The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Also known as the longest title ever

I've never been one for stories set in a past I could picture, or revolving around a war I couldn't relate to. I hated Pride and Prejudice for the former, and steered clear of every WWII related book for the latter. It's not the past that I can't get past- I adore Sherlock Holmes and other books that take place in history- it's the meek and demure characters.

Maybe it's just Jane Austen.

In any case, I began The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society expecting to want to turn it off immediately. I get this horrible notion sometimes that I ought to read a book because it will be "good" for me- that the fact that it has so many fans means that it has some literary merit and will improve my life (see: almost every book recommended for high school students). I just don't like them and usually wind up torturing myself to their close. After repeatedly hearing the praises sung for this book, and finally being confronted with it at Walmart, I finally gave in and told myself that it would be character building for me to abandon the world of cozy mysteries and fantasy romance.

I downloaded the audiobook from the library, and again, in my fit of desperation of being without my computer for a whole week, finally started listening to it. It only took two letters before I was hopelessly hooked.

While the book is incredibly predictable, it's not predictable in a bad way- it's more like when you see your favorite movie over and over again, and even though you know the guy wins the girl, you can't help but hold your breath and root for him. (On that note, I wound up watching You Got Mail for perhaps the ninetieth time this morning. That may explain my utter sappiness. I can't help myself when it comes to Meg Ryan's romances). The other extenuating circumstance is probably that I fell in love with epistolary novels from a young age. I blame the American Girl franchise's Royal Diary series. Those novels combined my love for royalty (my nickname is Princess for a reason!), and the warmth you get from reading a letter. This love for letter-based books manifested itself in fanfiction and Meg Cabot's American Girl when I hit my early teens. Now, apparently I've moved on to the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I absolutely adored this book. I fell in love with Juliet, and anxiously bit my nails waiting for her interactions with Dawsey. Isola was great comic relief, and I thoroughly enjoyed the influence Sydney had on her. Each and every character was likeable, and as the book neared it's close, I frantically wished that it would go on forever. The ending was rushed, as I understand it, it was written while the original author was sick, which explains the slight difference in writing style. It was still satisfying, though I had to wonder why the authors would have Juliet declare that the engagement isn't the end of the story- yet her story ended with her engagement! It wasn't logical.

In any case, I can see myself reading this book over and over again. While I wasn't moved to tears (something rare with books but common with TV, movies and even commercials), I did stay up until four in the morning listening to the end. I just couldn't seem to make myself pause it!

I left the book dreaming of my own love letters. Frighteningly enough, I'll be forced to either write letters or face no communication with Monkey later this summer. I'm not looking forward to it, as romantic as this book made it seem. ..

(5/5 stars)

Dying for Chocolate

 After finishing Diane Mott Davidson's first book, I couldn't wait to start Dying for Chocolate. I wound up downloading the OneClick program on my sister's computer because I didn't feel that I could wait until my laptop was up and running again.

I'm really glad I did. This book was excellent. While I wasn't quite as enamored with it as the last book, I think a good chunk of that was because of Goldie's isolation. I would have loved to see her interacting with other people besides teenagers more often.

Apart from that minor quibble, I really enjoyed this. Davidson managed to weave together a believable, yet surprising mystery. While the integration of clues was not as skillfully articulated as in the last book, it was still interesting. I wasn't too pleased to see that she kept with the "in the family" theme, but hopefully this motif will end with the next book. After all, Goldie is running out of family!

One thing I really appreciated was that Goldie's relationship with Tom Schultz seemed by far more realistic in this book. I actually saw the attraction, as well as Tom's integrity when it came to his job- two things I thought were lacking in the last book. I really saw him as her support- even though this mystery revolved around someone Goldie had gone on dates with. That went quite far with me in terms of creating the backbone of their relationship.

(4/5 stars)

The Knitting Blahs

I have a confession. I've got no knitting mojo. After I finished my mini creature and baby bunnies I've been completely uninspired with my knitting. It started with my complete unwillingness to work on my beatnik sweater, which, frankly, was understandable. I don't like staring at charts, and I had been working on it for ages. I also felt a lot of pressure to finish it before the Tour de Fleece (even though I fail at participating) and Ravelympics Ravhellenic Games. That pressure was entirely self induced and entirely stupid because it's knitting: an enjoyable hobby. So for a few weeks all I did was stress about how holy crap that sweater was never going to get finished. But then... I did. I finished it! I could move on to more appealing knitting!

