Author: M. C. Beaton
When I opened my Valentine surprise from the library I was thrilled to see it was a Hamish Macbeth Mystery. I’d heard the name and looked forward to another mystery series from Scotland. But this isn’t one I’ll follow.
There were some murders in the book but it focused mainly on a lonely policewoman and the devious plan she had to persuade Hamish to marry her.
Goodreads Rating * *
Sunday, February 17, 2019
As if I didn’t have enough to catch up on, an update to my website has completely changed (and in my opinion not in a better way) how I write my posts. So if things look strange and different, I’m still in a learning phase.
The film festival continued, although I think we missed as many movies this year as we attended. Thursday afternoon was a movie date and, because it was Valentines, we had dinner reservations. The snow started to fall in the late afternoon and we had already decided we wouldn’t go to the evening movie. It’s a good thing as by the time we were finished dinner the movie would already have started.
There were movies again Friday afternoon and Friday evening and with the time I had left in the day I worked on some quilting and preparing for my Guild class on Saturday.
I was up early on Saturday morning so I could complete the quilting before heading out to my class. We were learning how to make a jelly roll rug (a jelly roll is made up of about 42 2.5″ strips). I intended to use some strips the Guild had cut up and then the finished project would be available for sale at the quilt show. But I never finish a project in a class and I didn’t want to have another thing to worry about finishing so I used some of my own fabric. I already had some strips cut but it took awhile to get up to 42 of them. As predicted, I didn’t come anywhere near finishing my rug but only one person did and she had done a lot of pre-sewing before arriving. It was a fun process and I’ll definitely make more.
Although it has warmed up a bit and we’ve had some rain the parking lot at the church where we sew was a disaster. There is a rather steep hill to get down to the parking lot and I was pleased when I was at the top of it to see it had been cleared. Not so when you got to the parking lot at the bottom. Two husbands had to be called at the end of the class to push most of the cars out of the lot – mine was one of them.
I currently have three books on the go – I never do that. As I was finishing The Space Between Us I thought how nice it would be to see what happened next in the lives of the characters. Because this time I was reading on my Kindle they had an excerpt from the sequel so I immediately ordered it from the library and started on the first two chapters on my Kindle. That night I started the Valentine’s day mystery book I picked from the library. And after I finished the two chapters of the sequel (The Secrets Between Us) I started another book on my Kindle while I waited for another movie to start. Now that the films are over I’ll get back to reading one book at a time.
I’m going to be working on my Farmer’s Wife quilt again today – I’ll get it trimmed, add the binding and then tonight I’ll have some hand stitching to do.
Author: Thrity Umrigar
The title and the author were both familiar but I could find a record on my website or in Goodreads that I had read the book before. Once I started reading I remembered that I still had a list of books that hadn’t carried over from one website to the other and sure enough I had read it. I loved it just as much this time as I did the first, and I’m excited to read the sequel.
Goodreads Rating * * * * *
From my first review:
This book looks at the lives of a middle-class Indian woman and her servant. The difficulties they face in their lives are very different, but the women seem linked by a real friendship. A situation near the end of the book threatens that friendship and we get a glimpse of how status can threaten friendship.
Edge of the Knife
Edge of the Knife
This was an exceptional movie in so many respects. It is the first feature film in the Haida language and is shot on Haida Gwaii, one of the most beautiful spots in the world. The movie tells the story of a guilt-ridden man who retreats into the wilderness where he become feral until, a year later, he is captured by members of his community who drive the evil spirits out of him.
Firecrackers
My least favourite show of the festival. Two teenaged girls are desperate to get out of their small town but the ways they go about accomplishing their escape were hard to watch.
Maria by Callas
I knew Maria Callas was a famed opera star and that she was always linked to Aristotle Onasis. Other than that I really knew nothing about her. The movie weaves interview footage and Callas’ own journals and letters to give a portrait of a very beautiful woman. I liked how she interpreted her affair with Onassis – something I didn’t have a very clear picture of her as a person.