Facebook Twitter Instagram

Deanna Larson

Fiction

Keillor’s tart Christmas tale

Review by Deanna Larson

When all the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average, you know you've entered the mystical world of Lake Wobegon, created by National Public Radio personality Garrison Keillor. Fans of his radio show A Prairie Home Companion are familiar with his warm, funny, homespun persona, but fans of Kellior's novels have met a sharper, more acerbic storyteller, a relentless observer of human foibles, a welcome mug of holiday glugg that burns your tongue. His latest novel, A Christmas Blizzard, is a Thurber-esque fable about James and Joyce Sparrow, a rich but old-before-their-years couple gently at odds with each other in the days leading up to Christmas.

Joyce, who has the flu, reminds James that she wants a child; he is running from his dour Midwestern upbringing and his neuroses by forgetting himself in his energy drink company, founded after perhaps taking advantage of an inventor down on his luck. He is a non-fan of all things Christmas; she is a veritable one-woman holiday parade. He wants to decamp to their retreat in Hawaii and forget the seasonal jollity; she wants to bury herself in bedcovers.

This “sad man with a happy life” counts his blessings but looks over his shoulder, since the world—and his own psyche—can be a harsh place. Firing up the private jet for the islands and hoping to persuade Mrs. Sparrow to join him, James is suddenly forced to switch his destination to his hometown of Looseleaf, North Dakota, where his Uncle Earl is dying. Stranded in a sudden blizzard after landing, James is trapped in a mini-reunion with inlaws and other long-lost relatives in a town where “there was no weather forecasting, just a strong sense of foreboding.”

Trying to keep nosiness at bay while rediscovering a wet-tongue-on-cold-metal phobia dating from childhood, James presents himself as a CIA agent and backs himself into accepting an offer to "hide" in an old ice-fishing cabin on Lake Winnesissebigosh. The dreams, visitations and events that follow (including a sauna and plunge into the frigid lake with his new-age "visionary conversationalist" cousin Faye) are far from the quirky normal of that other lake setting, for which Keillor is best known. The book’s 19th-century style epigrammatic chapter titles (“Unpleasant memories of the joyous season,” “A brief background on how he came to acquire his enormous fortune,” "He meets his uncle who is in fine fettle indeed”) wink at and guide readers through this snowy and meandering journey into the human need for epiphany—which sounds a lot like Advent. Keillor's take on the season is a small, sweet bon-bon without the sugar rush.

Deanna Larson writes from Nashville.

When all the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average, you know you've entered the mystical world of Lake Wobegon, created by National Public Radio personality Garrison Keillor. Fans of his radio show A Prairie Home Companion are familiar with his warm, funny, homespun persona, but fans of […]
FictionWomen's Fiction

The magic of Nicholas sparks

Review by Deanna Larson

Nicholas Sparks waves his magic romance wand once again, this time over the ideal of transformational first love. In A Walk to Remember, Landon Carter narrates the flashback story of his senior year in the late 1950s at Beaufort High in Beaufort, North Carolina, when he first discovers the power of love.

The Carters are a family whose wealth was built on a grandfather's profits from bootlegging. Compounding the lack of strong male figures in Landon's life is his hypocritical congressman father, who rarely spends time at home. Neglect pushes Landon to develop a rebellious streak, and at the start of the story he is both adrift and certain, confident and susceptible to peer opinion in other words, a typical teenager. There is more than a touch of Holden Caulfield in his character when he encounters Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of a local minister and the goody-two-shoes of the school. Jamie is such social poison to Landon's insecure circle that he avoids her at all costs, until, as the newly elected class president desperate for a date to the dance, he asks her, certain that she'll be available. She accepts, and that night Jamie helps Landon out of an embarrassing bind, revealing a strong character that intrigues him despite her relentless and isolating Christianity.

After Jamie asks Landon to star in the school's Christmas play, a town tradition which her father instituted, he develops a gradual and reluctant relationship with her. They rehearse, they walk home, they talk; when opening night arrives and Landon sees Jamie in an angelic costume, he realizes that he's fallen in love. Bewildered and ecstatic, they nurture their feelings until Jamie reveals the secret that forces Landon to realize what he holds most dear, despite what fate has handed them.

