What happened to Barnes & Noble's Free Fridays Book?

Are you like me, and first thing Friday morning you start up your Nook and check for the free book offering.  I used to find it when I'd click the 'shop' icon.  There would be a series of book advertising at the bottom half of the screen.  Last week , for the first time, the free book wasn't there.  Today again, it wasn't there. 

Then I had a slight brain wave and decided to check the Nook Facebook page.  Voila, the Free Friday Book was the first listing on the site.  Today's title is WASTELAND by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan

Tangled Thursday - My Name in Tangles

 

This week's challenge was posed by Maria at Daisy's Book  Journal.  We were to draw a tangle that started with all the same letters as our first name.  I used a 3 1/2 inch square of mixed media weight paper

 

H - hopscotch

E - echoism

A - arrowheads

T - tinker

H - hurry

E - emingle

R - reticulated

 

 

 Welcome to Tangled Thursday.  A few of my local and online friends have joined me in an occasional Zentangle challenge.  We'll take turns choosing a theme  and them post our drawings in about 2 weeks time.  All are welcome to join in the fun.  If you are new to Zentangles, then visit the website for a complete explanation and all sorts of online resources.  I'm also a big fan of TanglePatterns.com

Our next challenge is posed by Elaine.  As she doesn't have a blog, I'll post it here .  "Hearts or multiple Hearts"

Brenda, at Tangling with Brenda (my local Zentangle teacher) reminded me that Laura at I am the Diva hosts a weekly  Zentangle challenge that is open to all.

For those who completed this weeks drawing, add your link below,
.

Spartan Planet by A. Bertram Candler

Imagine a world without women, where reproduction is via machine, and all references to women in their history have been erased.  I can't imagine how this would work, but it did, and for about 400 years in the novel Spartan Planet.

This book was selected by my local women only book club.  We had quite the discussion to how this could have happened and would the response to the re-introduction of women happen as it did in the book.  We all agreed that this book is somewhat dated, it was first published in 1969 at a time when most readers of science fiction were men.   Given that women were not the expected audience, it's not surprising that it doesn't give a good impression of men left on their own,  They spend their time drinking until they start fighting and call it all good fun.

We did find it odd that the men of the planet were immediately attracted to the foreign women even though they were thought to me deformed or monsters.  Were pheromones at work or did it make for a better story line. 

It was unanimous that it was definitely a worthwhile read, and that it's always good to explore the roots of  various genres.

Thanks to reader Literary Feline for pointing out that a recent book, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, also features a town with no women.  There are women on the planet, but in each village they have developed a different attitude toward them.  Click the book title for a  link for my earlier review of this book.

Some background knowledge of Sparta and the Spartan people would be helpful to understanding this society. 

A website in tribute to A. Bertram Chandler has been created by David Kelleher.


Thank-you to Baen Ebooks for use of the cover image.

Check out this Wikipedia article to learn more about Ancient Sparta.

Needlework Tuesday - Time for those cuddly scarves

The weather certainly has changed in the past weeks.  Not a chance of those 20C or warmer days.  Now we are walking to frost on the roof and windshields.  This gets me thinking of a new scarf or a warm wrap. 

I have finished the first month of my "Temperature Scarves". I am using two rows of black to denote the end of each month.  The reds and oranges are the warmer temperatures and the pale blue is the coolest so far ( -3 to 3Celsius).  The one of the left features the temperatures reported for Waterloo, Ontario, the second scarf is for some other location in Canada.  I am thinking of added scarves three and four, though loction three has a very naow range of temperatures for the year 15 -30 Celsius at most.  Location four is a bit wider just above freezing to maybe 26C.  Stay tuned for decisions on these.


Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you.

I posted an update of my Gretchen quilt when I updated my progress in the 350 Quilt block challenge. If you missed it, here's the link.

For those who are interesting in Zentangles, be sure to check out my Tangled Thursday post, with links to this week's challenge.  If you are thinking that you need to be artistic to draw Zentangles, then think again, all you need to be able to do is hold a maker and draw a line (it doesn't even have to be straight).  I urge you to give it a try, it's so relaxing and as a bonus you'll probably come up with some lovely artwork.

The big push is on this week to piece 40  4 1/2 inch blocks.   The last class of my almost year long Saturday class is coming up and it's a show and tell.  I want to be ready.  This week to finish the blocks and next week to assemble the top. 

