Review: Gradient Style: Color-Shifting Techniques & Knitting Patterns

Gradient Style: Color-Shifting Techniques & Knitting Patterns by Kerry Bogert
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley, F&W Media and the dietary Kerry Bogert for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and idependent of receiving an advanced copy.


Working with colour can be one of the more challenging things when knitting. Especially today when you have so many options besides just switching yarn colours. There are beautiful ombre, speckled, gradient, variegated and handprinted yarns that it can be difficult to know how to handle each case. You want to showcase the colours at its best and avoid things like pooling. Sometimes a written pattern will take these things into account, however, what if you want to substitute a yarn, or change up the colours. If you are new to colour knitting, or don’t have much experience, I don’t think Gradient Style is the place to start. They also include 8 patterns to get you started.

Although it touches on some important things to think about, this book is not very comprehensive when it comes to explaining colour, and how these different kinds of yarn work when knitting them up. It has a colour wheel and talks about contrasting and. Complimentary colours but really doesn’t go into much detail. Really, any of the techniques or ideas that it talks about, it doesn’t do a great job at a thorough explanation. I hoped that maybe in the patterns they would give some examples of how to switch up the colours, or if you wanted to substitute yarns, but it didn’t do that either. Most of the patterns are using yarns that have colour built into them already, so you aren’t even learning how to use colour there either. I don’t need a shawl pattern that simply uses a variegated blue yarn and wow! I’m colour knitting! No, I don’t think so.

So if you looking for something comprehensive, or simply looking for something to give you inspiration, you might want to look elsewhere. This is pretty basic, without giving you the basics. If I can’t learn something new, then I want to be wowed by the patterns and they are okay, but nothing special. Overall, I was disappointed.

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Review: Delicate Crochet: 23 Light and Pretty Designs for Shawls, Tops and More

Delicate Crochet: 23 Light and Pretty Designs for Shawls, Tops and More by Sharon Hernes Silverman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgallet, F&W Media, and Sharon Hernes Silverman for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

Delicate Crochet contains 23 patterns from 11 designers, focusing its designs on light and airy, and uses no yarn heavier than lightweight (#3). In the introduction, Silverman states that she assumes everyone using this book already knows the basics and at most might just need a refresher. The patterns range from easy to experienced, with some using Tunisian Crochet. There are some illustrated instructions in the back, with some attention being paid to the Tunisian technique. The patterns themselves are written out with charts and diagrams as needed. The illustrations of the patterns are okay, but nothing too inspiring. They mostly show off the design, but this is one area that could have been improved. Almost half of the patterns are wraps, shawls, scarves, rounded out with some cardigans, vests, tees, and one of each a skirt, gloves, and necklace thrown in for variety.

There are some heavyweight designers like Vicky Chan and Robyn Chachula just to name a few. Some of the patterns are cute, but overall I found it standard fare for what you see with crochet. There are some I would want to make, but I’m not sure if it would be enough for me to pick up and buy if I came across it in a store. As with any pattern book, it is how they fit that counts the most.

It is worth checking it out and if the patterns speak to you - happy crochet-ing!

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Review: Night of Miracles

Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley, Random House and Elizabeth Berg for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

I have always felt that if I could come back and live another life, I would choose to live that life in a small southern town. You know. The kind where everyone knows each other’s names and are up into each other’s business, where you find good people, salt of the earth and neighbours help each other out. The kind of town you can wander into, plunk down roots and watch the most beautiful sunset from your porch and later, on that porch, your friends will gather and someone will pull out a guitar, someone else the spoons and you’ll make music into the night. The Saturday afternoon movie version of what life would be like. Night of Miracles is set in that sort of town. As a quasi-sequel to Berg’s “The Story of Arthur Truluv”, this one can be read as a stand-alone, however, after you read it, you will want to pick up every one of her other books.

Berg writes beautifully, simple, clean. This isn’t the kind of literary fiction with language so flowery it can give you a headache. But she can make you feel as if you are right there, walking down main street or smelling Lucille’s cherry pie right out of the oven (check out the recipe below!). I wanted to don one of Lucille’s aprons, bake in a class with people who will become my friends, or stop in the diner for the usual, or teach with kids like Lincoln in my class. With a small cast of characters that you come to care about, life, with its ups and downs, is just a little better because you have people around to help you.

