Lazy Crafternoon

Lazy Crafternoon by Stella Fields
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lazy Crafternoon is a crafting book for the tween range. I love the idea of a lazy crafternoon, which Fields describes as “a day you spend with your friends, each of you making something incredible.” This book contains more than 50 easy crafts that kids can mostly make on their own, with a few simple supplies. The book is divided into five sections; accessories, decorations, school supplies, party and gift crafts, and foods. There are several decoupage crafts throughout the book, and well as crafts that involve sewing. Some of the best ideas come in the decorate section, like the No-Sew Pillows and the Ribbon Wreath. I also like the paper crafts shown. Kids can learn to make their own cards, envelopes, and gift tags. At the end is a food section, with cute edibles that can be served during the crafternoon.

I originally picked this book to see if it would be appropriate for my 14-year-old daughter and her friends. I think it would be a little basic for this age, I would recommend it for the craft-loving tween range. Overall, Lazy Crafternoon has many basic projects that would appeal to tweens. I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


View all my reviews

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest

Lazy Crafternoon

Negroland: A Memoir

Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm always looking for a good book on race, so I was excited to dive into this one. Jefferson is obviously a talented writer, and the high points of the book are her memories of her childhood, growing up as an upper-middle class black child in Chicago. The book is not pure memoir, however, and Jefferson jumps around to cover a variety of topics, like gender and history. These jumps are startling, and often left me confused as to what the author was talking about.

View all my reviews

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest

Negroland: A Memoir

The Werewolf of Bamberg

The Werewolf of Bamberg by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This series started off enjoyable, but it's really been a struggle to get through the last few books. The plot follows the same basic storyline in all the books. In The Werewolf of Bamberg, the Kusil family travels to Bamburg, only to find a werewolf, or murder, or both, have been killing people. There are enough plot twists to keep you guessing, but the one thing that kills about these books are the parachronisms. Since the book was originally written in German and translated to English, I'm not sure who to blame, the author or the translator. The book is filled with words that would not have been used in the 1600s. A golem is a 19th century word, not appropriate for a 17th century novel.

View all my reviews

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest

The Werewolf of Bamberg

Here's my #projectsummer traveling totals:

Home à Destin, FL

978 miles

DestinàHome

978 miles

HomeàAvon, NC

348 miles

AvonàHome

348 miles

HomeàVictoria, BC

2,890 miles

VictoriaàHome

2,890 miles

HomeàNYC

224 miles

NYCàHome

224 miles

Total:

8,880 miles

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest

In the Distant Past BY CARRIE FOUNTAIN Things weren’t very specific when I was in labor, yet everything was there, suddenly: all that my body had known, even things I’d only been reminded of occasionally, as when a stranger’s scent had reminded me of someone I’d known in the distant past. The few men I’d loved but didn’t marry. The time, living alone in Albuquerque, when I fainted in the kitchen one morning before work and woke up on the floor, covered in coffee. Finally. it was coming. It was all moving forward. Finally, it was all going to pass through me. It was beginning to happen and it was all going to happen in one single night. No more lingering in the adolescent pools of memory, no more giving it a little more time to see if things would get better or worse. No more moving from one place to the next. Finally, my body was all that had ever been given to me, it was all I had, and I sweated through it in layers, so that when, in the end, I was finally standing outside myself and watching, I could see that what brought me into the world was pulling you into the world, and I could see that my body was giving you up and giving you to me, and where in my body there were talents, there were talents, and where there were no talents, there would be scars.

Share: facebook - twitter - pinterest