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Four More Art Journaling Books

2013, Art, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Someone stop me from reserving/checking out more of these books. Sheesh. It’s like a sickness, I tell you!

I just happened to see Creating Decorative Paper on the shelf at the library today and grabbed it. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read but it wasn’t bad either. If I had unlimited monies and more room to do art, I’d probably enjoy it more for the unusual (and sometimes time-consuming) papers in the book.

These next three books, I’d kind of like to own. There’s so much good stuff in them that I see something new every time I open the books — even though I’ve read them all cover to cover.

Art at the Speed of Life has to go back to the library early next week, someone else has it on hold!, so I’m going to spend some time tonight/tomorrow, making notes of ideas for things I might like to try. Thankfully Artists Journals & Sketchbooks and alphabetica don’t have to go back for awhile. I can take my time with them. That’s a good thing, since I just glanced down at them and saw something on each cover that I want to try.

Someone remind me, later, to go in search of more work by Lynne Perrella…

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Kiss Chronicles

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

How old were you when you had your first kiss? 14? 19? 24? Older than 30?

Most of you are probably laughing at the idea of not having your first kiss until after you turned 30 but it happens. To normal (or mostly normal, hi Virginia!) people. Like Virginia.

I remember the first time I saw her on BlogHer, it took me awhile to wrap my head around the never been kissed idea. Then, when I realized she was writing a book (and donating the money from the sale to charity) I knew I had to read it.

And now that I finally have read it, I guess I understand a little better how Virginia has gone this long without a first kiss. Sort of.

Go download Kiss Chronicles (and make a donation to the American Cancer Society!) and let’s figure out how to get Virginia a first kiss… at BlogHer ’13, maybe? lol

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Someday, Someday, Maybe

1 Comment / 2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites /

When I heard Lauren Graham had written a novel, I knew I had to read it. But, I also knew it was highly likely that I’d hate it and hate myself for reading it.

Lauren Graham is Lorelai.

The only hope for me was — either Someday, Someday, Maybe book is so completely different that I forget who wrote it or it’s so Lorelai that I felt comfortable with the characters and the storyline.

Knowing that, I had to decide whether I wanted the print version or the audio version. Discovering Lauren Graham read the audio version didn’t make the decision any easier. See above. Either/or.

I ended up reserving both the print and the audio versions. I figured I’d go with whichever arrived at the library first… the print version arrived BUT I noticed the audio version was in transit and sure enough, it was waiting for me two days later.

I bit the bullet and took the print version back unread… and we started listening.

Oy.

Disconcerting at first but it grew on us quickly, (as Lauren Graham is so good at doing, right?)

At one point, we were picking up the little kids and I decided to freak them out by turning the cd on… mid-story.

They loved it. Immediately loved it.

And while they didn’t listen to the whole thing along with us, they did listen to bits and pieces and were in the car for the ending… which caused them to HOWL in outrage that it was OVER like THAT and WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

And omg you’d have thought Gilmore Girls was ending all over again.

I’m calling this a big win for us. We had a little bit of Lorelai-like fun and I’m very glad I went with the audio version. I suspect we wouldn’t have enjoyed the print version nearly as much.

(tiny note to self: we read this in May and it was counted in my May totals.)

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NOS4A2

2013, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I love Joe Hill. He’s so much better than his dad.

NOS4A2 was creepy — Christmasland, ugh. That’s some freaky stuff that can give a person nightmares if she spends too much thinking about it.

I loved Vic and Lou and Wayne and also Maggie and Tabitha (though I do find it disconcerting when authors give characters names of family members — I kept picturing Tabitha King, which didn’t work very well for this Tabitha.)

I was a little worried about the end but was happy with it when it was all over and done with. The ornament removal ending was the right ending. (The Acknowledgements and About the Font pages were also good. Don’t skip those and find yourself on the naughty list.)

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Two More Art Journaling Books

1 Comment / 2013, Altered Book, Art, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Yep, still all art journaling all the time around here. Or at least reading about art journaling and watching videos about art journaling. Not a lot of actual journaling going on, though. Not none, just not a lot.

The Art Journal Workshop was excellent. So excellent that I’m going to take a peek at the dvd that’s attached to the book. (I never do that.)

I’m also not much of a “prompt” kind of person but I really liked all of the exercises and prompts in this book. Of all the art journaling and mixed media books I’ve read recently, this is my favorite.

Painted Pages is not my favorite. It’s probably my least favorite. Not because it’s not a technique book but because the pages here just don’t work for me. Not a bad book, just not the book for me at all.

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All Art Journals, All the Time

2013, Altered Book, Art, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I ran into Raw Art Journaling while looking at another art journaling book and figured what the hell, I’m on an art journaling kick – might as well go with that for awhile.

This one was slightly different from the others I’ve read. More life coach-like. I liked it. It was nice to read a book that didn’t forget that words are a part of art journaling. Sometimes we get hung up on the color and the collage and the texture that we leave out the word portion of the journal.

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Acrylic Techniques in Mixed Media is all technique, all the time. Most are techniques I know or have seen but there were some new ideas. And, in a couple of cases techniques I might not have tried were made more appealing. I am going to hold onto this book for awhile and try some of these.

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Chomp

1 Comment / 2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

I like Carl Hiaasen but I don’t love Carl Hiaasen so I figured I’d enjoy Chomp but I didn’t know I’d really, really, REALLY enjoy Chomp.

The only problem with it (well besides the neverending supply of beer the “bad guy” seemed to have and his inebriation level, but it’s middle grade fiction — that’s to be expected) was that we listened to it on audio and… Dawson, yes that Dawson, was the reader.

I kept expecting Joey and Pacey to show up… that was a little weird.

Great Cybils selection. Great book for those of you who aren’t sure you like audio books.

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