"He's vegetarian." "Ok, I make lamb."

I finished another project. My mom sent me the pattern for this little lamb.



It's my first real softie, and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Mr. McFly! Mr. McFly, this just arrived. Oh, hi, Marty. I think it's your new book.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

The Story:
Our main character is Reverend Clare Fergusson and she starts the story by discovered a newborn baby abandoned on the steps of her church. In giving her report to the police, she meets the Chief of the small town police, and asks to go with him on patrol. A few nights later on patrol, they discover a dead teenage girl and thus starts the "solve the murder" part of this murder mystery.

The Review:
This was the choice for one of my book clubs, and I have to be honest. I don't read murder-mysteries. I thought for a long time about why that is, and remembered that when I was 12 or 13 I read all of Mary Higgins Clark's book (seriously, every single one). When I decided I was done with those, I just moved on to different genres. The only time I have ever gone back to something that can be called murder-mystery is Sherlock Holmes (and in my mind, it's a completely different genre), ... and Castle... which I like because I think it's hilarious.

That whole explanation is really me saying I didn't really like this, because I don't really like murder-mysteries. I read this quickly and was entertained as I was reading it, but there were some things that annoyed me. So first, Clare kept rushing off and doing really stupid things because she had some idea about the case. Then, both Clare and the Chief kept leaping to completely unfounded conclusions, and acting on them with no evidence. Then, Clare and the Chief develop a relationship, and I was frustrated with the romantic tones of the relationship because he is married and she is a priest. And finally, the resolution of the mystery was a little ridiculous. Seriously? Who acts like that?

Oh! And! When this was discussed at book club, the girl who suggested it made it sound like it was a brand-new book from this writer. So the characters spent the entire time running around and leaving messages at each other's houses and pagers and one character was a shock because she had internet. And I spent the entire time reading, thinking, "What the? Why don't they have cell phones?"

Final Recommendation:
It's a quick read, so if you like murder-mysteries, I won't say never-ever read it. But the writing is uneven, and I think there must be better murder-mysteries out there. (Like Castle's Nikki Heat series).

*****

The Cubicle Next Door by Siri L. Mitchell

The Story:

A nerdy girl writes a blog called "The Cubicle Next Door" and begins writing about her new officemate. A romance blossoms, she freaks out, writes about him on her blog, he reads it. And I'm pretty sure you know how that ends. 

The Review  Background:

Again, a book club pick. Ok, this is kind of a funny story: Last month we read Driving Mr. Albert, on my suggestion because it had been recommended to me. Everyone HATED it. Everyone. Including me.... So our book club meeting went a little something like this:

"Hi guys, what's in the bag?"

"My book picks for next month. We have got to pick something better."

"Uh, do you want to talk about this book?"

"It was horrible."

"Uh... Ok. What did you bring?"

So, everyone settled on this romance/chick lit. 

The Review:

This was a pretty long book, which was unexpected, but I read it really quickly. It's very standard romance fare. I'm unsure about whether it would be classified as chick lit, because while the main character Jackie is 31, has a job, and seems to be pretty successful at it, she is really weak. I thought the chick lit genre was all about girl power and romance. 

I don't read a lot of chick lit or romance novels, but I've read enough to know that this is pretty standard and fluffy entertainment. So that is how I read it, as just fluffy beach-read entertainment. 

And I was still completely annoyed. 

Jackie is a weak character, as I mentioned. She has chosen to isolate herself from all relationships except those she develops online. As Joe (the guy) pursues her, she whines and cringes and hems and haws and winds up acting really rude because of her neurosis. For some reason, Joe is willing to hang around her for a year (the passage of time got weird) and put up with all of this. And I was like, yeah right, I'd so be out of there. 

Final Recommendation:

Like with the murder-mystery, it's a quick read, so if you like chick-lit, I won't say don't ever read it. But I have to think that there is better chick lit out there. 

No need. I'm sure we can find a large rock somewhere.

