It's Monday What Are You Reading? 9/28/15

 I did get one book finished and started another. What have you been reading lately? I hope a book that was good!


Finished:





This book I learned quite a bit about the way Hangman's and their families during the mid 1600's were treated and thought of, basically they were shunned by society. The author of this book ancestors were in fact the Kuisl's, who were for centuries the hangmen of a village in Bavaria called Schongau. This book is the first in a series about his ancestors, and of course some fiction based characters and events, at the end of the book the author does a good job of explaining what is fiction and not, etc. This book focuses on Jakob Kuisl and his family, when a little boy is killed the town aldermen council (landowners/gentlemen/rich people) decides that it most be due to a witch. Jakob Kuisl doesn't believe this and tries to find out who is causing problems in the town and killing orphans. No one wants this event to turn into a witch hunt like years previously in the late 1500's were 70 women and children were burned for witchcraft, including aldermen's wives. No one is really sure why the novel is called The Hangman's Daughter, while she is a chracter in the book and more so in the last part, it is mostly about her father. I have heard some people complain about the translation as this book thinking to much modern language was used, it is originally written in German. I know some people wanted it written more in the language from back then, but I do think then that today's audience that may turn people away, although I wouldn't have minded if it was more in the original language. Since though we do not write or speak as they did back then I am sure it would be much harder to write a book. Anyways, I give this book 4 out of 5 I did think it was a little too long but I thought it had quite a few twists and turns.



Currently Reading:



I started reading this on Saturday and it is pretty interesting so far. It is the first book of a  historical fiction series which takes place during the early 1000 AD years. The main character is Emma of Normandy, whose brother is the Duke, and in order to form an alliance againgst the Vikings she is married to the King of England. You also get the viewpoints of several main historical people as well. Quite a bit of the histoical facts are from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles that was written later on in the life of Emma.

Banned Books Week!

Tomorrow starts the week of Banned Books Week. I am a person that feels strongly no book should ever be banned, no matter what the subject, theme, etc. You don't want to read a certain book, that is fine, there are several in my lifetime that I will never read, but don't limit that or push that on someone else. Everyone has their own tastes in books.

So what book am I going to read for this week? I am not sure but I will be picking a classic. There are now 97 books that were once banned and are now considered classics such as;

Of Mice and Men
The Grapes of Wrath
To Kill A Mockingbird
Gone With The Wind
1984
The Call of the Wild
For Whom The Bell Tolls
The Lord of the Flies
etc., etc., If you want to see the complete list of classics here it is.

Penguin Random House

  At my local library a representative from Penguin Random House publishing company visited. We received a free tote bag and a book with a few chapters to six upcoming books. Some of the books now have been published and others haven't. After I read this small book with the chapters I will review my thoughts and a small description of what each book will be. They also had a powerpoint that she talked about sixteen books or so that recently and/or soon will be published.  There was about eight books that I overall want to read, and a few of them are part of a series, so I will need to read the first few books involved in those. I haven't posted much crafts lately but haven't been feeling well and I don't like to work on crafts during that time. I have been reading more instead. Later this upcoming week I hope to post a review of The Hangman's Daughter.

It's Monday What Are You Reading? 9/21/15

  Another week has come and gone as they say. So what have I accomplished as far as reading? Quite a bit.

Finished:
Outlander by Diane Gabaldon

Currently Reading:

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch

Dead Souls by Nikolas Gogol

Want To Read:

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Doon by Carey Corp and Laura Longdon
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

IHSW September 2015 Signup

   I have not participated I think at all for this and plan on working on two different projects for a little while over this month's IHSW weekend. I am not sure how far I will get but I figure any progress is better than nothing. I haven't worked on any cross stitching for quite a while, mostly been working on a quilt that I have posted in my previous posts. Since I am not sure how much I will get done I do not plan on showing anything previous pictures of my current works in this post, although I will probably take some and if I get quite a bit done, post them in my progress post. Tonight. I do not believe I will get any stitches completed mostly because I will be watching a football game as well as watching the premiere of Doctor Who. As anyone knows these two items are really action packed so stitching is out of the question. Do you plan on participating for this month's IHSW?

Outlander Review...

