A Strangeness in My Mind

I started reading this when Alice was a baby, but it was just too big to pick up and hold over the baby. So I started reading it again the other day and struggled to put it down. It is the story of a boza seller in Istanbul. It follows his life from the village to the city, his marriage, kids etc. Throughout it all it tracks the changes of the city, from the changes in types of housing, the education and aspiration of its inhabitants, change in commerce etc. I really enjoyed this book. After about the first 50 pages, I really got into it. I couldn't read it for long chunks of time which was annoying, but I struggled to put it down. I wouldn't say that I emotionally connected with the characters particularly but I recognised the city that was being described. The protagonist went to a Turkish primary school at roughly the time I went to one (maybe half a decade before but it was recognisable) and the changes that were happening in the city reflect what I saw during my childhood. The Istanbul of his adulthood were what I no longer recognised when I went back to visit in my late 20s. I wonder whether someone who doesn't have that connection with the city will get quite so much out of the book, but then again, I did care about the lives of the characters to some extent, but then again the city is most definitely a character in Orhan Pamuk's books.

The Revolving Door of Life

This was given to me a little while ago. I've tried reading Alexander McCall Smith before but never really got into him. I was disappointed by this novel. It's supposed to be part of the 44 Scotland Street series, which I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that this was part of a detective novel, but there was no mystery. There were just a series of interconnected plots.

Baby quilt for Theodora

In what has become a family tradition, I have created another triangle quilt for my little niece. This one was delivered in person (but a year and a half late - been busy! Having a little one of my own is somewhat time consuming). Her parents asked for the same colour theme as a quilt that I made for my brother and sister-in-law. At this point I was quite grateful that I'd kept a document of the colours that I'd used previously. My little orange book is becoming a really useful resource.

 The back was a bit plainer than I normally would go for, or at least a little less fiddly. The only thing I was a bit annoyed by was the use of flannel material (the blue block) as it was really hard to cut as it kept stretching. I was running short of time as I had to finish all the machining before we flew off and it was the only type of fabric that I could find that was 100% cotton.

The quilt is bound in plain green which really helped to pull the whole thing together, although I haven't really taken a good photo of that for some reason. The photos that I do have were taken on the balcony of my sister-in-law's new flat. Stunning views!