My Favorite Reads - The First Half Of 2018

In my typical cliff notes version - If I can recommend just one book to you this year, it would be Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  Even if you don't think the description sounds like something you would enjoy - just try it.  It's beautifully written, and my favorite read so far this year.

It's been a great year for reading!  According to my Good Reads log, I've read 73 books so far this year. The rainy days have made for great reading weather, if nothing else.  :-)



One of my new favorites is the Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton "Agatha Raisin is a frustrated, yet endearing, PR agent who retires from London to Carsley village in the Cotswolds, English Midlands and solves murders." It's not a ground breaking series, nothing incredible about the books, but I am just loving the character.  She's brash and rude, and somewhat bumbling..  but she's honest and loyal and funny, and she's British.  It reminds me of a much older, classier, British,  Stephanie Plum.  



From the Great American Read list of 100 books, I had already finished more than 50 of the books.  I know I won't make it through the entire list this year, and some I will never chose to read.  But I do want to make an attempt at a few more on the list.  So far this year I've finished Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood.  Both were very pleasant surprises for me, as for some reason I didn't think I would like either book.  Admittedly, I struggled through the beginning of Rebecca.  It was a bit heavy on the prose, for me, and I thought the entire book would drag.  HA!  If this book was written this year, it would be listed right along all of the other thrillers that everyone is talking about.  What great twists and surprises!  And the Handmaids Tale was one that once I started, I had trouble putting down.  I enjoyed the authors notes at the end of the book almost as much as the story.  What a fantastic read.


Don't forget to vote for your favorite in The Great American Read!


In general fiction, my favorite is The Women Of the Castle by Jessica Shattuck.  There's a scene about a murdered horse that made me actually put the book down and walk away for a bit.  It was horrible.  So it's a testimony to the rest of the book that it still makes my favorites list.  Normally when a scene disturbs me that much, I end up disliking the entire book.  (The Kite Runner is an example.  That one scene just ruined the book for me, although I recognize that it was a great story..  I just can't get past it.)  As with many books, sometimes you just read something at the right time of your life and it resonated more with you - I think that was the case, for me,  with this book.  It's about women in nazi Germany, who live in a castle.  But they are not glamorous.  From my goodreads review:

"Overall, the book is an amazing look at three imperfect women. Their failures and issues that somehow show us that we all have horrible parts, that we all have life altering failures, and that we can all be so very different and still have a bond. I wish I could find a way to say that without it sounding trite. This is not a trite book. It's one of the best books I have ever read."


 

In non fiction, I inadvertently read two books from the same time frame (1920's, roughly) , both about incredible injustice.  Killers Of The Flower Moon & The Radium Girls are two books that would be great in any history curriculum.  While familiar with the Radium Girls (although I had no idea the extent of the damage and legal battles!) I had never heard of the plight of the Indians who were murdered one by one for their oil rights, nor did I have any idea that at one time the wealthy Indians were considered "incompetent" and assigned overseers to control their money.  Both are absolutely unbelievable stories.  And both are part of our history.   Killers Of The Flower Moon is a bit more difficult to read - I could have used a chart of characters, it was hard to keep them all straight.  But that's simply how the story played out in real life, so I'm not sure what could be done about it.  Radium Girls is a bit more gripping - but every few chapters I would think the story had to be almost over, why was there so much left?  And then once again there would be a reason the real life story dragged on.  It's amazing how many never saw any justice at all.  Both are books I strongly recommend to everyone!  


"In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.


Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances." - Killers Of The Flower Moon


Leonardo, by Walter Isaacson, was another great non fiction read as well as Down The Great Unknown, about John Wesley Powell's 1869 journey down the Grand Canyon.  We were fortunate to visit the Grand Canyon this year, I read Down The Great Unknown on the plane on the way there and home.  I love to read books about places we visit.  I also read the childrens book Brighty Of The Grand Canyon, because it was written by Margaurite Henry.  She wrote the Misty of Chincoteague books, that my daughter loved as a child, and we read when visiting  Chincoteague, years ago.  Brave Companions is one that I read, and loved so much that I got the audiobook for my husband to listen to with me on one of our drives.  No surprise that I loved this, i love everything David McCullough writes.  I own very few actual books these days (we read mostly ebooks) but I own almost all of his in print form.  (I also own a complete collection of the Nero Wolf books by Rex Stout...  among manhy others, just not walls of bookshelves anymore, now that ebooks can be filed and stored so neatly in the cloud)  


