another week without sewing

It was another busy week around here.  I had only Friday off this past week and ended up being talked into picking up a shift that day due to a communication issue.  And I've picked up another one tomorrow for the same reason.  (New employee, so trying to cut her some slack until I actually meet her!)

There was also family stuff and I read.

At one of the "family stuff" get togethers, my nephew (the one who just got a baby quilt for his new daughter) asked for a new quilt.  He's gotten a couple from me over the years (not including the baby quilt), but his latest is literally worn away to almost nothing.  So I spent some time perusing patterns.  I haven't settled on anything, but I'm not shooting for any specific date to finish, so I have time to think.

I also read a fair amount.  It's a nice way to wind down after a long shift at work.  (And they're getting LOOONG lately!)

This one has won a lot of awards (look at all those annoying permanent stickers on there!) and that made me wary.  But another quilty blogger mentioned she enjoyed it and I trust someone who is a quilter first and book reviewer second more than the other way around.

So I purchased it new (GASP!) in hardcover (double GASP!) shortly before we left for our up north vacation in August.  Since I read based on a random number system, it didn't make the cut to travel with me (though I thought about changing the system) and it got chosen this past week instead.

I enjoyed it very much.  It is not so full of itself that you have to wade through half-page sentences and 7-syllable words.  There is no need to delve deep into something beyond the story to understand and enjoy the story.  (Though there surely is much you can delve into in addition to enjoying the story.)  And it moved along quickly.

If you haven't already heard, it's the story of Huck Finn told through the eyes of Jim, the slave who travels with Huck.  Though I haven't read Huck Finn in years, I had a vague memory of the story, which may or may not have helped me.  If I had remembered it better, I might have expected too much and rushed through to get to the parts I knew were going to happen.  Or maybe I would have appreciated some of the scenes more seeing them through both sets of eyes.  Maybe I'll read Huck Finn again?

I'm sure there are plenty of literary folks who can do a better job of summing up all the intricacies of the story and all that.  I'm not the person for that.  I enjoyed the book, I saw things through a new perspective and feel like I learned something from that and would definitely tell anyone on the fence about reading it to do so.  Because it was a good story about bad things.

With that being a surprisingly quick read, I was on to this:

Told from the perspective of George Westinghouse's lawyer, this is the story of how Edison sued Westinghouse (312 times) over the design of the light bulb in the late 1800's.

It's historical fiction, so you have to take the conversations with a grain of salt, but the actual framework of the story is true and somewhat crazy at times.

In addition to this (very young, inexperienced) lawyer running around trying to figure out loopholes and make allegiances to make the lawsuits go away, there is a young woman who hires him and eventually becomes something of a love interest.

Tesla is also involved, which I think might have been the reason I put this "maybe" book into the bag for purchase.  He is such a mystery, even to the people who know most about him and I'm fascinated by his crazy genius persona.  (Though to be honest, the book paints Edison as not much different, in his way.)

I enjoyed the book.  The chapters were short, which is nice when you're just trying to read a little at night to wind down and don't have to read 300 pages to hit a good stopping point.  And the story is interesting - I found myself wanting to read just a little more to see what happens next.

Since I finished this last night, I haven't started the next book, but am considering checking if I can get a copy of Huck Finn first...  I have to work in a short bit, so I guess I have a few hours there to contemplate what I want to read when I crawl into bed tonight...

And with that, I'm hoping this coming week will be better on the sewing front.  If things go as the boss wants, I'll be relieved of my shift this coming Friday (to be given to the new girl who I bailed out twice this week) and then I'll have 5 days in a row off!  What to do with such luxury?!?!

Happy quilting and reading!
Katie