I read and love Karen’s blog so I knew that The Beauty of Different would make it to my Christmas list. It was actually the number one item on my list. And I bought it as a gift for one of my sisters-in-law. I wasn’t sure what to except and I didn’t fully understand what the book was about to be honest. But I knew I liked the way Karen writes and her photos and I was going to like her book.
It was wrong.
I loved it.
I was not prepared for how much I loved this book. How amazing I think it is. It is above and beyond anything I expected. It’s thought provoking, inspring, emotional, and all around wonderful. I am so very glad I asked for it and I am so very glad I actually took the time to sit and read it.
And I will be reading it again and again.
I am Number Four was another read recommended by my friend Kathy who reads a lot of Young Adult books. She said it was good and she said there was a movie coming out. I didn’t ask more, I just read. It had so much of what I don’t usually read: aliens, teenagers, science fiction.
But I read it in one day. I loved it.
I got engrossed in the story. And I wanted more. Like the Maze Runner, this is supposed to be a series so not all was resolved. Which annoyed me, of course. (And I did skip a bunch of the fighting toward the end.)
I later found out that James Frey is one of the authors of the book and despite the crazy scandal surrounding his first book, I am a big fan of his writing style so it wasn’t that surprising to me that I liked the book and will be going to see the movie.
I have no idea why I didn’t get Ordinary Sparkling Moments sooner. I’ve been a longtime fan of Christine Mason Miller and I’ve looked at this book many times on amazon. But this year it finally made its way to my Christmas list.
And I am so so so glad it did.
I read this whole book in one sitting and I decided to read it at least once every 2-3 months. I even remind myself pick it up daily and read a few sentences just to remind myself and inspire myself.
This book is amazing. Truly amazing.
Honest, inspiring, and moving. I am so so so happy I finally got my hands on it and I am never letting go of it.
Highly recommended.
The Maze Runner was scheduled for my young adult book club. Even though it’s a mixture of genres I don’t usually read: young adult and science fiction, I loved it and read the whole thing in one day.
It was an easy, interesting read. Not a huge amount of character-development as it’s mostly plot-driven. But enough character to keep me rooting and interested the whole time.
My only quip about it is that even though you find out some things at the end, you don’t get the whole story because this is planned to be a trilogy so the author is saving the rest for the next book. Which I understand.
And yet I still resent having to wait.
I kept putting off reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest for several reasons. First, because I knew it was the last one and there’s no more coming ever since the author’s passed away. Second, because these books tend to be heavy on the violence and I generally need time to recover. And third because I knew it would be a fast, engrossing read and wanted to save it for a time when I needed that.
So I finally read it. And I loved it. I am a fan of Lisbeth and I loved the second and third books way more than the first because they were so much more centered around her. I still think the second is my favorite but I liked this one quite a bit as well. If you’re like me and gave up after number one, i encourage you to give 2 and 3 a shot. They are considerably better than the first.
I’ve wanted to read The Gifts of Imperfection ever since I finished Brene’s previous book and heard about this one coming out. As soon as I got my hands on it, I wanted to read all of it. But I knew I was going to cherish it so much that I forced myself to take my time with it.
And it was so worth it.
This book is a treasure. I’ve dog eared so many of its pages. I’ve watched all of Brene’s talks and even joined her Webinar and I still had so much more to learn from this book. I cannot say enough good things about it. Go get it.
You will not regret it.
I’m a huge Kelly Rae Roberts fan. Not only do I love her art but I also love her words, her spirit and the way she shares herself so much. I’ve never met her in person but she comes off like a kind, generous soul who is full of life. When she taught a class last year, I was too busy and knew I wouldn’t be able to dedicate my time to it. Not to mention I had no intention of starting a creative business.
The class came and went and I was a little sad but overall I knew I wasn’t the audience for it.
But then she went off and created an ebook called Flying Lessons. All about how to make your creative business dreams soar. I really really really wanted to get it.
Except I had no creative business dreams.
I did have some creative dreams but none that I planned to start a business around. So I couldn’t justify the cost of this book.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it anyway.
So I asked for it for Christmas. And my dad was kind enough to get it for me. I read it cover to cover and I plan to read it a few more times. I still don’t have creative dreams but I love reading Kelly Rae’s words. I think she’s wise, talented, hard working and fully obsessed with art. In the most beautiful way. I can completely see why she’s so successful. And she totally deserves all of it. And more.
If you happen to have any creative business dreams (especially arts and crafts related and/or ones that might involve etsy, licensing etc.) this book is very very worthwhile. It’s detailed, inspirational and very specific.
I loved reading it.
And who knows maybe next year I will have creative business ambitions….
The Imperfectionists is a short story collection where all the stories are linked. They are all about different individuals working at the same newspaper. I don’t usually pick short-story collections but I’ve loved some over the years and they’ve consistently been the ones where the stories were linked somehow.
I tried to read this on my own a while back but didn’t really get into it. And then it was the book club pick for February so I read it anyway. And I really enjoyed it. Some stories more than others but overall I really liked the book. The characters are interesting and the stories are, too.
Recommended.
Graceling was a pick from my Young Adult book club. It’s not the kind of book I would have ever picked up on my own. I don’t tend to favor young adult and I really do not like fantasy genre.
And yet I loved this book.
I felt the pull of the writing and the characters immediately and I cared about them. While it might not have been deep or intellectually stimulating, it was a truly enjoyable book for me. I cannot wait to read Cashore’s second book, too.
I’m a fan.
Peter and the Starcatchers was the November book for my kids’ books book club. Jake gifted me the series for my birthday and I read the whole thing in one day.
I’d seen the Disney Peter Pan movie years ago but I did not know this story at all. This is the story of how Peter Pan becomes Peter Pan. It was fun, fast-moving, and really entertaining read. I highly recommend reading it with your kids. Maybe not the really little ones since there’s some death and mean people.
I love being in this book club. It’s like I get to re-experience my childhood, but this time in English.
Cutting for Stone was the January book for my book club. This book was already on my list so I was excited to read it.
but the beginning dragged and dragged and dragged. It took me four weeks to get through the first 200 pages. I was really frustrated and stopped reading altogether for a while. Which made me sad. And mad at this book.
But then it got better.
And, as is often the case, I got hooked and by the end, I loved the book and I am really glad I read it. I do think half he book could be cut without much quality loss but I loved it nonetheless.
Always Looking Up was another book I listened to while walking. This was another book I’ve had for a long time and I never read his first book. I know very little about Michael J Fox and I am not the biggest fan or anything, though I did enjoy most of his movies.
Which, of course, had nothing to do with this book.
I really enjoyed listening to this book. I liked the light way he wrote about heavy subjects. I liked getting a bit more insight into Parkinsons and it was a fun listen while I walked. All in all, not bad.
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projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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