Free Audiobooks from SYNC all summer long

All summer long, SYNC is offering free MP3 versions of audiobooks.  A new pairing, one current release and one classic, will be available each week. Some books have limited availability, you will have to check to verify whether the title is available in your country.  Following is a listing of the schedual of releases:

SYNC Titles
Summer 2012
June14 – June 20, 2012
The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch, Read by Dan Bittner (Scholastic Audiobooks)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Frank Galati [Adapt.], Read by Shirley Knight, Jeffrey Donovan, and a Full Cast (L.A. Theatre Works)
June 21 – June 27, 2012
Irises by Francisco X. Stork, Read by Carrington MacDuffie (Listening Library)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Read by Wanda McCaddon (Tantor Media)
June 28 – July 4, 2012
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud, Read by Simon Jones
(Listening Library)
Tales from the Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang, Read by Toby Stephens
(Naxos AudioBooks)
July 5 – July 11, 2012
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Read by August Ross (AudioGO)
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Read by Ian Holm (AudioGO)
July 12 – July 18, 2012
Guys Read: Funny Business by Jon Scieszka [Ed.] et al., Read by Michael Boatman, Kate DiCamillo, John Keating, Jon Scieszka, Bronson Pinchot (Harper Audio)
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Stories by Mark Twain, Read by Norman Dietz (Recorded Books)
July 19 – July 25, 2012
Cleopatra’s Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter, Read by Kirsten Potter (Oasis Audio)
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, Read by a Full Cast (AudioGO)
July 26 – August 1, 2012
Pinned by Alfred C. Martino, Read by Mark Shanahan (Listen & Live Audio)
TBA (Brilliance Audio)
August 2 – August 8, 2012
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Read by Khristine Hvam (Hachette Audio)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Read by Simon Prebble (Blackstone Audio)
August 9 – August 15, 2012
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, Read by Rupert Degas (Harper Audio)
Dead Men Kill by L. Ron Hubbard, Read by Jennifer Aspen and a Full Cast
(Galaxy Press)
August 16 – August 22, 2012
The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, Read by Jay Laga’aia (Bolinda Audio)
The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Read by William Roberts (Naxos AudioBooks)


This weeks books are now available:

 

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch - read my recent review
The Grapes of Wrath  by John Steinbeck

Be sure to check the right side bar of the SYNC page to sign-up for weekly messages (text or email) to be notified when the next title is available for download.

Needlework Tuesday - Can't stop Knitting

Needlework Tuesday is open to all readers looking for inspiration, encouragement or who want to share their recent needlework project. Introduce yourself in the comments and be sure to leave a link to your current post. Feel free to grab the cute little mouse for your post.

I am trying hard to be focused and work on the Mosaic afghan every day.  I am aiming to complete three squares a day in order to have it finished in time to pack it and take it as a gift for my friend.  I don't want to arrive at the destination with squares yet to knit or with hundreds of yarn ends yet to be darned.  Last week I did quite well and am not starting row 9 of 15. 

Unfortunately I have done something to my camera and the pictures don't look quite right. I am hoping that it is a dirty lens and that I can clean it.   In the meantime, I keep knitting and knitting and knitting.  I will have to take a bit of a break and sew up a few pillowcases to be used as father's day gifts.

I finally installed the EQ6 (Electric Quilt) software on my laptop.  It's been so long since I used it last, that I have mostly forgotten how to use it.  After vacation I will have to go through the lessons in the book and refresh.  Then will decide whether to upgrade to EQ7.  It's good and useful software, but I didn't really miss it for the last two years when it wasn't installed on my desktop computer.  Do you EQ?  Do you use this software often enough for purchase the upgrades or do you make do.

To view two lovely cross stitch projects, pop in for a visit at Lit and Laundry.

I love Sweet Potatoes

A week ago, daughter and I spent the day with a friend making paper.  The details are found in my post titled: "Making Paper - a foil to the Ereader".  What I forgot to write about was the wonderful lunch we had during our break.  New Dundee is not a large place, but it does have at least two good places to eat.  Wanting to keep it quickish, we decided to visit the Dundee Diner on Queen Street.

Daughter selected the huge dish of poutine.  What, you don't know what poutine is.  It's a French Canadian dish that starts with a layer of fresh french fries, generously sprinkled with curd cheese and then smothered in a thick gravy.  This one had a secret bottom layer of a thick slice of bread topped by a giant, grilled hamburger patty.  Daughter made a valiant attempt, but only was able to finish about 2/3 of the dish.

I opted for the souvlaki in a pita dish with Greek salad, fries and rice.  I would have been fine with just the souvlaki, but I really did want to include salad in my lunch.

The Dundee Diner is definitely on my "re-visit" list.  They are have a cooler featuring the most amazing looking desserts.  We were far too stuffed to even consider sweets.  Next time, we are starting with dessert.

