Books

The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution, was good. I didn’t love it, but I learned a lot and I’m glad I read it.  And now for bookshelf #5! Since it’s Nonfiction November, I’ll read Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin. Once again, I’ve read most of the books on this shelf. Apparently […]

I’m a sucker for creative reading challenges, so when I saw posts about Nonfiction November on Instagram yesterday, I immediately scrambled to figure out what I wanted to read. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do the daily photo challenge, but I should be able to read four books based on the prompts. I […]

Something to Declare is a collection of essays that are responses to questions Alvarez has been asked by readers over the years. She addresses her family’s involvement in the attempted overthrow of Trujillo, balancing being both Dominican and American, the writing of many of her novels, and her journey as a woman and writer. I […]

The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays by Chinua Achebe was a good choice. It was riveting, and I didn’t want to put it down. What I learned from reading it will be so valuable when I teach literary theory and Achebe’s writing this year. I’m really starting to question why we often compartmentalize authors […]

I’m ready to tackle my first shelf, which poses a bit of a problem. The only books I haven’t read are ones I’m not exactly in the mood for, because they are all very serious and/or depressing. I thought about going out of order, but that would probably be too difficult to keep track of. […]

For the past few years, I’ve been joining book clubs and participating in Twitter bookchats to help me diversify my reading. The upside is that I’ve discovered new authors, kept up with new releases, and developed friendships with other readers. The downside is that the unread books on my bookshelves have been largely ignored. For […]

I initially thought that last year was going to remain my top year (241 books), until I noticed that while I didn’t read as many books this year, I read over 5,000 more pages. I’m pretty impressed with that considering how stressful 2022 has been. Granted, when I’m stressed I tend to escape into books, […]

The good news is that 2018 was an amazing year for me. The bad news is that I didn’t blog about any of it, mostly because 2018 was ridiculously busy. I fully intended to write about crocheting, reading, and traveling, but I accomplished so much that I didn’t have the energy. Here’s a general summary […]

I’m not good at setting New Year’s resolutions, but I love participating in challenges. Maybe it’s because most of the challenges I join are public and everyone can view my progress. Outside accountability helps me meet my goals. Every year I challenge myself to read at least fifty books, and I use Goodreads to track […]

I have a love/hate relationship with amigurami. I love the finished product, but making them can be incredibly tedious and painstaking. Over the years, I’ve compiled a number of tricks to make my life easier and my finished projects look more polished and professional. TIP #1: USE THE MAGIC RING TO START YOUR ROUNDS If […]

I’ve been talking about starting a blog for a number of years, but I couldn’t figure out what was holding me back. Signing up for my first craft show made everything click. Originally, I intended to write about serious things, but I think that’s what was holding me back. I need fun and creativity in […]