Happy New Year and welcome back!
This time around, we’re starting strong with mostly fiction. There’s only one non-fiction option and that focuses on crafting.
Get any good book recommendations for the new year? Let us know in the comments!
Jane Austen Embroidery
For all my crafty Bitches! I’m a very beginner embroiderer, but I love that this book mentions some more practical and decorative applications.
15 beautiful embroidery projects from the era of Jane Austen.
Jane Austen was as skillful with a needle as she was with a pen. This unique book from Jennie Batchelor and Alison Larkin showcases recently discovered 18th century embroidery patterns expertly repurposed into 15 exciting modern stitching projects. The patterns and projects are brought to life with glimpses into the world of Regency women and their domestic lives by lively historical features, quotes from Jane Austen’s letters and novels, enchanting illustrations and inspirational project photography.
The book opens with an illustrated introduction on historical embroidery. Next comes the materials and methods section, clearly explaining the key stitches, as well as providing information on threads, fabrics and frames. The practical section includes 15 projects for modern items. The projects are divided into three chapters according to the item the 18th century pattern was originally intended for with patterns for different skill levels:
Embroidered Clothes: Dressed to Impress: Projects include Simple Sprig Pattern (Two Ways), Pencil Case, Clutch Purse, Apron, Housewife.
Embroidered Accessories: How Do You Like My Trimming?: Projects include Napkin Set, Mobile Phone Pouch, Tablet Sleeve, Jewellery Pouch, Muslin Shawl.
Embroidery for the Home: A ‘Nest of Comforts’: Projects include Tea Box Top, Work Bag, Cushion, Sewing Set, Tablecloth.It is more than likely that Jane herself would have used these very patterns for her own embroidery, and now, with Jennie and Alison’s help, readers can stitch-a-long with Jane to make a selection of beautifully embroidered, practical items.
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The Lady and the Footballer
This was more of a recommendation for me, as it caught my eye on Goodreads. It’s a historical romance with sports! I feel like those are few and far between. I mainly see a lot of equestrian-based competitions. Maybe a rec league for the future?
The cover copy and buy links for this title have been removed due to the cover being AI-generated art. We do not knowingly promote generative AI material, written or visual, because of the loss of jobs for artists and writers, the toll on local communities and the environment we share, and the predatory theft of copyright materials to fuel and train generative AI models.
We are also humans, and sometimes we don’t catch when something is AI. Thank you for alerting us; this notice will remain to inform others who also want to avoid generative AI books and art.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Lady and the Footballer by Ellie St. Clair
The Man Who Died Seven Times
I’m a sucker for a time loop mystery, and this is even more interesting with a teenager main character.
A subversively cozy Japanese murder mystery with an ingenious Groundhog Day twist: a teenager’s time-loop race to solve—and possibly prevent—his grandfather’s murder!
Contemporary Japanese legend Yasuhiko Nishizawa makes his English-language debut with this slick, funny murder mystery which adds a sci-fi twist to an age-old setup: a murder in a wealthy family with an inheritance at stake.
Hisataro, a young member of the wealthy Fuchigami family, has a mysterious ability. Every now and then, against his will, he falls into a time-loop in which he is obliged to re-live the same day a total of 9 times. Little does he know how useful this ability will be, until one day, his grandfather mysteriously dies…
As he returns to the day of the murder time and again, Hisataro begins to unravel its secrets. With a sizeable inheritance up for grabs, motives abound, and everyone is a suspect. Can Hisataro solve the mystery of his grandfather’s death before his powers run out?
Written in a witty, lighthearted voice, this clever and playful book will appeal to fans of both traditional murder mysteries as well as readers of cozy mysteries. It’s a delightful treat for fans of the intricate plotting of Agatha Christie, the gentle humor of Richard Osman, and audacious inventiveness of Stuart Turton.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa
Stars Die
The cover copy and buy links for this title have been removed due to the cover being AI-generated art. We do not knowingly promote generative AI material, written or visual, because of the loss of jobs for artists and writers, the toll on local communities and the environment we share, and the predatory theft of copyright materials to fuel and train generative AI models.
We are also humans, and sometimes we don’t catch when something is AI. Thank you for alerting us; this notice will remain to inform others who also want to avoid generative AI books and art.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Stars Die by Jenny Schwartz
Yuck, the cover of Stars Die is AI, as are the greater part of Jenny Schwartz’s other covers, looking thru her site.