Sparks is a modern master of fateful love stories and road-not-taken fables written in uncluttered prose. A Walk to Remember is perfect autumn fiction, when thoughts turn to changes and life's journeys, both mapped and unmapped.

 

Deanna Larson is a songwriter in Nashville.

Nicholas Sparks waves his magic romance wand once again, this time over the ideal of transformational first love. In A Walk to Remember, Landon Carter narrates the flashback story of his senior year in the late 1950s at Beaufort High in Beaufort, North Carolina, when he first discovers the power of love. The Carters are […]
LifestylesEnvironment

The best of both worlds

Review by Deanna Larson

Will present and future generations help protect our planet from neglect and abuse, or will the social and political mechanisms of the market economy win out? In The Fate of Nature, award-winning writer Charles Wohlforth (The Whale and the Supercomputer) argues that humans are inexorably linked to nature and “if we’re to imprint good will on the world, those wishes have to vie in the same arena as our selfishness.”

Wohlforth—a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News—examines the many challenges in preserving “wild nature,” the slippery cause and effect of the many issues and conflicts in environmentalism and conservation, focusing on the ocean, mountains, harbors and ancient communities of his native Alaska. Among many other angles, he looks at the history of conservation, property rights vs. community rights, how change happens and, most notably, how communities both thrived and failed in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. “Simply changing the menu of wants is not enough,” Wohlforth writes. “[It] depends on changing the social economic and political system that values wants. We are built to be cooperators and altruists, too—givers, not only wanters. We are capable of joining in communities that elevate our love instead of our drives.”

Intellectual, philosophical and packed with feeling, Wohlforth’s hopeful arguments for preserving our natural world are also practical and ring true as a bell, a gentle pause in the noise that often takes the place of civilized debate on the topic. “Stronger than our greed and materialism,” he writes, “most of us feel a connection to other people, to animals and wild places, and when we’re faced with a choice between those sources of meaning and our own material gain, we tend to prefer fairness and the bonds of the heart over getting ahead.” Readers will surely hope he is right.

Will present and future generations help protect our planet from neglect and abuse, or will the social and political mechanisms of the market economy win out? In The Fate of Nature, award-winning writer Charles Wohlforth (The Whale and the Supercomputer) argues that humans are inexorably linked to nature and “if we’re to imprint good will […]
Animals

The wonders of winged creatures

Review by Deanna Larson

If an Archaeopteryx of the Late Jurassic Period perched on our rooftops, we’d surely take notice. But rushing around, we often fail to see birds—the only wild animals that we encounter every day, and a link to our prehistoric past—eating berries from backyard bushes, drinking from puddles and raising young in delicate nests of stray hairs and blades of grass. It’s a subject ripe with possibility for noted naturalist and writer Sy Montgomery (The Good Good Pig). Her new book, Birdology, reconnects readers with the “winged aliens” that fill our lives with movement, song and mystery.

Each chapter reveals a fundamental truth about birds, such as Birds are Individuals (Chickens), Birds are Dinosaurs (Cassowary), Birds are Made of Air (Hummingbirds) and Birds Can Talk (Parrots). Montgomery draws a line from her beloved childhood parakeet Jerry to her current barnyard full of gregarious chickens and beyond, focusing on one aspect of these common birds’ anatomy, physiology or behavior—the hawk’s incredible eyesight, the amazing architecture of hummingbird wings—to hint at the larger wonders and mysteries of the approximately 10,000 living bird species. Her reporting takes her to a wildlife rehabilitator in California who specializes in baby hummingbirds the size of a bumblebee; to Australia to track down the dinosaur-throwback cassowary; to New England to hunt with birds of prey. She gets a seat at the start line at a Boston-area pigeon race, allows a dangerous Harris hawk to perch on her leather-covered hand and dances with a cockatoo. “Although we are separated by 325 million years of evolution,” she writes, “Snowball and I move together, as if in a mirror.”

The often poetic, relaxed elegance of her observations make this adventure into the science and natural history of birds deeply satisfying. Whether keeping watch over a newly relaunched hummingbird until he is “just a silhouette that dissolves into the soft, moonlit night” or putting a hood on a bird, “like extinguishing a candle,” Montgomery’s microscope reveals feathered creatures with intellectual and emotional abilities remarkably like ours, animals that “stir our souls in ways that change our lives.”