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I am reviewing this book Outlander by Diana Gabaldon for the Chunkster Challenge, which in case you do not know for this challenge is a book that has to have at least 450 pages, this book Outlander surpasses that and has over 800 pages. A little history about this book, it was originally written in the early 90's and I had read three of the books by the late 90's (there are now eight in the series) but at the time the author took five years in between books, so I ended up forgetting about this series. This has now been made into a TV series, which I do not have the channel it is on, but have gotten to see the show through Amazon and it is very good. Anyways, by now you are probably wondering what this book is about and not wanting to read my ramblings. Claire Randall has recently reconnected with her husband after a five year absence due to WWII. Claire was a nurse while her husband, Frank, was involved in intelligence, and in order for them to reconnect they go on a second 'honeymoon' to Scotland. Frank mostly wants to visit the Highlands  because of his ancestor who served in the British Dragoons as a Captain in the 18th century before the Scottish Uprising (in which the Highlanders were trying to have Bonnie Prince Charlie take over as King). Claire just seems to tag along and not necessarily care about her husbands ancestors, she is more interested in the ancient druids and superstitious stories. At one point Claire gets sent back in time to 1743 in the Highlands and she meets her husbands 6x grandfather who was alive and in Scotland at this time named Captain Jonathan Randall otherwise known as Black Jack. Their first meeting doesn't go well and Claire is 'rescued' by members of the Clan MacKenzie. Claire meets Jamie Fraser who is nephew to the Laird, Scottish version of Lord, of the Clan MacKenzie and who is also a member of the Clan Fraser. Both Jamie and Claire have their own secrets, some that they share with each other eventually and others they keep to themselves, that will end up in various disastrous results for both parties.  Both of them are trying to stay away from Black Jack and the English. Throughout the book Claire meets some interesting people and tries a few times to get back to her own time. She makes a few friends but she is seen with suspicion as a English Spy or otherwise known, as the English are called by the name of "Sassanach" by the Highlanders. Claire has various adventures and dangers at the hands of both Highlanders and British Dragoons. As Claire is a nurse during her "previous" time and has 'healing powers' that others don't some are superstitious as to how Claire has these abilities.  There are a lot of action and drama throughout this book and it doesn't fit in one genre; it has romance, time travel, witchcraft (or what others think it is), historical, politics, justice, etc. The author does a good job in being very descriptive of the way of the life of the Clans and the scenery of the Highlands. I did like that this author was realistic in some historic aspects as I think quite often authors seem to romantic certain aspects of history, and in this book we see the brutality of "justice" or not "justice" being served during this time. We also see that sometimes people had to make choices based on practicality as well as necessity. I no doubt am not the best at explaining this book as I do not want to give anything away. I rate this book a four out of five. 

Who doesn't love a baking show?!

    I found this show earlier this year playing on PBS and love it. In this show they make breads, pies, tarts, biscuits, cakes, pastries, etc. They just started airing, at least in my area, the second series on PBS that is on Sunday nights. I missed the first episode and the second episode that aired this past Sunday the contestants made various types of breads. The contestants make three different items with a similar theme in each episode, some of which are of their own making and other items they are given a rough recipe to follow per the judges. At the end judges decide which contestant should leave, and they originally start with twelve people. One thing I like about this series is to see each persons personality and clips of what the people do besides baking.  Next weeks episode will be about desserts. On PBS website they do list some of the recipes for free from the bakers themselves. I love to get more inspiration of what to bake and ideas.

Couldn't finish this one either...

 

I received a free copy of this book from the Booklook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review per FTC regulations. I couldn't finish this book and I think that is because I wasn't convinced that most people didn't know about Carolyn's secret especially since Joshua's family didn't live that far from hers. Also with Amish families being so big I would also assume some from Carolyn's district at some point would have married into Joshua's, hence then everyone would know about who Ben's mother really was. I also didn't care for Carolyn's brother and was surprised how angry he appeared to be after his sister's choices even 15 years later. Joshua also seemed pretty weak as far as not having very many opinions himself and only doing what his mother told him too. I only give this a 2 out of 5.

Never going to be able to finish this book!

 I had gotten this book for free from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review per FTC. I thought that would love this book as I am a huge fan of history and diaries, etc. Emma of Aurora by Jane Kirkpatrick is based on the real life of Emma who was part of religious colony in Missouri. She has her eyes on a man who she wishes to marry and then the leader of the colony decides that they need to travel west. This book is based on historical documents, diaries, etc. This book is actually three in one and is almost 1,200 pages. I got partway into the second book. I just couldn't stand the character or at least the way it was written. She seemed highly immature and after she got married complained why her husband didn't seem to share her affections, opinions, etc. I am thinking perhaps this is because they didn't really know each other and she was the one who pushed for a marriage in the first place. On the trip to the West it was only worse, and while I did have some sympathy when they started to try and create a new colony it only lasted so long. I only got to the part where she was constantly fighting with her in-laws that had arrived. The book from the part I read was really slow and very drawn out. I really wished that I could have liked this book, and after trying several times to continue reading I had to finally give up. I only give this book 2 out of 5 stars.

A friend helps me with the mini flower quilt...

This is my friend that always wants to know what I am making and likes to keep me company of course. Here are the latest results of progress that I have made on this quilt. The piece is now big enough that when I add more pieces to it that the cat tries to get underneath the quilt top, I guess to to try and take a catnap, lol.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? 9/14/15

 Lately for a book club I have been reading the book Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I am almost finished reading and it is a whopper of a book with almost 900 pages. Each of her books as far as I know are about this length. I have read the book years ago in the 90's and read to book three in the series. I had stopped reading them since there were so many years in between books, sometimes five years for each one. It also became hard to remember where the plot was at while waiting for a new book to come out. Now, however I have been enjoying the tv series and rereading the first book. Since, I have taken such a big break in not reading this series now there are a total of eight books out, so I have quite a bit of catching up to do. I think the 9th book will be out next year. Have you read this series before and what did you think? I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea but I like the series for a variety of reasons; history, romance, time travel, and culture about the clans of Scotland.