Flat Broke With Two Goats was the Big Library Read.  This means that this book was available for anyone with a library card to borrow digitally - no waiting list, no limits on how many people read it at once - we were all encouraged to borrow it and read it, using the Libby or Overdrive apps..
A memoir, I found it to be fairly amusing, and I enjoyed reading it.  It's also a bit ridiculous, to whine about having no money while recounting your visits to starbucks, and I know that it annoyed many others.  I wasn't annoyed.  Since we raise goats, I simply related to a lot of her story, even if I couldn't relate to others.  It was simply a fun read for me, not a great moral lesson.  One goodreads reviewer wrote " It is a bourgeois tale of roughing it where responsibility is never taken & the author is never able to see beyond her own nose"  Well, he's not exactly wrong....  but I still found the book entertaining and interesting.


The Next Big Library Read begins July 9th. https://biglibraryread.com/



 

Young Adult
This year I've been branching out a bit more into Young Adult fiction, on the recommendations of some friends.  I've had some GREAT recommendations this year, including Night Circus by Erin Morgensten, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, & The Giver series by Lois Lowry.  The Giver series is one I always felt I should have read before now, so when someone mentioned them earlier this year, I decided it was time I finally got to them.  What great reads!  I enjoyed them all very much.  When You Reach Me is a book that builds on, but is in no way shape or form a sequel to, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  It is a charming read, especially if you loved A Wrinkle in Time.   Night Circus was recommended by several women my age, who simply told me that it was "a bit different".  It is a wonderful read!  The only thing I can think to compare it to is Harry Potter, and yet it's not Harry Potter at all.  It is my favorite read so far this year.  Little Monsters by Kara Thomas is another YA book I really enjoyed.  It was every bit as gripping as the other thrillers on my list this year, and better written then many of the best sellers I read.


"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des RĂªves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart."



In "thrillers" - my favorite genre, yet one of my least read genres so far this year - my favorites have been Sunburn by Laura Lippman (although the ending still bothers me a bit!), The Passenger by Lisa Lutz, and the much talked about The Woman In The Window by AJ Finn.  Although it's a young adult book.  Little Monsters by Kara Thomas is a really good thriller as well.


Disappointments for me, this year, have included: 
The Missing Ones - Detective Lottie Parker Book 1.   I love books with female detectives, but this one just didn't click for me.
Jackie, Janet & Lee by Randy Taraborrelli - More gossip rag than history lesson, very disappointing.
Raspberry Danish Murder by Joanne Fluke - Can it be counted as a disappointment if you read it knowing it won't be very good? I know the new books are basically drivel, but I keep reading them...  I can't explain it.  This one was so ridiculous it had me sputtering... and yet I'll likely read the next one.  
Into The Water by Paula Hawkins is one of the thrillers popping up on this years to read lists - and many gave it rave reviews.  I almost didn't finish it.  Convoluted, way too many characters, and not suspensful.  The Girl On The Train, her first book, was SO much better.  So, so much better.  
Partners by John Grisham.  I loved Rogue Lawyers, but this novella was a disappointment for me.
Carnegie's Maid by Marie Bennedict.  I really enjoyed the Other Einstein, but this new book had very little to do with the Carnagie's.  It was just a fictional love story.  Since the Other Einstein wasn't actually true history anyway, this shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did.



(Speaking of John Grisham, if you are looking for a great summer read about a book store - not about lawyers - pick up a copy of Camino Island.  GREAT read, really the perfect summer beach read.)



Some Of What I'm Looking Forward to Next:




Free 3D Paper Cutting Files For Cricut


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Free Paper Cutting SVGS
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Where To Find Free 3D Paper Cutting SVGS
Listed By Type

Mom Est with Kids Names


Cliff Notes Version:
  • Fonts are typically Times New Roman (I used Obelix) & MF I Love Glitter
  • The closed heart in that font is the | key - look right below the backspace key on your keyboard, in I Love Glitter
  • Resize the I Love Glitter words to something huge like 200 wide before welding, to keep the centers of the letters from filling in.  Size back down once welded.
  • I just use an iron, I've made hundreds of shirts now, all with an iron and have never had a problem.  

