A new author for me - William Kent Krueger

Note - a number of these books (photo below) were free for me on Audible. Most of this collection, I listened thru Hoopla via my local library. 

Youngest read Ordinary Grace in her book group. The club members all really liked it. Youngest called to say this might be a new author idea for me. She was reading more of his books and liked them. 

(I looked up his books while we chatted. I have listed them all below.)

I started with the first stand alone book, Devil’s Bed, at Youngest’s suggestion. It was one of the free ones on Audible. 

Like a recent John Grisham book, The Boys from Biloxy, I was confused when I started Devil’s Bed. 

I thought maybe it was my age. I wondered if I needed a character chart/list. 

I called youngest, she said it was just as confusing for her. And she said it did not matter, those characters all fade into the background and the story emerges. 

I really liked all three of the stand-alone books. I devoured them, one right after the other. They were all very different topics/stories. Excellent writing, in my opinion. 

Then I read a recent publication - The Levee 2023 - which was excellent.

I started on the main series (below). I was very happy to have a new author with a nice long list. 

“Order of Cork O’Connor books. The story of Corcoran O’Connor started in Iron Lake, and it is a series of nineteen novels.”

• Iron Lake (1998)

• Boundary Waters (1999)

• Purgatory Ridge (2001)

• Blood Hollow (2004)

• Mercy Falls (2005)

• Copper River (2006)

• Thunder Bay (2007)

• Red Knife (2008)

• Heaven’s Keep (2009)

• Vermilion Drift (2010)

• Northwest Angle (2011)

• Trickster’s Point (2012)

• Tamarack County (2013)

• Windigo Island (2014)

• The World of Cork O’Connor (2016)

• Manitou Canyon (2016)

• Sulfur Springs (2017)

• Desolation Mountain (2018)

• Lightning Strike (2021)***

• Fox Creek (2022)

***information from online - “It is worth mentioning that Lightning Strike is a prequel story, and it is set before the events of the first book. This means that you can start with Lightning Strike and continue in chronological order, but it’s always better to read books as they were published.”

The second quilt, made with the leftovers from the first quilt, also a 9-patch

There is an earlier post with a quilt I made for my DIL this summer. 

I made a second quilt, mostly from the leftovers, for one of my husband’s brothers this fall. 

I made the blocks very slowly over three weeks in August. 

My daughter organized the blocks for me. She likes to lay out the colors. 

My long arm quilter quilted it for me. 

Grisham

I have been working on a book project, future post, which has inadvertently caused me to look back through book lists of authors I have read for years. 

Looking at John Grisham’ list, I realized I had missed short story collections. 

I started listening to the first story in this collection,  August 2023 - 

And realized the first story was a continuation of an earlier short story from another book. 

So I stopped and found the original story.

Next, I went back to Sparing Partners and listened to the rest of the story titled Homecoming. 

Then I listened to all the rest of the stories in both books. These were all good, I like collections of short stories. (One of these books is read by John Grisham himself.)

I also listened to The Boys from Biloxi, August 2023. 

Oh my goodness, it took a little time to settle into this book. The first section is necessary background, but made me feel detached from the story for just a bit. Again, I thought I might need a character chart. When it moved into the main characters, it was captivating. Super well written, interesting/very good. 

Note - John has a new book, The Exchange, October 2023.  It is the second book in a series. The first book, The Firm, was published in 1991. I am rereading The Firm prior to reading the new one. 

I have included a list of all Grisham books below, I have read almost all of them, there is a note below listing the ones I skipped. 

If you like legal type stories and somehow have not read this author, it is a nice long list. Here is another author that when I run out of other ideas, I could go back thru all of them. I think they are all on my Audible account.

Yes, many of the earlier books were made into movies. 

Note -

I skipped Sooley/coming of age/basketball, Bleachers/football coach, and Playing for Pizza/football.

