What I'm Reading Tuesday

This week, I'm reading Matched by Ally Condie, it's a great book so far! I'm about halfway through.

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

(C) Goodreads

I'm still reading Me, Myself, and Them, but it hasn't caught my attention and I'm debating whether to push through it or just go ahead and return it.

FO Friday

This week, I finished my mom's socks! Deborah Norville Serenity Sock "Amethyst" vanilla sock, 72 st. The yarn was amazing to knit with! It knit up so quickly!

WIP Wednesday

This week, I don't have much progress. Okay, I did finish my mom's socks, but you'll have to come back on Friday for that. I've worked on my Julissa, which I won't bother posting a picture of because it pretty much looks the same, only 10 rows longer. I've also worked on my cousin's legwarmers, I'm almost done with the first one, and hopefully, they'll fit her. The yarn is Premier Yarns Wool-Free Sock in "Vegas Lights." The color is extremely hard to capture accurately, even in natural lighting and up close (right) but you get the idea.

What I'm Reading Tuesday

This week, I'm reading Me, Myself and Them by Kurt Snyder, it's about a man's personal experience with schizophrenia and how he deals/dealt with it. I am definitely enjoying it so far, it's nice to be learning about someone's experience from the person them self. He doesn't sugar coat anything and tells about pretty much everything. I'm only a few chapters in, but I find myself refusing to stop reading, excited about every page turn.

During his second semester at college, Kurt Snyder became convinced that he was about to discover a fabulously important mathematical principle, spending hours lost in daydreams about numbers and symbols. In time, his thoughts took a darker turn, and he became preoccupied with the idea that cars were following him, or that strangers wanted to harm him. Kurt's mind had been hijacked by schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder that typically strikes during the late teen or young adult years. 
In Me, Myself, and Them, Kurt, now an adult, looks back from the vantage point of recovery and eloquently describes the debilitating changes in thoughts and perceptions that took hold of his life during his teens and twenties. As a memoir, this book is remarkable for its unvarnished look at the slow and difficult process of coming back from severe mental illness. Yet Kurt's memoir is only half the story. With the help of psychiatrist Raquel E. Gur, M.D., Ph.D., and veteran science writer Linda Wasmer Andrews, Kurt paints the big picture for others affected by adolescent schizophrenia. Drawing on the latest scientific and medical evidence, he explains how to recognize warning signs, where to find help, and what treatments have proved effective. Kurt also offers practical advice on topics of particular interest to young people, such as suggestions on managing the illness at home, school, and work, and in relationships with family and friends.

(C) Goodreads

I finished Manic by Terri Cheney yesterday morning and I'll try to get that review (and some other belated reviews) up throughout the week.

My Favorite Biscuit Recipe

I make these biscuits all the time! My family and I love them. They're a southern style biscuit and are great with Butter! They're great with breakfast, dinner, or even just as a snack!

• 3 Cups flour
• 6 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 6 T softened butter
• 1 1/2 c milk 

Preheat oven to 425F (218C)

Mix dry ingredients together, cut in butter, then add milk and mix well. Turn out onto floured surface and roll to 1/2-3/4 inch thickness, depending on how thick you want your biscuits. 

Makes 6-10 biscuits

Let me know how you like them!

No FO Friday- A Catchup Post

I didn't post for What I'm Reading Tuesday or WIP Wednesday this week, mainly because I haven't been feeling up to doing much of anything this week. I've come down with some kind of cold, stuffy nose, coughs, you know, the awful stuff. So I figured I'd at least get one post out this week, why not combine both Tuesday and Wednesday posts?

What I'm Reading
This week, I'm reading Manic: a Memoir by Terri Cheney, it's about a woman with manic bipolar depression, and let me tell you, it is interesting.

(C) Goodreads

On the outside, Terri Cheney was a highly successful, attractive Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer. But behind her seemingly flawless façade lay a dangerous secret—for the better part of her life Cheney had been battling debilitating bipolar disorder and concealing a pharmacy's worth of prescriptions meant to stabilize her moods and make her "normal."

In bursts of prose that mirror the devastating highs and extreme lows of her illness, Cheney describes her roller-coaster life with shocking honesty—from glamorous parties to a night in jail; from flying fourteen kites off the edge of a cliff in a thunderstorm to crying beneath her office desk; from electroshock therapy to a suicide attempt fueled by tequila and prescription painkillers.