On Monday evening was potluck dinner at my local quilt guild.  One of the desserts was this wonderful tea bag cookie.  It was not a sweet sugar cookie as we all suspected.  I don't have the recipe for this one, as the baker would not own up to making them.  They were a huge hit.  A quick search of the Internet turned up many recipes.  I have included the link to a gluten and dairy free version that I found at PaleoSpirit.com.  I happen to have all the ingredients and think they will be perfect for the Bridal tea party that I am planning for my neighbour's eldest daughter.  I will be adding some sprinkles after dipping in chocolate.

I wanted to take a dish to the pot luck that was dairy free, but I also wanted to be considerate of a friend who must refrain from gluten.  A friend gave me several copies of 'healthy' recipes and one of them would be perfect. 

Vegan Sweet Potato Picnic Salad.

2 pounds of sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into about 1 inch pieces

2 medium apples, diced into 1 inch pieces

2 ribs of celery, diced into 1/2 inch pieces

4 scallions, thinly sliced crosswise

1/3 cup golden raisin

1/4 cup chopped flat leaved parsley

3 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp mustard (I used course Dijon)

Pinch of curry powder

Pinch of smoked paprika (I used regular paprika)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Place sweet potatoes in a large pot and  cover with cold water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender about 7 minutes.  Drain and allow to cool.

Add apples, celery, scallions, raisins and parsley. 

In a separate small bowl, whisk together vinegar, olive oil, mustard and spices.  Pour over

sweet potatoes and toss gently.

* I didn't have any scallions nor parsley.  If I were making this for at home, I would have added half of a diced Vidella (sweet) onion.  I did sprinkle some bits of pecan on top when I had a dish the next day.  To mix the oil, vinegar, and spices, I put them in a cup with tight fitting lid and shake until well mixed. This tastes best when allowed to sit for a few hours before serving so the flavours can mingle.

Thanks to Anita for sharing the recipe, sorry but I don't know which publication it is from.

For lots more foodie fun, be sure to visit Beth Fish Reads for her Weekend Cooking post.  You are invited to add a link to your recent foodie post.

Making Paper - a foil to the ereader

Paper versus ereader?  Last week I took a stand.   A friend invited me to her shop and we spent the day making paper.  Daughter took an enlightenment day from school and joined in the fun.

The Papertrail is located in the rural community of New Dundee, Ontario, and is a wonderful source for all your paper making supplies.  Audrey runs the paper making side of the business while her husband handles the typesetting.

What a surprise when she contacted me last week to ask whether I wanted to make paper.  I had only done it once before when my kids attended a crafting summer camp.  This first photo shows the basic setup of a work station.  On the left is the tub of pulp. I believe we were using cotton.  Beside it to the right is the mould and deckle, contains the screen, that you use to scoop out the pulp and form the sheet.  Under daughter's hand are the papers she has formed already.  Each sheet is separated by a cooch.  This is essentially a piece of interfacing and is used to support the newly formed paper and separate it from the next.  This is a very wet process .

This photo shows a newly formed sheet of paper sitting on the top of the pile.  Yes, daughter has mixed a lot of sparkly stuff into her multi-coloured pulp.

Audrey is making larger sheets of paper, 8 1/2 x 11 inches.  Notice that in the middle of that sheep to orange paper, there is a large air bubble.  Not a desirable thing as it leaves thicker areas in the finished sheet.  Oh well, I have more than a few of those.

 I'm all finished and ready for the next step.  Unfortunately I forgot to take more photos. It was such an exciting step.  Each of us took our stacked papers and cooches to the press.  Audrey then squished them with lots of pressure, about 1000 psi, to remove as much water as possible.  It looked as though gallons of water was forced out. 

Next we separated the paper from the cooches and put them on large sheets, which went into a forced air dryer overnight.

These are the three sizes that I made,   5 x 7 9 inches, 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches and business card.

A great alternate to a photo frame and these sheet.  They get tri folded and then you can insert your photo so it shows threw the opening.  I tried adding some long shiny embroidery threads to the pulp after the page was formed.  However, they are peeling off.  I did cut some into inch long pieces and mixed them into the pulp before making the sheets, and they worked much better.

I had fun playing around with my papers.  There are few that I layered.  Second from the left at the top and the one on the left in the second row.  I made the green sheet and then before I put the cooch over it, I added a smaller sheet.  Nice effect.  The swirled one at the right of the top row is made using a technique called 'pulp painting'.  You put some pulp in a squeeze bottle and then draw on top of your newly formed sheet.  The one on the bottom left reminds me of a pop tart after I put the frosting on it.  There are a few more ingredients that go into the squeeze bottle.

I can't imagine all the work that early book makers went through to make a book.  All that paper to be made, wow. 

My next step is to have fun creating with these pages.  I'm thinking shiny threads, sewing machine, collage type thing, or maybe some hole punching and hand embroidery....

Any mistakes I have made in describing the paper making process are mine and I'm sure Audrey will send me corrections.