I am curious, do you find yourself changing your needlecraft activities as the season's change? This applies whether you are heading into winter as I am, or if you have warmer temperatures in your immediate future.

Check out what my online friends have been stitching:
Marie from Daisys Book Journal has started knitting a warm sweater.

Over the Ros-the-Quilter, Roslyn is making steady progress on the Smith Morning Mountain quilt.

First Evidence by Ken Goddard read by Kevin Kenerly

A science fiction novel that doesn't smack you in the face with space ships and outlandish aliens.  Rather, it is a story that evolves through the police investigation of a reported shooting.   Crime Scene Investigator Colin Cellars is called to the scene of a multiple shooting and finds a crime scene that doesn't fit his expectations.  Something is out of place, but Colin can't seem to put his finger on it.  He knows he's being watched, but by whom and why. 

At the same time as he carries out his investigation, he is also re-united with 3 of his closest friends from high school, though this doesn't turn out as planned.

One thing that struck me as odd in the writing, was the way the every time the author referred to Colin's firearm, he called it by its full name of Sig Sauer.  Not once did he refer to it as his firearm, or weapon, or Sig, but always Sig Sauer.  It seemed a bit formal, not that it took anything away from the story, though I was glad that he didn't carry a Winchester Repeating Rifle.  Whew, that would be  a mouthful.  Sticking with the guns.  I found that the descriptions of their usage and safety procedures were accurate and appropriately presented.  I am currently learning about the safe use of firearms and what  I am learning was reflected in this book.

This is one of those stories where you can embrace the alien aspect, or you can stay in denial and struggle to come up with an acceptable cover story.  For those who don't like the space ship kind of science fiction, they should find this an enjoyable book.  I'm still wondering what kind of report Colin  Cellars could have filed at the conclusion of his unusual investigation.

I listened to the unabridged audio version from Blackstone Audio.  It was convincingly read by Kevin Kenerly.  12 hours 17 mins.
Additional books in the First Evidence Series:

2 Outer Perimeter
3 Final Disposition

Visit his website for a complete list of books by Ken Goddard.

Thanks to BlackStone Audio for use of the cover image.

350 Block Challenge from October

350 Block Project 2013 .  I have been having fun playing catch up with this challenge.  I managed to add another 61 blocks for a total of 213.  It's going to be tough to complete the challenge by the end of the year, but even with what I have don so far, I feel successful.  I got to some projects that had been languishing forever.  Now they are moving ahead full speed. yippee. 

I added 5 blocks for the Saturday morning class at my local shop.  now to make the 40 small blocks for the setting.  eeks. better get stitching.

6 blocks were needed to finish my Aiming for Accuracy quilt top.

My niece started university this fall and I want to make a quilt for her dorm room.  I used the Gretchen block pattern by Debby Kratovil.

I had planned to make 35 blocks, but got carried away to 42, and then realized that it would be a better size if I made 48 blocks. 

Tangled Thursday - Coming up Daisies

Welcome to Tangled Thursday.  A few of my local and online friends have joined me in an occasional Zentangle challenge.  We'll take turns choosing a theme  and them post our drawings in about 2 weeks time.  All are welcome to join in the fun.  If you are new to Zentangles, then visit the website for a complete explanation and all sorts of online resources.  I'm also a big fan of TanglePatterns.com

 This weeks challenge was 'Daisy'.  Any way you wanted to interpret it.  I drew a multi lobe flower with a large centre.  This first drawing is a page from my sketch book with several ideas of tangles I might want to use.  The border ideas were the hardest for me to decide upon.

The flower head measures about 4 inches per side.  Tangles used are : circfleur, papyrus, mixed signals, nipa, static, allium, lollipop variation.  I'm still undecided about whether I should out line petal. I kinda like that it's left 'open', though the ends of some of the petals do get lots at the border.

The second daisy, measuring 5x6 inches,  uses the same design for each petal, though I don't know it's name.  I saw it in a book and replicated it,  the centre is ammon and the stem is onamato.

Our next challenge has been designated by Marie at Daisy's Book Journal.  You are welcome to visit her site for the details and due date.  Then join use back here on that date and add your link.  If you tangled a daisy, please add your link below.  Feel free to grab the cute button that Tami from Just One More Thing designed for our use.