Deanna Larson writes from Nashville.

If an Archaeopteryx of the Late Jurassic Period perched on our rooftops, we’d surely take notice. But rushing around, we often fail to see birds—the only wild animals that we encounter every day, and a link to our prehistoric past—eating berries from backyard bushes, drinking from puddles and raising young in delicate nests of stray […]
Memoir

A Big Little Life

Review by Deanna Larson

Classic suspense and intricate plots are the usual domain of mega-best-selling writer Dean Koontz—a touching story about a beloved dog, not so much. But Koontz’s boundless love for his golden retriever Trixie shines through his latest book, A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog. Koontz had always been good at capturing the canine spirit in print, and he did in-person research on guide dogs for one of his books at Canine Companions for Independence, an organization that trains assistance dogs. Koontz and his wife Gerda had spent nearly every moment of 24 years together, childless workaholics who thought they were too busy for a dog. But CCI kept asking if they were ready to adopt one of their course “failures.” Enter Trixie, the force that would change Koontz’s middle age forever.

It’s not every pooch that has the opportunity to rub its Kong toy on a pricey oil painting, or get a dish of Swedish meatballs at a favorite restaurant. Trixie’s down-to-earth joy and antics are the cheerful squeaky toy at the center of this moving story. Part sitcom, part prose portrait, spiritual quest and eulogy, A Big Little Life is a page-turner in its own right—even if every dog lover knows how the plot must play out. “Most of us will never be able to live with as much joy as a dog brings to every moment of his day,” Koontz writes. “But if we recognize that we share a tao, we then see that the dog lives more closely at that core than we do, and the way to achieving greater joy becomes clear. . . . Dogs know.” And so will readers and dog lovers everywhere who bask in the reflected glow of Koontz’s unwavering love for Trixie.

Part sitcom, part prose portrait, spiritual quest and eulogy, A Big Little Life is a page-turner in its own right—even if every dog lover knows how the plot must play out.
Nonfiction

Harmonic life lessons

Review by Deanna Larson

Oh Susannah, anybody can play an instrument! That’s the simple revelation made charmingly real in How to Play the Harmonica (and Other Life Lessons) by Sam Barry, a former Presbyterian minister now working for a major book publisher (and co-writing the Author Enablers column for BookPage). Barry is also a musician and music teacher who plays in and around San Francisco in the band Los Train Wreck and tours with the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders. Clearly, this isn’t his first camp “Kumbaya.”

In this little gem of a book, Barry’s pastorly reassurances loosen ties, bring out inner chickens and enable nascent musicians to let rip like Dylan and the Boss, eventually moving toward pomposity-slaying licks and writing an original blues song (because you know you have one in you). “The greatest crime of all is that we’ve stopped telling our own stories and making our own music,” Barry writes. “It’s just plain wrong.” Chapter by chapter, Barry shares memories from the embarrassments he’s had in life, along with a simple harp lesson charted out in a sidebar. It’s a whole lot more than Mel Bay. “Right now, take your harmonica and pretend you are in the Deep South late in the nineteenth century . . . Tell us a story. Make us remember how sad the world is yet how joyous life is. Take us on a journey.”

In Barry’s hands, this humble portable instrument teaches ideas like patience, letting go, tolerating failure, practice as meditation, listening to others and seeing the beauty in imperfection. “We can have new adventures at any time of life,” Barry writes. “Unfortunately, as we take on the responsibilities of adulthood, our fear of appearing silly or inept or less accomplished in the eyes of others increases and we shy away from trying anything new. We allow these concerns to dictate our behavior and miss a great deal. You don’t need anyone’s permission, so play.” 

