Book Review: Salvador

Title: Salvador
Author: Joan Didion
Format: Audible
Reading Dates: 27 Mar 2015 - 01 Apr 2015
Rating: **1/2

On one hand I kept thinking this book was really dated and would have made much more of an impression on me if I had read it years ago, closer to when it was published. Salvador is filled with a litany of terror perpetrated by one side then another in the bloody Salvadoran civil war. Thirty years ago those horrors were the stuff of every day headlines, and I'm sure I would have wanted this book to help explain--if it could--what it all meant and who were the good guys.

These many years later, the politics don't seem to matter as much anymore, but that litany--the description of one horrific act after another--seems only to prove that inhumanity knows no decade.

Folded Book Kit Now Available on Etsy

For those of you who missed Eggstravaganza, the Reading With Scissors Folding Book Kit is now available to purchase on Etsy!

It includes instructions, a pattern and a book to fold! Pick your book cover pattern and color from a wide selection of options!

Now I can tell you all my secrets and I won't have to kill you. Whew!

Book Review: NPR American Chronicles: First Ladies

Title: NPR American Chronicles: First Ladies
Author: NPR
Format: CD
Reading Dates: 24 Mar 2015 - 26 Mar 2015
Rating: *****

What a great score from Library Thing Early Reviewers! I'm a big fan of NPR and a big fan of history, so this compilation of stories about the First Ladies of the US was a win/win for me. Cokie Roberts acts as the guide through the three discs, providing context for the stories in the introductions. It's one thing to hear these stories by themselves as they were produced over the years, but it's quite another to hear them told one after the other. The eras and situations in which these women found themselves may have all been different, but somehow the strength and dignity of each woman shines through. And oh, Mrs Harding, why have I never heard this story before??

Eggstravaganza Surprise!

It's a couple of weeks before Easter, and you know what that means – Eggstravaganza!

It's all day today, Wednesday the 25th, until 6 PM at Klein United Methodist Church.

And by popular demand this year we are selling-- drumroll please – book folding kits! You get instructions, a pattern, and an RDCB of your choice, all for just $30. 

Come see me!
(6 Apr 15 - If you missed Eggstravaganza, you can order the Book Folding Kit on my Etsy shop.)

I have never understood...

Bean Verbs

This one is for all my grammarian friends. I call it Bean Verbs.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Get it???

Aren't people who laugh at their own jokes just too much! Sorry, not sorry. :)

Sad Guitar

Remember those hearts I made for Valentine's Day? Well, I think I have a crush on book page mosaics now.

I also have a crush on sad guitars.

Sad guitars, you ask? Yeah, like the ones Karen Carpenter used to sing about. Or George Harrison. Or Brian Pounds.

So book page mosaics + sad guitars = this new creation.

It's a lot bigger in size than those 8x8" hearts were. This baby measures in at 30x15".

I used the same combination of book pages that I used for the hearts for the face of the guitar, but the other parts needed some color, so I used some RDCB pages with pictures for the sound hole, bridge and pick guard. It was fun going through pages trying to find just the right colors to use in my "palette."

.

I've got stacks and stacks of pages that are primarily black. But the cool thing is that when I tore them into pieces, the edges are white. I thought it was such a neat effect on the neck of the guitar. They almost look like frets.

So sad guitar = happy Stephanie. I've got tons of ideas for new mosaics now, and I can't wait to get started!