If you read Arthur Truluv, you will know most of the characters. The story centers around Lucille Howard, the elderly woman Arthur lived with, who is renting the house that Arthur left to Maddy. Maddy and her daughter Nola, are not central to the story, but we do get to follow up with her and see how she is doing. Lucille, a retired teacher, has been teaching baking classes from her home and they are becoming quite popular. She has been watching Lincoln, the next door neighbour’s kid , because Abby, the mother has just been diagnosed with leukaemia. Lucille is also trying to grow her baking classes and hires Iris to help her out. Iris has left her husband and was on her way to San Francisco, when she stopped in Mason and decided to stay. She becomes friends with Tiny, a big lug of a guy who taxi’s everyone around town. Tiny is in love with Monica, the waitress at the diner, but is too shy to make a move. Monica, who is also in love with Tiny, tried to make the first move and ask him out, but poor Tiny got so flustered he said no and now the two of them don’t know what to do with each other.

Trying to convey what this book is about by listing the characters and their sub-plot, is not doing any justice to the story. That is not what the book is really about. It is about people, who are quirky, odd, with strengths and flaws, who are just trying to get by, with every day’s challenge. How opening your heart to let people in, to lean on those around you, to be grateful for who you have in your life is what makes life worth living. It is about second chances, and how you have agency in how you live your life. It is about hope and how we all get a miracle. You’ll need tissues.

It is a great read, one of my favourites. The characters are ones you will want to spend time with. Her writing is seamless as she weaves the stories together. It is authentic and real.

-If you are interested, I have posted three of Lucille’s recipes on my blog. I will update my blog after I test out the recipes. If they are half as good as the book claims her baking to be - I’m in!


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Review: A Ladder to the Sky

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley, Crown Publishing and John Boyne for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

Get ready to dive into a tale of deceit and subterfuge as you discover what make Maurice Swift tick. All Maurice wants to be is a writer. A writer and a father. But not just any writer, a famous bestselling, award winning author. He is an excellent writer, the only problem is that he doesn’t have any original ideas - not even one. Maurice’s ambition is not going to let a little thing like that stop him. Why should it? By using people, stealing their stories and leaving a trail of crushed spirits (and bodies) behind him, he manages to publish successful novels. How far will he go? Will he commit the ultimate sin to get his story?

This character reminds me a bit of “The Talented Mr. Ripley”. As I learned more about Maurice, I realized this wasn’t so much an arc of this character’s descent into evil, rather, he is so cold, calculated, and unfeeling, with psychopathic tendencies, that I realized he doesn’t have a moral centre at all. His wife, Edith, wonders if he ever loved her. She couldn’t believe that even in the beginning it wasn’t a real love. The relationship with his son really illustrates how he is incapable of emotion. Claiming he always wanted a son as much as he wanted to become a writer, he finds a surrogate and along comes Daniel. Daniel is a perfect child, but reality does not live up to what Maurice thinks and he says that “he always had expected to feel unadulterated love for a child…but things hadn’t quite worked out that way”. No parental feelings of love developed, even his own child can’t stir his heart. Psychopaths can only copy the outward actions of people, because they don’t have the emotions to guide them. Watching Maurice’s story unfold and following his rise and fall is thrilling and beautiful.

Boyle has a unique voice. I love the way this was written. Suspenseful, but not in a whodunit kind of way. It flows beautifully and I was so excited to keep reading. The characters are rich, well drawn and you can’t help but feel for Maurice’s victims, even those who should have known better. My heart broke for Erich, Dash, Edith, but mostly for Daniel. Gore Vidal was delicious. Yes, Maurice doesn’t have any redeeming qualities, but I was still drawn in by him. His ability to pick his targets and like a spider, spin a web that they are powerless to escape from. The ending was completely satisfying, everything I could hope for. This was just a great read and I enjoyed every bit of it.

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Review: Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land

Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land by Amos Oz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Amos Oz for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

One thing is clear, Amos Oz loves Israel. It is his home, his ancestors’ homeland and it figures that he has very strong views on where its future lies. Amoz Oz is a well known, award winning, Israeli author whose works have been translated all over the world. I am a fan, having read several of his novels, so I was really excited to find this latest work. Dear Zealots is a collection of three essays that explore his views on fanatics, Judaism and a solution for Israel. The first essay looks at fanaticism and how to handle “the little fanatic who hides, more or less, inside each of our souls”. Zealots have been around since the beginning of time. Their seduction is their overwhelming interest in you, the desire to make you at one with his world, to lift you up and help you from the low place you are in. Their level of self sacrifice and knowledge of what is best for you is similar to how a parent is with their child. Oz recognizes that everyone, every race, every religion, can create these zealots, by shrinking their world and removing the ability to see things from another perspective or step in someone else’s shoes, and offers that through creativity, imagination and a little humour we might diminish the creation of fanatics.

