For fans of Upstairs, Downstairs & Downtown Abbey (ME!), comes Life Below Stairs. It's a fabulous, fascinating look at the true lives of servants who served the rich and fabulously wealthy.

It's definitely written towards fans of the two mentioned series - it's a rather light look, doesn't get into a lot of details, and doesn't hit upon any of the negative aspects of being a servant - like 80 hour work weeks for no pay or sleep or freedom. Anyone who really knows the time period well, or the history of servants, will find this book too light to really enjoy, but for someone like me who was introduced to the time period through Downtown Abbey, it was a great read, though I really do wish there was MORE as the volume is pretty small.

The photographs and letters were a nice touch.

I'm the first to admit that I've been more than a little obsessing over the idea of canning for the last couple of years - ever since we started our small garden last year with my folks. I honestly don't have the time - or the energy - for canning, but it doesn't stop me from dreaming about doing it - talking about it - or reading endless volumes on it.

I picked this book up from the library - well, technically downloaded from the digital library - and though I did read it cover to cover, I honestly wasn't impressed. I guess there's only so much you can write about canning, but I didn't learn anything & didn't see any new-to-me recipes and I wasn't wowed by the text or the photos.

I give it 3 stars because there's nothing wrong with the book, either, and it's a nice little reference book for how long to blanch a vegetable, for example, but I have to give it 3 stars because you can just as easily google the information.

very basic, very limited information, and nothing common sense couldn't tell you, not to mention outdated even though the book is only 6 years old

What's not to enjoy about quick knitted hats? They are the perfect project (like socks) fast, you can use almost any yarn, you usually only need a skein or two, they are portable, and they are so much fun to experiment with. Like socks, you can wear a hat that is completely outlandish - you'd never wear a sweater with 6 colors and pompoms all over it, but a hat? Totally.

There's a great variety of hats, from a variety of designers who's names you'll recognize, from lace, cables, texture, fair isle, etc, color photos & charts throughout.

Most of the hats I'd rate advanced beginner, but that's what you would expect from a book called "weekend hats" - projects to knit quickly and easily.

There is the standard how to knit section that drives me crazy, but I guess it can't be helped.

I borrowed this book from my library's digital catalog.

The last Sookie Stackhouse book.

I've been attached to Sookie for a long, long time now - Anita Blake was the first paranormal series I fell in love with, the series that got me hooked on vampires, werewolves, and witches OH MY! And Sookie was the second.

Kudos to Harris for choosing to end this series before it got stale and tired (unlike the Anita Blake series, which I keep on reading and complaining about).

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago, but had to sit on the review because I honestly didn't know how I felt about the book. It was a quick read, like all the Sookie books, but I didn't want a quick read - I wanted to savor the last book. You knew the last book was going to be all about resolving Sookie's love life, which pretty much was exactly the point of the last book. Yup, there's other stuff going on, but those other story lines didn't really seem to be terribly well developed/thought out/well written, and just seemed like an afterthought - something to help keep the book going, something to help keep the book from being only 50 pages long.

So what DID I think? Well... I was disappointed. The last Sookie book, ever? Well, you just expected a lot... you expected great things, amazing things... and, well, the series concluded exactly like you knew it would, with exactly no surprises. And that just seemed like Harris cheated us a little bit. It just seemed like Harris wanted to make the long time readers happy, let's finish up the series, and be done with it.

So... that's the bad stuff. What was good about it?
* you find out who Sookie ends up with.
* it's the last book of the series
* Umm.

And there you have it. I think the fact that I can only come up with one good thing about the book, helps me to realize I rate this 3 stars. Why 3 stars? Because honestly, I knew all along she was going to end up with who she ended up with, and Charlaine Harris delivered that, as horribly badly as she did so.

There are a LOT of other reviews on this book, though annoyingly, most of the reviews start with "I didn't read this book, but I read other reviews, and I think" blah, blah. How do you review a book without actually reading the book?

I love Who's Line, I've been a fan of all the varieties and flavors of the show. I've seen Colin perform live, and he's amazing. So when I happened to, by sheer accident, see this book on netgalley I KNEW I had to grab a review copy, 'cause, you know, I love Colin.

Now, I don't read humor books, heck I don't even read comic strips... but I do love classics, and I do love Colin, so I thought I'd LOVE this book.

that being said, I didn't love this book.

Like any other book of short stories, some are much much better than others. Like the Sherlock Holmes story - I don't really care for Sherlock Holmes, so I didn't care for Colin's take at all. Ditto his Moby Dick one, though I enjoyed Colin's version much better than the original, but that's not saying much.

The book isn't meant to be a comedy book, but being Colin, I did expect the book would be funny. Maybe not every page or every story, but overall... I really didn't find it funny at all.

