I joined PaperBack Swap (http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php) a few months ago and have really enjoyed that site. It's great. I can list and order all sorts of books, fiction and nonfiction. I joined mainly to be able to get certain mysteries which my library does not carry but which I desperately want to read or which I would like to own if I weren't so strapped for cash - %(!
I visit my local used book store fairly regularly, but I've found that I can get some of the books I want from PaperBack Swap for just the price of postage, which is usually less than even the used book store sells them for! What a deal, eh? For example, postage for an average paperback mystery usually runs right around $2, give or take a few pennies. To buy that same book at Waldenbooks, B&N or Borders, I'd have to pay $7 or so. At the Book Sack, I'd have to pay half whatever the cover price is, around $3.50.
But with PaperBack Swap, I only pay postage on books people order from me. Then when I get a credit for a book I sent out, I can in turn order a book from another member and that member pays the postage. So I've been having fun looking for books I would otherwise not be able to read. And I've found some good ones, fiction and nonfiction, mysteries and literary fiction, history, and yes, even quilting. I was thrilled to find and order a book of redwork patterns to make the redwork kitty quilt I've been dreaming about for a long time!
Although I usually prefer mysteries for my fiction reading, I will read pretty much anything that is written well, has characters I can love or hate passionately, and has a plot that keeps me turning the pages. I especially enjoy finding Southern writers, being a Southern gal born and bred. I'm especially enjoying finding Louisiana authors that I've not heard of before. I'll write more about those books later. There are some winners and losers in that category.
Today, before I go mail this book out, I want to tell you about Clay's Quilt by Silas House, a fabulous book set in the mountains of Kentucky in fairly recent times. The characters seem true to life to me, but are not that insulting caricature that some authors insist on using when writing about rural Southerners. I hate that about as much as I hate, loathe and detest smarmy fake Southern accents from actors. Makes my blood boil just thinking about it! Anyhow, these characters are complex, with strengths and weaknesses, doubts and pigheadedness and all those irritating or endearing traits you see in the people you most like - or despise, as the case may be. The Good Old Boys and Girls aren't one dimensional and the religious characters show some of the good and the bad things that I remember about my evangelical and fundamentalist upbringing. I think this book is very respectful of the region and the people and I really appreciate that. It doesn't blink about showing some of the attitudes and behaviors that turned me off to evangelicalism gone amuck, but it doesn't paint all evangelicals and fundamentalists as total and complete idiots, either. I respect that.
Clay's Quilt uses the idea of a crazy quilt as a metaphor for the life of a young man whose mother was murdered by his father when he was just three years old. When Clay meets a woman who has left her abusive husband and the two fall in love, old questions about his mother's struggles with her abusive husband (whom Clay never really knew) are revived. He depends on his family and friends to help him come to terms with his own losses and deal with his fiancee's struggles.
I'm not really doing the story justice here. It was rather complicated and I am in a hurry to get to the Post Office. This is one of those types of books that makes me think about my own life, face some of my own unanswered, and probably unasked, questions about my own family history. I recommend this book highly. Here's a link to a book discussion group with a short synopsis of the book followed by questions: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/clays_quilt1.asp. Good questions. I'll be using most of them in my private journal.
On a quilting note, I finally got the binding on one of the baby quilts that's been hanging around for a few months! Woohoo! I'll post a picture later. My quilting project for the day (I hope) is to put the fleece backing on the Goldilocks and the Three Bears quilt I made for my newest great-nephew. It's such an adorable quilt. It has Goldilocks' face, three bowls of porridge, the three bears, and the bears' house in the forest. Just adorable and perfect for a gift quilt.
The pattern was in a book of nine-patch baby quilts I bought off the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago. The next baby quilt from that book that I want to make is the one with little cars on it - so cute! And, like the Goldilocks quilt, I can use up some of my scraps since the cars should be all colors. I love that about the quilts in that book. But time -- now that's the real problem. Not to mention guilt for not having finished other promised projects. Maybe when I finish the next memory quilt I'm doing using my brother's shirts I'll reward myself with a break to make the car quilt. Sounds like a good plan, don't you think?
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