The second essay Oz discusses his thoughts on Judaism. He feels the religion should not just be for the Orthodox and there is a need for secular pride. He feels that Judaism and humanism are one and the same. By reaching back in history he illustrates the idea (that, by the way, all Jews know very well and that is) that no two Jews will agree, or have the same interpretation of what it means and every one is valid. There isn’t a hierarchical system of cardinals and bishops that all defer to one man, the pope, who decides how each law should be expressed. He searches for an answer to the question “What is the heart of Judaism?”, really he is asking what is a Jew. He attempts to find the answer by looking back into our history and finding out that we are, as the title for this essay. says, “many lights, not one light, many beliefs and opinions, not one”.

The third essay is Oz’s argument of a two state solution. He has long been a proponent of this idea and has written about it many times before. Whether you agree with him or not (and there is plenty I don’t), this is an important book to read for problems that are current, a threat and difficult to discuss without people getting very heated. Well written, thoughtful commentary that is easy to read and definitely worth your time.

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Review: Girls on the Line

Girls on the Line by Jennie Liu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley, Carolrodha and Jennie Liu for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

Luli has turned 16 and is turned out from the orphanage where she spent most of her life. She is off to the big city to meet up with her friend, Yun, who left the year before. Yun has a factory job and has promised to help Luli find a job and get settled. Although it is backbreaking work, it is better than staying to work at the orphanage looking after the babies. Luli can see how much Yun has changed in the one year since she left the orphanage. She has a stylish haircut, new clothes, disposable cash and a boyfriend. Luli learns that Yun’s boyfriend is bad news. He might be involved in trafficking women. Luli tried to warn her friend, but Yun doesn’t believe it. Soon Yun finds herself pregnant, alone and discovers that what people have been saying about her boyfriend is true. But she needs him to help pay for the abortion. The one child policy and the fact that she is unmarried, will make it impossible for her to keep the baby. At 16, she doesn’t want the responsibility. She is only just starting her life. Luli want to help her friend but how can she support her terminating the pregnancy or even worse, having the baby and giving it to the orphanage. The book explores the topics of family, friendship, coming of age, love, unwanted pregnancy and the One Child Policy in China through though the lives of these tow young girls as they navigate life on their own.

I have mixed feelings towards this novel. I thought that it did an amazing job of illustrating how difficult life can be in China. Being an orphan is tough. Having to support yourself at 16 is even harder. Getting pregnant at 16, with no family and having to make very tough decisions seems almost impossible. But when you explore these issues through the lens of another culture it really is eye opening. I had heard about the One Child policy, but I never considered what that entailed. I was very aware of the fact that girls were being abandoned, or worse killed, in order to have the “preferred” sons. I was also aware that it created a gender imbalance that has had huge ramifications for that society. I did not realize that if you did have a secret second baby they would not be considered a citizen and therefore wouldn’t be able to go to school or find a job. I was mildly aware of the deplorable conditions in the orphanages, but Liu brings to light so many issues that I hadn’t considered. She also did a great job of examining difficult issues through the lens of another culture. There were so many things in the story that made me feel if you were unlucky enough to be a pregnant orphan at 16, you were still way better off to be in North America. The. backbreaking work in the factory, being fined for having a baby that would take you most of your life to pay back, the prejudices against anyone outside of the norm makes for a very oppressive life.

There were a few things that didn’t work for me. One was the alternating chapters between Yun and Luli. This didn’t work for me at all. I find it disrupted the story and the transitions were awkward, even jarring, at times. The biggest downside for me was the language. I’m not sure why but the best way I can explain it is that it seemed too simplistic. It almost felt like a translation. I don’t think it did the story any justice. It kept bothering me as I was reading and it took me out of the story. I’m not referring to the dialogue between characters. However, the structure was sound and the events flowed nicely. Overall, I think this was an important story to tell and I would recommend it to others.

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Review: Body Mindful Yoga: Create a Powerful and Affirming Relationship with Your Body

Body Mindful Yoga: Create a Powerful and Affirming Relationship with Your Body by Robert Butera
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My thanks to Netgalley, Llewellyn Publications, Robert Butera and Jennifer Kreatsoulas for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

In today’s swell of the wellness arena, being mindful is what it is all about. You can’t get any buzzier of a buzz word than mindfulness. Yoga has reached an all time high in popularity and so many people are chanting mantras while living their best life, while being body positive, do we need one more book? Needless to say, I was a little hesitant to read “Body Mindful Yoga”. What is mindful Yoga? But body image continues to be a difficult subject for me to come to terms with, I at least wanted to know what it was all about.

