I've been oogling the designs from the book on Ravelry since it first came out, & I finally borrowed the book from the library to see for myself. I was hoping to have time to actually make something out of it, but alas, that will have to be another time.

There are so many gorgeous designs, I wouldn't have been able to just pick one. If I was doing the Ravelry blogging challenge, where you work through all the projects in a book... this would be the book for me (or maybe one of my sock books, but that's another topic for another day). I don't think there is one project in the book that I wouldn't want to make, and there are many projects that I'd love to make more then once, in different colors & / or for gifts (such as Cascade sweater, or the Skinny Flower scarf, or the Diamonds shawl...)

My absolutely favorite project, however, is Pearl's Cardigan, which is made with the easily available, easily affordable, and/or easily substituted for a more expensive yarn, if you'd like.

This is another must-buy for your crochet library.

Let me start off by saying I am an Edit Eckman fan, and this book delivers as usual.

This is not a pattern book, it's a crochet resource book for edgings. There are a ton of border ideas here, and it's very easy to customize the borders still more. They are all charted, which is always a plus, and include directions for making edgings on straight items - like the edging on a cardigan - or going around corners, like on an afghan. I love the fact that there are both lacey & textured borders.

This is a great resource book, full of a variety of edgings that have both written & charted directions. There are quite a few different designs, some lacey, some textured, some full of color. There are some that I have seen elsewhere (such as Heidi, single points, eyelash fringe) but that's certainly to be expected. There are a lot of ruffled designs, which look like a lot of fun, I think my favorite is Kendall's Ruffle.

There are a few simple patterns as well at the back of the book. Like Epstein's other books in the series, the patterns don't do anything for me personally, but the rest of the book makes it work buying.

There are a ton of cute projects in this book, well written, charts as needed. Some cables, some lace, some basic, some more complex. The yarns used are all "green" yarns, like Eco Wool (yarn is neither dyed nor chemically processed) or Schulana Sojabama (bamboo & soya, a fiber from soybeans, that is similar to silk in feel).

There's smaller projects, like Sustainable Bamboo Scarf & Soap Nut Vessels (a little bag to throw your soap nuts into). There's wearables, like Organic Sprout tank, which uses Classic Elite Sprout yarn (organic cotton), or the classically styled All (North) American Hoodie, using St Denis Nordique wool yarn (a yarn grown, harvested, processed, & distributed all in North America).

This was a young adult book that included two longer short stories about two very separate young teenage girls. I have never read a book by this author but I had no problem jumping into either short story. I greatly enjoyed the first one about Christy Miller, but did not enjoy the second story at all. About 70 pages into the second story, all of a sudden the main character, Sierra, starts talking about God & religion & that felt very fake to me. Why did 70 pages pass before the first mention of religion, and all of a sudden Sierra is so religious she's reading her book in the middle of the night? It would have been easy enough to introduce Sierra as a Christian earlier in the short story, but the author didn't. I'm sure regular readers would know this detail, but this just felt very fake & forced to me, especially since the second half of the story regularly introduced religiously elements, like quoting scriptures.

This was a re-read for me, because I wanted to reread it before seeing the movie. I have to say, I definitely liked the book much better when I read it the first time, when it first came out. Now I know more about Tudor history, I was definitely disappointed. I think I've outgrown Gregory.

Recently I was able to acquire a review copy of one of Classic Elite's new book, Quick Knits. Usually when I review a knitting or crocheting book, I like to be able to share lots of photos of projects from the book so you can enjoy them along with me, but this book is yet on ravelry. The book comes out next week on Oct 18, & is available for sale through amazon. A bit of googling only led me to one other review for the book here, though there are several reviews on goodreads.

Let me start by saying, I love Classic Elite, I love their patterns & yarn, & I love the fact that they are out of Lowell, MA, which is a couple of hours away from me & is the classic, New England, fiber town. The book has several catagories, such as hats, gloves, mittens, & socks. Most are very basic patterns, like the striped hat or the garter stitch hat, but there are also pretty patterns such as the Child's Fair Isle hat, using Wool Bam Boo. There's a very beautiful crochet hat (called Crochet Hat; you'd think they'd come up with a name a little nicer). The knitted patterns all are charted, though the crochet patterns are not, and most of the patterns I'd rate at easy/beginner level. There's a ton of lace hats that I really want to knit up, & a beautiful fair isle hat I'd love to make called Fresco Beaumont. I'm not a fan of cabled work, but there are several very nice cabled hats in the mix.

There's a cute fair isle mitten pattern called Fluffy Mitts that I think would make for an excellent scrap project, as would the Veritas Fair Isle Mitts, a pair of fingerless gloves in two sizes. The book also includes 8 patterns for socks, all of them very nice but nothing that screamed "knit me".

My favorite section should be no surprise to anyone who reads this blog or is friends with me on ravelry: the scarves, shawls, capelet & cowl section. There's a good mix here, from the super cute "Little Leaf Scarf" to great looking but still functional shawls.

My only negative is I wish there were more crochet patterns in the book, but for knitters, this book is worth adding to your library.

Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows I love historical fiction, but you probably also know I read mainly British historical fiction. Ever since I read a review of this book on another blog, however, I've always wanted to read it. Why? Well, mainly because I know nothing about Madame Tussaud, & know barely anything about the French Revolution, which Tussaud had a bird's eye view of.

Did the book disappoint? Nope, not at all. The book blends perfectly details from Marie's personal life, from her long love affair with scientist Henri, to details about the French court, to the leaders of the French Revolution. The book is very well written, moves at a fast pace, & I think I read the book in just a couple of days (which for this year for me, is very fast indeed).

Technology is wonderful, isn't it? Not only did I read this book on the kindle, but I got the book for free from the library!

First of all, let me start by saying I'm a huge fan of Sarah London, have been reading her blog since she first started writing one, & I'm also ravelry friends with her.

The book starts as with so many other crochet books, with a how to section. I really, really, really hate seeing that in so many books, I always feel if you are a beginner crocheter, you'd be getting a whole how-to book out of the library or from the bookstore, you wouldn't just pick up a random crochet book & hope there's a how to section in it. To me, it's really a waste of space in the book & a waste of money, but that may just be me.

As with all of London's stuff, all of the projects in the book are very bright & colorful, which is why she has so many fans. The projects are beautifully photographed, with both full shots & close up views. There are 25 projects included in the book, & they are all very beginner friendly. The focus here is on color, not stitches, and each project includes some tips on picking color.

My absolute favorite project is the Grocer's Tote, which is also featured on London's blog.

I won a copy of this book as part of London's blog tour.

This is the book that got me back into reading. Not that I don't always read, so I should say, this is the book that got me back into actually finishing something.

I found the book well paced, though others have said the book was a bit slow at times, I found it flowed nicely. I had never heard of this story before, so I couldn't attest to how historically accurate it was, but it was one of those books that made you think a little.