Unearthing New Authors

Ok, so Elizabeth Chadwick is definitely not a new author but she is new to me and so she can still count as a Newbie!

I honestly adored this book and can’t wait to pick up more! I was so thrilled to see that my library has more of her work!

Surprise, surprise… I am back in the world of historical fiction! The Time of Singing is set in 12th century medieval England during the reign of King Henry II. This novel is all about social ties, social climbing, the restoration of family and titles, and medieval life in general. I liked this one so much because it is completely based on the actual Bigod family who actually existed but no one has ever bothered to tell their story before. Love it!

This author seems to only write about this one era in history and each of her novels follows a different character at a different time or place. Perhaps by reading more, it might feel like a series, but I’m not sure so I’ll have to get back to you on that one!

For some reason this novel kept on making me think of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth which is a good thing because I loved that one too! If you are one of the millions of people who read that then you will love Elizabeth Chadwick!

Also, this book is 517 pages and so it counts as my second Chunkster!!!! Wooo Hooo!!!!
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My cats are circling me; it must be time for them to herd me up to bed! LOL! They’re so funny about their little schedules! Are yours like that too? If I stray from their feeding/sleeping/ cuddling schedule by even half an hour they’re on hot bricks! LOL!

Until next time…(and I promise my next post will be stitch related because I can't wait to show you my progress!!!)

Bubble, Bubble, Toil, and Trouble

I don’t normally read non-fiction because I feel like I’m reading a textbook the majority of the time. However, with this one I made an exception and I’m very glad I did. I saw this book in the new release section in my library and something about it called my name! The Enemy Within by John Demos is about the history of witch trials. I didn’t know much about this topic; being Canadian and not American the Salem Witch Trials were never part of my school history curriculum. (Maybe that negation isn’t because of being Canadian…maybe I just went to a bad school? LOL!) This book did discuss Salem and the mystique that it has created through time but it also went right back to the beginning. It discussed the way our idea of God and therefore the Devil came into our lives and ultimately caused the idea of witchcraft. Next, this book came right back to just about the present day to discuss more contemporary forms of witch-hunts such as McCarthyism. This was a pleasantly interesting read. I think what made it feel less like a textbook was that the author chose to have two vignettes of actual specific case stories in each section which were able to keep readers like me entertained as well as informed!

My First Chunkster

Revelation by C.J. Sansom

This is the fourth book in Sansom’s Shardlake series; I have read none of the other three and so parts of this book went completely over my head because of references to past events unknown to me. I’ll have to look up at the library and see if they have any more but right now I’m at my ‘hold’ limit…did you know you’re only allowed to have 50 books on hold at a time! LOL! I have issues, I know!!! But a lot of my holds are on books the library is still acquiring or movies that I’m literally 100th in line for!!! LOL!

This novel is set in 16th century England. I seem to have a predisposition to this era! LOL! Perhaps it’s because it was the age of Pisces instead of Aquarius! LOL! I really have to idea. Anyway, I digress… the novel is set around the time of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine Parr and jointly the religious persecution throughout the city. Meanwhile, the London streets are being ravaged by a serial killer that is reenacting passages from the Book of Revelations. I am embarrassed to admit that I have only read bits and pieces of the Book of Revelations but from what I understand it’s pretty horrifying stuff!

I enjoyed the aspects of rudimentary science and medicine that this book discusses, mainly the first areas of psychiatry in the Bedlam Hospital. There is a woman there whose only ailment is agoraphobia and yet she has been locked up like a common nut even though she is perfectly capable of living normally as long as she stays indoors. I have agoraphobia!!! I’m not a nut!!! LOL!



I am super excited about joining in on the Chunkster Challenge!!! This is a reading challenge whereby you read chunky books. I LOVE chunky books and so I hopped right on that bandwagon! A chunky book is anything over 450 pages. Revelation ranks in at 550 pages and so it counts as my first Chunkster! You’re supposed to put a list on your blog of the chunky books you intend on reading but I’m going to pass with that aspect. I’ve been reading a lot of library books recently and I never know when they are going to be ready. Thus, I’ll tally up my Chunksters as I go!

Happy reading, happy stitching, and happy knitting until next time!!!

My Cooking Skills are Sadly Apparent

The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark

I’m back in Venice again during the 16th century with this novel and completely loving the journey! This novel begins on the streets with a young boy that is on his own and just trying to stay alive. While stealing to quench his hunger, the boy is accosted by the chef of the doge and made to return his bounty. The chef brings him back to the palace kitchens and makes him his apprentice. There are some scenes where the boy, in the middle of the night, tries to create marvelous concoctions to impress the chef. His main rule of thumb is that if all the individual ingredients are tasty then so will be the finished product. I’m personally pretty domestically inept in the kitchen and while the reader is meant to see that his recipes are putrid, it sadly went right over my head! LOL! (There’s a reality TV show… Martha Stewart can come to my house to teach me how to be domestic but she’ll end up helping me put out the small fires in my kitchen while I order a pizza for the family! LOL! I don’t think she’d go for it though… it might give her a small mental breakdown! LOL!)