Except, that's when I lost it. Nothing is appealing to me right now. I'm trying, I really am. I tried mindless knitting on my hexipuff blanket. That ended disastrously when I added a puff and used each edge to pick up stitches for more puffs that I placed it in the wrong spot. Yeah. That means I would have to rip out five puffs. It wasn't going to happen, so I just set it aside and tried to not cry.

Then I thought, well, maybe I just want to knit on something a little more complicated and larger! So I pulled out my Saroyan. Nope. I hate the yarn. H-A-T-E it. I don't get any stitch definition and it creeps me out to no end that it feels like hair. I'm going to finish this shawl, but I'm not sure how much use it's going to get. Actually, that's a lie. It will get exactly the same amount of wear as my other shawls: none. Remind me again why I keep knitting them?

Finally, I decide, forget it! I'll stash dive and knit a baby hat and matching booties! The hat was ridiculously fast and cute and adorable and then it came time to knit the booties... and I just can't force myself to do something that fiddly.

So... Basically, I'm stuck. I've gone through cycles of this before, where I hate all my knitting and I have zero motivation. Usually, I suffer through whatever projects I have on the needles and snap out of it with a giant case of startitis. Unfortunately, startitis seems a long way off, so I tried to jump start it with a little shopping.



If time, beads, and pretty yarn can't cure me, nothing will, right?

I had bought the skein on the left at the 2012 DFW Fiber Fest. The first year I had attended, I fell in love with the Brooks Farm yarn that eventually became my Multnomah. I figured I might as well continue the tradition and after some serious deliberation, I opted for the deliciously awesome skein of Solo Silk. The colors remind me of steampunk and 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the most awesome of ways, so naturally, I thought of The Age of Brass and Steam. After spotting a few amazing examples using beads, I knew that I was a goner.

 Once I got to the store, however, I had some serious issues picking out fabulous beads. In fact, I'm still not 100% certain those are going to make it. I know for sure that the little vial of beads will happen, but I'm going to have to see what the multicolored pack looks like on the shawl before I decide whether to use them. Though, the colorway is called "seabreeze", which is utterly perfect with my submarine inspiration.

The other skein came from a venture into a new LYS. Despite the lack of prices on, well, everything, I did find something I really loved. That skein of Baruffa Cashwool absolutely sang out to me. The fact that it was something like 50% off certainly didn't help, though the absolutely ridiculous tangled mess it was certainly gave me pause.

A few podcast episodes later, I tidied it up into this happy ball and decided that  a Laminaria would be just the ticket. After knitting my Haruni, I knew some pretty coordinating beads would make me happy as clam.

You know, apart from the fact that I hate knitting hugely complicated things. That's why about 75% of my stash is laceweight yarn that I intend for pretty but complicated and charted shawls. I'm nothing if not practical.

In any case, the beads certainly did inspire me. I can't stop staring at them and petting my yarn. I'm in lurrrrve with the idea of those projects. I cannot wait to cast on both. But am I? Nope! I'd rather go the masochistic route. I'm saving my Laminaria (which I cannot spell to save my life) for the Ravhellenic Games, and the Solo Silk for after I finish my hairy Saroyan. Hopefully, by the time I finish, I'll be so happy to have gotten it off the needles that I'll explode with a bunch of WIPS. Or something.

You put the lime in the strawberry and bake it all up

You may now commence the drooling.


A few weeks ago, I was rather, well "inspired" by the idea of lime cupcakes with strawberry icing and strawberry cupcakes with lime frosting. I'm not sure what exactly brought that thought on, but I knew it had to be done. I had queued up this recipe for key lime cupcakes ages ago, but I wasn't about to go out and bother trying to find key lime juice, or heaven forbid, juice the lime myself. Especially because the last time I was sent on an emergency Kroger run, I was told we needed  four ounces of lime juice which I somehow managed to mangle to four containers for the margarita machine.

I don't think we're ever going to run out of lime juice. You know what that means? It means I should make more guacamole, that's what.

