want!

Okay friends and neighbors, it’s day 2 of the read-a-thon and I just finished The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson. I have to tell you, this book was delectable! The book discusses so many different aspects of psychology that I just found fascinating. It included; Scientologist views (very anti-mental health care), criminal profilers, psychopathy in the incredibly successful (i.e. CEO’s, Career Military, Politicians, etc.) the Bare Method, mental institutes – I could go on and on. I never believed I could be so naive of how the industry works and the  subtle nuances of how mental health is evaluated.

I suck at reviewing books (I’d rather talk about them and inevitably spoil them) so I guess I will just say this: If you enjoy non-fiction books that; make you squirm, make you think and generally keep you reading even though you know you’re starving then pick this puppy up!

My Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 5 Stars!! – Well, they’re hearts but you get the point.

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“You’re the One That I Want” Participation Post

• List your must-have summer reading (the ones you read over and over again) or give us some of your favorite recommended summer reads.

Summer is a fantastic time for reading, the days nice and long and the sun refueling me from a long winter. I tend to read books I haven’t read in the summer, eager and ready to venture into new and exciting places. I save my favorite for the long winter months when the books are as comforting as a knitted blanket and a cup of tea. For the sake of this read-a-thon I will give you a list of a few books that I can read over, and over, and over, and over again and again!

• The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss – First romance novel I ever read and I will admit it, I bet I’ve read it more than 10 times…all 600 pages of it.
• The Stand & It by Stephen King – Comfort food, book style. These rather epic tomes feel like coming home to family the characters are so vivid. Sometimes, being reminded that humanity and the belief in magic is not lost is what the doctor ordered. What can I say? I am a Stephen King fan.
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski – Every time I open this book, with its warning “This is not for you” I am once again reminded that not everything has already been done. The style, format and narrative is so unlike anything I have ever read before, and every time I read it I discover something new.
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – This is the newest to the collection. I’ve read it twice already and seem to itch to want to read it again. Working in the ICU all through school, life with illness resonates very deeply with me and this is a heartbreakingly beautiful book.

The Flame and the Flower

The Stand

It

House of Leaves

The Fault in Our Stars

There are more, and if you are interested click →HERE← for more information!

Getting bored yet? NO! There is still so much more good to come….although Max sympathizes.

Max Feels Your Pain at My Diatribe.

* New Books to Get My Greedy Hands On *

Books that I want to read this summer? Good grief, the list is ridiculously long. I feel a bit behind in all my reading because I have spent so much spare time knitting and stupid, pesky work takes up way too much time! I have a list for this read-a-thon by it is by no means all-encompassing – so here are the books I am itching to get my greedy hands on!

• The Shinning Girls by Lauren Beukes
• Joyland by Stephen King
• Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
•  The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber
• The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel by Elizabeth L. Silver
• The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman

The Shinning Girls

Joyland

Gulp

The Good Nurse

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton

The Girl in the Green Raincoat

** Click on the links to read a real review and summary of these amazing books on Amazon. This is not a marketing ploy, they’re just better at summarizing than I am! **

Congratulations, you have made it to the end of a post that was far too long! I cannot help it, something about talking/typing about books just prevents me from keeping it short and sweet. So, friends and neighbors, PLEASE share what books you want to read or think I should read…your suggestions are freaking priceless!

 

Class Orientation for Read-a-Thon #SummerLovin13

Well friends and neighbors, looks like this week is going to be a multiple post kinda week. I love it, I just hope to not bore you to tears!

Class Orientation” Participation Post:

• Introduce yourself and set your goals for the read-a-thon. Some interesting information to include in this post would be Where are you blogging from? What got you into blogging/reading? What is your favorite genre? The possibilities are endless, just be creative!

Hello! My name is Rachel and I am blogging from the Buckeye State (Ohio) in the United States. This is the first time I have participated in any group activity in the blogging world, I’ve only been doing this for about 15 weeks so I will try not to judge myself too harshly. I stumbled upon this read-a-thon from a fellow blogger and knew it was something I just had to get involved in.

* * * * * * * *

I started my blog as a way to share my knitting and my families history of knitting with anyone will to read it. As I progressed and the weeks went by, the blog has morphed into something quite different. I talk about books, movies, knitting, my challenges with OCD and even my daily life. It is now akin to a diary that I put out for the world to read, and the feedback has been invaluable. More than just feedback, I have become suddenly immersed with people from all over the world who are passionate about what they are doing – the whole surreal experience has opened my eyes to all the wonderful things there are to do in this world. Suddenly, my bucket list has grown exponentially.

* * * * * * * *

Perfect Example of How I Read!

I have always been a reader, which is odd because my parents are most certainly not readers. My mom was always sewing in her spare time and my dad takes great pleasure in admitting he has never – and I truly mean never – read a book in his life.

Even as a kid I used to go buy poster board, line it into graph paper and keep track of all the wonderful books I could get my hands on. My parents thought it was odd, my brother thought I was a dork (even though he was a huge reader and probably my inspiration for starting to read such great quantities of books) but I loved looking up and remembering all the amazing places I had been with these books. Far away lands with eccentric characters – all while never leaving my room.