Truth be told, I am one of the masses who is embracing mindfulness and yoga has become a steady diet (along with healthy food - ugh!) It has helped me get through the ordeal of late stage cancer and cope living with chronic pain. But I have taken enough courses, read enough books to know that there are a great many respected authors who have something to impart to this world, and others who want to jump on the bandwagon and sell you the snake oil.

This book is a bit of a mixed bag for me. As I made my way deeper into the book, I thought it got better and I definitely have a few take aways that I can incorporate into my daily practice. First, know that this is not a typical yoga book with poses and pictures and instructions on how to do each pose. The author is on a mission to “radically alter the way we see and value ourselves as well as the way we view, evaluate, and relate to others and the world at large. Body Mindful Yoga is “part of a movement rooted in social justice and anti-oppression.” The author wants you to throw out the negative talk we internalize regarding our bodies and reframe our “body narrative”. They break it down into four steps: Listen, Learn, Love, and Live.

The beginning third really put me off and I though this would be a bust. It is mostly hype trying to convince you how amazing this ideology is. Once they got into the actual methodology I found that there are some excellent journalling exercises that, I think, will really help me become more aware of the language I use towards my body image and awareness is really what mindfulness is all about. They cover finding out where these messages come from, your attitude towards fitness, food, social media and fashion. These journal exercises are something that I think I will revisit over and over again. They also touch on using mantras or affirmations and there are 16 yoga poses that they highlight. They reframe these basic poses demonstrating how to apply the mindful part of what you just learned and add some in depth information that I found very useful.

Although heavy handed at times, I found this had something to offer. In the current culture, body image is a problem for many people and any help to reframe your thoughts in a positive light, I welcome. Applying the mindful component with yoga made the whole philosophy full circle and I think there is something for everyone in this book.

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Review: The Art of Crochet Blankets: 18 Projects Inspired by Modern Makers

The Art of Crochet Blankets: 18 Projects Inspired by Modern Makers by Rachele Carmona
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley, Interweave (F+W Media) and Rachele Carmona for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

Welcome to the world of crocheted blankets. But be aware! These are not the blankets your grandma used to make, that’s for sure. There isn’t a flame stitch, chevron pattern or granny square to be found in these pages and thank heavens for that. This is a unique take on crochet blankets that will make you excited to add one to your home decor.

There really is nothing better than making something with your own hands that you can use to curl up with or snuggle under. The beauty of blankets is that you are released from the struggle of making something to fit nicely. If if comes out a little bigger or smaller who cares and really who’s to know? Without the fit restrictions, it also allows you to be more flexible in choosing yarns that work and that means there is an opportunity to stash bust - always a plus when your stash is as big as mine! Carmona doesn’t market her book as a stash buster, but with her colourful designs, I think it lends itself to looking at what you might already have. However, should you choose to follow her designs as written, you will not be disappointed.

In this book you will find 18 patterns where Carmona looks at other art mediums for inspiration. She takes on weaving, digital art, fabric design, paper cutting, cement tile and quilting for coming up with fresh new ideas in designing blankets. You get a little bit of info on the artist and a picture of the original piece of art so you can easily spot the idea that sparked her creation. Some of the blankets are stunning, especially the graffiti blanket and the ombre stripe, where the colours are exceptional. Others are a bit of a stretch, or maybe not exactly my taste, but they might strike a fancy for you. What is original here is the source of inspiration. What a great place to look for design ideas. Carmona does not include how to design your own blanket, but after following her model, it seems like something I could do on my own.

There are lots of bright pictures, charts when needed and clear written out instructions so there is no guesswork in recreating these blankets. Because it is so well organized, it seems like it would be easy to change the colour palette if you wanted to make it match your own home decor. I did observe that a few of the patterns had to be done in pieces and you then had to assemble the blanket and sew (or crochet) the pieces together. Usually, the appeal of a blanket is just that it is one big piece, but I can see why the more intricate designs need to be done in pieces. There is a range of difficulty, from beginner to more intermediate patterns, which is always nice if you are going to invest in a pattern book.

Overall, a refreshing, original take on crochet blankets. So many new ideas and appealing designs that you should definitely check it out!

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