UPDATE: I’ve found the first-ever Vera Bradley ad that features an African-American. It’s in the October 2009 issue of Southern Living (!) magazine, on page 23. I figure the reason it’s in that particular magazine is because it features not just an African-American college-age female, but also… a bulldog. So there’s the Georgia Bulldogs university tie-in. Congratulations, Vera Bradley, for entering the post-1964 era! Now, a request: can you take it a step further & use an African-American (or two, or three) in your next print catalog? Dare to dream… For more on Vera Bradley’s fascination with white-only models, see my blog from June 2008.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A fascinating piece of historical fiction. I enjoyed this book from start to finish. Believable & engrossing, the story begins just before Henry VIII kicks his first wife to the proverbial curb. It’s a story of Thomas More, his fanatical religious fervor & passions, & his family & hangers-on, one of which was Hans Holbein, the German painter. The characters are deftly sketched which pulled me right into the plot. I highly recommend this if you enjoy biographies of the Tudors & the players in all the intrigues they caused.

The reader of this book is Josephine Bailey. I found her narration to be sublime. I would love to have a voice like hers! She handled the various nationalities & ages of the characters with stunning effect. I’ll look for other audiobooks she reads. One small issue I had with her narration was that I wish she’d spoken a bit slower. I rewound the audiobook to catch what I couldn’t on the first listen.

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I remember where I was when I found out Janis Joplin died. I was 10 years old & standing on the playground at my Catholic school in Landover Hills MD. My friend walked up to me & said, “Did you know Janis died?” (you didn’t have to say any last name because when I was in 4th grade, there was only one Janis) I ignored her because I knew it wasn’t true. She walked away. The girl I was standing with (Mima) said, “She died Kathie. She took too much drugs. She’s dead.” I remember looking up at the tree near the rectory & looking at the sun’s rays shining through the autumn leaves. I thought, “The sun is shining, but Janis won’t ever see it again.” From that day on, I read every single thing I could about intravenous drug use & about other abused drugs (pot, mushrooms, peyote, speed, quaaludes). Back then we had Newsweek & Time magazines in our school library so I read everything they published about smack, crank, horse, Mary Jane, you name it. I was trying to understand why anyone would voluntarily inject something into their veins to make themselves feel good. I just couldn’t get my mind around it. I think it kept me from abusing drugs.

The Skeleton in the Closet by M.C. Beaton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was pleasantly surprised by this “cozy” mystery! It was fun, moved right along, & was a good mystery. I’m an insatiable Anglophile so I love anything Agatha-Christie-esque. This is modern-day so it didn’t hold a candle to Dame Agatha in that particular, but was still fun to read. This is the first M. C. Beaton I’ve read. I’ll seek out this author’s other novels.

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Freddy Goes to the North Pole by Walter R. Brooks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
All the Freddy books are wonderful. These are great books to listen to on CD when you’re traveling with the kids. When my son was 11 we listened to Freddy and the Flying Saucer Plans on a drive from DC to Cape Cod. All of us loved it! This book combines 2 things I love (animals & Santa Claus).

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A Crafter’s Book Of Santas: More Than 50 Festive Projects by Leslie Dierks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this book. I found some real gems in it.

I was especially intrigued with the carved wooden Santas. I haven’t done woodcarving since I was a child & I love the finished product. The Elfin Santa features a little guy carved from a small block of wood. This guy would be so sweet tucked into a corner as a surprise for your little ones.

To me, with handcrafted Santas, it’s all about the face. If the face doesn’t have that beneficent child-man twinkly-eyed countenance, it doesn’t make me look twice. That’s a problem I had with many of the projects in this book: the face was just cheesy. It doesn’t matter how elaborate the robe is, or how many gewgaws Santa has pouring out of his sack, if the face is slapdash, it’s not a successful project.

I like the patterns in this book. They could be used for other projects if you’re an experienced crafter. This book could be worth buying for the patterns alone. The directions for the projects are detailed & relatively easy to understand.

