Angry Management by Chris Crutcher

Angry Management by Chris Crutcher

This was actually one of several books I had to read from my ‘Teaching Young Adult Lit” class (I talked about The Compound a few days ago).  I have to admit it wasn’t really what I was expecting and holding it up to some of the other great novels we’re reading in this class I’m not sure how well it stands up.  It is an excellent collection of short stories, but as far as reading pleasure goes I wasn’t able to dive into it and really get invested in it.  Although it’s not a novel, and short stories really shouldn’t be graded on how well they fit into a genre they aren’t trying to be a part of.

The stories in ‘Angry Management’ follow characters Chris Crutcher has already used in his novels, which I think is a great premise on its own because we all want to know more about our favorite characters after the novel is over and this gives us a nice taste of what they’re up to in a different book.  Every story is heartfelt and genuinely emotional.  Crutcher does a good job of keeping his characters’ voices true to the voices of the teens they’re representing and that only makes this a good read and an excellent young adult novel.  Each of the stories focuses on a different challenge of adolescence, not all of which can be related to directly by every ‘young adult’ who picks up this book to read, but he gives a wide enough range that I think almost anyone could pick up this book and relate to someone.

I have to admit that on a personal level this isn’t a book I’d consider one of my favorite young adult reads, but from the ‘teacher’ perspective of whether or not this would be a book to recommend to students/use in the classroom it’s definitely something I’d pass along.  While there is always the overpowering issue of censorship which may be an issue regarding this book being taught in the classroom, it’s one I would like to include in my English classroom if this were a perfect world.  It provides an insight into different situations and families students may not otherwise see, and it is genuine enough that students who are living in these worlds themselves aren’t going to feel a falseness or pandering that we sometimes see in young adult lit.  Each short story could very easily be taught on its own, and it gives a great character preview for Crutcher’s longer novels featuring the same characters (and I love being able to recommend a book that leads my students to want to read more!).

Birth Announcement Cross Stitch

  This is a small birth announcement I made for one of my cousin’s who’d just had a baby.  It’s fairly small, just 5×5, and took about a day to finish.  I would say this took about 5hours or less to complete.  I took the letter from an alphabet sampler and changed the color from purple to blue to make it more baby-gender appropriate (and to go with the nursery).  The birth date and name I hand stitched, and luckily it all ended up pretty even.  I love it when that happens…  Although if you want to be on the safe side you could always count out the stitches or use graph paper to visually space things out.  I would recommend that if you’re dealing with a longer name or birth month, just to make sure the font style you use is able to fit on a smaller pattern.

Once finished I put it in a simple black frame.  I find you don’t need to get really fancy frames when you’re giving a cross-stitch gift, a simple frame helps set off the pattern and it’s also more likely to fit the decor of whatever room the person you’re giving it to has in mind.  (It’s also easier for them to replace the frame if they wish).  If this was for a girl I’d change the color, obviously, to something more girlish.  Also, for a girl you could add some bead work.  Even to just make things look a little fancier (boy or girl) you could replace the brown outline on the moon with a gold thread for some extra embellishment.  It all depends on your style and taste, or that of the person you’re giving it to.

Beach Cross Stitch

  This is yet another lovely Dimensions kit, needlepoint this time, not counted cross stitch.  As much as I love this picture I still think it would look a lot better in cross stitch.  You can’t tell very well from this picture, but the bottom corners are actually flowers and fairly colorful, with reds and oranges and yellows.  The whole thing is still very dark overall, and I would have liked to see more work with the moonlight on the shore and not just the ocean.  The ocean and sky came out very nice, but the color scheme is fairly simplistic.  Overall this kit had about 10-15 colors, no blending.  It’s a good starter project if you’re looking for something to introduce you to the world of needle-art, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who knows what they’re doing and looking for a fun project to take up a few months.  The trees are almost all black, that was one of my biggest pet peeves about this project, they have a little grey and dark green, but overall they’re entirely black…I would have liked to see more shading diversity than what’s giving in the project.

Again, there are ways you could jazz this up if you like the patter but want to bring it to the next level.  Try a shimmer filament with the water or moon, or take a risk and try to vary the shades in the plant life on the edges if you’re brave and have some extra yarn lying around.  Just remember this is needlepoint, so you’ll need yarn, a larger needle, and it might be harder to work in some of the finer details without things getting lost in a thicker strand.

Postcard Cross stitch

   This is another mini-kit, but it’s one of my favorites.  It didn’t take long to get done, but it looks gorgeous.  It has a nice sense of depth to it, and almost looks three dimensional.  The details on the stamps, postcards, butterfly, and even the pen are really well put together.  It uses blended colors, cross stitch, half cross stitch, back stitch, all the usuals.  There’s not much else to say about this kit, I enjoyed working on it and suggest you do to.  It’s a good one to do between big projects.

If you’re interested, get it here.

Spring Cabin

  This one took several months to finish, but all the time was definitely worth it.  This kit looks more like a picture than a cross-stitch pattern.  The reflection in the lake is almost as detailed as the cabin itself, and the designers left nothing out.  All the trees have a mirror image reflected in the lake, even the deer are remembered and have mirrors of themselves looking back as they take a drink.  The flowers are all detailed individually, and the trees are made up of various shades both in the bark and the trees.  It uses a lot of combined colors and half cross stitch, back stitch to add the details, and almost everything is filled in, except the few white spaces you can see in the picture.  It really was a wonderful kit to work on, and it leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment once it’s finished.  I put this one in an all glass clip frame.  I’m a fan of the glass clip frames because they don’t actually have a “frame” around the glass, and it means there’s nothing to take away from your cross stitch.  The problem with these frames are that they run pretty thin, so matting has to be very flimsy if you use any, and it won’t work well if you’re trying to frame a piece that uses lots of bead work, or for needlework with thicker threads.

