Ally's Books & Stitches

  The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb I read a physical copy of this book that I borrowed from my local library. I hear the audiobook is outstanding and I am sure it is. I am a musician and Ray was playing in my imagination and it was wonderful! I loved the way he had scenes running through his head while he was playing the music. Many times I feel a kinship with the characters in a book as though they are real people - and this certainly was the case with Ray. I felt really bad when his family didn't support him - except for Grandma Nora, of course. And the racism he had to endure was terrible. I know I am an old white lady and cannot fathom what he went through, but I am sad about it. When I read that Brendan also endured these things, I felt even worse. Usually it takes longer for me to read a physical book than listen to an audiobook, but I felt as though I flew through this one because I needed to know what would happen.  I am really looking forward to Brendan's next

  Join us for Seasons of Reading's Yuletide Spirit Reading Challenge and Readathon! Follow this link to sign up:   I have been doing this Reading Challenge & Readathon for several years, so I am going to do the Christmas Tree level: 5 or 6 holiday books; FaLaLaLa - watching holiday movies; and Visions of Sugar Plums - reading holiday books to my granddaughter and maybe my great-nieces and great-nephew. It will be lots of fun!   #YuletideSpirit starts November 21, 2022 and runs until January 6, 2023. Use the hashtag #YuletideSpirit or #readathon to post your reading to social media.  Happy reading!!!  Alleluialu 

  This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub: I checked this out from my local library this week and have been reading it while I am recovering from Covid. Sorry, my librarians, you will have to quarantine this book when it comes back, but that's not until next week. I like that the chapters are short, but it took awhile to get to the time jump, but now that that has happened, it's moving along well.  The first line is: "Time did not exist in the hospital." That's it! First Line Fridays is hosted Carrie aka MeezCarrie at Reading is My Super Power. Check it out here and add your own First Line!  Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from   The Captive Reader  and Sharlene from  Real Life Reading  that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. Check out what other participants have shared here .  Happy Reading! Alleluialu

  What am I reading this week? August 1 - August 7, 2022 Finished over last weekend:  The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater - I have been reading the series The Raven Cycle since April of 2021 and now I am finished with it! I listened to the audiobook of several of the books and Will Patton is amazing. His voice is soft when needed but definitely terrifying when called for. Plenty of exciting things happened to round out this story. Excellent! The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer - This is book #4 of the Artemis Fowl series. I really wasn't very involved in this one and have decided not to pursue the rest of the series. It just doesn't interest me at the present time.  To: Night Owl From: Dogfish by Holly Golderg Sloan - I just finished this one on August 1st. It is one of the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club's Summer Reading selections that I chose to read this summer. At first I would say it was a cute middle grade written in epistolary form, but it really dealt with some serious i

High Summer Readathon 2022 I just signed up for the High Summer Readathon 2022 hosted by Seasons of Reading. It lasts all month and the guidelines are easy. You can find out all about the readathon here . These are the 12 books on my main TBR for August:  The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury  Uprooted by Naomi Novik  Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan by Liz Michalski  A Wedding in Haiti by Julia Alvarez  This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub  The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd  The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon  The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera  Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen  The Secret Princess by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz  Garden Spells by Sarah Allison Allen  I'm starting with This Time Tomorrow that I borrowed from my local public library.  Join us! Alleluialu  

  Joy to the World for Jolly July Finished this Primrose Cottage Stitches piece for #ChristmasInJuly or #JollyJuly. I stitched on 14-Count Aida by Wichelt in Natural (I think). I changed the called-for colors to DMC904 for the green and DMC666 for the red because that's what I had in my Christmas stitches bag. I plan to make a pillow as pictured to display in my still-yet-to-be-purchased dough bowl. I may do some fully-finishing in August as I have several pieces to be sewn into pillows. We'll see. I am also planning to stitch a Jane Austen quote in August.  Happy Stitching! Alleluialu