I am always reading at least one if not two or three books at a time so I thought I would mention a couple of ones I really enjoyed. Over my long, leisurely weekend, I read a really great quilting book recommended by Mark Lipinski in a recent edition of Quilter's Home. It's called The Quilter's Catalog by Meg Cox. The best way I can think of to describe the book is it is like a really great survey course in college that covers the breadth of a subject and gives you resources to learn more of what you are interested in (I'm thinking of a great art history class I took in undergrad). For one thing, the book is huge--600 pages and covers everything in quilting--history, techniques, styles, fabric, notions, books, Internet sources, bios of famous quilters, and so on. I wish I had this book was available when I first started quilting and couldn't wait to find out everything about my new hobby/passion/obsession. It would be the perfect gift for a new quilter, one of your quilt buddies, or yourself! The book is well written also and I found myself reading it cover-to-cover over the weekend.
Another great book I recently finished is Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead. I picked this up after reading a review in The New York Times. If you liked Cold Mountain or books by Cormac McCarthy, you will like this book. The author pulls you into the story of a boy on a journey to find his father during the Civil War with poetic and at times heartwrenching prose. One of the reasons why I liked this book is how the author portrays the Civil War very narrowly through the eyes of the main character, Robey. The reader doesn't get the sense of all the battles, destruction, loss of life, and politics--the big wide picture--but only knows what's going on by the people Robey encounters and the landscape he sees. You are not really sure even where he is going geographically and there is a lot of ambiguity in the book, particularly the ending, which would make it a great book for book clubs as it would lead to lots of discussion and interpretation. I really enjoyed this book and really got wrapped up in reading it.
OK that's my 2 cents on 2 books for now. Up next is the new Stephen King book. Happy reading!
1 comment:
Can I borrow your Quilter's Catalog? :) Gretch, you have a gift with words. Your reviews of both the non-fiction title and fiction title are super! Remember, I read reviews as part of my real job. You're incredibly good at reviews, as well as piecing:)
Take care!
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