There’s no need to add anything else to this kit to make it stand out.  It’s great as is.  If you’d like to try it for yourself, you can get it here

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch

The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Potzsch

I was a bit wary about picking up this book because I don’t really like translations.  It’s not that there’s anything wrong with “international” lit, I just hate thinking that I’m missing out on the meaning of the book because I don’t interpret things the same way as the translator does.  I’m always afraid this is the case, but whether it is or not, there’s no way of knowing for sure without learning the native language of the author and reading the book the way it should have been read.  That being said I do think The Hangman’s Daughter lost a little something in translation.  The premise of this book is intriguing, and while I don’t normally go for the historical-fiction genre, I couldn’t help but see just what this hangman had to offer.

The plot is interesting and it kept me interested, but only after investing some time to get through the first few chapters.  The start was slow, and the book did seem to drag on even though it had it’s moments of fast paced action and political intrigue.  It wasn’t so slow that i felt like I had to put it down and wait until I was bored with everything else I had to read before picking it back up again, but there were moments when I found myself asking when they were going to ‘get to the point’.  The relationship with Magdelana and the young physicians is interesting, but I wasn’t sure how much it really helped me enjoy the plot, or how necessary it was to the story, although it does give some interesting history of courtship and marriage in regards to the hangman’s family.  It might just be my lack of interest in the historical-novel that made me a little bored with certain parts of the novel.

The hangman is by far the most developed character in the book.  Many of the characters serving on the council seem a bit flat, your basic money-hungry politicians out for their own personal interest and willing to execute an innocent woman to keep peace in the town.  This is another place where I wonder if some of the character development gets lost in translation.  The hangman’s family seems interesting, but there’s very little development with that aspect of his life, with the exception of his daughter, who really seems like any other heroine dealing with her personal love interest and a looming arranged marriage with not too many unique characteristics.

Even with these flaws the book was interesting, I found the mix of supernatural and rational elements really very intriguing, and if you can get through some of the historical context (or you’re more interested in history than I am) it’s an enjoyable read.  The author’s note at the end of the book which talks about his relation to the Kuisl family was actually very interesting, and after reading that I was really disappointed he didn’t spend more time talking about the hangman and his family.  It’s a good book for the upcoming winter, the kind it’s nice to shut yourself up with when the weather outside isn’t great.  I’ve read books this year I’d recommend ahead of it, but it isn’t a bad choice, and if you’ve been thinking about whether or not to give it a chance I’d suggest you just dive in and see what you think for yourself.

Week 3 of the "big project"

Now, normally I like to have a little anecdote to go with each of these posts, but I’ll be totally honest with you…I just don’t have the energy to come up with something this week.  So instead, I think I’ll just complain 

Actually got a lot done this week, although I think my dreams of getting this one finished before I have to start on my christmas present projects are flying out the window…there just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day.  Has anyone else found themselves in this predicament?  There are just so many things you want to do but life seems so short…and mainly filled with work related things?  This is pretty much my life right now.  If I could have my days to just do all the things I enjoyed I could cross stitch, write, and read books without ever having to be interupted by those little things.  It sounds like heaven.  Instead, I find myself having to plan out a couple of free hours a day where I have to cram everything in and try to enjoy it because the rest of the time is already devouted to work, school, and the all important sleep (without that I would get nothing done, work or fun).

But I guess I should be happy finding enough time seems to be my only problem right now.  Although I’ve developed a very large loathing for ‘time theif’ people.  The ones who take up your time with pointless conversations, or certain other people who don’t seem to understand I have my own life, and therefore cannot devote my time entirely to them.  That one bugs me the most.  It seems like whenever I go out of my way for someone they find a way to make me drop everything and continue their work for them.  You have people in your life like that?  It’s not that I don’t like to help people, I really do, I just seem to have a problem with where to draw the line, when to say ‘okay, enough’s enough, get off your ass and start working yourself’.  Not that I have a problem thinking that, it’s just getting it out verbally that’s a problem.  You see, there are so many things I’d like to do with my time, sure they might not be important in the big scheme of politics and world peace, but they’re those little things that make me happy with my life, and then there are all those things I *have* to do with my time, such as school work and projects and lesson plans and getting prepared for grad school applications and lesson plans for student-teaching.  And yet, somehow, I’ve wasted yet another precious hour of my time working on a project for someone else because they were too lazy to it themselves.  Don’t you hate that?  I’d love to pawn off my work on someone else, but I take too much pride in what I put my name behind to let someone else mess with it.  I feel like everyone should have this attitude in life.  If you’re putting your name on it, you should put your work behind it!

Okay, I think that’s the end of my rant for today.  And here’s week 4′s current progress:

 I’m really liking how this design is turning out.  The sky is just gorgeous, although all the french knots are starting to hurt.  Sometimes I think it would be easier to just get beads to make the stars instead of the white thread french knots.  Not that working with beads doesn’t have it’s own problems, but at least this way my wrist would hurt as badly.  Although I guess I could always get a wrist support or something, or I could just take more breaks.  I guess that’s an option too isn’t it?

Well, as usual I’ll keep you updated on the progress.  I can’t wait for winter!  We’ve had a few cold days here, but it’s still staying in the 60s.  I’m ready for snow and christmas carols and gingerbread men and christmas movies…and christmas break.  I think we could all use a few days off right about now.