Book Chat

 Here's a few books on my nightstand lately. Some I bought and some I borrowed. But they all deserve talking about.

I buzzed through this book about finding Richard III's body.  I find the whole thing interesting. That there could be a missing body of a British king, especially one so infamous, and then have it is discovered buried in a parking lot. That alone is so fascinating to me.This book is written by the woman who had a hunch she'd found the grave, and it proved to be true.  I really enjoyed the chapters about the discovery and most of the material about Richard's reign, although sometimes there was a few too many names to keep straight. I am not a historian, and this book isn't written just for the historian, but maybe if I knew a bit more, the name issue wouldn't be so bad. But overall a recommended read if you like non-fiction and a little royal history thrown in.

Oh yes, it is motivating me to reread the Princes in the Tower by Allison Weir, which I read a million years ago. It also motivated me to buy a 1 cent copy of Josephine Tey's 1950's mystery The Daughter of Time. That hasn't arrived yet but I'll let you know how both of those go.

Cereal milk ice cream?  I must try this on my vacation this week.

 Lots of Swedish baking recipes and some interesting culture material. Three of my grandparents came from Sweden, and I have been there, although it was a long time ago. Maybe this week I'll be trying a few more tasty treats.

I am a pie addict. I love to make it, eat it and even read about it. This book is all about making fruit pies, with some yummy sounding recipes. My cherry pie (that I made a couple of weeks ago) spurred me into searching out new ways to make fruit pies.

 I saw this book at my favorite craft store a few weeks back and then decided I had to have it. I ordered a really decent used copy from Amazon. What I like about this book is that it focuses on 3 general areas- a) sketching and then water color painting-with the emphasis on the watercolor painting of the sketch, b) painting flowers and c) using other mixed media materials in your paintings. It is really nicely written with lots of examples and well described techniques. I'd give it a 5 star.

 This book I bought because I loved her book Farm Anatomy. Its one of those sketched books that teach you something and make a good reference piece. Not a technique volume like the watercolor book, but I really enjoyed reading it-all in one night actually.

And here's another book people have been buzzing about in the crafting blog world, but I resisted buying because I seem to own way too many craft books and wasn't sure how good of a book it was. That is until my favorite craft store also had this book in stock. Wow!  I then bought a good used copy off of Amazon, because this book is great for teaching you to draw faces. I haven't tried much from it yet, and I am not sure I want to draw millions of faces, but I am motivated to do some face drawing and I want to make those drawings more realistic than cartoony.

Another excellent craft book!
Oh yes, and let me add one more I forgot to mention. I picked this up at Costco, because I am ready to garden.

This year I won't be doing too much in the tomato area as because of the high potassium levels my husband can't eat with because of his kidney issues.  But next year,after he hopefully has his transplant...
Tomato city here!

Hope everyone has a great Saturday doing whatever makes you happy.