Review: The Hat Lady and her Animals by Gita V. Reddy

The Hat Lady and her Animals by Gita V. Reddy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a fun little story with plenty of lessons. A story in kindness. A story of using your talents to help others. A story about yarn skills.

By the way, Darlene only knits in this case. The yarn comes from, and finished products go to Hugger Hats. Those amazing ladies in the group are the ones that collect yarn and distribute the finished toys and hats to the needy. But I understand keeping it simple for the story’s sake.

I have to admit to being more than uncomfortable seeing my name in the story. But once I got used to it, I loved what the author was trying to convey.

Though the toys in the story were not the ones I made, I would love to put patterns in the book for those who wanted to learn. Many children love knitting. I was twelve when I learned to crochet and knit.

The little stuffed animals were adorable. Easy the pup was my favorite. But the cat couple was so sweet. I can’t wait for the Hugger Hats to see this story more about the group than about any one person.

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Review: Round Loom Knitting in 10 Easy Lessons: 30 Stylish Projects by Nicole F Cox

Round Loom Knitting in 10 Easy Lessons: 30 Stylish Projects by Nicole F Cox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a gift from my daughter. At first, I thought it was going to be too easy. I’ve been loom-knitting for a couple of years now. And though I didn’t read the book word for word I did enough examining the patterns and instructions to know that this would be a great book for beginners. But there are lots of more advanced patterns. Many I have bookmarked to try later.

I highly recommend this book for anyone into loom knitting or thinking about getting into it.

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Review: Unbreakable

Unbreakable by Joann Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Is there anything that befalls womankind that doesn’t appear in this series? Whew! Don’t get me wrong, as much as is covered in these books, these are not thrillers. Suspense is there, but you have a confidence that it will work out. Love seems to pull the characters and reader through it all.

This second book is even better than the first, if that’s possible. The characters are wonderful. I love them all. Well, that is, except the bad ones and even they are believable. This book had more the stresses of life as a rock-star and cop couple who happen to be lesbian. In this book we see the stresses of married life, fertility treatments, adoptions and so much more.

Erotica peppers the two books, but I feel it is fun and a natural part of being a couple. Spice of life, you know?

My favorite parts of the books, aside from the above fun, was the child, Calista. I fell in love with her in the last book, starting with sandcastles and that love continues into this one.

Although I have watched the reality show with Guiliana and Bill and the troubles they had with IVF treatments, I think climbing into the minds of Lynn and Alexis gave me a better appreciation of what women, couples, go through to get and stay pregnant.

That was on top of the bigoted treatment the couple had sustained in their individual lifetimes. When others can’t find it in themselves to love you in spite of the fact that you don’t fit their idea of what is normal and acceptable, yet all you want is love.

Gosh, I miss Lynn and Alexis! Though the author didn’t leave us on a cliffhanger, there were enough threads to let us know we were not finished. I can hardly wait to read book three!

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Review: The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Death narrates this wonderful story about a young girl in Hitler’s Germany. That is a sentence I never would have thought of writing. But that is part of the many surprises in this story. If you’ve read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, you have a vision of Death. Though this book is covering more serious matters, the author brings in wit and wisdom, and shows us all how to care, how to love.

Early baby-boomers and their parents know deeply what happened pre and during World War II. Most books covering this era, with anger and depression and rightly so. This book looks at all of that plus teaches a girl to read and write. Okay, now that sounds like elementary school. And though this could be read to a younger audience the subject matter is quite mature. In fact, it is a great way to introduce to younger people how Hitler grew his army and how people learned to blame others for their problems (sounds a lot like what is happening now in many ways).

Right from the start I found I cared for Death and the other characters. But most of all I loved the quirky writing style. I have read in other reviews that the style was distracting, but I found it was necessary. We need to take the subject lighter so that we can live with the girl in her own innocence. The turn of a phrase in this author’s writing kept me highlighting all over the place. Markus Zusak is amazing!

This Kindle version was given to me for a birthday gift from my friend, Yve. Thank you so much! I picked up the audio version from the library, hence breaking up my current reading list. I loved the narrator of the audio, Allan Corduner. He acted the parts and kept me interested. Though this was the library Overdrive version, I think I will use this month’s credit to get the Audible copy. That’s how much I loved the combination. I plan to read this again. As for the movie? I am not sure I want to watch it yet. I am too in love with my own imaginary movie.

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