Homeless Blanket Project #33 - Groovy Gert

 

Tired of hand sewing, I started this blanket on a whim to use up some of my bits and pieces of leftover yarn in a mindless manner.  I love the way the triple crochet/single crochet rows work up, I decided to crochet a set of variegated and then a set of solid.  While working on it I decided it was REALLY ugly, but once all lain out it doesn't insult my eye the way I thought it might!

74. The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

listened on Libby when I FINALLY got it from TPPL

336 pgs.

2024
Adult RomCom
Finished 10/6/24
Goodreads rating: 4.14
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary LA (with some Houston)

My comments: I love Katherin Center's writing.  And this novel about writers writing together is a winner for me!  A completely clean romance with ups and downs and two funny, clever protagonists is a surefire hit.  Highly recommend for a feel-good story with an HEA.

Goodreads synopsis:  She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?

Homeless Blanket Project #32 - Finicky Freddy

I know this looks like gray, but it's not.  I'm using three big skeins of medium sage worsted with two shorter strands of various, multi-colored yarns that have been tied between each green.  I'm using the same crocheting pattern of one row of triple crochets followed by one row of single crochets.

73. Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

listened on Libby

384 pgs.

2024
Adult spicy romance
Finished 9/28/2024
Goodreads rating:  3.67
My rating: 2
Setting: Contemporary Austin, TX

My comments: Bleh.  Disappointing.  Tried and tried to like the female protagonist, Rue, but we were only given snippets of her inner self, and many didn't come until later on in the book.  Ice skating was a life changing event for both protagonists, and it should have been a bigger part of the book.  Rue was fighting with her brother about a cottage left in a will, but why?  Only because it was needed to move/change the plot a few times.  Not well done.  A disappointment from this author.

Goodreads synopsis:  Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.

September 2024 Handwork

Completed Projects:

Exuberant Ellsworth Afghan

for Homeless Blanket Project

Finished afghan:  124 sts. in each row and 54 sets of tc/sc in length

On-going projects:

 Indigo Hexie Flower Quilt

39 appliqued onto indigo (that's +16)

3 pinned on, ready to applique

10 flowers ready for pinning

42 other hexies complete & ready to form into flowers

total flowers: 52 (up 15)     total hexies: 406 (up 107)

Grey Hexie Quilt

23 rows (x28) all sewn together = 644 hexies

1 row ready to add = 28 hexies

25 triples,  18 doubles,  86 single hexies waiting

841 HEXIES TOTAL (that's up 75 hexies)

Finnicky Freddy

Homeless Blanket #32

two row pattern - one row of triple crochet, next row of single crochet

pre-wound yarn of 2 short bursts of color, then longer burst of mediium sage

166 sts. per row

30 (set of 2: tc & sc) rows

72. Storm Child by Michael Robotham

listened on Libby

336 pgs.

2024
Adult Contemporary Mystery/Thriller
Finished 9/21/24
Goodreads rating: 4.26
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Nottingham, England, and the coast of Scotland

My comments: Back and forth between two points of view: Cyrus and Evie, detailing how Evie slowly gets her memories back and discovers what had happened to her, her sister, and her mother.  The first half of the book takes place in their hometown of Nottingham, the second half in Scotland, where the fishing families that continue to be involved in the movement of illegal aliens into Great Britain are still hiding their participation from ten years before....as well as currently.  Good story.  Very well narrated.

Goodreads synopsis:  The mystery of Evie Cormac’s background has followed her into adulthood. As a child, she was discovered hiding in a secret room where a man had been tortured to death. Many of her captors and abusers escaped justice, unseen but not forgotten. Now, on a hot summer’s day, the past drags Evie back as she watches the bodies of seventeen migrants wash up on a Lincolnshire beach.

There is only one survivor, a teenage boy, who tells police their small boat was deliberately rammed and sunk. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is recruited by the police to investigate the murders—but recognizes immediately that Evie has some link to the tragedy. By solving this crime, he could finally unlock the secrets of her past. But what dark forces will he set loose? And who will pay the price?

August 2024 Handwork - Finished

New-this-month projects:

Indigo Hexie Flower Quilt

23 appliqued onto indigo

4 pinned on, ready to applique

10 flowers ready for pinning

42 hexies complete

(total flowers:  37, total hexies: 299)

Ongoing projects:

Cotton Dishcloths

knit 6 fairly good-sized dishcloths in Calfifornia, need to sew in ends.