After graduation, literature and college where were one in the same. I tore through the classics in a desperate fury to talk to others about it. The air on intellect on a college campus can be pompous, but hey – it was college.

After my second and third graduation,  I realized that reading was just going to be one of those things I could never give up. I read constantly – I even listen to audiobooks when I am working out, knitting, gardening, cooking…pretty much whenever I can. I am a bit pickier with what I read now, having established that I love all genres but now old enough to recognize okay writing from exceptional writing.

Did I mention I have a library in our home with over 1,000 books? Yup, this kid (and her husband, niece, brother, friends) get quite a bit of use of the books amassed in the basement.

* * * * * * * *

So my goal for the read-a-thon….READING! I have so many books on my TBR list that it is embarrassing. I have been working on getting a business off the ground and in doing such haven’t had as much time to read as I would like. So for this week I am putting all other distractions aside and plunging into some amazing books.

Honestly, this was far over due…and my cat loves it!

Max is a Happy Cat When I am Reading!

First Day of Read-A-Thon Challenge!

Straight from Shelf Addiction to my blog….here it goes!

The Challenge Guideline:

• Grab the book you’re currently reading (or recently read)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page  NO spoilers allowed! Choose passages void of spoilers. The goal is to entice, yet not ruin the book for others!
• Share the title & author, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!
• Last and but not least, link up your post!

Okay friends and neighbors, despite the crappy couple of days I never back down from a challenge and I NEVER quit something I have committed to. So here we go.

My Book: The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson (you know? the guy who wrote The Men Who State at Goats?).

Teaser One: Abbott said, “Let’s go outside and settle this like men,” and so they did, and Abbott got out a knife and stabbed Richard Adan to death.

Teaser Two: When the police finally caught up with him, you know what he told them about the guy he stabbed?’ Bob said, “He said, ‘Oh, but he would never have made it as an actor.'”

Teasers found on page 107.

So far I am loving this book which is both startlingly scary and very, very funny. I cannot wait to spend the night with my cat curled in my lap, reading this book!

July Read-a-Thon Update!

Perfect Example of How I Read!

Here I go again posting twice in one day! In my defense, this weird sleeping means that everyday kind of feels like two – that and the fact that there is so much to share.

In July I am doing my first ever read-a-thon, which seems crazy because my wedding anniversary is the 5th and my parents anniversary is the 9th (thank God the party isn’t until the 16th)! My husband has agreed to go along with the plan and I can see the excitement building as we traverse our library in search of goodies. This is what I am thinking:

July Read-A-Thon Book Candidates!

Okay, right quick:

• Dark Places: Love Gillian Flynn – Sharp Objects (in my opinion) was better than Gone Girl so I am very excited to read Dark Places.
• The Handmaiden’s Tale: Have heard nothing but praise for this book, found it for a dollar at my local used bookstore and snatched it up.
• The Girl in the Green Raincoat: LOVE Laura Lippman (I am trying to get some female authors in this challenge as well).  I picked this up planning on reading it right away and of course got distracted. Bring in to Laura Lippman, I’ve been waiting!
• The Psychopath Test: A friend from High School mailed me this book all the way from Switzerland with an emphatic note to READ IMMEDIATELY. I plan on complying.
• Gulp.: Mary Roach, who also wrote a book called Stiff (read it, you won’t be disappointed) came out with this earlier in the year and it is just the type of !thing that makes me want to giggle with unadulterated glee.

That’s all for today (part 2) friends and neighbors. If you have anything you want to add or suggest, lemme know!

Lists are Calming – My Favorite Authors From A to Z

Dear Panic Monster,

You may have my attention after a particularly rough day, but I think I have you beat. It started with part of my oven falling on my hand that ended up with me in the Emergency Room – hyperventilating. My hand is all better, stuck full of drugs and relieved of it’s swelling it is the only thing that feel alright right now. OCD sucks, I know there are worse things but I will be damned if I can think of them right now. Thank God for Dragon Dictate. So, to calm my troubled mind here is a list of my favorite authors from A to Z.

Peter Abrahams

Christopher Buckley

Patricia Cornwell

Joan Didion

Dave Eggers

Gillian Flynn

John Green

Christopher Hitchens

John Irving

James Joyce

Stephen King

Elmore Lenord

W. Somerset Maugham

Audrey Niffenegger

George Orwell

Tom Perrotta

Matthew Quick

Michael Robotham

David Sedaris

Hunter S. Thompson

Stephen Unwin

Voltaire

Kathleen Woodiwiss

Gao Xingjian

Richard Yates

Emile Zola

Ah…sweet release. Just thinking about ole curmudgeonly Maugham makes me feel so much better! I never noticed that my authors are almost exclusively male and I find that rather odd, maybe it is time to give some female writers a bump on my “to read” list.

So friends and neighbors, do you have any favorite authors? The ones that make your toes curl, your heart race or quite your mind? If so, I am dying to know!