Book Parties and Wish Lists

I've discovered a new book blog that takes an original approach to book blogging.  ButteryBooks combines cooking and book reviews and gives party planning tips based on the books the book club reads.  Take a look at the suggestions for a Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.  Decorations, music, menu, wine choices, discussion questions, and other resources.

Wouldn't it be a fun way to have a book club discussion?  Check out their post on Cowboys Never Cry and the Western themed party.  Or any of these!

I've plenty on my plate (or in the stacks) right now, but I've been adding to my TBR list with delighted abandon:


The Rescue Artist by Edward Dolnick (via Jenny'sBooks) -- NF-- an account of the theft and recovery of Edvard Munch's The Scream   and the efforts of Charley Hill of the Scotland Yard Art Squad.

Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal ( via Dorothy W.) -- described as a fable, it is about a man whose job as a waste paper compactor leads him to rescue books.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (???) - I love Shakespeare and this novel featuring the three sisters Bianca, Cordelia, and Rosalind captures my interest from just the title, which conjures up images of Macbeth's encounter on the heath.

Blogs, books, and sewing adventures

I've been over to So Many Books and found this list of books that interest me. I'm adding several of these titles to my wish list and will order some when I return from vacation. I've always loved Emerson, and visiting Stefanie's blog reminds of much of what I enjoyed in Emerson without having to do research myself--but sometimes, I just can't resist the desire for further reading on the Concord group: Emerson, Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Fuller, etc.

I have a copy of Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father in my TBR stack and have been debating on whether or not to take this one with me to Florida, but it is such a big, thick hardback that it will really need to wait.

Still have a couple of books to review and hope to do that before we leave and have several stalled books -- including The Philosopher's Apprentice which I read avidly and then when almost finished, put aside and read several other books. Susan at Pages Turned is in the process of reading this one, so I'm eager to find out what she thinks.

Things around here have been hectic lately and my mood takes me from one thing to another in a pretty helter-skelter manner. I've been doing some sewing (which - like reading - provides stress relief). My quilting/sewing blog Bayou Quilts has more pics of the sewing adventures, but here are a couple of the cuffs I've been working on lately.
These little cloth shoes are for baby Bryce Eleanor.