Anyway, the novel deals with the city’s hunt for a legendary book which supposedly contains love potions, an elixir for immortality, and much other sage wisdom. The novel is a fine bildungsroman. It has a reverence for the mysteries of the kitchen and how food can transform moods and change the course of history. It’s very entertaining and quite funny in portions too!

Flower in Random Places and Hockey Pucks No More

Check out my progress with Elegance of the Orient! Just gorgeous in my opinion! LOL! The shawl is over half complete with the majority of its back stitching done and now I’m working my way down the skirt. The flower on the kimono looks absolutely amazing! There are only two flowers on this and I’m kind of wondering about the positioning of this one! LOL! It seems to be in a rather interesting spot! LOL! It’s been quite cold and snowy recently (it’s -30 outside with the wind chill and it’s so cold that the salt they put on the roads isn’t working! I didn’t even know that could happen!!!) And so a lot of my time is spent indoors with my many projects and I couldn’t be happier! I’m already looking through my stash and trying to decide what to do next! LOL!



I was at my Mom’s house yesterday and she was teaching me how to make bread. Everyone says how easy bread is but every time I make try it turns out like little hockey pucks! I made a loaf the other day and my husband asked when the football game was going to begin with the squirrels! Cheeky Bugger!!! Well, I am happy to report that with my Mom’s help I was able to make two quite tasty loaves! I now know what it’s meant to look like at all the different stages and so hopefully I can do it on my own. (What would we do without our Mommys!?) Hopefully soon I won’t be so domestically inept! LOL!

Shakespeare's Lost Manuscript

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber

This story begins with a fire in a rare book store. When one of the workers opens up the bindings of an old novel in order to salvage the pieces, they find in the binding some old letters. These letters tell about spying on William Shakespeare with a plot to ruin him. Amidst these letters there is discussion of an unknown and lost play which deals with the turmoil between Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth. The novel is the story of hunting for this manuscript with mafia and corrupt book dealers on their tail with murders and kidnappings popping up all over the place. This story has two narrators; one is an intellectual property lawyer who is cynical and very witty who speaks directly to the reader in a very unique tone; and the other is a young man who is an aspiring film maker and so everything from him has the undertones of a film (i.e. This can’t be the end because we haven’t had a twist in the plot yet, etc.) This book was a happy find for me and I hope it will be for others too!

Archaic High Class Hookers

I finished reading another book by Sarah Dunant, In the Company of a Courtesan:




This book is set in 16th century Italy and revolves around the life of a courtesan. She had to flee during the sack of Rome to Venice and the story shows her getting back on her feet (no pun intended! LOL!) in a new city. The list of characters is very different: the courtesan, her dwarf servant (also the narrator), a blind and crippled healer, an array of strange servants, and a few real historic figures such as the author Pietro Aretino and the aritist Tiziano Vecellio (Titian). Just like Dunant's other book, Birth of Venus, this is a very carnal book but not to the extent of lewdness. There is a hilarious scene in church where no one is interested in the sermon. Instead, everyone is flirting with each other, either for courtesan services or trying to find a spouse! Very funny!

Free Cat Litter!!!!

I'm trying out a new experiment...free cat litter! I saw this tip on someones blog and thought it was the greatest idea EVER!!!! I only have two cats but I must spend a small fortune on litter and so this was such a great find for me!

Basically, this is what you do: Take all junk mail, last year's calendar, old bills, scrap paper in general and shred it in a shredder or cut it up nice and small. Next, put it in a pot of boiling water with a bit of dish soap for about half an hour to an hour to get the dirt and most of the ink off. Drain the soggy mixture in an old colander and then with your hands break it up into little pieces and leave it on an old cookie sheet for a few days to dry. Sprinkle it with baking soda or some other smell sucking agent and VOILA!!! Free Cat Litter!!! It makes a kind of pulp which dries to a crumbly mess. But it's FREE!!!!

I've been adding it in to my cats' litter box a bit more each day and so far there are no protests so I'm very pleased. The only negative is that it doesn't clump but that's not the end of the world! And since it's free I plan on changing the entire box every few days with free stuff.

The best part of it all is that now my cats are peeing on my Christmas Visa bill and it feels SOOOO GOOD!!!!