Anyways, so I used regular old lime juice for these cupcakes, and used my favorite strawberry frosting recipe for the adorable cupcakes. To top it off, because I can't leave anything well enough alone, I dumped some lime zest on top, and then proceeded to have to tell all of the little kids who came for cupcakes that no, I didn't put vegetables on their cupcakes and they wouldn't be able to taste it.

The verdict? Apart from the mistake when it came to kid-friendly lime zest? Meh. I'm not a huge lime fan (don't ask me why I keep making desserts I'm not in love with), but I still gobbled up a fair amount of cupcakes. The recipe made a ridiculous amount, and they were sufficiently moist and delicious. Paired with the strawberry frosting, they were amazing!

 Still, I think I'll keep looking for my perfect lime cupcake recipe. That, or I'll stick to lime-bars. Either way. I really, really wish I had used some neon green food coloring. I know it wouldn't have affected the taste, but I think I would have enjoyed these cupcakes more then!

And since I can't mention the word "lime" without the Muppets getting stuck in my head... I seriously wish this was my ringtone for my phone. I might actually remember to answer it if it were!

All Day Lace Ensemble

So, I've basically decided that from now on, I'm going to take at least one photo a week of a previously knit but unphotographed finished object. I've had... issues... lately with taking photos. Not with finishing projects, but just getting over that last hurdle of a photograph, which is just silly. To start off, I took a photo of my All Day Lace Scarf.



I talked about the original project for this yarn, my Wild Vest a few FO Fridays ago. After the disaster of a project, I still had a skein left, so I whipped up an All Day Lace Beret. Well, whip up is a bit of a misnomer. Rather, frogged and knit and frogged and knit over and over again until I finally got a cute little beret out of it. A cute little beret that didn't match a single thing I own.

So, to fix that little problem, I thought hey! I could just knit a matching scarf. So I did. This scarf was easy peasy. Great autopilot knitting. Also great for commentary from professors. I probably could have made it longer (I still had eons of yarn left from the frogged vest), but at some point, you get tired of knitting yarn overs.

The yarn, NaturallyCaron Spa, unfortunately doesn't like to behave. It curls like no other, and other than being a dainty thing to match with my hat, I don't see much use of this scarf. I do, however, have every intention of knitting matching mittens. I mean, I still can't wear the hat and scarf with my normal clothes, so I might as well complete the outfit. Especially when you consider I still have a basketball size ball of yarn... Yikes.

Always the Baker, Never the Bride

I suppose that in this case, you get what you paid for. I downloaded Always the Baker, Never the Bride by Sandra D. Bricker because it was free, and man did it show. What shocked me was that it wasn't only available for online download, but people actually shell out $12.00 for a paper copy. Let me just say, it was not worth it!

What originally caught my attention was the title. I love to bake and cook, and I love reading and watching other people do the same. Some of my favorite books and movies involve making food, and I thought this might be a nice addition to my chick-flick shelf. Uh, no. While I knew that there were going to be heavy-handed religious overtones, that really wasn't what bothered me. You want to pray to get your man? Fine, whatever, it's something that's important to the character, and if the character is written well, I can totally get behind it. The problem with this book was that, well, the characters weren't written well. This felt incredibly juvenile- not because of the lack of sex (because I'm kind of prudish, fading to black is something I vastly prefer to graphic detail!), but because of the poor quality of writing.

I struggled to find any actual adjectives to describe the main character, other than "perfect". There was no real personality. Every other character was worse. The scenes from Jackson's point of view were absolutely laughable because I don't know a single person,m let alone man, who thought the way he did. It was really stiff and awkward. Whine, whine, whine, I'm torn between living my life and living for my dead wife. Really? Because you haven't shown it. Every other character seemed to be the token placement, and there was no real subplot to keep the relationship going. The cutesy phrases that the author was clearly proud of (the "hens" the "after care") were quite honestly, lame. The sisters weren't individualized people,  just one collective annoyance, when the author had so much potential. She could have given them each a personality to help both move along and regress the relationship between the main characters. Instead, they were one giant, cardboard cut-out of older sisters.

 In terms of formatting, the way the author wrote their accents drove me nuts. She chose a random word in their sentence to italicize, when every character from the book is supposedly from the same place. Either over-enunciate everyone's accent, or don't spell out anything! It was especially irritating because the words that were italicized were rarely ones that would have been especially accented in the first place. The second formatting complaint I have was that Bricker put dialogue from two different people on the same line, without any indication of a new speaker. That's just basic grammar 101. It's confusing for the reader, and poor form to boot.

