Tshania Sedai

What I would that I had but a sixth star to give.

I really enjoyed that this book went into the history of the garments it recommends as part of a classic wardrobe. It also gives great ideas for how to personalize a sewn wardrobe! I do wish it possibly had more photographs in addition to the drawn images, but overall it was a quick, fun read that has provided a lot of inspiration!

While the tone and general presentation of the material is quite dated, the actual information about sewing techniques, garment care, and home economics is generally still quite practical and applicable.

This is a fairly short eBook by sewing blogger Athina Kakou. While I love the idea of making a book about building a capsule wardrobe that is specific to sewing, I felt that there could have been more detail or instruction in this book. I realize that most of the exercises and practical advice is contained in the workbook and sewing planner she offers, but I feel that this book could benefit from perhaps being combined with the workbook. I enjoyed seeing photos of her own self-sewn wardrobe collections, but I feel like it could have perhaps been more helpful to combine the content of the two books and cut down on the photos? It is a lovely book, but perhaps not as detailed or inspirational as I had hoped. I think I may get more from the Workbook and Sewing Planner, as this book was a bit too general for me.

While Sew... The Garment Making Book of Knowledge isn't necessarily the sewing book I'm looking for now, as someone who's been sewing for several years, this is definitely the book I wish I'd had when I started.  I think the book has a very logical layout, with the chapters taking you from exploring what and why to sew, to picking out patterns and fabric, to adjusting for fit, and finally to advice about tools and sewing plans.  I really enjoy Barbara's opinions about what makes sewing successful and rewarding, and her attempts to point everyone in the right direction so they can achieve success of their own.  Her advice about sewing for your lifestyle takes the main ideas of The Curated Closet and distills it down to a single chapter.  The mini-lessons contain some brilliant tips to assist with tricky sewing (like dealing with hems or bulky necklines), and I really wish there had been room for more of them in this book.  Final verdict: I think this would be a great book to give as a gift to someone who is new to sewing, or would be a great purchase if you are new to sewing yourself. 

As for me, I'm holding out for a full book of tutorials, tips, and tricks from Barbara, because I think she has a lot of wisdom to share.  As someone who is in that weird intermediate-not-quite-ready-to-be-advanced stage, I'm totally missing books with modern solutions to sewing problems that I run into frequently.  I want something that will give me ways to deal with tricky sewing issues that include modern fusibles, cover stitch machines, and sergers, and show me the best ways to utilize them.  Honestly, what I'd love to see hit the market is a book with detailed instructions about how to get clean interior finishes, or even comparing RTW finished with traditional home sewing and couture finishes and discussing the merits of each.  I think the mini-lessons in Barbara's book have given me hope that this could exist in a future book, and I really think the home sewing market is ready for something like that.

Anyway, long rambling tangent aside, I really like this book.  I think it has a fun, modern aesthetic, sound advice, and good tutorials.  Although it might not be everything I'm looking for in a sewing book at the moment, I'm happy to have added it to my ever growing sewing library.

Another solid 3.5 Stars that I'm rounding down. This is one of those books I'm glad I read because I can recognize the brilliance of it, yet the story isn't something I've connected to emotionally. I usually love these sort of crazy ensemble cast stories, and I think the imaginings of the future border on genius. But something was missing for me. It was smart, but not necessarily compelling. Second book in a row where I've loved the world but not the characters. Worth a read, because it really is a very smart book, but probably not going to be one of my top books from the year.

A solid 3.5 Stars. I was very much on the fence between the 3/4 rating, but decided to round down because, much as I loved the concept of the world, I never fell in love with the characters. Well, maybe the pirate; he kinda stole the show. But I never found myself really rooting for the main characters, and that left me feeling a bit disengage from the story.

Standing ovation.

I think this is really like a 3.5 for me. The middle three tails were great but the bookends weren't as exciting to me. The actual craftsmanship was fantastic though.

The Radium Girls is an historical account of the women who worked in the dial painting factories at the turn of the century.  Shortly after the discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie, the element was touted as a magical cure-all, partly due to it's effect on cancerous growths.  As such, it was considered at the very least harmless and at best beneficial to human health.  Radium's ability to glow also made it valued as a material to paint watch dials, so that they could easily be read in the dark.  Thus the radium dial industry sprung up, and the material was carefully applied to clock and watch faces by the young girls who employed a technique called lip pointing to ensure that the brushes were fine and accurate for painting.  Over time, however, the radium built up in the body of the girls, and radiation poisoning made them very, very sick.  This book focuses on the stories of several of these girls, and how they fought against the system to be properly compensated for the work hazards that destroyed their health and their lives.

