The Woman of Cabin 10

The Woman in Cabin 10 
by Ruth Ware 


Blurb: 

Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea.

At first, Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo's desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

My Reaction:
Glancing through several reviews, I see that this book inspires some strong negative reactions. I feel a little more lukewarm about it. It wasn't great, no, but I thought it was a reasonably enjoyable suspense/thriller page-turner type of book-- with a few caveats. It sounds like maybe this book was promoted as Something Amazing, and when it couldn't live up to the hype, readers were not pleased. Or maybe I was just in a more generous mood when I read it. In any case, about those caveats...

First, I didn't really like Lo that much. I know, I know! Not all protagonists have to be "likable"-- but honestly, sometimes they should be. In this instance, a less irritating protagonist would've made the book better. Lo was a bit too rude, at times. Her poor treatment of her boyfriend, in particular, was frustrating to read. Then there were all the times she (stupidly) self-medicated with alcohol-- more than a little annoying to read about for the fifth or sixth time. Perhaps most damning of all, Lo is just not that bright, unfortunately. She certainly doesn't have much to offer in the way of investigative journalism or common sense.

Then there were plenty of examples of things that didn't make complete, logical sense to me-- "Why would she do X? What about Y? Surely someone would've noticed Z!" kind of moments. You do have to suspend your disbelief a fair bit.

I was also disappointed that there was so little description of the surroundings-- the sea, the sky, the shoreline. I would have enjoyed a little more Scandinavian local color, but given that most of the action took place on a yacht, I guess that was never likely to happen. (It would've been nice, though.)

Those things aside, it was a fairly generic piece of mystery-driven escapism. It's not the best I've read in the genre-- not the cleverest, not the most edge-of-your-seat, not the fastest-paced-- but if you like these kinds of novels, you might like this one, too. I thought it was interesting enough!

(My nit-pickiest observation while reading this novel was probably that the American boyfriend used some phrases that sounded very British-- definitely not believable from a guy from New York. But maybe that was just me...)

Addicted to Scraps

Addicted to Scraps: 12 Vibrant Quilt Projects
by Bonnie K. Hunter


Blurb:

Forever change the way you look at scraps! Best-selling author, Quiltmaker columnist, and esteemed teacher Bonnie K. Hunter shares 12 large, multicolored scrap quilt patterns in her signature style. Learn how to sew leftover strips into usable fabric that's readily available for projects with Bonnie's easy-to-use Scrap User's System. This complete guide to scrap quilting includes full-size templates, 2 paper-piecing patterns, and a full chapter on quiltmaking basics for scrap addicts.

My Reaction:
Bonnie K. Hunter is known for her scrap-friendly style of quilt design.  If you love quilts that use up anything and everything (including "ugly" fabric, out-of-fashion prints, and small leftover bits and pieces), you owe it to yourself to take a closer look at her patterns.

This book has patterns for a dozen quilts in her colorful, playful, scrappy style.  I recommend visiting this post on Bonnie's blog to preview the patterns in Addicted to Scraps.  There are a lot of small pieces in some of these quilts, and yes, they can be a bit "busy".  But "busy" isn't a four-letter word (ha ha) for some of us.  So-called busy quilts are usually what I'd call happy, energetic, and fun.  If you agree, you'll probably find a lot to love here or in one of the designer's other books. 

If you're interested in organizing your jumbled bags or boxes of scraps into more readily usable cuts of fabric, be sure to check out the information on Bonnie's Scrap User's System.  I've yet to implement it, but one of these days...

String Fling

String Fling: Scrappy, Happy and Loving It!
by Bonnie K. Hunter


Blurb:

Bonnie is back! And this time she's introducing us to a world of string piecing. Strings are strips and scraps usually too small to be useful for other projects, but they are just right for these 13 new quilts. Within these pages you will find a twist on traditional, time-honored designs along with some new ideas straight from Bonnie's scrappy imagination.

My Reaction: 
If you love a scrappy style of quilting, you'll want to look at some of Bonnie K. Hunter's patterns.  She has that "everything including the kitchen sink" style that (in my ever-so-humble opinion) feels truer to the classic "mend and make do" quilt aesthetic than the matchy-matchy, perfectly coordinated style, where every piece of fabric comes from one collection of prints.  That's not to say that a matchy-matchy quilt is inferior or wrong in some way.  It's just a different style.  Personally, I find a busy mix (and sometimes even intentional clash) of prints and colors charming.  If you do, too, give this a look!

The patterns in this particular book (as you might have gathered from the title) all include string piecing.  I won't bore you with definitions and descriptions you could easily look up on your own; suffice it to say that string piecing is easy, fun, and addictive.  I'd say string piecing is an ideal introduction to quilting, since there are so few rules to follow.  If you can sew a (reasonably) straight line, you can string piece.

These patterns take the idea of string quilting and run with it in different directions-- and in varying degrees of difficulty.  There's room to grow new skills in these pages.  Recommended for fans of the scrappy style!

(This book also describes Bonnie K. Hunter's system for cutting and storing scraps so that they're at their optimal usefulness.  I haven't implemented her system in my own relatively young stash, yet, but it's interesting, and I'm keeping it in mind for the future.  If you're drowning in scraps, it does seem like a great way to create useful cuts of fabric that are easier to transform into quilts.)