Finally, the actual topic of food and diabetes was barely even mentioned, which was a real disappointment for me. The creme brulee cake was mentioned over and over again, without any new culinary masterpieces from Emma Rae. She was never actually baking, apart from perhaps one or two scenes. The diabetes was barely ever addressed, and when it was, it was absolutely ridiculous. While Id don't personally have diabetes, not one of the people I've met who has had spent all of their time whining about how they could only have a SINGLE bite of a sweet, or freaked out over having enough protein. Instead, like any other diet, they knew how to get a good balance for their body.

All in all, this book had potential. The author had a good concept, but she did not execute it well. I think this book would have really benefited from a few more edits, and more realism injected into the book. It read as something very amateur, and I left the book feeling quite unsatisfied.

(1/5 stars)




(3/5 stars)

Catering to Nobody

 Right before my laptop bit the big one, I downloaded Catering to Nobody from OneClick. I'm not entirely sure what captivated my interest- maybe it was the title. At any rate, after adding it to my iPod, I promptly forgot about it.

In my utter desperation for lack of things to do, I sifted through my iPod to find more things to listen to, while computer-less. Catering to Nobody again piqued my interest. At first, I didn't realize that it was yet another "cozy" mystery, so when the first attempted murder is announced, I was quite surprised.

The rest of the book followed a reasonably predictable matter. The ending was definitely something I didn't expect, but Davidson still managed to artfully weave in niggling clues without being too vague. I had thought right off the back that Patty Sue's frequent visitations were odd, but I certainly didn't expect the giant mess that it had caused. The attempted, and actual murderers weren't something that screamed out to me ahead of time, but once it was expressed on paper, made perfect sense.

The only thing I'm slightly concerned about is how the author is going to cope with familial murders. I can only hope she moves out of the family tree in the next few books.

I loved Marla, she was a really intriguing character, and one in which I wish the author had paid more attention to. I thought Goldie's voice was highly realistic, and her tenuous relationship with her ex-husband and son completely believable.

The only part I didn't find believable? Her relationship with Tom Schultz. I know, I know, he's supposed to be the romantic interlude, and I understand that he's going to play a larger part later in the series, but it seems so... unappealing. He's bossy and unprofessional, and that rather irritated me. It was just a bit too far fetched t think he would take Goldie, a woman he hardly knew, out to dinner and spill juicy details of the case to her.

Apart from that slight annoyance, I really, really liked this book and am looking forward to continuing on in this series!

(4/5 stars)

Plague Bunnies

Alright, here's what was supposed to happen.  I was supposed to be in Austin today, visiting a few friends of mine for the weekend. I was supposed to have this lovely, long bus ride to get lots of knitting done (including the sleeves of my Beatnik which are never ending. I've ripped them out four times so far). I was supposed to get in Austin and give these bunnies to the friend I'm staying with since she's rather bunny obsessed. I was supposed to have this lovely distraction from the fact that Monkey is going to be gone for two months and I won't be able to call/hug on him whenever I like.



The reality? I wound up getting sick the day Monkey left, withered away from the plague for a few days until I inevitably cancelled the trip to Austin. I managed to get my mother sick, and then promptly managed to starve and dehydrate myself to an even worse position and slept for 75% of every day this week. I didn't wind up giving these bunnies to my friend, I haven't actually knit anything in a long time, and I still have problems standing for a few minutes without the floor spinning.

Go figure. On the plus side, I'm no longer contagious, or really sick at all apart from being holy-cow dehydrated (hense the inability to stand. I'm nothing if not unbelievably STUPID) I've been spending lots of time with our birds (they're the only ones willing to listen to my pathetic croaking after a few minutes), and I've never been as well rested before in my life. Also, the CareNow people know every member of my family because at this point, we've all been in for the same stupid bug. AND I have these cute bunnies to play with. Cute  bunnies that took about thirty minutes to make, used up all of those random bits of yarn I had been saving for no good reason (clearly, I psychically knew I'd stumble across this pattern), and are really fun to through at your sister when she's refusing to obey your every whim when you clearly have the plague and are MOMENTS from death.



