The Eighth 10

The top two spots this week are filled by two vastly different books. The top spot went the lastest installment in one of my favorite series, Heat Rises by "Richard Castle." I love the show Castle, and I love that the main character "writes" real books. The other book is one of my very favorite comfort books, The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye.  The rest of the books I read all ranged from really enjoyable to moderately enjoyable. All-together, not a bad set of books.

1 | Heat Rises  Richard Castle [Book 3 of the Nikki Heat series]


2 | The Ordinary Princess  M.M. Kaye


3 | Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children  Ransom Riggs


4 | The Winter Queen  Boris Akunin [Book 1 of the Erast Fandorin series]


5 | The Help  Kathryn Stockett


6 | Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist  Michael J. Fox


7 | What Happened to Goodbye  Sarah Dessen


8 | Prime Baby  Gene Luen Yang


9 | Abandon  Meg Cabot  [Book 1 of the Abandon series]


10 | The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1  Mark Twain

The Seventh 10

This group of books was incredible hard to rank because I read 2 books in particular that I loved, but in vastly different ways: East of Eden by John Steinbeck and Bossypants by Tina Fey.  In the end, I had to give the Number 1 spot to East of Eden, because as hilarious as Tina Fey is, it's John Steinbeck's writing and characters that have really stuck to me, lacking onto my mind and not letting go. Now please excuse me while I go listen to my best friend Tina Fey read me Bossypants one more time before I have to return the CDs to the library. :)

1 | East of Eden  John Steinbeck


2 | Bossypants  Tina Fey


3 | A Game of Thrones  George R. R. Martin [Book 1 of the A Song of Ice and Fire series]


4 | Skip Beat! Volume 24  Yoshiki Nakamura


5 | A Night to Remember  Walter Lord


6 | The Serpent on the Crown  Elizabeth Peters [Book 17 of the Amelia Peabody series]


7 | Guardian of the Horizon  Elizabeth Peters [Book 16 of the Amelia Peabody series]


8 | Empire State: A Love Story (or Not)  Jason Shiga


9 | Dead Reckoning  Charlaine Harris  [Book 11 of the Sookie Stackhouse series]


10 | Insatiable  Meg Cabot  [Book 1 of the Insatiable series]

Quilting Bee Round Up

So, last year I joined quite a few online quilting bees. 3 to be exact. That might not see like many, and at the time, it didn't strike me as that overwhelming, but for some reason, I was always dragging a little behind in sending my blocks back, especially as time went by. Plus, after the first few months, I pretty much gave up on blogging about them. So again, I apologize for my epic laziness! Since I finally sent my last blocks back last month, and I plan on starting to blog more, quilting-wise, I thought I would post one giant update with all the bee blocks I made in the last 18 months. Are you ready? :)


The Modern Tradition Quilt Bee
This is the first bee I joined, and I think the one that lost the most people along the way. :) Oh well! Life happens. 


Log Cabin Blocks for Leanne (February)



Grandma's Flower Garden Blocks for Lesly (March)



Arkansas Crossroads Blocks for Greta (April)



Tulip Block for Norma (May)



Starflower Block for Sherri (June)



Star Block for Lydia (July)



Quatrefoil Block for Rebecca aka Reebecki, my RL friend! (August)



Churn Dash Blocks for Heather (September)



Buzz Saw Block for ME! :D (November)

You'll see many more of these! I'm still waiting on a few, but I have received most of them, and have picked out the sashing, and plan to sew them all up at our annual retreat in September.




A Spider Bee
This was the second quilting bee I joined, and we all did the same pattern when it was our turn (for the most part), and just varied the color. I got REALLY good at these blocks, and still love them!


Flowered centers and bright florals for Brioni (February)



Brown centers and foresty colors for Theresa (March)



Purple centers and green and purple batiks for Tracy (April)



Now for something completely different for Becca! :) (May)



White centers and orange and pink strips for Greta (June)



White centers and peach and green strips for Suzy (July)



Surprise blocks for Heidi, who had a baby boy! (September)



Blue centers with white frames and pink and green strips for Sudi-Laura (November)



Maroon Striped centers and rich stripes for ME! :) (December)





Bee Liberated
This is the last bee I joined last year, and we started this one in May. This one was particularly focused on Gwen Marston's Liberated Patchwork, and was a lot of fun to participate in.


