Book Review: Bless This Mother-effing Home
Katie 
Bless This Mother-effing Home is a book of sweet stitches for snarky bitches. I have seen some similar crafts online and always get a good laugh out of them so when I saw there was a whole book of them, created by someone else named Katie, I had to check it out. Cross-stitch is a craft I have done before with some success, provided that it is printed and not counted. Katie has been selling her crafts on her etsy page but after getting some publicity on the show GIRLS things have taken off for her. The cross stitches in the book are all cutesy and adorable, as one would expect, but the text on them are a bit unexpected and anyone with a sense of humor would surely find one or five that they feel the need to have in their home. My favorites are probably the ones based on rap lyrics like “mo money mo problems” and “y’all gonna make me lose my mind up in here, up in here”. If you don’t crack a smile at least once when reading through this book you may need to consult a doctor.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
The combination of sugar and spice is irresistible in this adorable and appalling collection of cross stitch. Laugh-out-loud fun through crafting is found in these biting yet precious patterns.
Katie Kutthroat’s warped and witty cross stitch has taken the internet by storm and has been featured on TV shows like HBO’s Girls and The League. Cute but snarky, each cross stitch pattern featured in Bless This Mother-effing Home evokes laughter and irony. Perforated pages allow for readers to hang up or share favorite entries, spreading the cross stitched love.
If you’re like me, you may have grown up reading “Goodnight, Moon”. This book is an unauthorized parody from MAD Magazine and instead of saying goodnight to the moon and everything in the room, Batman says goodnight to his Batcave and everything and every one around. The illustrations are really nice and the book is cute for the young Batman fan who just needs one more book read to him/her before bed!
Yarn Whirled: Fairy Tales, Fables and Folklore is another crafty book that I was looking forward to reading. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the formatting for it 100% correct to be able to read everything, but it seems like these characters may be a better start for me before diving into learning something like crochet. These are more made of folded yarn. I loved seeing all the fairies and the other folklore characters that were created. With my limited hand-eye coordination I think that these types of creations are more my style. The outcome is really adorable too. There are humans as well as other characters shown in the book, like adorable little brown bears and characters from the nutcracker too. The details on the tutus of the ballerinas and the wings of the fairies are absolutely amazing. If you’re looking to make some characters in a way that might be a little bit easier than with crocheting, this is the book for you.
I know every time I read one of these crochet books I say that I am going to learn to crochet, but I truly thing this year is going to be my year. The latest book I read was all about the characters from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. In addition to the instructions on how to make the characters (which are ranked with skill levels like easy or intermediate so you know where to begin based on your skill level) there is also some excerpts of the book included as well. There are some really cute characters like the door mouse and the hedgehogs as well as your favorites like Alice, Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter. You can also make accessories for your tea party as well! All characters come with crochet instructions and how many to make as well as photos of the finished products.
Once again, I check out a really cool book about crochet with having no knowledge of how to make any of the cool things in the book! But this year I think I am going to try to teach myself because there are so many cool things that I want to try and make out there!
Megan Abbott was recommended to me as an author by a friend. I saw that You Will Know Me was available for review on NetGalley so I figured I would check it out. I really liked Megan’s writing style although some of the ‘twists’ in the book I found to be quite predictable. I also thought it was a bit weird about how she told us the major event that was going to happen very early on and then at times seemed to work backwards from it.
Almost perfect is about the sacrifice that baseball pitchers and teams make for the perfect game. Very, very few have ever done it. Some perfect games turned into no hitters but didn’t end up perfect. There are write ups on some close calls with the box score and why they didn’t end up perfect. Unfortunately my Mets have never had a perfect game and have only ever had 1 no hitter!
I love you with all my butt is a book of doodles created from interesting phrases that were said by toddlers. It’s hard to really write a review of this book because you have to kind of read it and see if yourself to “get” it, but trust me, it is full of hilarious phrases and imagery inspired by toddlers and I guarantee you will have at least one chuckle while reading it!
Dead Gone follows rookie detective Tom Lange on his first case. A woman is found floating in the water and the only identifying marks on her is a tattoo. Tom posts about her on a website that allows the public to post tips and a friend thinks she knows who the woman is. Tom meets with her and thinks that he has IDed her but can’t seem to figure out who did it or why. Meanwhile, there are a few other conflicts going on in Tom’s life that are distracting him from giving his all to the case. His neighbor Alicia shows up on his doorstep wanting help when her boyfriend is abusing her. Tom tries to get her to press charges, but the two seem to work things out instead. Tom’s brother, Nick, also keeps pulling him away because he is dealing with a major gambling debt and is getting beaten by the guys he owes. His partner, Blythe, is not happy with how he is handling the case and he as two strikes against him as far as she is concerned, and one more and she is going to ask for him to be reassigned.