Standalone Novels

● The Pelican Brief - 1992

● The Client - 1993

● The Chamber - 1994

● The Rainmaker - 1995

● The Runaway Jury - 1996

● The Partner - 1997

● The Street Lawyer - 1998

● The Testament - 1999

● The Brethren - 2000

● A Painted House - 2000

● Skipping Christmas - 2001

● The Summons - 2002

● The King Of Torts - 2002

● Bleachers - 2003

● The Last Juror - 2003

● The Broker - 2004

● Playing For Pizza - 2007

● The Appeal - 2007

● The Associate - 2009

● The Confession - 2010

● The Litigators - 2011

● Calico Joe - 2012

● The Racketeer - 2012

● Gray Mountain - 2014

● Rogue Lawyer - 2015

● The Rooster Bar - 2017

● The Reckoning - 2018

● The Guardians - 2019

● Sooley - 2021

● The Boys From Biloxi - 2022

Pie crust protectors

I make quiche at least once a month. It is a very simple recipe. I use frozen pie crusts (regular, not deep). 

These is a great make ahead dinner or brunch. Everyone in my family can eat it happily. 

Middle took a quarter home for her dinner (below). 

That side was broccoli and cheese (and 4 eggs and 1/2 cup skim milk). 

The other one was cheese, mushrooms/onion/sautéed with Pam sprayed pan (and 4 eggs and 1/2 cup skim milk). 

The crusts are baked for 8 minutes empty, first. And then 50 minutes full, both at 375 degrees.

Pie crust edges can burn easily without protection. Aluminum foil is very hard to use on pie crust edges for me, my hands. 

I bought 9” reusable protectors from Amazon. I have seen 10” at my local hardware store. 

This might be a great gift idea, but absolutely have to get the right size protector based on the pan size they use. 

Elizabeth Strout

Note - this link contains “if you liked Elizabeth Strout, consider these” suggestions.

https://lititzlibrary.org/elizabeth-strout-read-alikes/

When my niece read Harry Potter, she had a big chart in her room where she made notes of all the characters. 

As I read the Elizabeth Strout books, I kept thinking I should have done the same. The characters are intertwined, reoccurring, and related. 

Reading the books one right after the other is probably enough for the average person. The books definitely need to be read in order. 

In the fall of 2020, I listened to the Olive books.

Olive Kitteridge (2008)
Olive, Again (2019)

I enjoyed them very much. 

Then over the summer of 2023, I listened to the four Lucy books, one right after the other, and really loved them. I was very sad to finish this series.

There are three additional books also - 

I listened to The Burgess Boys before I started on the Lucy series this summer. This was smart. Some of the Burgess characters are mentioned in the Lucy books, one character overlaps predominately. 

After I finished the Lucy series, I read Amy and Isabelle and then Abide by Me. And discovered these had mentions of overlapping stories/characters too. 

In my opinion: 

Read the stand alone books first, in publication order. 

Olive series should be second, in publication order.

And then read the Lucy series last, also in publication order.

Rabbit fencing

I have a terrible problem with rabbits eating my plants. If I were to use rabbit fence to keep them out of everything, I would have to build a fortress. 

So my rabbit fencing actually serves another purpose. I use it to hold up plants where the blooms are too large and stems/stalks fall.

I buy mine from Mennards -

My first effort was mid August to support my Joe Pye Weed. 

This is what the Joe Pye Weed looked like on its own. Stems were breaking, it was hard to get to the water spigot, it was a sad mess. 

Here is another example, small pieces of rabbit fencing support the aster in my fall plantings.

Hijack

This was mentioned in the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. I still listen to that podcast regularly, I get good ideas from it. 

I loved Hijack. Perfectly cast. I liked the pace. 

I just went with it, realistic or not, I did not care. This was a point made in podcast. 

I enjoyed the whole thing, in one go. Seven hours, start early if you like to watch things all together. 

Looking up Idris Elba for this post, I realized there is a new Luther on Netflix. 

I loved the very gritty Luther series. I will rewatch the original series before I watch the new one. 

Cross body solution

I use a very small crossbody as my purse/phone holder. I use it all day, every day. I have worn out a couple of these. Oldest found the original one, they are perfect for me.

