Holiday week reading

I didn't get as much reading done in Galveston as I'd hoped. I took along 3 books, finishing the first one while at the airport waiting for the flight home, and the second the next day.
I really enjoyed Some Like it Hot-Buttered, the first in Jeffrey Cohen's Double Feature mystery series. We are introduced to protagonist Elliot Freed. After selling a novel to Hollywood, he sinks the proceeds into a historic movie theatre, calling it Comedy Tonight, and showing (d'uh) only comedies. On a night when the main feature is Young Frankenstein, one of the audience members is found dead after the show.
I can't really go into much detail on this book, because I gave it to my sister-in-law after I finished it. Suffice it to say that Cohen has a great way with the English language, and is one of the funniest mystery writers around. I look forward to more in this series.

I love Leslie Caine's Domestic Bliss series. Fatal Feng Shui is the 5th installment, and begins with interior designers Erin Gilbert and Steve Sullivan having merged their businesses and calling the result "Sullivan and Gilbert". (Gilbert and Sullivan/Sullivan and Gilbert is kind of a running gag throughout the book.)
One of the first clients of the new firm is a woman who constantly changed her mind about what she wants, usually deciding after a particular portion of the construction is completed that she doesn't like it. Of course, this causes no end of headaches for Erin and Steve, and the headaches get worse when the construction foreman (who just happens to be Erin's black-sheep brother) is killed on the site.
Erin, who has been dealing with having a new siblng appear in her life, is suddenly forced to deal with his death.
This story is mildly funny, with most of the humour coming from the relationship between the two protagonists. Now that Erin and Steve are business partners, is another kind of partnership on the horizon?

Post-Thanksgiving Post

Here I am in Galveston, in a living room that's about 100 feet from the beach, and it's too darned cold and windy to go out there. Nevertheless, it's been a nice little vacation.

The first couple of days were warm enough for beach walks, and yesterday we spent most of the day either watching football or eating or watching football in a food coma.

We arrived late Monday afternoon, so not much time for sightseeing or anything. Tuesday, we went to Old Town Galveston, and walked around an area known as The Strand, which has some great old architecture. Many of the shops appeared to be of the tourist tchotchkes variety, but we did find a bookstore called Midsummer Books, a tiny store with a great selection of local works. Next door is an even tinier Mardi Gras museum. Tod's cousin Steve and family arrived that evening, and we celebrated his birthday that evening.

Wednesday, we went to the Moody Gardens, which I had thought were outdoor gardens, but turned out to be three themed pyramids. One is an aquarium, one a rainforest garden, and the third is a hands-on science exhibit. All of them were much better than I expected. I was especially impressed with the rainforest pyramid, which had not only plant life, but animals and birds as well. They even had a little bat-cave.

Today, we're planning on checking out some of the historic homes in Galveston, including the Moody Mansion (I guess the Moody family were real movers-and-shakers in early Galveston), and maybe walk around The Strand a little more.

I didn't get much knitting or reading done, although I did get a start on the Pidge I'm making for Virginia.

I gave my SIL Monica a Pride and Prejudice board game for Christmas (we exchanged gifts with the Texas contingent on Tuesday night), and last night we played a couple of times. The PnP trivia questions were remarkably easy but it was a lot of fun.
Seven-year-old Luke loved it!

This has been kind of a scattered post, and I apologize. I attribute it to tryptophan hangover. Back to "normal" soon....

Lego my.....knitting?

A YouTube video has been making the rounds in the online knitting community. It's a knitting machine made entirely of Lego. I think it's pretty cool, but I would have liked to see a shot of the product.

This is a little spooky!*

Tooling around the 'net earlier today, I stopped at one of the blogs I read semi-regularly. She'd posted the results of one of the blogthings quizzes she'd taken, What Year Do You Belong In, and just for fun I went over there and took it, too.

You Belong in 1959

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

*The reason this is spooky is that 1959 is the year I was born.)

Tea and Jane (or, what happened when I joined Ravelry)

I joined Ravelry in September, and over the past almost-two months, I've joined 15 sub-groups. The two that I'm most active in are Cup'a Tea and Austentatious Fiber Artists.

Earlier this week I sent out a package of stuff for my Tea-swap pal. Having no idea whether she reads this blog, I won't give any details, except to say that it was a lot of fun to put together, and also very difficult to stick to the $40 limit. But I managed (just barely) and am anxiously awaiting notice that she's received it. It probably goes without saying that I'm anxiously awaiting my package, but, there, I've said it anyway.

The Austentatious group is for Jane-ites, which I have been ever since I read my first Austen novel, which was Emma, for a BritLit class in my first year of university. Since then, I've read and reread the Austen oeuvre many times.

It was a some years ago that I discovered the "spin-offs". I think the first one I read was Pemberley, and soon after, Jane Fairfax, both of which I enjoyed. Off and on, through the years I've found a few more, like The Jane Austen Book Club.

But recently, it seems that every other book I come across is an Austen sequel or spin-off, especially since I joined the Austentatious forum on Ravelry. In the past couple of months, I've read the enjoyable
Jane Austen in Scarsdale, about a 30something high school guidance counselor who reconnects with her first love,
Austenland, where the heroine is given a vacation at a Jane Austen theme park,
Me and Mr. Darcy (reviewed earlier this month), about a bookseller who goes to England for the Christmas.

I've also read the implausible
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, about a young woman who falls asleep in modern-day Los Angeles and wakes up in Regency England, and
The Man who Loved Jane Austen, about a young woman who discovers some letters that might have been written by Jane tucked into an antique dressing table.

I'm currently reading Vanity and Vexation. Still on my TBR pile are Jane Austen in Boca, and Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field.

I'll stop now, and spare you the Austen-ish books on my TBR list, as well as the movies I've seen and want to see.....

Just finished reading...

Many Bloody Returns, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner

I generally don't enjoy short stories because, well, they're too short. I get interested in the characters and the story, and feel frustrated when it ends. I bought this book anyway, because I'm a big fan of both the editors, and I'm not sorry I did.

The book includes stories by some of my favourite authors: Jim Butcher (whose entry is a Harry Dresden story), Charlaine Harris (who contributed a Sookie Stackhouse tale), Toni Kelner, and Elaine Viets.

I discovered some authors I hadn't read before, such as Rachel Caine. I loved her story The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, about a young woman's 18th birthday. That was one of the stories I wished would go on. As was Jeanne Stein's The Witch and the Wicked, about a witch who is a caterer.

That's not all, of course. I was thoroughly entranced by most... no ALL of the stories. I can't think of a single one I didn't like. And I'm definitely going to look for novels by the other contributors.