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.

And So It Begins

This is the beginning of a sock yarn blanket.

Many, many squares will be knit together to form a blanket. There are many examples of this blanket on Ravelry, and the original inspiration can be found here.I've only been knitting for a few years, and I knew that I would want to knit one of these eventually, preferably after I'd mastered knitting socks and as a result would have plenty of leftover yarn balls with which to make squares. But that's not the case. I have knitted a total of 3 pairs of socks. But I have sock yarn. Actually, the yarn that makes up Square #1 wasn't even leftover from socks, but from a scarf I made for my sister. The yarn is Fleece Artist Nyoni, I don't remember the name of the colorway.

It is my hope that I will be able to share the story of each square here on my blog. Most of the time there won't be much to the story; in fact I can tell you that Square #2 lived a very quiet life. But I do have yarn coming to me that I will incorporate into the blanket and I'm sure their stories are much more interesting.

And now here is the shameless plug for yarn, fingering/sock weight, all I need is 5g to make a square and it doesn't have to be machine washable.

One other thing, I'm not using the aforementioned pattern for this blanket. I'll be using the method I used for the mitered square baby blanket, knitting the squares in rounds. I don't know how many rounds it will take for me to consider this project finished. What I do know is that I'm really excited to see how it develops.

First FOs of 2011!

As January winds down I proudly present my first finished objects of 2011!




The top 2 baby hats are for a super-preemie by the name of Asher. He just came home but was unable to attend his own baby shower. I whipped up the hats for my good friend Kim, who is auntie to the little boy. She'd asked if I could do a baby blanket, which I will do soon, but didn't want her to go to the shower empty-handed.

In the middle is a blanket for Baby Jacob, due in February. His mama Rosie is a very good friend of mine who was an absolute rock to me while Dan was in the hospital last year. Pattern is Cotton-Ease Baby Blanket from Stick-Legged Girl. I used Simply Soft.

I absolutely loved knitting this, so much that I plan to make a few more baby blankets using this pattern. Oh, and I've decided that I'll use the pattern for a sock yarn blanket as well. More on that to come...

The third pic is yet another hat. This was supposed to go to my friend Franco, who wore out the hat I gave him for his birthday a few years ago. But after finishing it I know it won't fit him. I'll have to go back and see what pattern I used for the first one.

Book Review: The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

This was my first choice for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge hosted by The Story Siren. I picked it because I needed something quick and I knew Amazon would have it on my doorstep just in time for me to have something to read at work.
The Latte Rebellion centers around Asha, a high school senior of mixed race who, with her friends Carey and Miranda (also mixed-race), launch a website to sell "Latte Rebellion" t-shirts in hopes of raising enough money to go on vacation after graduation. What starts as messing around with a thrown-out idea soon turns into situations none of them envisioned.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Although I didn't care for the jumping-around with the timeline (which always irritates me to no end) I thought that the book as a whole had some substance to it. The issue of mixed-race ethnicity certainly needs to be addressed and is sure to become a talking point of the book. However, I did enjoy many of the sub-plots even though they could have been developed a bit more.
I would recommend this to teens who are into realistic fiction, but don't like Gossip Girl-type drama.