The Step By Step Version

 Use the | key to make the closed hearts between the names.  (Optional - add the heart before and after the names) Here's a cheat sheet for fonts like I Love Glitter, with Easy Glyphs - http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/09/fonts-with-tails.html  

 Another font that is popular for these shirts is Unicorn Calligraphy.  You can add text boxes for the hearts from I Love Glitter, between the names in the Unicorn Calligraphy font. 

Below I show how I typed the names, in Times New Roman, with the second line being the same exact text in I Love Glitter






Change the text color to white, or any color you would like.  I've seen this part done in teal and it was really pretty.  Pink could be pretty too!


Next I went to Wordmark.it to see which of my system fonts I would like best for the word Mom.  Times New Roman is the "standard" choice for this project, but I like to see my options.  I then filtered my selections to all the ones I liked best:
From left to right:
Bernard, Bodini, Bodini Black, Broadway, Chuck Noon
Collegiate Black, Cooper Black, DK Jambo, Engravers MT, LilyBelle
Obelix Pro, Rockwell Condenses, Snap ITC, Times New Roman

I ended up choosing Obelix - one of my favorite fonts.  But I started with Times New Roman, as shown below.  To make the kids names better fit, I unlocked the text (bottom left) and resized just the height, making it about an inch tall, and 11.5 wide.



With the Obelix Pro font:

If making a shirt, you will be cutting this on HTV.  
DON'T FORGET TO MIRROR!
I never trust myself to remember to mirror, so I always select all and flip horizontal - so my design looks backwards.  Then I can just cut without choosing mirror.
HTV goes on the mat shiny side down.


Weed the design, press the black onto the shirt lightly - I pressed for about 10 seconds, with my iron set between cotton and wool, with a silicone baking sheet inside of the shirt.
Then place the white letters on top of the black, and press again - this time I did 15 seconds twice, all over the design.  That was enough for the fibers of the shirt to show through the vinyl.

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More Projects & Free SVG's For Mothers Day:

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Where To Find Free SVG's & Cricut Projects For Mothers Day

Where To Find Free SVG  Files & Project Ideas For Mothers Day

Geocaching Themed Novels - Part Two

Books To Read When You Can Be Caching - Part Two
Last year I compiled a list of geocaching themed fiction. This year when I went to update the post with the additional books that have been published, or that I have since learned about, there were just too many to add to the original post.  You can see last years list here:
I've updated that post with my opinions of the ones I have read - my two favorites from that list were The Advocates Geocache by Teresa Burrell & To Cache A Killer by Karen Nortman
I also have a list of Young Adult Geocaching themed novels here:

If plucky heroines had their own secret society, Marina Koneyshna, Stephanie Plum and Bridget Jones would all know the handshake.
Life has gone to H-E-double hockey sticks for event planner Marina Konyeshna. A break up has forced her to move into her mom's basement, and her credit scores forecast she's going to stay there. When she meets Arman, a handsome client from Turkey, she jeopardizes her job for a date. Discovering the body of a young girl on the bank of the Susquehanna furthers her downward spiral.

When Arman invites Marina and her friends to participate in a geocaching competition, it's hard for her to pass up the possibility of prize money. As the competition unfolds through the backwoods, abandoned mines, and culm heaps of rustbelt, Pennsylvania, Marina discovers the link between her client and the murdered girl...and realizes what will happen if their team doesn't win.
 



Dead Place by Stephen Booth
I don't know exactly where geocaching fits in, as I haven't read it yet, but apparently this book does have geocaching in it.  :-) 
"This killing will be a model of perfection. An accomplishment to be proud of. And it could be tonight or maybe next week. But it will be soon. I promise."
The anonymous phone calls indicate a disturbed mind with an unnatural passion for death. Cooper and Fry are hoping against hope that the caller is just a harmless crank having some sick fun. But the clues woven through his disturbing messages point to the possibility of an all-too-real crime … especially when women begin to disappear.
This spine-chiller is perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Robert Crais.

