Category: Goodreads Reviews

author: Libba Bray
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2009/09/23
date added: 2011/12/12
shelves: fiction, fantasy, history
review:

author: Libba Bray
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2009/09/23
date added: 2011/12/12
shelves: fiction, fantasy, history
review:

author: Libba Bray
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2009/09/23
date added: 2011/12/12
shelves: fiction, fantasy, history
review:

author: Libba Bray
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2009/09/23
date added: 2011/12/12
shelves: fiction, fantasy, history
review:

author: Gail Diven
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 2011/10/01
date added: 2011/10/05
shelves: crafty, non-fiction, own, knitting
review:
I bought this at Half-Price Books several years ago and promptly stuck it in the back of a closet. Found it again two weekends ago and figured it was time to give knitting a try. This book, however, was not as helpful as I had hoped it would be. I managed to figure out single cast-on, but could not make enough sense of the instructions to get a basic knit stitch started.* There are a couple of interesting patterns at the back of the book that I might try out, but otherwise I was pretty disappointed with this.

I had much better luck with Red Heart’s free ebook
Knitting Made Easy
(learned knit stitch) and The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with More Than 30 Cool Easy Patterns (learned binding off). I’m still working on my first actual project – a basic scarf in knit stitch.

* I’ve always been somewhat spatially challenged — and I’m left-handed. FWIW, after reading the lefty instructions, I decided to just learn knitting right-handed. I already use scissors and mouse right-handed, and the thought of spending the rest of my life trying to figure out instructions backwards was NOT APPEALING.

author: Gail Diven
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 2011/10/01
date added: 2011/10/05
shelves: crafty, non-fiction, own, knitting
review:
I bought this at Half-Price Books several years ago and promptly stuck it in the back of a closet. Found it again two weekends ago and figured it was time to give knitting a try. This book, however, was not as helpful as I had hoped it would be. I managed to figure out single cast-on, but could not make enough sense of the instructions to get a basic knit stitch started.* There are a couple of interesting patterns at the back of the book that I might try out, but otherwise I was pretty disappointed with this.

I had much better luck with Red Heart’s free ebook
Knitting Made Easy
(learned knit stitch) and The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with More Than 30 Cool Easy Patterns (learned binding off). I’m still working on my first actual project – a basic scarf in knit stitch.

* I’ve always been somewhat spatially challenged — and I’m left-handed. FWIW, after reading the lefty instructions, I decided to just learn knitting right-handed. I already use scissors and mouse right-handed, and the thought of spending the rest of my life trying to figure out instructions backwards was NOT APPEALING.

author: Gail Diven
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 2011/10/01
date added: 2011/10/05
shelves: crafty, non-fiction, own, knitting
review:
I bought this at Half-Price Books several years ago and promptly stuck it in the back of a closet. Found it again two weekends ago and figured it was time to give knitting a try. This book, however, was not as helpful as I had hoped it would be. I managed to figure out single cast-on, but could not make enough sense of the instructions to get a basic knit stitch started.* There are a couple of interesting patterns at the back of the book that I might try out, but otherwise I was pretty disappointed with this.

I had much better luck with Red Heart’s free ebook
Knitting Made Easy
(learned knit stitch) and The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with More Than 30 Cool Easy Patterns (learned binding off). I’m still working on my first actual project – a basic scarf in knit stitch.

* I’ve always been somewhat spatially challenged — and I’m left-handed. FWIW, after reading the lefty instructions, I decided to just learn knitting right-handed. I already use scissors and mouse right-handed, and the thought of spending the rest of my life trying to figure out instructions backwards was NOT APPEALING.

author: Adam Hochschild
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/09/03
date added: 2011/09/26
shelves: biography, ebook, history, non-fiction
review:
One of those books where now I wish I’d written my review closer in time to when I read it. (I read this right before American Colossus, FWIW.) The horror of WWI as seen in the conflict between its supporters and opponents, mostly in Britain, mostly looking at families who were split.

author: Adam Hochschild
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/09/03
date added: 2011/09/26
shelves: biography, ebook, history, non-fiction
review:
One of those books where now I wish I’d written my review closer in time to when I read it. (I read this right before American Colossus, FWIW.) The horror of WWI as seen in the conflict between its supporters and opponents, mostly in Britain, mostly looking at families who were split.

author: H.W. Brands
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/09/05
date added: 2011/09/26
shelves: ebook, history, non-fiction, didnt-finish, read-again
review:
Read several weeks ago; it had to be “returned” before I was finished, and it wasn’t available to be checked out again. 🙁

Less of a coherent narrative than a series of historical vignettes, taking aspects of American life in the late 19th century and examining them through a lens of the growth of modern capitalism. Most interesting to me were the chapters that looked at areas that aren’t normally associated with big business: cowboys and Indians (so to speak) were particularly intriguing.

I was somewhat disappointed by the disjointed nature of the book, but once I accepted that, I enjoyed it, and I’d like to read this again.