FRIDAY: Sew Deadly

Tori fled Chicago and a cheating man to start her dream job as a librarian in a small southern town called Sweet Briar. Unfortunately, Sweet Briar is one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone, there is an unwritten code of behavior for everything, and they don't like "outsiders." To make matters worse, Tori discovers that the former librarian did not retire willingly and she is holding a grudge. Hoping to make some friends, Tori joins a sewing circle at the urging of the town mayor. Sewing and fellowship help some of the women in town warm up to Tori. But all of her progress may be in vain if the local police can pin the murder of the town sweetheart on poor Tori. She has her work cut out for her - starting programs at the library, finding out who keeps sabotaging all her efforts, and sleuthing out a murderer.

I have been "stalking" this book at the bookstore for a couple months. Sewing is something I would love to do, but don't really have the time or space to take on a new hobby. When I discovered the book at the library, I put everything else aside to enjoy a new mystery. And I really enjoyed this one. I was recommending it to others before I was even half way through. I really liked the characters. Tori is very "real." She is sensitive to small acts of kindness and sweet, quiet little girls. She wrestles with her feelings about a man since she is still trying to find her place in this community. She rants and raves over injustices, and feels remorse when she finds out she was wrong about people. The author does a great job of showing how the women in the sewing circle warm up to Tori and support her. The sewing is an enjoyable context for the story and characters without being exclusionary for those who don't sew.

One unusual piece was how the mystery wrapped up. There was no big confrontation. Tori's life wasn't hanging in the balance. She figured it out, took it to the authorities and heard about the outcome after the fact. It made the resolution feel a little abrupt, but with all the other tension throughout the story, that wasn't a terrible thing. This is a series I would buy and read again. The next book in the series is going to be Death Threads, and comes out March 2, 2010.

[I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you click to Amazon from one of my blogs and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.]

FRIDAY: Cut, Crop and Die

Scrapbooker, Kiki Lowenstein is getting ready to kick off a great crop with her boss and coworkers from Time in a Bottle when the nasty Yvonne Graynor snarfs down her snacks and drops dead. The scrapbooking store competition is stirring up the community with slanderous statements. Kiki's boss is getting anti-semetic threats at the shop. If Kiki isn't careful, she's going to lose her precious and fulfilling job. And she needs if if she's going to take care of her daughter (a "delightful" almost-teenager who's pushing all of Kiki's buttons) and rebuild her life.

Another great mystery in this series! Slan has her own website where you can sign up for email news and see where Slan will be on book tours. She also has a blog, as does her scrapbooking character, Kiki.

Warning - there is a hilarious passage about "adult toys" that might catch sensitive readers off guard.

THURSDAY: Clean and Simple Scrapbooking

Some scrapbookers are really in-the-know about the big names in scrapbooking. I am not really one of those people. I know a few names of the people I really like and connect with and the rest are a mystery to me. Cathy Zielske is one of the names that I know. In fact, in looking at some old scrapbooking magazines a few weeks ago, I can pick out a page of hers at a glance. Sometimes it is because I recognize her kids from years of their pages in magazines and reading her blog. But often it is becuase of her style - it is "clean and simple." She doesn't care if she uses the same basic layout over and over and over again. It is just a tool to help her tell her story. She is a graphic designer by profession, so she offers lots of good information about how to use fonts and space well on a page. These two books are the foundation for what I do when I am scrapbooking.

[Cathy also teaches classes occasionally at Big Picture Scrapbooking. In the fall of 2009 she is doing a class called Me: The Abridged Version.]

THURSDAY: The Big Picture

While I have been a negligent scrapbooker for the last year or two, this remains one of the best books I have read about scrapbooking. Stacy Julian is the guru of "simple" scrapbooking. She stands firm against the idea of "getting caught up," believing instead that you should scrapbook the things that matter most and forget about chronology and putting every picture you take into an album! Where were these ideas when my son was first born and I was making a scrapbook page for every little thing he did?

This book goes along with a class that Stacy teaches at her website, Big Picture Scrapbooking called Library of Memories. In its simplest form, the idea is to (a) not print every digital picture you take - just use the best ones or the ones that communicate something important, (b) put your pictures somewhere where you can see them and be inspired by them, (c) and fight the urge to work chronologically. Look for ways to use your pictures to communicate ideas - personality qualities about a person, for example - rather than 16 pages of pictures of each soccer game from the season.

This is a great resource and encouragement for overwhelmed scrapbookers or for people just getting started who want a system that can stay simple.

MAGAZINE WEEK part 5: crafts

Over the past 10 years or so, I have been a connoisseur of craft magazines. I have subscribed to several over the years. But I have become much pickier in the last year or two. I was often frustrated to get a new issue in the mail and find nothing inside that piqued my interest. So, right now I have only two favorites, Paper Crafts and a line of magazines out of Britain.

Paper Crafts is great for me because it gives a variety of ideas - cards, gifts, and scrapbooks. I think they have a great balance of information - a list of supplies, simple instructions, and pictures. Not too much information so that you get fewer projects, but also not so little that I get frustrated because I can't replicate something. I enjoy a lot of their specials issues, too, like Card Creations, Holiday Cards, etc.

The British publisher is Practical Publishing. Recently I treated myself to a couple issues of their magazines (They are $15 each - thank goodness for coupons and discounts at Barnes and Noble!) - The Complete Stamping Handbook and Quick Cardmaking. I went through each page carefully, circling products I thought I might use some day, marking projects and techniques I wanted to try. For the first time in ages, I savored a craft magazine, finding something of interest on almost every page. I will definitely be looking at more of their publications in the future!

So, that's the end of MAGAZINE WEEK. I hope you have enjoyed the change of pace. We'll be back to our normal book review schedule next week! Happy Summer!