even less!

Last week saw little sewing.  This week saw none.

To be fair, I did hit the sewing room, looking for projects.  I'm going to a retreat in April (I think I've mentioned this) and am trying to decide what to take with me.  Since I don't have much for UFOs, that means I have to come up with something new.  And I'm struggling.

I've been through a number of my quilt books and nothing sparked interest.  I've been through a number of older magazines (I purged a lot a long time ago, keeping only those I thought had something I might make someday) and have found nearly nothing.  And those I've found seem dauntingly complicated.

UGH.

What to do?

Read.

Book number one for the week was a good read.

Set in about the 1970's, a young man (high school age) shoots two local hoodlums after they break into his house.  The trial isn't going well and he manages to break out of the small-town jail and takes off.

The story is mostly about the rest of his family, though.  His father, a local janitor who seems to perform miracle-like oddities, soon loses his job after the crime and the two younger siblings (a boy and a girl - the boy, Reuben, being the book's narrator, both pre-teens) struggle with returning to school.  (No mother.)

So the father packs them up in the newly-inherited (a whole other story) Airstream trailer and heads west (from Minnesota) in search of the fugitive son.

The sister is an aspiring writer, hyperfocused on American Westerns, and the book is peppered with her writings as she tries out stories on Reuben but the whole book seems to have a bit of a Western flavor.  The kids see it as an adventure more than anything, though there are moments when it gets real, too.

A lot of quirky characters pepper the story, perhaps more than other books, but it made it more enjoyable to read.  And my only complaint is that it got a little long about 3/4 of the way through.  I just wanted to see if the things I thought would happen would happen!  So I guess some of that is my impatience.

This book was one that, when I went through my bookshelves, I kept.  I thought I'd read it, but couldn't remember it from the blurb, so when I added books to my reading cart, this was one that made the transfer.  I read the whole thing and it never rang any bells (I kinda expected it to) and I'm very glad I didn't just add it to the donate pile.  It's there now - not quite good enough to earn a permanent spot back on the shelf, but definitely a good read.

And then I moved on:

This book is nearly 500 pages and I blew through it in 3 days.  It is that good.  The best I've read so far this year.  My only complaint is that parts of the story are retold by different narrators, but you always get more information with the additional narrator, so it wasn't a bad thing.

Set in the 1940's and 1950's in Barcelona (author is Spanish and the book has been translated), a boy is given a book that turns out to be both very good and very rare.  Word that he has this book spreads (his father is a bookseller) and offers to purchase it for ridiculous amounts of money are made.  The boy, sensing something is not what it seems, holds onto the book and decides to investigate.  He would like to read more by this author, but something also draws him to find out more about the author also.

Early on he learns that someone is acquiring every book by this author and burning them.  We don't know why, we don't know who.  But apparently a whole warehouse was set on fire years ago to help with this effort.

As the years go by, he has hidden the book in a safe space and goes on with his life, though this is always in the background.  Fast forward about 10 years and his search is truly renewed and takes him to strange places and he meets an odd variety of people, all with some knowledge, but all with some stock in the book or knowledge of the author, so you never know who is telling the truth and who is protecting it.

By the end, many of his questions are answered, but I'm still not sure WHY the books were being destroyed.  Maybe I was supposed to read between the lines (I have a theory)?

There are a few more books in this series and I may seek them out, but I'm almost afraid - will they be as good?  And this one, by itself, tells a whole story.  I feel like the characters are all left in a solid place and at an ending.  So we'll see.

I've started another book (as if you needed to question that!) and so far it's enjoyable.  Another that was on the bookshelf that I THOUGHT I'd read, but 50-some pages in and it's also not seeming familiar.

I promise I'll sew something soon.  The baby quilt is due in just under two weeks (not the baby - just the quilt for the shower) and the wedding quilt that I made and then stalled on may be needed sooner rather than later (family stuff, so they may just do a courthouse wedding).

And here's a photo of Freddie on the day we got him, a little over 7 years ago.  I think his head is bigger now than all of him was back then!

Happy quilting and reading!

Katie