Embassytown by China Mieville

Avice Brenner Cho is a member of the small human population that lives on a remote planet which is home to the Ariekei.  For years, the humans and the Ariekei have had  difficulties communicating with each other. Avice can understand some of what they say, but has not ability to speak their language.  When she is young, she is invited to provide the material for the development of a simile that is of great importance to the Ariekei.  This is her closest contact with her 'neighbours', though it brings her no closer to understanding them.  After years away, working as flight crew on a space going ship, she returns home with her linguist husband Scile.  While the two of them are drifting further apart in their relationship, he draws closer to an understanding of the unique language.

I read this book, or rather I read half of it, as it was a selection for my local book club.  I found it very un-readable.  There were far too many words that were not defined, but rather their meanings obliquely implied.   There were also lines and paragraphs from which I could discern no meaning, such as the following, "Immerse, into the immer, where the translations of their ungainly lines have purpose, and they're gestalts of which we're parts, each of us a function." 

I do understand that language was a major barrier between the two dominant societies living on the planet, and I could certainly imagine their frustration of not being able to understand each other, but by making it so difficult for the reader to understand, Mr. Mieville totally lost me.  I did enjoy the story that was unfolding, but it was far to difficult to decode to be enjoyable.  I will admit that I was brought to tears by my frustration.  I have two honors degrees from a leading university, have read thousands of books, however, this book will not be among those that I have finished. 

We had a lively discussion at our book club meeting and the language was a challenge to most of us.  I was told that it did become easier to understand once you got past the middle of the book (which is where I stopped reading).  I did enjoy the plot line that dealt with the impact of the humans and their ability to utter lies.

This book brought to mind a Star Trek Next Generation episode, "Darmok", where Picard was transported to a planet along with the captain of another ship.  The two species had been unable to understand each others' languages, and were forced to learn to communicate so that they could survive the challenges of the planet.

While I did not finish the book and found the language un-readable, there is a good story hidden inside.  If you have more patience than I, and you aren't bothered by loosely defined words, then give this book a chance, it shows a good understanding of developing communications and the impact of one society on another.

Thanks to Random House Inc. for the use of the cover image.

Needlework Tuesday- Keep on Stitching

Needlework Tuesday is open to all readers looking for inspiration, encouragement or who want to share their recent needlework project. Introduce yourself in the comments and be sure to leave a link to your current post. Feel free to grab the cute little mouse for your post.

It's been dreary weather for the past few days.  Lots of rain, but don't get me wrong, we really needed the rain.  Our grass had turned into a brown, crunchy mass a few weeks back.  I can almost imagine it turning green already.  Up side is that it gives me more time inside working on my stitching.

Last evening was the end of year meeting at my local quilt guild.  For the past few years we have been making blocks for the outgoing president.  This year she wanted black, white and red (same red as in our flag).  We could select any pattern though it needed to measure 12 inches.  The goal I set myself, if to find a block that no one else will make.  This year, I selected "Paul Revere's Ride" designed by Judy Martin from her book Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts. Click the link for my review and some additional photos.  In July, during my vacation,  I will have a post showing the rest of red, black and white blocks.  They are stunning.  I'll write a second post and include photos of the quilts that our guild past presidents have made with their blocks.


Yippee, I finished the quilting and binding on my mini sampler.  The light was really weird today, so I had to go out on the deck to get this photo.  I used a 3 inch wide template to mark an over all quilting pattern.  I offset and spaced the rows about 1/2 an inch  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I have asked my mother to machine and embroider the label and after I attach that, will give it to my dad.  It's just a wee quilt, so dad can take it around the house to enjoy.  We're waiting to see if this new treatment is effective with his multiple myeloma.  Thanks to Joanne at Thread Head for the pattern.

One project finishes and another begins.  A few weeks ago I signed up for an ugly fabric swap.  Called In the Bag - Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge, several dozen participants were paired with other quilters and they exchanged two yards of fabric.

These are the fabrics that my partner Melissa sent to me.  I love the snails.  It's the florals that will be a challenge to me.  I generally don't set out to buy florals; they are much too traditional for me.

I was easily able to find some fabrics in my stash to work with those snails.  In the fashion of the turtle and the hare, which will win the race, the snail or the bee?

These are the fabrics that I sent to Melissa.  I wanted to make them challenging without being too difficult.  A bit of colour co-ordination but contrasting patterns.  And of course, I had to send some of the florals that I wasn't planning on using.   stay tuned for continuing updates on this project.  I have till October to complete my project.

One more square to go and I'll be finished row 6.  There are to be 15 rows in total.  I do think it is going to need a round or two of crochet afterward.  I've momentarily mis-placed the pattern, but I don't recall it including any instructions for finishing the edges.

How did you do with your projects this past week?  Finishes or did you start something new.  Please leave a comment and share your stitching.

Jane Austen Visits Halifax

Jane had a wonderful time in Halifax with her gracious host Linda, from the blog  Scrapmaster.  Linda has posted all sorts of photos of the two of them visiting Quilt Canada and photos of the numerous quilters that she was introduced to. 

Jane is ready to continue with her travels, but is in need  of a host.  Let me know if you would like to host Jane for a few days and show her around your part of the world.