Grey Hexie Quilt

20 rows (x28) all sewn together = 560

1 row ready to add = 28

36 triples, 19 doubles, 32 single hexies waiting

766 hexies total

Completed Projects:  

None in August, but plenty of headway on hexie projects!

On Hold at TPPL

 

All as of 8/27/2024

Atkins - Don't Let the Devil Ride   #6 on 3   (2)

Center - The Rom-Commers    #44 on 10    (4.4)

Hazelwood - Not In Love   #20 on 15    (1.3)

Johnson - Death at Morning House    #24 on 5    (4.5)

King - 11/22/63    #16 on 5     (3.2)

Mandanna - The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches    #59 on 6    (9.8)

Mayne - Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder   #14 on 2    (7)

Miller - Norma Dean's Little Library of Banned Books   #2 on 5   (2.5)

Moore - The God of the Woods   #118 on 20     (5..9)

Picoult - By Any Other Name    #131 on 15     (8.5)

Poston - The Dead Romantics   #21 on 3    (7)

Robotham - Storm Child   #2 on 2    (1)

Sullivan - The Cliffs    #46 on 8    (5.7)

Next to get to me should be:

     Robotham, Hazelwood, Atkins, Miller, King

71. The Burning by Linda Castillo

#16 Kate Burkholder

listened on Libby

320 pgs.

2024
Adult murder mystery/police procedural
Finished 8/21/24
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Amish country Ohio

My comments: This was a good one, although Kate was assaulted and quite badly injured numerous times and got out of it quite well each time, which is sort of hard to believe.  I guess she's more like superwoman than I had originally thought.  And in this one, the original murder was particularly grizzly in that a guy, admittedly a really, really bad guy, was burned at the stake.  It tickles me that Castillo can come up with so many plots that are quite varied from each other, as was this one.

Goodreads synopsis:  Chief of Police Kate Burkholder investigates a gruesome murder that reveals a little-known chapter of early Amish history in this new installment of the bestselling series by Linda Castillo.

Newlywed Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is awakened by an urgent midnight call summoning her to a suspicious fire in the woods. When she arrives at the scene, she discovers a charred body. According to the coroner, the deceased, an Amish man named Milan Swanz, was chained to a stake and burned alive. It is an appalling and eerily symbolic crime against an upstanding husband and father.

Kate knows all too well that the Amish prefer to handle their problems without interference from the outside world, and no one will speak about the murdered man. From what she’s able to piece together, Swanz led a deeply tr30oubled life and had recently been excommunicated. But if that’s the case, why are the Amish so reluctant to talk about him? Are they protecting the memory of one of their own? Or are they afraid of something they dare not share?

When her own brother is implicated in the case, Kate finds herself not only at odds with the Amish, the world of which she was once a part, but also the English community and her counterparts in law enforcement. The investigation takes a violent turn when Kate’s life is threatened by a mysterious stranger.

To uncover the truth about the death of Milan Swanz, Kate must dive deep into the Anabaptist culture, peering into all the dark corners of its history, only to uncover a secret legacy that shatters everything she thought she knew about the Amish themselves―and her own roots.

Indigo Hexie Flower Quilt

 Once I got to Dede's and we went into Bay Quilts I got a brainstorm about how I want to finish my appliqued grandmother's flower garden quilt!  This is what they had displayed:

I instantly fell in love.

And I even want to slow stitch it!

So I started collecting indigo-colored quarter yard strips for my backgrounds.  Dede had six or seven scraps, and I purchased a handful more while I was in California, because OF COURSE we went to a quilt shop or two!

  I'll start with an 8-inch square, then cut it down to 7.5 or maybe even 7 inches unfinished after I've appliqued on my single-row hexie flower.

As of today, I've got 18 finished!

The new Ott Light I bought REALLY helps.  Appliqueing with thread as the same color of the flower worked best. It's so much fun and going really fast.

9/28/24

39 squares appliqued as of today

70. Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

listened on Libby

419 pgs.

2022
Adult SciFi
Finished 8/11/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.03
My rating: 4
Setting: Far outer space, who knows when....

My comments: This is a very good sci-fi set in far outer space with lots of worm holes to go through, lol.  Humans have recently enced a war with similarly bodied extraterrestrials, though these counterparts have absurd telepathic capabilities and are very difficult to outmaneuver.  There is an element of romance throught, and I'm nout sure if I 100% liked that - the mystery and challenge seemed enough without it.