What begins as an exciting challenge turns into a countdown to save a young girl's life... As seventeen-year old Aril Ousby, the son of a renowned astrophysicist, embarks on a geocache treasure hunt in Britain, a series of kidnappings takes place in the United States. How are these events connected? Is Aril right to trust the enigmatic architect of the treasure hunt - or is he being led into an elaborate trap? Is the puzzle master motivated by altruism - or greed? And why has he chosen to involve Aril in his scheme? Aril and his friend Unity are drawn into a mystery that leads them to look at the Earth from a new perspective and to address a fundamental question: can future generations avoid the mistakes their parents made?

Harry Bronson is a retired detective drawn into investigating a case that has haunted him for over twenty years. The murder of Casey Secrist had been Bronson's first case. Her boyfriend was eventually implicated in her murder; however, Bronson never fully believed he was guilty. Bronson begins receiving mysterious notes and finds himself the host of a murder-mystery convention with an all too familiar plot. Following the murder of a convention member who appeared to have information about the case, Bronson finds himself with a group of suspects containing both familiar and unfamiliar faces. As Bronson becomes a suspect in the murder, his wife disappears and he must find a series of geocaches to find her and solve this decades old murder before the killer kills again.

Who wouldn't love the character of Harry Bronson? He is a smart, competent man who loves his wife and loves solving crimes. Throughout his career he was infamous for bending the rules slightly and he hasn't stopped now that he is retired. Drawn in from the first page, I was reluctant to put the book down until the very end. In "Why Casey Had to Die," L. C. Hayden has created a suspenseful tale full of interesting characters that will keep readers guessing. Every twist and turn adds depth to this well crafted story. All fans of whodunit mysteries will find a new series to devour. I am already anxiously awaiting the next Harry Bronson mystery.




I'm not sure how much geocaching plays a part in this book, but it is part of the book, and the series reviews very well.
The food truck craze has reached the charming coastal town of South Cove, California, but before Jill Gardner—owner of Coffee, Books, and More—can sample the eats, she has to shift gears and put the brakes on a killer . . .

Now that Kacey Austin has got her new gluten-free dessert truck up and running, there’s no curbing her enthusiasm—not even when someone vandalizes the vehicle and steals her recipes. But when Kacey turns up dead on the beach and Jill’s best friend Sadie becomes the prime suspect, Jill needs to step on it to serve the real killer some just desserts. 



Well Oiled By Reuben Johnson
It's 2041 in the potentially oil-rich southern California town of Mayberry. Cousins and triathletes, Joey and Frank, are in the throes of deciding about colleges and careers.  At a triathlon, they make a new friend, Kodi, a triathlete and geocacher. Their world is rocked when they stumble on information that may explain the mysterious death of Frank's father ten years ago.

Follow the cousins on two distinct campbellian journeys through California, Mexican caves, and cyberspace as they try to unravel a mystery. Be thrilled as they try to follow the money through arcane bitcoin cyber-currency transactions involving mysterious foundations. Ponder the impact of Stabilization of Life unit medical technology. Check out how new drilling technology and oil money create havoc in an idyllic small town.



Serial Finder by David Klug
This is a novella that was originally posted online.  I've heard a lot about it, but the  online geocaching site it was originally published on no longer exists - So I was pretty excited to find it on amazon.  


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Although not specifically about geocaching, this one may be interesting for those of us who do geocache:


Maphead by Ken Jennings
It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere. Jennings takes listeners on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the "unreal estate" charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. He also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been. From the "Here be dragons" parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you're an inveterate map lover yourself-or even if you're among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket-let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.

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Read More About Our Geocaching Adventures & Tips Here
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/geocaching.html


The Grass Is Always Greener... In The Pasture With Nothing In It


Tia & a few of the goats, checking to see if I opened the gate back up yet.

Yesterday, at my suggestion, Dan put a gate between the goat pen and the front pasture. The idea is that in the morning I can open the gate, the goats can go out to the front pasture to eat the abundance of grass there, and then in the afternoon when I feed them they will go back to their pen.