This is definitely a sad book; the descriptions of the decaying girls are incredibly visceral.  You don't have to imagine the pain of the girls; you can almost feel it as their stories progress.  Many of the girls die, in horrible, painful ways.  There is tragedy contained in these pages, and in today's world I can understand why a reader may choose to actively avoid such an experience.  However, this book is also a very uplifting story as well.  It is about the little guy fighting against the man, about female empowerment, and about seeking justice and creating it where there is none.  Yes, there is ignorance, and pain, and death, but there is also a will to fight, to do the right thing, and to create accountability for those in power.  Although I knew the tragedy that was contained in the book's pages, I was unprepared for the fighting spirit of these factory workers and their families.  Their story was laid out in an engaging and incredibly thoughtful way.  The Radium Girls was absolutely compelling, and incredibly inspiring.  Although this book is about the injustices of the past, it gave me hope for the future, and I highly recommend this book to everyone.  

So frightening it makes Richard Preston's books on Ebola feel like fairy tales.

I wasn't at all interested in this until there was such a hoopla surrounding the release, so of course I had to jump on the bandwagon. Honestly, there isn't anything in the book that is new or surprising, but it does make quite clear just how incompetent our nation's leaders are at present. Reading it directly after reading Washington's Farewell also puts the actions of our current president in rather harsh perspective.

Everyone should read this book.

The ending felt a bit rushed, after the rest of the story, but this is a fun, quick read with some interesting ideas.

Timely.

I found myself enjoying this way more than I expected. The characters all grew on me, and I got totally wrapped up in the story by the end. I had a moment where I thought, wow I'm halfway done and nothing has really happened yet, but I also didn't really care, because I was enjoying it. The audiobook narration was awesome, which totally added to my enjoyment. I think If I'd read this in paper format I'd have rated it 3 Stars, but as audio I want to give it 5 Stars, so I averaged it out to 4 Stars.

Loved it! Great writing, great story, great Audible narration.

There aren't enough stars to properly rate how great this book is.

The bits about Earth were interesting. The rest, not so much. I tried. I tried really hard. But I just couldn't enjoy this book.

If you like your physics with a side of dad-joke level puns, then this is totally the book for you. It's a fun romp through some of the wilder aspects of physics, though if you've got a fairly high level of understanding to start with then this book might feel like something of a review. For those who don't know physics at all, I'd worry that they might not be able to distinguish some of the punnier jokes, but I think most people should be able to parse it out. Overall a fun read to get you thinking, with lots of interesting concepts. I highly recommend reading it in conjunction with The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu because a lot of the crazier topics have a fair bit of overlap.

Reading this right on the heels of Sarah Knight's other book, The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck, I have to say I found this book to be much more applicable to the sorts of inspiring wisdom I was searching for. The first book is really about deciding how much you care about things and resolving to not do the things you don't care about. While I do need to work on that, I was hoping for something a little more applicable to solving issues like finding purpose in life and figuring out how to not be overwhelmed on the daily. Get Your Shit Together is much more useful for hammering out the ways one should set goals and work to achieve them. Are there any earth shattering revelations? No. But did it get me to make a budget for next month and seriously start to consider my lacking retirement prospects? Yeah. It's definitely something I will want to refer back to, and I expect I'll come to appreciate it more once my shit really does start getting together. Also, the chipmunk metaphor is brilliant. The audio book is read by the author, which adds a nice extra zeal as well.

Likes: The concept of a fuck budget is brilliant.

Dislikes: It feels a bit focused on dealing with things I already don't give a fuck about.

Dashed hopes: I was hoping for a bit more insight in how to decide what exactly I should give a fuck about, but perhaps I shall be enlightened when she tells me how to get my shit together in the sequel?

Probably more like a 1.5, but I'm rounding down because of the ending.

I'm going to start this off by saying I'm a big fan of Robb Wolf - I've jokingly referred to him as my podcast spirit animal. However, I was hoping for a bit more from this book. I think, since I have listened to so many of the podcasts, I've already heard much of this information; there wasn't a lot I gained from reading the book. I do think this would be a great introductory book, but it is less helpful for someone who has geeked out on this stuff for several years. The book is good, just not what I was hoping for in terms of detail when I picked it up. I am excited to try some of the food options, and I likely should be considering the carb testing he recommends. Overall it's a good book, but one I could have bypassed in favor of listening to more podcasts. Recommended to those new to considering using dietary changes for health.

The great thing about this book is that it is very general about styles of fashion, which makes it applicable to everyone. The exercises at the beginning of the book, geared toward designing a wardrobe that fits an individual's lifestyle, also seem really helpful, if somewhat time intensive. The details at the back of the book about looking for good quality pieces are also very informative. The only possible downside is that it is perhaps too general - while the author does provide some examples of how to generate a personal style, come up with a color palette, and decide what pieces are necessary, it can feel really vague if you aren't following along and doing the exercises as you go through the book. Definitely a book I will be revisiting, though partially because I'm a stats junkie who thinks it would be fun to make a pie chart comparing my actual life to my wardrobe's theoretical function.

Great book for an introduction to the problems with the modern food system and on how to read dietary research papers. A bit basic for people who have a background in science/research. It does cover some really interesting studies. Audio book narration was a bit too much like that really dry professor everyone had to try to stay awake through in college.