Christmas Table Runner (gift!)

I made this!

So, last year I bought all this fabric to make a table runner as a gift for my dad and his wife. 

And then I broke my leg before I even cut it out. And then I got covid. And then I pretty much slept through the summer. And then school started again and I was also taking classes, writing my dissertation proposal, presenting at a conference, trying to get my child through college apps, getting a couple of my moles biopsied, also trying to help the child get her driver's license. 

Suffice to say, the pile sat. 

As did this cryptic note:

But finally I re-found the site I had found as my guide becuase, believe it or not, this craft was far enough outside my comfort zone that I could not just wing it. 

So, I figured it out, and sat down to cut the pieces for my squares.

Well, actually, I measured them and then ripped them, because I know accuracy is important for quilting... 

Dear reader, they were still not all the same sizes. 

But, I made the squares! Perfectly imperfect? 

But this meant I had to figure out the next step, which involved cutting triangles. 

Fortuitously, I thought to lay the whole thing out on the ironing board, becuase (after I'd ended up ruining some by making the the wrong size) I hadn't even cut out enough. Whoops. I was super worried about having enough fabric, and about not being able to replace it (becuase who knows if there would he any left a full year later)but it worked out. Just barely. No scraps left of that one!

And then borders? I legit messed up this measurement when buying fabric (maybe? Or maybe this wasn't how I had originally intended it to look?) And so this is also every single scrap of that fabric, and there’s a seam in the centers, and I had to add corner squares to the design to make it work. Good thing I had accidentally made a couple too many squares at the start!

And then I had to figure out quilting? This is where things really started to go weird. I laid out all of the layers on the ironing board and safety pinned them all in place. Then I just sewed all of the seams. 

It's okay.

Not great. But okay. 

Trimmed down all the excess fluff, cut all of the millions of loose strings, and then put the binding on!

Yeah, not perfect. But I think it looks nice?

That's my table. Theirs is dark wood, so I think it will pop more. 

So that's my quilting adventure! 

Pretty sure my brother is the only one who actually reads this, but just in case I'll save this in my drafts folder until after itit'been gifted.

Iron Widow

By Xian Jay Zhao

Hardback

391 pages

YA Sci-Fi

LGTQIA+ characters 

Loaned to me by a student

This is a student’s favorite book, and they have been passionate about having me read it. I told them if they lent it to me before a break I would. They made sure to get it to me just before we left for Winter Break. 

This is what I was handed. No synopsis, no dust jacket, very little idea of what to expect. It was an interesting adventure. 

So, synopsis (relatively spoiler free):

Setting: a fantasy version of China. There is a war. Males pilot these big sort of magical mecha suits, but they have to have a female co-pilot, who is often killed by the experience. Poor families often sell their daughters to the army to be these co-pilots. It is a sexist, patriarchal society. 

Protagonist is from a poor, frontier town. Her elder sister was recently sold to the army and killed by a pilot. Protagonist plucks her unibrow, dresses nice, and also sells herself to the army with the intention of getting revenge on the pilot who killed her sister. 

But that plot actually wraps up really early, and the book evolves. 

At the start of the book, they kept talking about needles, so ick.

The first chapter, when I had no idea what to expect, was difficult for me to get into, but it really was a great story. I mostly read it yesterday. 

I thought there was going to be a cliché love triangle thing happening, but they subverted my expectations. 

The annoying thing is that the next book doesn't come out until August 2023. 

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

By Olga Tokarczuk

Fiction/Mystery 

Hardback

274 pages

Library 

Book Club

This will be a spoilery post, becuase I read this for book club, and I'm trying to make note of things to discuss. Because we all know I'm eager to pick up another book, and I want to be sure to have intelligent things to day at our book club meeting. Although last time I actually made it to one, I was literally the only person there for a few, and only 3 people total showed up. I didn't even finish that book, because I didn't like it. This one was interesting, if a little difficult to get into. 

I fully admit that part of my issue getting into it is probably becuase it's written for grown ups and I'm still in the middle of my YA love affair. 

But also, it wasn't what I expected. I expected amateur crime drama mystery hijinks, and this was a strange wandering through woods, and philosophy, morality, and aging. With some murder. It also wasn't as funny as I was hoping for. 

Summary: She watches a neighbor choke on a bone from a poached deer. Finds a photo in his house which confirms that her dogs had been shot by hunters. Kills the other people in the photo: a police commissioner, mafia boss, and a priest. Occasionally haunted by dead mother and grandmother and dogs. Confesses to friends after burning down the church. They help her escape the police. She hides in a forest research station. 

That being said, there were some amazing moments. I loved the top line on this page. 

I maybe too deeply felt the middle paragraph of this page. The attempt to being an amazing, engaging teacher, the crushing of the system. 

I really enjoyed this passage. 

Anyway, it was sometime in the last third of the book that I began to wonder if the protagonist was actually the murderer. It didn't seem fully likely, but possible. She was a strange lady who didn't use anyone's actual name. She was emphatic about the idea that the animals - the deer - had done the murdering. 

Then she gives a deer hoof to the departing neighbor?

After being so focused on the deer prints?

And after the first death she was so weird about the plastic bag she hung in the tree to freeze. I kept expecting something more from that; however, I had not expected it to be a murder weapon. 

Questions for the discussion: 

And why did her friends help her?

What is actually wrong with her? (Physically)

How do you think she dies? 

author info

Overall opinion: I'm glad I read it. I wouldn't re-read it.

What Moves the Dead

By T. Kingfisher

Hardcover 

Horror

160 pages

Library 

It's a retling of Fall of the House of Usher.

It's creepy, wonderful, and horrific. 