Goodreads synopsis:  

Goodreads Choice Award

Nominee for Readers' Favorite Science Fiction (2022)

Octavia Zarola would do anything to keep her tiny, close-knit bounty hunting crew together—even if it means accepting a job from Torran Fletcher, a ruthless former general and her sworn enemy. When Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire someone to fix her ship, Tavi knows that she can’t refuse—no matter how much she’d like to.

With so much money on the line, Torran and his crew insist on joining the hunt. Tavi reluctantly agrees because while the handsome, stoic leader pushes all of her buttons—for both anger and desire—she’s endured worse, and the massive bonus payment he’s promised for a completed job is reason enough to shut up and deal.

But when they uncover a deeper plot that threatens the delicate peace between humans and Valoffs, Tavi suspects that Torran has been using her as the impetus for a new war. With the fate of her crew balanced on a knife’s edge, Tavi must decide where her loyalties lie—with the quiet Valoff who’s been lying to her, or with the human leaders who left her squad to die on the battlefield. And this time, she’s put her heart on the line.

The critically acclaimed author of Polaris Rising takes readers on an exciting journey with the start of her brand-new series about a female bounty hunter and the man who is her sworn enemy.

69. Funny Story by Emily Henry

listened on Libby

395 pgs.

2024
Adult romance
Finished 8/4/2024
Goodreads rating:  4.23
My rating: 4.25
Setting:  Contemporary

My comments: A definite meet cute story that was quite enjoyable and ... well, cute...

     When Daphne is jilted the night of her fiancé's bachelor party, she is pretty devastated, as you'd expect.  That he jilted her to be with his best friend, a girls he's known since childhood, particularly upset her.  And having no place to go, she ended up moving in with the also-jilted boyfriend of the so-called best friend.  And it goes on from there.  Daphne is a children's librarian and loves her job, but has a lot of hangups.  Miles, her new roommate, also has a lot of hangups.  And they seem to fit together just like two pieces of a perfect puzzle.  He's too good to be true, actually.  With a cast of bizarre characters that are a lot of fun and a narrator who is one of my favorites, I totally enjoyed listening to this book.

Goodreads synopsis:  

Goodreads Choice Award

Winner for Readers' Favorite Romance (2024), Winner for Readers' Favorite Audiobook (2024)

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?

EE - Exuberant Ellsworth Afghan

This afghan, triple crocheted (with single crocheted rows between each triple) was used with the huge skein of dark charcoal that Heather got me at Christmas.  However, I also used in in another afghan, so I didn't have enough.  I tried finding more on the internet, but that color (sumac) is no longer being made and is out or stock everywhere.  Luckily, on a whim, I went into Marden's in August (8 month later!) and they had ONE skein left.  Can you believe that?  Meant to be or what?

I used bigger small balls of leftover yarn than for the green magic knot blanket.  This works up fast and fun, and I love the magic knot - so NO weaving in ends.  Hope the knots don't come out!

Finished blanket:
124 sts. in each row
54 sets of tc/sc in length

Finished 9/29/24

68. The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

listened on Libby

336 pgs.

2023
Adult Magical Realism/Fantasy
Finished 7/30/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Upper East Side of NYC

My comments: A girl who now lives in her beloved aunt's apartment on the upper east side of NYC, one day walks into it and discovers that she's gone back in time exactly seven years...and meets the young man who lived there seven years ago.  Very interesting, keeps your attention.

Goodreads synopsis:  Nominee for Readers' Favorite Romance (2023)

An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

Movie - Despicable Me 4

PG (1:34)

Wide release 7/3/2024

Viewed 7/29/2024 with Tristan at the Carlisle Theater

IMBd:  6.3/10

RT Critic:  56  Audience:  88

Critic's Consensus:  Fast paced and teeming with slapstick gags, Despicable Me 4 is as overstuffed as a piñata but full of enough candy to give audiences an enjoyable sugar rush.

Cag:   4/Liked it a lot 

My comments:  I wasn't looking forward to it (animated!) but Tristan said he'd like to go, and I'm taking every opportunity to spend time with this now-14-year-old!  It ended up being a very good movie that I liked a lot.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Gru welcomes a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who's intent on tormenting his dad. However, their peaceful existence soon comes crashing down when criminal mastermind Maxime Le Mal escapes from prison and vows revenge against Gru.