While I’m sorry to hear that the cover is AI, I’ve read this series and enjoyed it very much. For me, it has the same comforting detachment as Celia Lake’s Albion series. I actually liked the covers too, though I suppose it was too much to expect that AI covers would be ugly and obvious forever. Sigh.
We’ve removed the buy links and cover copy because we do not knowingly want to promote a generative AI material, written or visual, for many reasons, including the loss of jobs for artists and writers, the toll on local communities and the environment we share, and the predatory theft of materials to fuel and train it.
But since we’re actual humans, we don’t always catch when something is AI. Thank you for flagging this so we can update our database.
I wouldn’t have known. Thank you @Jay for saying something, and thanks also to the Smart Bitches for responding this way.
Thanks for rec-ing the Jane Austen Embroidery book! I think my boss would enjoy looking at that one – she loves embroidered things and Jane, so it’s a double win. 😀
A nonfiction book based on Jane Austen characters, with tips about recognizing and perhaps dealing with intra-gender microagressions: Bitches in Bonnets. It’s several years old but it was a Christmas gift and I enjoyed it. Wouldn’t be surprised if I first encountered it here. It’s a lot of fun to revisit Caroline Bingley, Isabella Thorpe, Lady Susan (a favorite) and Lady Catherine de Bourgh and look for life lessons from Austen’s fictional females.
Jay: How did you catch the cover as being AI? (I’m clueless about how to spot that kind of stuff, except for six fingers or Will Smith unconvincingly eating spaghetti.)
I’m also curious as to what the tells are for the Schwartz cover. If this had been a multiple choice quiz, I would have pegged The Lady and the Footballer as AI instead.
So… it kept scratching at my brain, and on a second review (and comparison with other covers on the author’s site), the cover for The Lady And The Footballer is looking like AI, possibly with some post-generation retouching to mask it, as are the rest of the books in its series.
@Mikey: for Stars Die, the style target appears to be Art Deco, but the piece blends geometric shapes and more Impressionist color handling – a common style mashup that genAI tends to spit out. It also features other mistakes common to AI that artists avoid, especially if emulating Art Deco: tangents everywhere, nonsense perspective, and (I don’t have a better word for this) wibbly shapes.
And b/c I tagged The Lady And The Footballer (which I see @Deborah had reservations about too): Common tells w/ genAI people or animals is a kind of Disney-fied, Instagram-influencer-overusing-Facetune look to the face proportions regardless of target style, awkward posing/composition (clearer in other covers in series) and nonsense details in the clothing and props (the woman’s bodice in higher-def versions, the footballs in other covers in the series).
But also: context is the final nail. If the whole back catalogue of stock model photo covers and suddenly their new series is all painterly soft-focus, why isn’t the author broadcasting their squee over their cover artist so loud you can hear it three time zones away? Because there isn’t one.
The cover for The Lady and the Footballer looks like it’s probably AI too.
I’m getting mixed results when I try to investigate this one. What makes you think so? Try as I do, I don’t always recognize it.
Re: The Lady and the Footballer, yeah… I know AI has gotten way better at hands, so that’s not always a tell these days, but something still seems distinctly off about the male model’s right thumb on The Hellion and the Captain (book 2 in the series). Plus everything Jay said above–the author suddenly using these soft, painterly covers when their whole back-catalogue is stock models.
All of their covers (stock model ones included) are credited to an “AJF Designs.” A search brings up an architectural company (lol, no), or else “AJF[orrest] Designs,” who appears to be a watercolorist/collagist (very different style). Which makes me think “AJF Designs” is a pseudonym for either the author herself, or else someone they’re very close to (friend or family member) who does the covers for them.
It’s incredibly suspicious, to say the least.
It would appear the author also uses AI on their FB author page. (Happy Neppy New Yearr, y’all! Don’t mind the books made out of fondant, or the champagne glass that’s melting into blank pages!)
LUCYNKA I CANNOT EVEN.
Happy Neppy New Year?!?!?! GOOD LORD.
Sorry I am late on this one! I’m bummed because I just picked up The Lady and the Footballer for free a few days ago. I will not be reading it and have already deleted it from my digital library. Thanks for the heads-up!