There’s the Jingle Bell Santa Trio which I found delightful. I am fascinated by papier mache. This looks like a difficult project to me. But the face on the squinty-eyed Santa is absolutely delightful.

The Victorian Father Christmas is unique & delightful in a nostalgic & childlike way. It’s also a papier mache project.

There are some needlepoint projects in the book which are quite nice. I do almost every kind of needlework, but I don’t needlepoint.

I grow birdhouse gourds for projects & have quite a few curing in my basement, so the gourd Santas in this book really took my fancy. The Moon & Stars Santa is one I’d like to try & is fairly straightforward in its instructions. The Santa Cat Gourd is a stunner & one that I very much would like to try. Again, I would buy this book for the gourd projects alone.

I enjoyed reading the introduction because I just love Christmas & its history. I always start yearning for cool-weather holidays during the dog days of summer.

There are lots of crafts for beginners in this book. I think the finished products aren’t things I would want to store away for future generations, but they’d be fun to do with the children & grandchildren. There are crafts that use fusible web, polymer clay, cotton balls, & other things you may have in your craft basket already.

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Tricks and Treats by Deborah Harding

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a useful book to have on your craftroom shelf. When you get back from your summer vacation at the seashore, browse this book while you listen to the crickets sing in the morning after you get the kids off to their first days of school. If you look around you, there are signs of autumn everywhere: spider webs on the lawn, yellow leaves falling on the sunniest & warmest of early-September days, morning glories that look (if possible) even more glorious after enjoying a little bit of coolness overnight. Crickets still scratching away as late as 10 AM are a sure sign that harvest fun must be just around the corner.

The introductions to each of the chapters in this book transported me away from the heat & humidity of summer to the cooler days of early autumn. They are a nice addition to the craft instructions & really got me in the Halloween mood.

There are quite a few of what I call “cheesy crafts” in this book, but it’s desirable anyway because of the detailed directions & easily-photocopied patterns. I like the addition of a “General Directions” section in the back. I’ve been sewing & crocheting since I was 7 years old, but this old dog really could use some new tricks, as well as a brushing-up on the old ones.

The Smiling Scarecrow at the beginning of the book is a fun craft that you can put your own unique artistry into & turn out something that the kids will look forward to unearthing from storage every September 21. I like the simple but satisfying Hanging Ghosts – the ones that use balloons & simple papier-mache -because the finished product really is adorable. You won’t feel guilty about just throwing these away after Halloween because you’ll look forward to making them again next year, so storing them doesn’t have to be a concern. I thought these would be particularly spooky if you put a string of mini-lights inside or around their circumference.

There’s a lengthy section on kids’ costumes. There are so many inexpensive Halloween costumes available at the big-box discount stores that I wouldn’t put all the time & energy into making one myself. Use your time sitting with your feet up with a cup of apple-cinnamon tea & a book of Victorian ghost stories while the kids are at school or out playing. Remember: If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. The makeup tips are useful & fun, though.

The Pumpkin Head Family is fun & I bet you find more than a couple of new ideas for a comical front-porch display. I love how the authors used the pumpkins’ stems as noses. And you don’t have to make a huge mess carving the pumpkins to give your gourd true personality.

The Fun Foods section includes lots of doable “recipes” that will delight your little partygoers. I know my grandchildren especially love to decorate cookies (& then immediately eat them, of course).

The highlight of this book, for me, was the fusible-web Scaredy Cat quilt, Halloween wall-hanging & pillows. I don’t use fusible web often, but I know it’s easy & quick. I would make the Scaredy-Cat quilt with antique reproduction fabric to make it look like it’s vintage. My mind started to race with possibilities looking at these three projects. I also like things I can hang on the wall or use as whimsical decor touches in the living room.

Check Amazon for this book from used-book sellers. I bet you can find it for not more than a couple of dollars & you’ll turn to it throughout the year. I love Halloween no matter what month of the calendar it is.

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