Oh Susannah, anybody can play an instrument! That’s the simple revelation made charmingly real in How to Play the Harmonica (and Other Life Lessons) by Sam Barry, a former Presbyterian minister now working for a major book publisher (and co-writing the Author Enablers column for BookPage). Barry is also a musician and music teacher who […]
NonfictionHumorAnimals

Wild things

Review by Deanna Larson

Animal Life is the ultimate armchair expedition for wildlife enthusiasts. Compiled in association with the American Museum of Natural History and captured by some of the world's best wildlife photographers, this coffee – table safari is full of action – packed close encounters with some of the world's most exotic and familiar species. Broken into three massive sections – the Animal Kingdom, Animal Anatomy and Animal Behavior – the book uses the most distinctive or spectacular examples to illustrate every aspect of life in the wild, from birth and development, sexual rivalry and raising young, play and learning, and society and intelligence to predation, scavenging, hunting, camouflage and deception. Unforgettable pictures include a brown trout leaping out of a stream, mouth gaping, to eat a damselfly, a flock of oxpeckers sucking blood from the back and ears of an African buffalo, giraffe in combat and a short account of how the Marsh Warbler learns its song. But nature can be harsh as well, graphically illustrated by a mother cheetah bringing back small or injured prey for her babies to practice the kill, and a grey heron stepping on the head of a flock mate before dining on its flesh.

For the birds

A mouse-devouring predator with an injured wing makes a strange but fascinating soul mate in Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl. When Caltech biologist Stacey O'Brien is asked to adopt a four – day – old barn owlet by her research department, she is wary of raising an unreleasable wild animal in her living space. But the chance to observe bird behavior outside the lab intrigues the ethologist. "After all, theoretical scientists do not require a lab," she writes, "only a piece of paper, a pencil, and a fantastic brain." Quickly, O'Brien is killing the many live mice the bird needs to grow into a striking 18 – inch predator that flutters into her heart, her researcher's brain and every corner of her life. Wesley imprints on the scientist as he sleeps next to her in a box on a pillow, and matures to swoop with his talons and pounce on prey (O'Brien lifts one tiny foot to find a smashed spider). He fills her bathroom cupboards with strips of old magazines, calling her to them with a nesting cry. O'Brien has this remarkable feathered creature as her companion for nearly 20 years, through illness and other challenges, bonding girl and bird in a true love story that crossed species and confounded expectations. "He was my teacher," she writes, "my companion, my child, my playmate, my reminder of God."

Any bird lover who has refilled a feeder on a cold December morning, or gone out to the backyard to try to find the owl hooting at midnight and wondered, who else is as crazy as me, will find good company in The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. Prize – winning writer/ornithologist Tim Birkhead turns the long and disjointed history of birds into an accessible, engaging look at the beauty, songs, behavior and balletic ability of this ancient species. Inspired by the work of 17th – century British biologist John Ray, Birkhead takes a fresh look at bird behavior and ecology with entertaining stories based on the observations and discoveries of scientists, biologists and bird lovers throughout history. Footnotes, a glossary, index and bibliography will appeal to the amateur ornithologist, but the tales and illustrations will thrill any birdwatcher curious about those who gather the information they use to learn about the lives of their feathered friends.

Counting sheep

Beautiful Sheep: Portraits of Champion Breeds is a shepherd's Playboy, filled with gorgeous specimens swathed in every type of wool coat, perched on delicate, downy legs. Farm veterinarian and professor Kathryn Dun, who descends from a family of Scottish sheep breeders (she helped deliver Dolly, the cloned sheep), presents rams and ewes from the ancient herding cultures of the world, evolved to match the landscape: cotton – cloud Oxford Down soft as the Cotswold hills, the long lustrous ringlets of the English Wensleydale, the shaggy black Hebridean of rugged Scotland, with its ribbed horns. The origin and distribution of each breed, as well as its distinguishing features and uses, is included. While sections on sheep history and the show scene in the British Isles would most likely interest only sheep breeders, herding dog fanciers and agrarians, the photos of sheep posing against a canvas backdrop by Paul Farnham are like stunning Dutch still lifes, with the sheep's glassy stare reminding viewers of the time when hardy, healthy livestock were the lifeblood of any village or community.

Pet projects

Happy Dog, Happy You: Quick Tips for Building a Bond with Your Furry Friend and Happy Cat, Happy You: Quick Tips for Building a Bond with Your Feline Friend feature an adorable retro design packed with genius shortcuts to bring out the "doggone best" and "feline finest" in a pet relationship. Arden Moore (The Dog Behavior Answer Book, The Cat Behavior Answer Book) concentrates on simple essentials for a quality life with tips on raising, training, housing and feeding a dog or cat, along with healthful recipes. Happy Dog also includes excellent tips on canine sports and exercising and traveling with a dog; Happy Cat tackles multi – cat households as well as cat – proofing a house and caring for feline senior citizens.

