The books of November 2011

November was another busy month. I felt like it had been forever since I'd spent time inside the movie theater, so I rectified that by seeing The Immortals (surprisingly good), the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (not good, either time I saw it, but a fun way to spend time with friends), and the new Muppet movie (it was "sensational, inspirational, celebrational, [and] Muppetational" - LOVED IT!).

I kept working toward my goal of 12 or 13 total crafts (one for each month or one-fourth of them) for this year's Iron Craft Challenge. For the Rest Your Head challenge, I made a pillow that looks like a present:

Finally, a gift that truly keeps giving.

Next up was the Fall Contest for crafting something that fell into the theme of fall/autumn. I made a bag with all the fall colors I love to represent my favorite time of the year:

Hopefully I won't fall down with my fall bag.

You may have noticed that the title of that challenge included the word "contest". Well, thanks to everyone who voted for my fall inspired bag, I won the Iron Craft Fall Challenge! I even got a badge for my blog to prove it!

I did two more challenges in November: the Handmade Holiday challenge and the For the Table challenge. I haven't framed any of these yet, but I like them a lot.

Hoppy Christmas, people!

Pumpkins go on the table, generally in pie form.

This month, I didn't buy any books, but I got one for my birthday called A Life in Stitches: Knitting My Way Through Love, Loss, and Laughter by Rachel Herron. It looks like a good one!

It was another library-based reading month. I read Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares, Gossip Girl: Psycho Killer by Cecily von Ziegesar, The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan, The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig, The Emperor's Tomb by Steve Berry, The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry, and The Magicians by Lev Grossman (this one was borrowed from a friend).

Forever is the third book of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. Again, while reading the book, I wasn't that into it (same with all of her books) and it felt like it was taking a long time, but the story stays with you afterward. This one focuses on the same group of teens, but this time the threats are more imminent: a rogue wolf who cares nothing for her fellow wolves and a group of men with weapons enough to destroy the pack. The story is sad, but ends up happier than expected. I'm not sure if there will be a fourth book...to me this kind of wrapped up the series.

Sisterhood Everlasting is the latest in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. The girls are all grown up and don't have loads of time for each other. Spoiler: complete and unexpected tragedy strikes for a book like this. The story this time focuses on how the girls deal with/cope and recover from their loss. It actually made me cry. I didn't expect the dark turn, although I knew Brashares was more than capable of it (remember the little girl who dies in the first book?), I just didn't think she'd move the story in this way. If you've not read any of these books, they're kind of fun (better than the movies) and I did like that this one was based around their friendships and how they try (or not) to hold them together when it's too hard to even hold themselves together. I like coming back to these friends every few years to see what's up.

Some of you might know that I occasionally dabble in watching Gossip Girl. What you might not know is that I actually read the first book before I watched any of the series on TV, just to see if I might enjoy it as a guilty pleasure. Turns out I did. I don't regularly watch and I don't go out of my way to read the books...I only ever read the first one. And that's what Psycho Killer is: it's the first book, redone with lots and lots of murdering. Teen angst gone wild! I was highly entertained by the characters being taken to their worst extremes...the book was pretty funny. Perfect for a post-Halloween fix.

Carrie Ryan's third book of the Forest of Hands and Teeth series was another good one. The main character this time is the lost sister of the last book's focus. It brings together the four teens in an epic battle with the zombie-type creatures who are destroying what's left of humanity. It drags a little in comparison to some other, similar books, but it's still interesting. The army of protectors for the city show themselves to be horrible people, capable of things much worse than the zombie-types. This series isn't as awesome as The Hunger Games, but it fills a nice void left once you finish Mocking Jay.

When I'd looked earlier, I was told The Orchid Affair wouldn't be out until next year. I was so excited when I saw it at the library that I may have made a little squealing noise. Once again, Willig takes us into the world of British and French spies in the time of Napoleon. The Pink Carnation and the Purple Gentian make appearances in the book, helping out one of the students from their spy school. In real time, the grad student telling the story is having to help her new boyfriend (descendant of the spies) deal with the betrayals of his own family while trying to move her research forward. I really love these books. I think there are plenty of flowers to come and I'm very happy about that!

Next up were books six and seven from Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series. The Emperor's Tomb takes place after The Paris Betrayal...maybe a few months after. The double-agent makes another appearance and messes with the flow of events for Cotton and Cassiopeia. Working with the Russians and the Americans, Cotton goes off to help save Cassiopeia from the Chinese. The Chinese end up being at the brink of civil war and Cotton and Cassiopeia get completely tangled in the plots and have to help figure out who the best bet for safety might be. The double-agent earns Cassiopeia's trust and Cotton's anger, but eventually, all the truth comes out. Book seven, The Jefferson Key, is the first in the series to take place in the United States. Basically a bunch of pirates feel they should have free reign within and without the US government. They mess with the economy of the world and then try to assassinate the President. It turns out they were behind all assassination attempts (failures and successes). This one was a really fun read since it was stuff I knew a lot about...kind of like National Treasure with a better lead and less inconceivable happenings.

The last book I read, I finished on the 1st of December, so I cheated a little by saying this is for November only. But I was 80 pages away from the end and couldn't stay up any more on the 30th! Anyway, a little while ago I read in a magazine or online or somewhere that Fox was going to start a new show based on Lev Grossman's book The Magicians. A friend had it and loaned it to me so I could see what I thought. It's a decent book, kind of too long, but just when I'd think I was bored, something would catch my attention. The book is about Quentin, an outcast type of boy who loves books about the magical land of Fillory. Much to his chagrin, he lives in the regular world. But then he finds out that not only is magic real, so is Fillory! The book covers his journey from regular world boy to magical world traveler and back to normal working human. He loves and loses. The magical training and the kids in Brakebills (the magic school) is darker than Harry Potter...well, the beginnings of Harry Potter. It's not as engaging because it's very hard to feel sorry for several of the main characters. I laughed whenever they compared their real magic with the Potter series and when they visited Illinois and talked about how cold it was in Urbana in the winter! Overall, it was an interesting take on the what if magic is real question. I've already started reading the second book and will talk about it next month.

Well, hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and is looking forward to a great holiday season!