With Manic, Cheney gives voice to the unarticulated madness she endured. The clinical terms used to describe her illness were so inadequate that she chose to focus instead on her own experience, in her words, "on what bipolar disorder felt like inside my own body." Here the events unfold episodically, from mood to mood, the way she lived and remembers life. In this way the reader is able to viscerally experience the incredible speeding highs of mania and the crushing blows of depression, just as Cheney did. Manic does not simply explain bipolar disorder—it takes us in its grasp and does not let go.

(C) Goodreads

And Me, Myself, and Them by Kurt Snyder. I only started this book last night, so I really don't have anything to say about it just yet.

(C) Goodreads

During his second semester at college, Kurt Snyder became convinced that he was about to discover a fabulously important mathematical principle, spending hours lost in daydreams about numbers and symbols. In time, his thoughts took a darker turn, and he became preoccupied with the idea that cars were following him, or that strangers wanted to harm him. Kurt's mind had been hijacked by schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder that typically strikes during the late teen or young adult years. 
In Me, Myself, and Them, Kurt, now an adult, looks back from the vantage point of recovery and eloquently describes the debilitating changes in thoughts and perceptions that took hold of his life during his teens and twenties. As a memoir, this book is remarkable for its unvarnished look at the slow and difficult process of coming back from severe mental illness. Yet Kurt's memoir is only half the story. With the help of psychiatrist Raquel E. Gur, M.D., Ph.D., and veteran science writer Linda Wasmer Andrews, Kurt paints the big picture for others affected by adolescent schizophrenia. Drawing on the latest scientific and medical evidence, he explains how to recognize warning signs, where to find help, and what treatments have proved effective. Kurt also offers practical advice on topics of particular interest to young people, such as suggestions on managing the illness at home, school, and work, and in relationships with family and friends.

(C) Goodreads

WIPs

Julissa by Vanessa Smith (RHSS "Country Rose")

I am LOVING this pattern, I can't wait to finish it and get to wear it!

Vanilla Socks (Deborah Norville Serenity Sock "Amethyst")

I literally have like 30 rows left. Why I haven't buckled down and gotten these done yet, I have no idea.

Featherweight by Hannah Fettig (Lost City Knits Oak Barn Merino Lace "Cocksure")

As you can tell, it needs a serious blocking. I've got about 5" on the first sleeve left to knit, and half of the second sleeve.

MKAL Spring 2014 by Cheri McEwen (RHSS "Soft White" "Glowworm" CSS "Black")

I haven't worked on this this week, but I think I forgot to show it last week.

What I'm Reading Tuesday

   I'm going to start something new here on the blog, in hopes that it will help me remember to blog more, knitting and otherwise.  Every Tuesday, I'm going to share with you what I've been reading. I spend the majority of my free time knitting and reading, so I find that this will be something I'll enjoy blogging about.
   This week, I'm reading

The One by Kiera Cass

323 pg

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Romance

Publisher: Harper Teen

The time has come for one winner to be crowned.

When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.

(c) Goodreads.com

This is the third book in The Selection series by Kiera Cass, I have found the first two, and so far in the third, books delightful! They are in the perspective of America Singer, an artist of caste 5, and her journey through the selection, a competition to become Illea's next princess. I highly recommend this series, and the novellas as well, to anyone who is into the fairytale/becoming princess type stories, but would like to see how it is from a more rational perspective.

The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain

352 pgs

Genre: Mystery, fiction, suspense

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

In The Silent Sister, Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager.  Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she's in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary.  Lisa is alive.  Alive and living under a new identity.  But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now?  As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought she knew about her family.  Riley must decide what the past means for her present, and what she will do with her newfound reality, in this engrossing mystery from international bestselling author Diane Chamberlain.

(c) Goodread.com

Now, I'm only on chapter two of this book, but one of the librarians at my local library was reading it and recommended it to me. She did say that the first few chapters were hard to get into, and I agree, but I'm looking forward to the mystery unfolding.

   As always, I'll be putting up more extensive reviews when I finish the books/series, and I do have some lined up to be published that I'm almost done with, but for now, you can check out my already published reviews here.