As I mentioned in a recent Booking Through Thursday post, I do like giving books as gifts.
Russell received Gorey's The Haunted Tea-cosy (see this post) with a tea cozy that I knit especially for the occasion (I used this pattern; project on Ravelry). He also received Eyewitness to a Genocide from his wishlist as well as a few other non-wishlist books (A Tale of Two Valleys, which he's already reading, Cryptonomicon, and Quicksilver).*I gave my sister Super Happy, Crochet Cute. It's a good introduction to Amigurumi-style crochet, something I knew she'd love once she tried it. She was really inspired by one of the advanced projects from the book so I helped her get started on it. She's already nearly done (project on Ravelry)!
I gave my mom Daughter of China by Meihong Xu and my dad Hood, book one of the Raven King trilogy, by Stephen Lawhead. I also snuck a copy of Definitely Dead into my sister-in-law Karina's package since I know she's working her way through the Sookie Stackhouse books.
Lucky me, I also got some wishlist books from various gift givers:
- The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (I adored her Zahrah the Windseeker)
- Stravaganza: City of Secrets, the 4th Stravaganza book, by Mary Hoffman (love this series!)
- Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (yum!)
- Yarn Play: Colorful Techniques and Projects for the Creative Knitter by Lisa Shobhana Mason (I need to go through this one more thoroughly, but I think there's a must-knit sweater in it)
* Buying used books is a great way to stick to a budget, provided your giftees aren't the type to get upset/offended by used items.
Martine Leavitt offers a spellbinding story, interweaving elements of classic fantasy and high romance. Keturah follows a legendary hart into the king's forest, where she becomes hopelessly lost. Her strength diminishes until, finally, she realizes that death is near. Little does she know that he is a young, handsome lord, melancholy and stern. Renowned for her storytelling, Keturah is able to charm Lord Death with a story and thereby gain a reprieve — but only for twenty-four hours. She must find her one true love within that time, or all is lost. Keturah searches desperately while the village prepares for an unexpected visit from the king, and Keturah is thrust into a prominent role as mysterious happenings alarm her friends and neighbors. Lord Death's presence hovers over all until Keturah confronts him one last time in the harrowing climax.
Jo Mackenzie needs a new start. Newly widowed with two young sons and a perilous bank balance, she has to leave London to take over her grandmother's wool shop. They arrive in the pouring rain and Broadgate Bay is the kind of Kentish seaside town where the tide went out a long time ago and the dusty old shop is full of peach four-ply. Marmalade mohair, an A-list actress moving into the local mansion and a 'Stitch and Bitch' group will help, but it's not going to be easy. Very large dogs, celebrity, small town intrigues, packed lunches and romance all loom large in Gil McNeil's funny and uplifting novel. 
After reading 
The Cheney sisters trilogy--
I picked up this book because I like Colfer. I've been reading his Artemis Fowl books for years. I'm also always in the market for audio books. I love listening to them in the car or while doing mindless computer stuff. 
In 
In any case, this month was another graphic novel month for my book club. Kyle Baker's 
Carmen Cole is a reporter for a small-time newspaper in a Southern town until she catches her fiance and best friend in flagrante delicto on her wedding day. In their passion they let slip that they are also the town's resident superhero and supervillain and Carmen gets her revenge by unmasking them in the media, an act that immediately transforms her career.
Reading 
Also published under the title "Wilkins' Teeth," 
This book appealed to me on a number of different levels. First, it is art historical fiction, a subgenre that I find particularly interesting. Second, it is set in a 17th century Amsterdam in the midst of tulipomania, a time period and socio-economic phenomenon that I find fascinating. I love tulips and coffee shops, but find the speculation of that time mind-boggling.