This is because we only have one cow currently. One lonely cow on 10 acres of pasture. And an abundance of goats, and a llama, in a very adequate, but much smaller, area. So we basically have 10 acres of free goat food, just out of reach of the goats.


Lets install a gate, and give the goats access to all of that free grass! What a great idea!


Day One: I open the gate, pet the baby goats, assure Tia the llama that it's safe, and watch them all happily munching on the grass in the front pasture. YAY! Success! This was such a great idea! I go back to the house and sit down with my laptop to work on a writing project.


Day One, 15 minutes later:

Piper, Meg's goat, trots purposefully past the living room window, straight to the feed barrel, and carefully opens the lid to eat straight from the barrel. Our backyard is not part of any pen or pasture. Neither is the driveway she walked in from.

I laugh, and head out to put her back in the pen. Piper's the oldest goat here, and a bit spoiled. She was originally raised in the house with diapers, bottle fed... and we've always left her choose her own pen, fences have never slowed her down much.


First I put the lid back on the grain, then I watched her easily open the lid once again while I was trying to unlatch the back gate.


Ok, so that's a TINY bit annoying. She can open that barrel in seconds, while it takes me no less than five minutes and three broken fingernails.


But she is pretty easy to work with, and I convinced her to go back in the pen, after putting some of the grain in the feeder for her.



A few more goats... and see how short the grass is here?

Day One, 25 minutes later:
Then I thought I had better check on the others, to make sure Piper had escaped through the fence, and not because a pasture gate was open.

As I walk out front, the first thing I see is the big billy goat in the calf feed barrel. This boy has a HUGE rack of horns, so this is physically impossible. The barrel is not that large. His horns have to be at least 4 feet across. He's a large Kiko billy. And yet, somehow he managed. He's also pretty tame (all of our goats are, for the most part) so when I hollered at him he went running... which scared the row of baby goats that were wandering down the lane.


In case it's not obvious, the lane is not inside the fence either.


This upset some of the mom goats, who then came through the pasture fence to the babies. And it got the attention of two more goats, who realized Horton the billy goat was no longer in the feed barrel, leaving it free for them to try.


So now the pasture has approximately 3 goats, one Scottish Highland cow, and, thank God, one llama. I'm not sure what I'd have done if Tia was loose.


I chase the goats out of the feed, lock the lid down tight, and head to the back yard, where I fill the goat feeders. I bang on the feeders and call... no response. I walk out front, and several are gathered around the feed barrel, working together to try to open it. Monsters.


Finally Sandy, who is not the oldest but is definitely Queen Goat, notices me holding a feed scoop and comes running to me. All of the others, including the llama, follow. Several jump on me and wrap around my legs as I walk. I feel like a master goat herder, if goat herders are supposed to look ridiculous and have no control over the goats.


As the goats finally notice the grain in their feeders, I head back to close the gate between the two pens... and Hilda, the very not tame scottish highlander cow meanders into the goat pen.





Day One, an Hour Later:

I could not convince Hilda that the grass truly is greener (SO much greener. Taller. And so much more of it.) on her side of the fence, so for now she's a goat. I did spend the next 20 minutes trying to get her to eat out of my hand... but she wasn't interested in getting that close.

To recap, after Dan spent a great deal of time installing a new gate so that the goats would have more grass to eat, I now have a cow, a llama, and a turkey in the goat pen with the goat, and I have 10 acres of completely empty pasture.
(Did I mention the turkey? He didn't get in the way too much today, just followed along wondering what on earth I was doing, and taking advantage of the goat feeders being full with no goats around.)

Well that worked out about as well as most of my farm ideas.

But I got to pet Tia the llama, and I think Hilda the cow got a foot closer to me than ever before. I'm counting these as accomplishments, and hoping Dan still finds me amusing.... I had probably bake something, just to be sure.


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Day One - Lunch Time
I go to make myself lunch, look out the window and Tia is GLARING at the gate, ears back. So I go open it for her. There's still a cow in the goat pen, but now the pasture at least has a llama happily munching on it's abundant grass.

Read More About Our Life On The Farm



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