Grandma always said homemade is better, and that goes for pets as well. Jessica and Eric Talley, founders of Bubba Rose Biscuit Company, have created delicious recipes that a canine bubbe can make or bake in The Organic Dog Biscuit Cookbook. This gorgeous compact hardback features 100 illustrated recipes for organic treats and entrees including Teenie Weenie Banana Barkinis, "Asnackadopoulis" (feta cheese, oats and spinach), Honey Mutts (honey and oat biscuits), Energy Barks, Muddy Paws (carob treats), and Pupeyes (spinach biscuits). Some low – fat and meat – , grain – and gluten – free recipes are included along with helpful sidebars on super foods for dogs and nutritional no – no's. While the book's super – simple recipes repeat many of the same ingredients, your pooch will never tire of these wholesome foods.

Read it for the LOLs

Does "I Can Has Cheezburger?" sound like the Queen's English to you? O hai, welcum LOLcat fan! Visitors to the website icanhascheezburger.com add funny "capshuns" to snapshots of cats in a wacky feline pidgin language. The site has become a worldwide sensation and social networking hub with millions of visitors, and LOLspeak now extends to wedding vows and even a Bible translation. I Can Has Cheezburger? A LOLcat Colleckshun collects 200 classic pairings from the site – Do Not Want and Oh Noes! are here – plus gigglesome new "kittehs." These constructs land squarely in the category of "you had to be there," but picture this: a ginger cat hides in an empty aquarium, and says: K … i redy. u may add fishies nao. If such LOLcat mischief strikes you as hilarious, this is a colleckshun you won't want to miss.

Animal Life is the ultimate armchair expedition for wildlife enthusiasts. Compiled in association with the American Museum of Natural History and captured by some of the world's best wildlife photographers, this coffee – table safari is full of action – packed close encounters with some of the world's most exotic and familiar species. Broken into […]

Memoirs chart paths to surviving trouble in mind and body

Review by Deanna Larson

Television producer, director and writer Christopher Lukas (Silent Grief) and his Pulitzer Prize – winning journalist brother J. Anthony Lukas were haunted by "the old depressive devil" their entire lives, a tragic family legacy explored in Blue Genes: A Memoir of Loss and Survival. Raised in a wealthy family outside New York, Kit and Tony led a charmed life of private lakes and frog chases, lavish parties and boarding school. Then, their mother committed suicide and the young brothers faced a lifetime of abandonment, as their aunt and then their uncle also took their own lives and their father disappeared into alcoholism. Lukas details his turbulent relationship with Tony as they both search for love, creative work and emotional salvation – then his beloved brother is found dead by his own hand, and Lukas is forced to deal with the familiar torrent of anger, guilt, confusion, self – pity and bitterness that dogs him even as he finds solace and love with writer wife Susan and their children and grandchildren. A heartrending envoi notes that Susan died unexpectedly as the book was being published, and once again, Lukas grieves, learns to "throw the shoe at the wall," and survive.

David Lovelace's struggle with manic depression in Scattershot: My Bipolar Family presents the agonizing, discomfiting – and transcendent – aspects of brain disorder. One of three children born to an artist mother and preacher father both suffering with mental illness, Lovelace was a teen before his genetic predisposition blew up in his face. His run from his fate, family and his scattered mind are difficult to read, let alone live through; roaming South America trying to decide his future, he gets word that his younger brother has been committed to a mental institution. Sent spiraling into a series of manic breaks, Lovelace later ends up committed at the same time as his brother and father. Now wearing a "chemical straight jacket," Lovelace embraces his "astonished mind," falls in love, marries, takes over a failing used bookstore, starts a family and begins to articulate a future where madness isn't waiting in the wings.