That being said, Colin is a surprisingly good writer (though I suspect at least some of that was good editing) and he can write a good tale, so I do give this book 3 stars.

Good morning!

Have you seen this book yet, that just came out today? Have you admired the crazy gorgeous yarn on the front cover or the designs on the inside? Have you started knitting socks yet?


Anyone who reads my blog knows I knit a lot of socks - a lot - though I make mainly basic, easy, toe up socks and don't often challenge myself in the socknitting department... or really, the knitting department. (I'll challenge myself with crochet sometimes, but knitting... knitting is just for me, and for fun, and I really do like the basics though I do know how to do any knitting technique under the sun & teach them all on a regular basis). Now, that being said, I love to knit in the round (and regularly turn flat knit patterns into being knit in the round) but I can't wait to start the socks in this book.

OK, whew... went off on a tangent there, didn't I?

So the book begins with the basics... how to, gauge, and specific sock knitting techniques as well, such as turning the heel. Then come the socks... oh the gorgeous socks! There's 15 patterns here, from the basic worsted weight sock to the fancy, fingering weight texture or cabled socks, and there's baby socks and heavier slipper socks. Surprisingly, there's only a few intarsia designs (Coffee Break would make EXCELLENT scrap socks) & only one pair of lace socks (though admitably it's gorgeous).

Alice Curtis, who's an LYS owner (lucky girl), even explains the best way to seam the socks... and seriously... it's not hard, and the finished socks look good. Crocheters, are you listening? She's having us slip stitch the sock seam!

I've been obsessing over the idea of canning - preserving - freezing - dehydrating - you know, anything to save all my goodies from the garden this year. Freezing's great, and fast, and easy, and simple, but... even with an extra freezer, my freezer is so jam packed right now, as fast as we're trying to empty it, it's just full full full.

I actually borrowed this book from the library twice, but didn't write a review the first time, and when I started reading this book for the second time, it dawned on me why I felt deju vu. So this time, I'm actually writing it up.

It's a canning book (duh) and I'm still not quite sure how to review cook books. I've been reading a LOT of canning books, like I said, and I don't know what I'm supposed to say about it. Since I haven't actually canned - yet - or followed any of the recipes - yet - I can't really attest to how well written the recipes or the book is, though it seems to be a straight forward enough book.

The book is broken up into different parts - getting started, the recipes (divided up further by fruit), and resources. It's handy because if you have 6 quarts of blueberries in your freezer (oh, that's me, that's right) you can look up blueberries and see you can make blueberry syrup, or use that blueberry syrup and make blueberry lemonade (doesn't that sound like Heaven!) or blueberry ketchup (ok, sounds good, but when would I actually use it?), blueberry vinegar (ditto) or blueberry shrug (double ditto). Then there's the classic blueberry jam recipe (in every canning book or site I've found), and a chicken recipe that uses the jam (which I can't eat).

According to goodreads, I first read this book in 2008. It's why, when I first started reading my copy from netgalley, the book seemed so familiar to me. I wouldn't have requested it from netgalley if I had realized it was the exact same book I read years ago, but I didn't review it five years ago, so it doesn't hurt to reread and review now.

Mother Earth is a well written "prehistory" book - a time period I was fascinated by when I was a teenager / young adult. The dawn of time... dawn of civilization and of humanity, how can one not be intrigued?

Chagak's story is compelling, well written, well researched, and is the start of a series. There's a great cast of supporting characters, but not so many that you can't keep track of them (a pet peeve of mine in other series books).

It is important to note that this book is intended for young adults / teenagers - the plot is slower than Jean Auel's series, but it's supposed to be. I find this more readable and in the end, more likeable (even though I had originally forgotten that I had read this years ago).

Years ago - before I knitted, before I designed, before I taught fiber arts, before weaving and spinning and dying, back when I did other crafts that didn't involve yarn, crafts like scrapbooking and latch hook and embroidery and cross stitching, I made homemade soap. I didn't make a ton of it, but I made soap, and it was fun.

When this book popped up on netgalley, I remembered how much fun it was to make soap. I didn't make anything fancy or honestly anything that even looked pretty, but it was fun. And reading this book made me remember how much fun it was to make soap and why I enjoyed making soap in the first place, and makes me long to make soap again (even though honestly, it won't happen because I'm a little too busy with the knitting, crocheting, hopeful weaving, sometimes spinning, always dying yarn and fiber, and oh yeah the designing and the occasional knitting class, too. Not to mention the reviews. And oh, seeing your husband every other Sunday).

Anyone's who's thought of trying a new craft or is looking for a new hobby or perhaps something different to sell at a craft show, should try this book. There's great details and lots of photos, besides amazing end products that you can actually make.