As cute as they are, and this may be the  residual bug talking, but I'm starting to think the bunnies are conspiring about something. Maybe they've been spending too much time with my sister...

Dead in the Family

Well, for once Harris' title actually made sense. Dead in the Family was quite a bit more cohesively themed than the last few books, and for that, I was thankful. While I wasn't absolutely in love with the story, I certainly enjoyed it. Not only did we get to venture more into the world of actual murder mysteries (though I was a bit put off by the fact that Harris makes a distinct impression to make the murder victim interesting and made me suspect a significant role in the rest of the book, only to kill him off a few pages later), but we also got some vampire resolution. The issue of Bill's infidelity with his maker was finally addressed via the introduction of Eric's maker. Sookie finally seems to be calming down over Bill's "betrayal", and for that, I'm glad. While I certainly like her relationship with Eric more (though that may be simply because I absolutely in love with Pam, and any chance to get her into the scene is awesome in my opinion), I still did enjoy the triangle between Eric and Bill, with Sookie actually not being a judegemental pain in the ass. Both male love interest are really falling in my opinion, unfortunatley. Bill is a controlling, whiney ex-boyfriend. In this book, he decides to try the emo look, only to be rewarded with a girlfriend by Sookie (what?). Eric, on the other hand, continues to refer to Sookie as "lover" which gives me all sorts of icky feelings. Plus, Sookie is constantly denying the fact that he TRICKED HER INTO MARRYING HIM. Uh, what? Wake the heck up and notice Sook!

Uh, anyways. Back to the book. Overall, this was pretty average.  Not a mystery I solved right off the back, but it was still comfortably predictable. I enjoyed the fairy intervention, and the time Sookie spent with her little cousin, Hunter. I enjoyed Bill being reunited with his "family"- both his vampire and descendents. I didn't enjoy any of the scenes with Eric- they seemed awkward and unrealistic. Jason has finally grown up and is helping Sookie out. While the werewolf plot seemed reasonably planned out, the vampire plot came out of nowhere. I really wish there could have been more of a buildup there.

I don't know, the entire book felt rushed. That's why it really wasn't one my favorites. It was definitely a lot better than the last few though!

On another note, this post was brought to you by the parenthesis symbols. I only used about a thousand!

(3/5 stars)

Dead Reckoning

I'm not sure that I can even write a proper review of Dead Reckoning. The fact of the matter is, I finished it entirely too quickly to have much of it soak in!

I chose to start this while I was frantically trying to pack and clean my apartment for my move out, and it certainly made the hours spent vacuuming (I'm not kidding, hours) fly by. Of course, that meant I barely paid attention to the plot, but if it wasn't captivating enough to hold my attention, it wasn't really great to begin with.

What I do remember about this book: I'm glad they finally laid the whole Debbie Pelt thing to rest, it was really getting old. Sookie has other things to feel guilty about. I'm extremely glad that she was still shook up by the massacre, but disappointed that Harris chose to make Eric an ass about it. While yes, it does seem in his character to be joyous over his victory, it doesn't seem in his character to angrilly feed on Sookie despite her pain. It certainly didn't seem in Sookie's character to lie down and take it! On the other hand, trouble in paradise means more relationship drama in the next book, and it was obvious that Sam is coming  up as a major contender. I'm really glad, as I really enjoy his character in the books (the TV show too, but not as a possibility for a relationship with Sookie). He's definitely shown himself to be by far the most caring man in her life, even if he does have a tendency to be a judgmental jerk.

In any case, the plot was underwhelming, the story was too. I liked seeing more of Dermott, and I hope he stays with Sookie for a while. I'm also glad they resolved the whole Grandma's-hooking-up-with-a-fairy thing, and that Cataliades were there (gosh, I love his character. Probably because I picture him as my tax professor), and I'm really excited to see what's going on with him. This just wasn't a fabulous book to me, not bad, but not great either. I'm glad that Harris is going to be putting the series to a rest soon, as I think it's run it's course, as much as I love the characters and ideas. Unfortunately, I'll be waiting forever and a day to read the next installment, since it's got a ridiculous hold at my library, and no digital or audiobook file available to download. At least it'll give me an opportunity to read something else!

(3/5 stars)