Control and certainty evaporate when health is challenged. Roxanne Black navigates that uncertainty cheerfully, along with college, dating and other milestones, after being diagnosed with the chronic (and sometimes fatal) autoimmune disease lupus as a teen, giving herself daily dialysis with a catheter tube stuffed under her clothes. Unexpected Blessings: Finding Hope and Healing in the Face of Illness is her elegant exploration of thriving with chronic illness and other extraordinary circumstances. After surviving a kidney transplant, she founded Friends' Health Connection, a national patient advocacy organization now celebrating its 20th anniversary. Heartfelt anecdotes from Black's life, and experiences of fellow patients, her friends and famous supporters including Dr. Mehmet Oz, Oliver Sacks and Elizabeth Edwards, bolster ruminations on the art of compassion and listening, the grace of gratitude and "ordinary" courage, the blessings of synchronicity and random acts of kindness, making connections and "being of use," lending perspective to the daily stress of chronic conditions.

Former LiteraryMama.com columnist Gail Konop Baker blasts through illness with expectations blazing in Cancer Is a Bitch (Or, I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis). Baker is served a fat dollop of irony when – right after she finishes a novel about a woman who finds a lump in her breast and wonders if she's lived a meaningful life – she finds herself sitting in a hospital gown facing a breast cancer diagnosis. She longs to be the Audrey Hepburn of the Big C, but instead she careens through mental and emotional aftershocks that fiction couldn't predict. Gobbling organic produce, practicing yoga and weighing Hobson's choices, Baker courageously places her screwed – up childhood, imperfect marriage, motherhood and sanity under the microscope even as her "good cancer" diagnosis follows her everywhere "like an annoying sibling, mimicking my every move, mirroring the parts of me that make me feel awkward, ashamed." Her guts, and affection for the occasional joke, toke and profanity, make her a deeply consoling companion on a frightening journey.

 

Television producer, director and writer Christopher Lukas (Silent Grief) and his Pulitzer Prize – winning journalist brother J. Anthony Lukas were haunted by "the old depressive devil" their entire lives, a tragic family legacy explored in Blue Genes: A Memoir of Loss and Survival. Raised in a wealthy family outside New York, Kit and Tony […]
Lifestyles

Crafty books for crafty people

Review by Deanna Larson

NEEDLE WORKS
The "haute homespun" Project Alabama cotton T-shirts created by Natalie Chanin and stitchers of her native Florence, Alabama, revived a Southern community's dormant textile industry and received critical acclaim. Chanin then founded Alabama Chanin, a line of recycled and sustainable products from furniture to quilts and clothing made by artisans from that same community. In Alabama Stitch Book: Projects and Stories Celebrating Hand-Sewing, Quilting and Embroidery for Contemporary Sustainable Style, Chanin introduces the patterns, stitching, stenciling and beading techniques of the Depression-era South that inspired her, followed by 20 illustrated projects using her trademark deconstructed T-shirts and applique techniques. Her popular T-shirts, skirts and corsets are included along with instructions for a "rag boa" that doubles as a furniture duster, a bugle-beaded postcard of kraft paper and a gorgeous tablecloth of cream cotton backed with royal blue roosters embellished with paint and knots perfect for a country picnic of homegrown fruits and vegetables. Some projects include recipes and country wisdom ("Here's the lesson: if you start to get a hole in something, fix it immediately . . . this saying seems to apply to most problems in life."). Pull-out patterns, stencils and templates, and evocative photographs by Robert Rausch inspire readers to take a stab at these inventive needlework projects.

Interest in needle arts is exploding, but this new generation of "chicks with sticks" demands quick-and-hip projects that offer somewhat instant gratification. Knitwear designers Nancy Queen and Mary Ellen O'Connell have developed just these kind of quick, no-fear projects in The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with More Than 30 Cool, Easy Patterns and The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Crochet. Each book starts with a "getting hooked" section on yarn, tools, patterns and lingo, followed by a crash course in basic techniques and fixing mistakes. Crafters are introduced to basic stitches working through beginning-to-advanced garment and accessory patterns, with detailed schematic diagrams and color photos along with "Cheep Tricks" and "Chick Feed" sidebars of anecdotes and tips. You won't find weird ponchos or boxy Christmas sweaters here, unless they're retro-ironic; patterns include a "surfer chick quick cap," a no-sweat hoodie, a "bad to the bone" dog sweater and a felted hobo bag.

