Book Review: Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard

A couple of weeks ago Kirsten Hubbard walks into my library armed with posters promoting her book. Little did I know that she was a debut author whose title, Like Mandarin, is on a list of suggested reads for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge that I'm participating in over on The Story Siren's blog.

I track down a galley copy, and after the first page, I'm hooked. I love the writing style. Grace has a voice that's honest and anguished. Mandarin is an enigma. Momma is crazy. Taffeta is there, but she's not just filler.

Reading Like Mandarin was a nice change from the fantastic, dystopic titles I'd been reading lately. It had more substance to the last "real" YA book I read. It has a definite literary quality to it that should appeal to older readers as well.

Bay Area February 2011

While watching football sometime last December, Southwest Airlines was advertising $59 flights. So we booked tickets for Northern California for early February, in hopes of catching the release of Pliny the Younger at Russian River Brewing Company.

The day Younger was released, we met up with some friends who'd also flown up for the weekend. And although we knew that this is a big deal, we weren't prepared for how big of a deal. This was the line that greeted us:

We got there a little after 1 pm; the people at the front of the line had been waiting at least 3 hours. So after a few minutes of discussion, we headed off to Third Street Aleworks a block away. I tweeted about it, and my tweets ended up in Bay Area Craft Beer's article covering Younger's release.

The food at Third Street Aleworks was really good, and the beers were yummy too. I really enjoyed their Cherry Springer, which I had expected to be sour (I love sour beers) but wasn't at all. Unfortunately, they do not let this beer go home in growlers.

With plenty of time left in the day, we headed down to Petaluma and the Lagunitas Brewery.
I made my own sampler. The Capucchino Stout was really good, but even better as a float:

The Lagunitas Taproom is a really nice place to sit back and enjoy some good beer. We had the benefit of an unusually warm weekend, so sitting outside was comfortable. The only drawback? No smoking section, so no cigars. That was the only thing missing! Oh, and Lagunitas serves there beer in mason jars. Their growlers are mason jars on steroids, but we didn't get one because they didn't say "Lagunitas" on them. Those will be coming out soon, they tell us.

After we headed back to Santa Rosa, Dan's cousin decided to try Russian River again. No line, so we snagged a table and managed to get in a few pints of Younger before they ran out for the evening. Sorry Kim!


Note: I am definitely NOT a hophead, but I could really appreciate Pliny the Younger. Didn't have the piney stink I usually associate with hopped up beer.

Book Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

For some strange reason my branch library did not get a copy of this book. I will be donating my copy after I let a couple of my regular kids read it.

Thoroughly enjoyed the book. I've never been a fan of sci-fi (except for the guilty pleasure of Star Trek: TNG paperbacks) and so I was a bit reluctant to read this. However, it had garnered so much attention at ALA Midwinter (I missed out on the ARC) that I thought I'd give it a try.

I love the fact that it's hard to pin down exactly what the book is. Is it sci-fi? Romance? Mystery? Well, it's all of those, which means it should attract a wide range of readers. The shifting of POV from Amy to Elder means that both boys and girls will be interested. Short chapters with cliffhanger endings are good for those reluctant readers.

Okay, now that I've explained how the book will appeal to Teens, let's get down to the story. I thought the character development was quite good, especially with Amy. Could get her sense of frustration and loneliness. Elder's character seemed a bit canned but when you think of it in relation to Amy it makes sense.

I did figure the plot out but there were still bits that surprised me. I'm really interested to see where the story goes in the next book; I think this one stands fine on its own.

Sock Yarn Blankie progress!

The sock yarn blankie is up to 3 squares.

Square #2 is Patons Kroy Sock in Mulberry. Purchased from Michaels; I originally tried to make Duckies but gave up after I lost track of the mods I was trying to do. This particular square shows only the browns of the yarn; I bet I could do another square using the pink/purple color run and no one would guess that they were related.


Square #3 is Mirasol Chirapa, color #709. Leftovers from my Lacy Baktus (Rav link). Bought the yarn from ImagiKnit in San Francisco, after eating a sandwich from Ike's Place, which has since moved. Knit the majority of Baktus on a road trip to Ensenada in October 2009.

Yesterday I bought a new plastic bin solely for the purpose of storing the Sock Yarn Blankie project. Coincidentally, I also received several packages in the mail containing mini skeins. I think I have about 20 mini skeins right now, with more coming this week.