{a thought for Thursday} A fine line

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. ― Oscar Levant

{wordless wednesday} Turtle Sunning Himself

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

{read: murder and PIs, Chicago-style} We All Fall Down by Michael Kelly

This is the fourth in the series featuring Chicago private investigator Michael Kelly, a former cop. (Start with The Chicago Way if you're new to the series. It will be confusing to jump in mid-stream.) This is another great Michael Harvey read with short chapters and a fast-moving plot. A lightbulb that could be filled with anthrax falls in the subway, and the city and feds move quickly to contain any possible threat. Yet people with mysterious symptoms start showing up in the hospitals and dying. As the death tolls mount, the scientists try to uncover the threat and discover a vaccine, yet everything is not quite as it seems. Harvey does a good job of explaining the bioterroristic aspects of the plot in a way that's easy for regular people to understand, and, as always, he has a tight handle on the culture of Chicago and its seamier underside. 


I enjoy Harvey because his writing style is clean and tight and reminds me of Dennis Lehane, who as careful readers will know, is one of my favorite authors. (I'm excited to see what he does next now that Patrick and Angie seem to be retired from the PI biz. But I digress.) Harvey does for Chicago what Lehane did for Boston, although I confess that I got a bit lost on some of the political twists and turns. I guess that's Chicago.


We All Fall Down by Michael Harvey (Knopf Doubleday, 2011)
My rating: 4 stars

{a thought for Thursday} Rainbows

The soul would have no rainbows had the eyes no tears. - John Vance Cheney

{wordless wednesday} Hello Horsie

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

{read: Medical drama} Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

*spoiler alert* I used to love Jodi Picoult's books, but her more recent ones seem to have fallen into a pattern. While the elements of her storytelling style remain the same (multiple POV, ethical dilemma ending in legal battle), her prose in her recent novels seems too pat and cliched. I miss the more creative Jodi of Perfect Match, Salem Falls, Keeping Faith, and Plain Truth.

This is yet another medical drama, although it is an adult and not a child with the medical crisis. Luke, a man made famous because he lived with wolves for two years in the wild, has a severe brain injury from a car crash. His estranged son comes home from Thailand to decide what to do, but his 17-year-old daughter, who has been living with him, disagrees with the decision to end life support. (He is divorced, but of course his ex-wife married a lawyer who ends up representing the son in the legal drama.) This is typical Picoult fare. While I was disappointed in its lack of creativity, it is very readable and I had a hard time putting it down. It has an epilogue that at first confused me until I realized it was from the POV of one of the people who received an organ donation from Luke. I liked that unexpected twist for a few minutes, until I realized that if this newly saved 19-year-old kid follows the wolf into the woods when he's already lost (it just feels right, he says, and the wolf somehow seems to recognize him), he's going to die because he won't have his meds and he'll reject the kidney. Perhaps this is what Picoult intended, but it seems a little too dark to go with the rest of this book.

Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult (Atria, 2012)
My rating: 3 stars

{crafts} Memorial Day Decorations

Time to start thinking about summer! Here is a great craft idea from Martha Stewart. The firework decorations would look great hanging outside on the porch. They would add a little fun to a holiday barbecue.

Introduction

Fabric star medallions will brighten up your party like daytime fireworks. 

Use standard cotton prints for this project -- nothing too heavy or light. Spray starch helps the creases keep their shape.

Step 1

Cut a length of fabric: The width will be the diameter of the medallion; the length should be 1.6 times the width (for example, for a 15 1/2-inch medallion, cut about 25 inches of fabric).

Step 2

Fold fabric accordion-style in 1 1/2-inch sections (A). After each fold, spray with starch, and iron. Continue up length of fabric. Make sure your first and last folds are in the same direction.

Step 3

Stitch along the middle of the folded rectangle to create a pivot point (F).

Step 4

Trim both ends of the pleated rectangle at a 45-degree angle, so the angles slope toward the raw edge of the fabric (F) -- these cuts create the medallion's starlike points (G).

Step 5

Connect sides of the rectangle by fanning out fabric from center stitch and adhering with fusible webbing; iron. Sandwich a piece of ribbon (it should be long enough to hang the medallion) between the fusible webbing and the fabric. Connect remaining sides with fusible webbing, or tape for easy disassembly and storage. Stitch monofilament through the fused edge in the back, and hang.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Star Medallion - Martha Stewart Crafts