FELT WITH FEELING
Felting is a popular offshoot of the knitting craze, and Kathleen Taylor (Knit One, Felt Too) has developed some wild and wooly projects using the technique in I Heart Felt: 33 Eye-Popping Projects for the Inspired Knitter. Throwing a hand-knitted object into hot water and watching it shrink isn't for the faint of heart, but Taylor lends knitters courage with patterns for small felted stuffed vegetables, a honeycomb ear warmer and shaggy slippers. Basic techniques for felting common knitted stitches from cabled to Fair Isle and caring for felted items is followed by illustrated projects highlighting texture, color and embellishments with suggested yarns, knitting patterns and felting and assembly instructions. Knitters who have always wanted to try this technique will find plenty of inspiration in Taylor's bright and cheerful projects.

Silver and gold are precious, but there is plenty of charm in soft, homespun adornments made of knitted, knotted, felted or braided fibers. Felt, Fabric and Fiber Jewelry: 20 Beautiful Projects to Bead, Stitch, Knot and Braid presents gallery-quality projects by popular crafting writer Sherri Haab (The Art of Metal Clay) and guest designers using fabric, ribbon, thread, cord, beads, buttons and a variety of needlework techniques from crochet and felting to tatting, braiding and macrame. The jewelry varies from the extremely modern and hip (mixed-media charms, black crocheted choker, velvet and ribbon cuff) to the whimsical (felted bead bracelet, braided cord necklace with polymer clay pendant), and sweet and retro (embroidered rings, crocheted bracelet, ribbon flower pins). Each project has a list of materials and supplies, detailed directions, diagrams and step-by-step photos. While beginners will play catch-up on some projects, and familiarity with tools and supplies like the eyelet setter, Japanese screw punch and inkjet linen is assumed, the finished-project photos will encourage any crafter to attempt these gorgeous items.

BAGS, LADIES
Fashionistas who are too busy for long nights of clicking needles will love the inventive fudging in Simply Sublime Bags: 30 No-Sew, Low-Sew Projects. Jodi Kahn (The Little Pink Book of Elegance) has created clever construction methods using scissors, pins, staples, duct tape and thread for accessories that look like they were bought in a chic boutique. Projects range from a tiny "campy coin purse" based on the old Tandy leathercraft pouch and a 1960s handbag assembled from a silk placemat and bamboo handles, to a fringed "Chanel" bag made of black duct tape and brass chain link, a modern square-bottomed handbag created from wallpaper samples, a yellow caution tape zippered clutch, a "Twister" tote from the old game mat, a "metallic" bag made of silver Mylar balloons, and an Astroturf picnic basket. Templates, detailed directions and color photographs accompany the eco-friendly projects. While most projects require a fair amount of patience, fashion-forward crafters and thrifty recyclers will find these ideas thrilling.

JUMP OFF THE PAGE
Young mom-scrapbookers looking for a muse will like Modern Memory Keeper: A New Approach to Scrapbooking Your Family Legacy by scrapbook blogger Ronee Parsons. Emphasizing of-the-moment techniques like distressing, chipboard and digital photo editing, the book presents a wide variety of techniques and layout styles from "shabby chic" to clean and modern for an accessible yet inventive look at traditional scrapbooking. Along with the large layouts, the book's strongest features are the writer's prompts that help scrappers dig deep into family history to find the stories that make for memorable pages, and plenty of ideas for presenting journaling and photos in the most creative way.

Visual learners will appreciate the simple, spiral-bound ideas in Visual Quick Tips: Paper Crafts. This compact portable guide, written by Rebecca Ludens (scrapbooking.about.com) and Jennifer Schmidt, a member of the design team for several scrapbook manufacturers, presents a range of basic paper craft, scrapbooking and card-making techniques illustrated step-by-step with full-color photos. From designing a scrapbook layout, making a minibook, invitation, envelope, art journal or artist trading card, to sewing on paper, stamping, quilling and distressing, this guide touches on important trends and techniques in paper arts.

