Midweek: SAHRR, mug rugs + reading

  

 SAHRR, rounds 3, 4, and 5.

I made flying geese for round 3, "animal."  They're set as a ribbon.

I made four little drunkard's path blocks for round 4, "curves." They're the orange and black corners.  This is a wallhanging and I don't want it to get too big.

Round 5, "two colors," was hard to interpret. I chose a strip of orange and a strip of blue.

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I've quilted all the Trip Around the World mug rugs.  They're not due until the end of May so I can take my time binding them. 

I made 42. I finished one to take to New Zealand as a hostess gift.  Thus there are 41 in this stack.  

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I'm not alone in having a huge fear of running out of reading material, especially when I travel.   I know that downloaded ebooks are convenient, but I tend to scroll through way too fast and I don't concentrate.  Instead I take print books -- ideally, those that I can leave behind as I finish them.  For the two weeks in New Zealand I took three and along the way I picked up two from giveaway shelves (one at a roadside cafe and the other in a hotel lobby).  I finished them all.

#1     One of The Page Turner 2026 categories is "a book that everyone else has read."  I checked that off with  Kristin Hannah's bestseller about the French Resistance.  I don't think it's The Great Resistance Novel but it was certainly a compelling story.  

(Library booksale purchase; I left it at the Auckland hotel.) 

#2     I really enjoyed Lily King's Writers and Lovers and Heart the Lover.  Euphoria, published in 2014, is quite different. It's based on Margaret Mead and her research in Samoa.  "Based on" is important--it is not a fictionalized retelling.   I lost an important thread of the storyline and distracted myself trying to go back to pick it up.

(Thrift shop purchase; left it at the Te Anau hotel.)

# 3     There was a bookshelf at a roadside coffee shop where our tour group took a break.   (As I think about it -- three weeks ago today.)

I helped myself to this vintage Ed McBain.  It's #13 in the long-running 87th Precinct series, first published in 1960.  Gritty, urban, terribly and delightfully dated -- such good writing!   After I finished it I gave to one of my fellow travelers. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.  

(This edition was a British reprint from about 30 years go.)

#4    The bookshelf at the hotel in Te Anau had quite a variety, including two Jack Reacher thrillers in Hebrew and another novel printed in an Asian script. (Indian? Cambodian? Thai?)   I left Euphoria  and took this one.  It's a fun cozy mystery set in Connecticut.  American edition, published in 1999.  

I finished it on the flight from Wellington to Auckland and it came home with me.  

#5   Debbie (Time4Stitchin) sent me this months ago after she read it for her book group.  It was just the right length (400 + pages) for two long flights--AKL to SFO and SFO to ORD.    Another novel about WWII Resistance but from the perspective of Poland.  It's based on the author's family.   I finished it just as the plane touched down at ORD, so it came home with me, too. 

I watched two inflight movies, one going and one returning.  Darned if I can recall what the first one was, but the second one has been in the news for its Oscar nominations.   It was quite poignant.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss 

I think I've missed the SAHRR link up....

 Steffi and I are having an adventure today.  Come back Friday to find out more!