My adoring blog fans have demanded an update.

Since they (you?) have demanded it, clearly you don't need a reminder, but I'll provide it anyway. A month ago (on January 28), I posted my motivation jar. I said I would put in a rock for every social event.

Social Life Tally: 22 rocks in the jar.



A week later, I decided to add another jar for doing yoga. That jar now has 14 rocks.

You know, I could totally rock a hat like that.

I found this cute hat pattern on Pinterest.



 I thought it would be baby-sized and cute enough for Zoey. Then it turned out to be really big, so I sent it to Jamie. She needs warm clothes, right?



Secretly, I had a hard time with the flower. Yeah, it looks so simple in that picture, but it was really complicated in the pattern. So I went and found a different flower pattern. And it turned out bigger... Which just makes the hat cuter, right?

That's right. When I was your age, television was called books.

Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti

The Story:
Paterniti is a journalist who hears a rumor/urban legend that some guy in Kansas has Albert Einstein's brain floating in a jar in his basement. One thing leads to another and he winds up meeting the man who does in fact, keep Einstein's brain in a jar. Again, one thing leads to another, and Paterniti offers to drive Thomas Harvey across the country to California, so he can meet with Evelyn Einstein -- Albert's granddaughter. The book is the true story of their trip.

The review:
The idea is fascinating. A pathologist did an autopsy on Albert Einstein, removed his brain, and then stuck it in a jar of formaldehyde and took it home. Thirty years later, he feels some guilt over this, so he decides to take the brain to the living descendant.

But that isn't really the story that Paterniti tells. He is focused on himself and his role in the trip rather than on Harvey or Einstein. We do get a lot of information about Harvey -- in which he seems like a total wacko and not completely there -- and a lot of information about Einstein -- some of it is flattering, about how he completely rewrote our understanding of science and the world, and some of it is about how he was a wacko. Along with the information about Einstein, we get information about his estate currently, the man who controls the Einstein image, how often Einstein is used for marketing, etc, etc.

With all this going on in a 200 page book, it is really jumpy and incomplete. Paterniti moved to so many different topics, that at one point I was looking at the page and thinking "What the heck is he talking about?" And despite the short length of the book, it was really slow to read.

Final review:
I was disappointed, so I don't really recommend it.

For the time would soon come when hobbits would shape the fortunes of all.

I went out for sushi yesterday.



And got a fortune cookie. (Yeah, what kind of sushi place gives fortune cookies?)

But I got a kick out of the fortune:
"Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you."




So heads up people: May 11.

A book hasn't given me this much trouble since Waldo went to that barber pole factory.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

The Story:
The narrator is a dog named Enzo, who tells the story of his owners and the story of his own life.

The Review:
I don't like dogs. Actually, the truth (which as a 30 year old, I can finally admit) is I'm afraid of dogs. It's just like being afraid of spiders or snakes. It's not something that is controllable.

So I was really prepared to not like this book at all.

And yet I did.

Because really, how do you not like a narrator like this:
"My two favorite actors are, in this order: Steve McQueen and Al Pacino. Bobby Deerfield is a very underappreciated film, as is Pacino's performance in it. My third favorite actor is Paul Newman, for his excellent car-handling skills in the film Winning, and because he is a fantastic racer in his own right and owns a Champ Car racing team, and finally, because he purchases his palm fruit oil from renewable sources in Colombia and thereby discourages the decimation of vast tracts of rain forest in Borneo and Sumatra. George Clooney is my fourth favorite actor because he's exceptionally clever at helping cure children of diseases on reruns of ER, and because he looks a little like me around the eyes."

The story is a little sad, but still had moments that surprised me into laughing out loud. It was a super fast read. And a good light and fluffy story to stick between some rather heavy stuff.

Oh, and if you saw the dog on the cover and thought "Ew, Marley and Me" (which I will proudly state I never read or watched), allow me just to say this is a very different kind of dog.