I took longer to get into it than I would have expected, based on how interesting I thought it was, but that's also probably just because I have so much else going on. 

endpapers

I picked this one up on impulse when I grabbed the book club book from the library. 

author info

All the Light We Cannot See

By Anthony Doerr

530 pages

Historical Fiction (adult)

Paperback

We got this book last summer for the English 10 book room at my school, but I had never read it before. 

Set (mostly) during WWII, the story juxtaposes the narratives of a blind French civilian girl with a German soldier boy. 

(the first page of the story)

Once I got a feeling for telhe protagonists, I was worried that this was going to turn into an opposites attract romance type story, but it did not - for which I was grateful. 

The book is beautifully written, and sad, and hopeful, and all sorts of complicated things. 

Cultural Studies and Discourse Analysis

By Chris Barker and Darius Galasiński

Nonfiction

Paperback

176 pages + references 

This was another book I picked up from my friend's classroom. This one also looked like a good read for my dissertation. 

Not going to lie, it was pretty dry. I know, big surprise. 

It was a worthwhile read though - intellectually stimulating if not emotionally engaging. 

for example - pondering the nature of identity. We are products of our context and also self-actualized. 

We tell the stories of our own realities, and we make choices about which details to include, exclude, emphasize, and diminish. 

Depending on how you view knowledge and whether there is Truth (capital, one, concrete, knowable) or truth (lowercase, myriad, contextual, unknowable) and what the relationship is between them.

For my study, I'll be looking at school culture and structures.

I've always maintained that language is the most powerful force. It shapes and guides our thoughts, biases, perceptions, impossibility, and possibilities. This is one of the reasons I became an English teacher. Because words are power. 

But, to end on a less serious note, they referenced one of my favorite movies. 

❤

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld

By Shannon Hale & Dean Hale

Art by Asiah Fulmore

Paperback

158 small pages

Kids Comic 

Graphic Novel

It's not a retelling of the original comics, it's set in the world, and with some of the same characters and story elements, but also totally its own thing. 

It's a pretty book

It was a very cute story- took less than an hour to read, but of course I had to buy it to add to my collection. 

author info

I wouldn't have know this book existed if I hadn't gotten a preview version at Awesome Con last year. The book itself i found at Target! Smaller than I expected. I guess since the preview was comic sized, I expected that rather than the little format, but it's a great size for kid hands. 

Truth, Lies, and Second Dates

By MaryJanice Davidson 

Fiction

301 pages

Paperback

Borrowed from Library 

So the library barcode obscures a good chunk of the synopsis, so I'm prevented from doing it the lazy way and have to type up something myself. Ah well. 

 Captain Ava Capp, commercial airline pilot, doesn't like going back to her hometown where her parents died and her best friend was murdered. However, twin brothet of aforementioned victim happens to be on Captain Capp's plane one day, as they are heading into aforementioned hometown, convinces Capp to attend 10 year anniversary memorial for victim. 

Doctor Tom Baker (medical examiner, not two hearted alien) is fascinated by the cold case and, when he runs into Capp and really drunk twin brother after the memorial, the physical attractiveness of Capp. 

Capp might still be in danger. Crimes are unsolved. You see where this is heading...

Davidson writes books that are very easy to read (I got to chapter 5 while my child was reading MAD Magazine. They don't let you check those out, but you can sit in the library and read them.) and have a lot of humor. 

This is the third book in a series, but they seem to be related, not sequential. So, even though I haven't read the other two, it didn't seem to matter.  

A funny book was desperately needed, as it’s seem to have taken about 2.5 weeks after the end of the school year to stop constantly clenching my jaw. I probably need a new job. 

One thing that Davidson did was compile a list of 60 tropes that she engaged with during the construction of this novel. 

Page 1 of the list:

For the most part, this novelists works are an anomaly in the range of books I typically enjoy; however, I continue to enjoy each one I've read. 

And I only got home with this book less than 17 hours ago, so it was a fast read two. 

Off to find books 1 & 2. 

(But not really, right now, because my tbr pile is tall.)

The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom

By Felicia Rose Chavez

Nonfiction 

Paperback

202 pages

A dear teacher friend abruptly left the profession mid-year. She left behind everything, asking only that we box up some of the personal items. Everything else she asked us to take, share or trash. 

(Teachers, many of them, are not okay.)

This was one of the books she left behind. She was only on the second or third page of the introduction, according to her annotations. I snagged it with a two-fold goal: 1. to improve my own Creative Writing Class and 2. to help me plan some of the procedures for my dissertation study. 

I took a lot of notes and flagged a lot of passages. There are so many powerful moments in this book - thought provoking, liberating, and affirming. 

I flipped to a couple at random to share in this post:

I don’t need to love my students to do well by them, but I always strive to treat them with respect & dignity, to get to know them. I do love my craft and my subject matter. 

There is an element of control that needs to be present in a high school classroom, but that doesn't mean students need to be silent and still. I love a chatty room more than crickets. I like when they talk and participate. I don't mind if they choose to sit on the floor, as long as they're learning. I have some rocking seats that students often end up vying for. 

Yes. Life is also a series of conspiracies against doing ny PhD work. Sigh. 

Grading and assessment have been at the heart of a lot of conversations and debates in (our) school(s) lately. 

Had to include a picture of the contrast between types of writing workshops - the model on the right actually goes on to the following page as well. 

It took me about a week to read this book, even though it's a fairly slim volume. However, it really prompted me to examine my own practices and rethink some things. Also there were some things I'd experimented with in my class that I now can improve, but it was nice to know I was on the right track. 

I would totally recommend this book!