Works in Progress, TBR Books, Sad News

Sunset from late October

Frost and cold arrived late this year in my part of Michigan. In October we watched people walking dogs in shorts and flip flops and then temps dipped into the twenties. This past week we had an Arctic Blast!

This week's last roses of summer--or rather, autumn

There are still green leaves on the apple trees, now curled and frost-bitten. We are waiting for the maple leaves to fall.

Now that summer's heat is over I am back to hand quilting my Austen Family Album quilt. I sure hope to finish it this year!

I made a lap quilt top to go into our living room, a pattern I previous made in a little larger size. In January I plan have my projects machine quilted. I can't keep up with quilting any more!

I picked the colors to match my newly upholstered 1930 club chair. A quilt friend made me matching pillows for my settees.

My grandfather Milo bought this chair in 1930

fabrics from Connecting Threads

Matching pillows

I found such lovely fabric called Neverland and was thrilled to find an Etsy shop with Marian Cheever Whiteside Newton's Story Book quilt pattern for Peter Pan! I plan to make some, not all, of the applique blocks and set them with pieced blocks made with the Neverland fabrics.

Peter Pan Story Book quilt pattern

Fewer books are published in these last months of the year. Look for my upcoming review on Elizabeth Berg's heart warming novel The Story of Arthur Truluv, and a sweet tale from Australia, A Hundred Small Lessons by Ashley Hay.

I am trying very hard not to put in too many requests for upcoming books. I have already read 158 books this year!

ARC from W W Norton: The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve

On my TBR shelf:

• Starlings by Jo Walton
• The Boat People by Sharon Bala
• Daphne by Will Boast
• As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner
• Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris
• Lear by Harold Bloom
• Debriefing by Susan Sontag
• The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt

Books I won and am expecting:

• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• Endurance by Scott Kelly
• Winter by Karl Ove Knausgard
• The Book of Joe by Joe Biden and Jeff Wilser
• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

ARC from W W Norton, The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah

Reading now:

• To Lay Rest Our Ghosts by Caitlin Hamilton Summie (purchased book!)
• A State of Freedom by Meel Mukhejee
• Building the Great Society by Joshua Zeitz

I am also going to reread Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro this month for one of my book clubs.Book club selections coming up that I am looking forward to next year include Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, plus rereading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Books to be discussed which I have already read include Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood, The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson, and Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue--which my library club read last month! I likely won't need to reread those last three.

Bookish ARC win; review soon to come!

All the ebook reading has wrecked havoc on my eyes! I am glad to have 'real' books to read from Blogging for Books, giveaway wins, ARCs from publishers, and Bookish. It's easier on my eyes.

I also bought some great used books at the library book sale! I enjoyed Hannah Kent's The Good People, and I hear that her Burial Rites was even better--which must mean it is magnificent. I also snagged Zadie Smith's Swing Time!

My book sale finds

 My husband won a book club pack and we can't wait to use it! The author will Skype with the club! Hubby is in a mystery book club and also we will use it with the library book club.

Book Club pack win for Girl Waits with Gun

We are now without our two dear doggies. They both had cognitive dysfunction and were blind. After we had to let go of Suki, whose quality of life was no longer good, Kamikaze went downhill fast. They did everything together, helping each other remember to drink water, find their way around the yard, and they comforted each other when we were gone from the house.

Our dear Kamikaze, one of our last photos. She did not show her age.

Over Kaze's last months she became confused, slept all the time, and was restless at night. She had always slept very well before we lost Suki. Kaze was getting lost in the house and in the yard. I had to rescue her from under bushes and lead her home when she was waiting at the gate thinking it was the door to the house. Whenever we were out, and we only went away for an hour or so at a time, she waiting at the window, watching for our return.

We miss our girls so much!

We have had a pet for 44 years: a liter box trained bunny, two dachshunds, and four Shiba Inus. It is truly an 'empty nest' feeling we are experiencing.

our girls one year ago