Early Book Review: Mysterious, Marvelous Octopus by Paige Towler

Mysterious, Marvelous Octopus by Paige Towler is currently scheduled for release on March 19 2024. This book introduces young readers to the fascinating world of octopuses big and small, ink-squirting and shape-shifting, all around the planet. With their super smarts and awe-inspiring abilities, octopuses have captivated human imaginations. This book is a celebration of all things weird and wonderful about these beloved creatures—with their eight arms, nine brains, and one-of-a-kind personalities. Inside, find lyrical poetry paired with informational sidebars—perfect for a charming bedtime read or for pouring over for in-depth octopus info. Gorgeous photos of real octopuses give kids an up-close-and-personal glimpse of the sensational cephalopods—from the utterly adorable Dumbo octopus to the stunning blue-ringed octopus—and their incredible habitats and body parts.

Mysterious, Marvelous Octopus offers readers a nice balance. The images are visually stunning and capture the attention. The basic text is nice and is formatted nicely on the page, giving the book a nice flow and keeping readers engaged. The text boxes with more detailed information are great for older readers and those interested in learning more about octopi. (I know technically it is octopuses, but I am stubbornly clinging to octopi because I like the flow of it better.)  I think this book will appeal to many, as an entertaining, interesting, and informative read.

Book Review: Tea Gardening for Beginners: Learn to Grow, Blend, and Brew Your Own Tea At Home by Julia Dimakos

Tea Gardening for Beginners: Learn to Grow, Blend, and Brew Your Own Tea At Home by Julia Dimakos is a gardening book for tea lovers. What’s more satisfying than brewing the perfect cup of tea? Brewing it from tea you grew yourself! Create your own tea garden with help from this beginner’s guide. It walks you through every step of the process, from planning your garden plot to preparing delicious tea blends. This book will help readers know understand the tea varieties, build a garden, discover and learn about plant profiles, and build up the skills to grow and make your own tea blends for your own preferences and needs. 

Tea Gardening for Beginners is a detailed and informative read for anyone serious about growing their own tea ingredients. I have been growing gardens full of herbs and vegetables for as long as I can remember. I have thought about increasing the percentage of herbs and dabbling with growing tea for awhile, in fact this is the second book I have read on doing so that I have read, but I have yet to take the plunge. I think that growing your own tea takes a focus and dedication that I tend not to give my gardens. I am much more a 'plant this and see what happens' kind of gardener with a bit of gardening knowledge to make good initial choices thrown in. I am lucky enough to have parents very into gardening, enough so that me first 'job' was replanting seedlings in the family greenhouse as a kid. I learned a bit about some of the plants I grow, and those I want to grow. I think the idea of growing my own tea is more about the actual tea plant rather than the herbs that I would also use, as I am not in the correct zone to grow tea leaves without moving plants in and outside- which I lack the space and motivation for, to be honest. However, I think this book offers readers the information and tools they need to grow their own tea ingredients successfully, and to know whether they have the time and dedication to devote to doing it right for the best results. I can think of many people that could and would, I just need to admit that it is not me. Thankfully I can, and do, grow many of the fruits, herbs, and flowers included in the book and have some great inspiration for next year's planting and recipes and techniques I would like to try. 

Early Book Review: Embroidery Made Easy: Beautiful Birds: Easy Techniques for Learning to Embroider a Variety of Colorful Birds, Including a Cardinal, a Barn Owl, and a Puffin by Beth Hoyes

Embroidery Made Easy: Beautiful Birds: Easy Techniques for Learning to Embroider a Variety of Colorful Birds, Including a Cardinal, a Barn Owl, and a Puffin by Beth Hoyes is currently scheduled for release on July 12 2022. Learn to create a variety of birds following the newest embroidery trend: thread painting. Through a collection of 12 detailed, full-color patterns, aspiring and established embroidery artists will discover how to employ the art of thread painting to create a range of popular birds and waterfowl from around the world, including North America, the Amazon rain forest, and Europe. Thread painting is the name for using single strands of embroidery floss to create lifelike images with beautifully blended gradients of color and detail. Fortunately, the process is not as hard as it sounds! After learning a bit about how to create gradients and blend colors, anyone can create incredible embroidered masterpieces.

Embroidery Made Easy caught my eye, as I have recently gotten back into cross stitch and embroiderer, and most of my projects have been landscapes, flowers, and simple animals. Looking to expand my skillset I quickly requested the book and netgalley, and here we are. I thought the information on techniques and terms in the front of the book was well written and organized, but the idea of thread painting can be intimidating to new crafters. Even as someone that has been doing a wide variety of crafts some of the charts explaining the way multiple colors in a section create the effects we are looking for was a little overwhelming. However, once you get to the individual patterns with the color order, direction of stitch, and all the little details explained step by step it all felt much more manageable. The fact that the templates for your fabric are included is helpful and everything seems doable, but it is something that will take a crafter's full attention, at least until they feel more comfortable with the process. I still have a couple works in progress on my side table, but I will be tackling the hummingbird as soon as I can.