In 
From cast-on stitches to binding off, this handbook details the simple steps needed to turn seemingly complicated sock knitting projects into easy and enjoyable activities. Helpful photographs and instructional drawings ensure that even inexperienced knitters will be able to produce high-quality socks and handle more complicated techniques, such as the Kitchener stitch at the toe. Using instructions for five different sizes—from child through adult large—at five different gauges, knitters can produce styles ranging from delicate dress socks to thick and furry slipper socks. More adventurous knitters can add variety and flair by following one of 16 unique designs or trying one of the dozens of rib, cable, and lace patterns provided. With plenty of tips and a handy stitch dictionary, this guide unleashes the creativity and fun of sock knitting.
My first project from this book was the "8 Stitches per Inch Sock," which I knit with 
Maya, her mother Nalini, and her brother Satchin have left a carefree life in India to come to England. But when Maya's father disappears, leaving only deceit and debt behind, they are left to fend for themselves in a strange, damp land. Maya, though, doesn't know of her father's betrayal. Nalini, determined to preserve her children's pride, tells them that their father died in an accident and, as their struggle to make a life begins, whole realities are built on this lie. But even a white lie cannot remain hidden forever—and when the truth resurfaces, it changes everything.
Reality Nirvana Tuttle knows what fabulous is. Being fabulous is her life. She is devoted to dressing up. Her frocks - Gina, Dolores, Tallulah, Petula and Blanche, to name but a few - are her best friends, her closest confidantes. In her role as the doorgirl at the hip, Downtown New York nightclub, Less is More, Reality sees herself as the ultimate arbiter of taste, a goddess who stands above the crowd selecting fabulous nobodies from the waiting hopefuls below. When she and her English drag-queen friend Freddie open what they're sure will be New York's most fabulous club in their tiny apartment, Reality becomes really fabulous, and her new fame brings complications, not least among them Hugo Falk, the gossip columnist. She now must face a true dilemma: can people be more important than frocks? 
For Emily, accepting the proposal of Philip, the Viscount Ashton, was an easy way to escape her overbearing mother, who was set on a grand society match. So when Emily's dashing husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was a far different man from the one she had married so cavalierly. His journals reveal him to have been a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who, to her surprise, was deeply in love with his wife. Emily becomes fascinated with this new image of her dead husband and she immerses herself in all things ancient and begins to study Greek.
Russell and I listened to this book on a recent car trip. The version we had was abridged to 4.5 hours. I'm not sure how much was cut out, but there weren't any glaring gaps just relationships progressing more quickly than expected and it not being obvious that the problems with Si's time were a result of Vietnam War era disillusionment until the very end of the book (I didn't know anything about the book before we started it).
The book itself is fantastic. Full of Franklin's fantastic wit, it includes knitting-themed cartoons as well as a number of essays. Yarn may be inherently funny as he says, but it takes a special sort of person to remind us of that fact. I've been through the book a few times enjoying the cartoons (giggling over them with my mom), but I'm savoring the essays. I don't want my experience reading this book to end too soon. 
That Sarah Waters is a fantastic writer is apparent from her debut novel. 
Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. She claims to have been blown off course, and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a "tesseract," which, if you didn't know, is a wrinkle in time.
The true story of the 20-year correspondence between Helene Hanff, an American writer living in New York, and Frank Doel, the Manager of Messrs Marks and Co., a bookshop in London's Charing Cross Road. The story is told through the pair's letters.
Despite his fear of becoming his newspaper's token Jewish affairs correspondent, apathetic reporter Javier Mossen is strong-armed into interviewing expatriate Elias Traúm, who is visiting from Israel for the first time in 20 years. When Traúm is kidnapped from the Buenos Aires airport before Mossen's eyes, the unwanted assignment takes on a whole new meaning. Mossen becomes invested in both ensuring Traúm's safety and the story Traúm has to tell. Darkly comic and unapologetic, the novel subtly explores the political reality of Argentina's past and what it means to be a good Jew. Narrated by the sex-obsessed Mossen, this is the tale of Traúm's short visit to Argentina and the legacy of his role as one of the tres mosqueteiros, a group of precocious young radicals, two of whom joined the Montoneros during the Dirty War. It is also the story of Mossen's struggle to reclaim control of his life.