Slashed Nine-Patch Blocks for Dena (May)



Liberated Baskets for Kimber (June)



Owly Liberated Log Cabin Blocks for Susan (July)



Liberated Log Cabin Blocks for Jessica (August)



XO Blocks for Jill (September) 


Liberated Star and Friends for Joan (November)
   


Liberated Log Cabin Blocks for ME! :) (January)



Liberated Quarter Log Cabin Blocks for Heidi (March)



Kathy's Blocks for Krista (April)



Free-pieced word block for Wendy (May)





And one more set of blocks...
My friend Rebecca was in another bee last year, and she let me make a few liberated stars for her quilt. :) They were fun!
 




So that's it! You should be seeing my completed quilts in the next few months hopefully. :)

The Sixth 10

1 | The Book Thief  Markus Zusak


2 | American Born Chinese  Gene Luen Yang


3 | American Gods  Neil Gaiman


4 | Delirium  Lauren Oliver  [Book 1 of the Delirium series]


5 | Children of the Storm  Elizabeth Peters  [Book 15 of the Amelia Peabody series]


6 | Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic  Alison Bechdel


7 | A Game of You  Neil Gaiman  [Volume 5 of the Sandman series]


8 | Mennonite in a Little Black Dress  Rhoda Janzen


9 | My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands  Chelsea Handler


10 | Citizen 13660  Mine Okubo

The Fifth 10

1 | The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake  Aimee Bender


2 | Something Borrowed  Emily Giffin


3 | Looking for Alaska  John Green


4 | The Ghost Map: the Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World  Steven Johnson

5 | Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood  Marjane Satrapi  [Volume 1 of the Persepolis series]


6 | Persepolis: the Story of a Return  Marjane Satrapi  [Volume 2 of the Persepolis series]


7 | The Golden One  Elizabeth Peters  [Book 14 of the Amelia Peabody series]


8 | Grayson  Lynne Cox


9 | Suite Scarlett  Maureen Johnson  [Book 1 of the Scarlett series]


10 | Interview with the Vampire  Anne Rice [Book 1 of the Vampire Chronicles series]

The Fourth 10

1 | The Complete Maus  Art Spiegelman


2 | Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs  Ken Jennings


3 | He Shall Thunder in the Sky  Elizabeth Peters  [Book 12 of the Amelia Peabody series]


4 | Outlander  Diana Gabaldon  [Book 1 of the Outlander series]


5 | Lord of the Silent  Elizabeth Peters  [Book 13 of the Amelia Peabody series]


6 | Skip Beat! Volume 23  Yoshiki Nakamura


7 | PS, I Love You  Cecelia Ahern


8 | Season of Mists  Neil Gaiman  [Volume 4 of the Sandman series]


9 | Dream Country  Neil Gaiman  [Volume 3 of the Sandman series]


10 | The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Hinks

The Third 10

OK, since I am a terrible blogger, and since it felt like I was just copying what I was saying in my Goodreads reviews and pasting it over here, I've decided that instead of regurgitating that stuff on my blog, I will simply rank each set of 10 books I read in order from most to least favorite, and then if you are really interested in my thoughts of them, you can jump over to Goodreads and read a full review. Sound fair? Here we go, then!




1 | Jane Eyre  Charlotte Brontë


2 | A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages  Kristin Chenoweth


3 | Heist Society  Ally Carter  [Book 1 of the Heist Society series]


4 | The Doll's House  Neil Gaiman  [Volume 2 of the Sandman series]


5 | Only the Good Spy Young  Ally Carter [Book 4 of the Gallagher Girls series]


6 | Preludes and Nocturnes  Neil Gaiman [Volume 1 of the Sandman series]


7 | The Falcon at the Portal  Elizabeth Peters  [Book 11 of the Amelia Peabody series]


8 | Mary Poppins  P.L. Travers


9 | Watchmen  Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons


10 | Sex, Drugs, Einstein, & Elves: Sushi, Psychedelics, Parallel Universes, and the Quest for Transcendence  Clifford A. Pickover