NEEDLE WORKSThe "haute homespun" Project Alabama cotton T-shirts created by Natalie Chanin and stitchers of her native Florence, Alabama, revived a Southern community's dormant textile industry and received critical acclaim. Chanin then founded Alabama Chanin, a line of recycled and sustainable products from furniture to quilts and clothing made by artisans from that same community. […]
Fiction

Friends, tradition and quilting make for a heartwarming tale

Review by Deanna Larson

Snow—and a gentle fate—swirl around Elm Creek Manor as members of the Elm Creek Quilters gather for their annual day-after-Thanksgiving bee in A Quilter’s Holiday.  This latest installment in the Elm Creek Quilts series by Midwestern writer Jennifer Chiaverini (The Lost Quilter, The Quilter’s Kitchen) picks up some loose threads from previous books in the series and is set the day after Thanksgiving. The women share their traditional meal of leftovers, and read aloud squares they have sewn with a message of gratitude. After dinner, they gather around a roaring fire, piecing patterns and styles that have historic as well as personal meaning (Friendship, Log Cabin, Nine-Patch, Double Wedding Ring), sewing together as quiet minds mull knotty family dilemmas and a few gentle spats break out between these old friends.

Sarah, quilter and wife of Elm Creek Manor groundskeeper Matt, is expecting twins as well as possible trouble in her marriage, feeling her husband has something he’s not telling her. Her fellow quilters face their own dilemmas. Diane mourns the loss of family holiday traditions—her teenage boys appear to be leaving the church as they leave for college. New Elm Creek Manor “quilt camp” teacher Gretchen ponders her infertility yet continues to discover new ways to connect with needy children, and Gwen deals with the death of an academic mentor and dear friend. Manor chef Anna discovers she’s in love with Gwen’s daughter’s boyfriend, wondering if his ardor for Summer just might be cooling. And Sylvia Bergstrom Compson Cooper, master quilter and mistress of the manor, conducts a genealogy quest to find long-lost relatives through clues contained in an heirloom quilt.

As the day unfolds and the flurries turn into a blizzard just as Diane decides to brave the storm to get back to her family, the quilters draw closer to the fire. Each plot twist and turn is sewn neatly together through the unbreakable bonds of family, friends and love, making this story as cozy as a Hallmark movie and perfect for the season.

 

Snow—and a gentle fate—swirl around Elm Creek Manor as members of the Elm Creek Quilters gather for their annual day-after-Thanksgiving bee in A Quilter’s Holiday.  This latest installment in the Elm Creek Quilts series by Midwestern writer Jennifer Chiaverini (The Lost Quilter, The Quilter’s Kitchen) picks up some loose threads from previous books in the […]
Self-HelpFamily & Relationships

A professor’s stirring ‘last lecture’

Review by Deanna Larson

When Randy Pausch learned he was dying of pancreatic cancer, he found himself in quite a dilemma: at the top of his professional game, with a beautiful wife and three young children, how should he check out of life? A computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pausch is the co-founder of the university's prestigious Entertainment Technology Center and has worked with such companies as Google, Electronic Arts and Walt Disney Imagineering. "I love thinking I might find a way to beat this late-stage cancer," he writes in The Last Lecture. "Because even if I don't, it's a better mindset to help me get through each day."

Using the forum of his university's "Last Lecture" series, the terminally ill Pausch decided to distill his life lessons into a talk for students, friends and colleagues about how to achieve your childhood dreams. When Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal wrote a column about the lecture, and a video of the speech was posted on the Internet, the reaction was overwhelming. To adapt the lecture into a book, Pausch dictated his thoughts to Zaslow while on his daily bike rides – determined to maintain his fitness and minimize his time away from his family during the final months of his life. (Paush has already outlived his doctors' prediction that he had only six healthy months to live.)

The Last Lecture touches on Pausch's upbringing by parents who encouraged creativity and curiosity, as well as the support he received from important professors and mentors. The book gathers momentum with short sections about teamwork and cooperation, dreaming big, not obsessing over what people think, the power of apology and the little touches that mean so much (Pausch handed out Thin Mints with every request to review research papers).

Ultimately, this insightful nerd-optimist-dreamer abandons the idea of a "bucket list," reflecting instead his father's lifelong dedication to sharing intellectual and emotional wealth with others. "Time is all you have," Pausch writes, "And you may find one day that you have less than you think."

When Randy Pausch learned he was dying of pancreatic cancer, he found himself in quite a dilemma: at the top of his professional game, with a beautiful wife and three young children, how should he check out of life? A computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pausch is the co-founder of the university's prestigious […]

Sign Up

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres every Tuesday.

Sign up now

Trending Features

All Features
Subscriptions