I ordered a new one (Etsy) this summer, but when it came, it was quite snug trying to get my phone in and out. My old ones were probably stretched out from constant use. My hands have gotten worse. The new one (below) was unusable to me. This was both sad and a real problem.

The top zipper had broken on the old cross body I had been using for several years. This was on the upper section where I store my phone.  I realized that the broken zipper was probably part of the reason my phone fit in and out so easily. 

I took the old cross body apart, removed what was left of the zipper, and put it back together, no problems. That was my trial run. 

I then had confidence to do the same operation on my brand new cross body, removing the zipper, which enlarged the top opening for my phone (pictures taken with my current phone, old phone in the holder, if you are wondering).

It is now very easy for me to use! 

I do lots of projects. I normally am pleased with them. This one I was absolutely thrilled at my cleverness. 

Project Runway

I realized a brand new season of Project Runway was running after an episode on Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast.

I really liked Season 19 of this show. Love Christian in his role. 

Project Runway aired on Bravo and Peacock. I bought a one month subscription to Peacock to watch it. 

I waited until it was well underway to begin. Loved this season too! 

I watched several other shows while I had access to Peacock. If you are out of things to watch on your normal streaming services, this is a good month’s worth. 

A pair for each door

I needed something to have by the door to slip on very quickly to turn off a sprinkler or take the dogs to our yard for a pee or grab the mail. 

Actually I needed two pair, one for each door. 

I talked to youngest, about what words to use in my online search, and she suggested “recovery slides”. This was to pull up options with lots of support below for my arches and on top for my metatarsals.

In searching, I immediately recognized a name, OOFOS.

This is the company that makes my indoor house shoes, found/gifted by oldest/DIL. I love those house shoes and they work extremely well for me. 

I ordered two identical pair of slides (size 8) and they arrived quickly. 

These are perfect for me. They fit very snuggly, have great arch support below, and really support my metatarsals on top. 

Important note - these are not water shoes. In fact they get quite slippery when wet. 

Funny note - one review said it was too much arch support, like walking on a tennis ball. Another review said it was too tight, they should have gotten the kind with Velcro. Both those reviews were actually positive for me. I thought these would be perfect and they were. 

Another important note - Middle is not allowed to wear them, her foot is thicker than mine and we are afraid she might stretch them. 

Dexter

 We have the Paramount/CBS app because of all things Star Trek. I also watch primarily CBS TV shows. 

Middle wanted to watch Yellowjackets, so she upgraded our subscription.

Quite accidentally I realized this gave me access to Dexter/New Blood. 

I very much liked the original Dexter series. 

I mostly enjoyed this new addition too. 

My husband watched parts of it with me and commented they set it up to continue. I read articles (after I watched it all) and yes, it was set up to be season one of a short mini series, but was cancelled. No season two at this point in time. 

The Dexter TV series is based on books. I have not read them. I am not planning to read them at this point in time, but adding them to my possible book list for the future. (I can’t decide if I would like them.)

Here are a few facts to consider - 

Sewing this summer, the first quilt, a 9-patch variation

I made two quilts last year as gifts. They were very simple. 

https://baby-steps-v.blogspot.com/2022/10/we-had-wedding-today.html

I made another quilt, this time a belated/delayed birthday present, in July 2023.

It was a unique technique -

https://my.modafabrics.com/2017/07/woodruff-quilt.html

I made the block in different sizes, to try out the pattern. I used the small size (left) included in the instructions. 

I gathered fabric -

My goal/plan was to make (at least) two blocks per day. This would keep things progressing, not stress my hands, more easily fit into my over busy days, keep things fun.  

Eventually, I was here -

And then I was here -

After a good pressing, and the border added, here -

I dropped it off for my long arm quilter. Here (below) is the motif for the plain/alternate square. The other squares were meandered. The border got parallel lines. 

Back from the machine quilter - 

Extra backing/batting removed when the binding was added. The quilting really shows with the ceiling light off and the natural light shining at an angle.