Reading - The Sunflower

The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans



Just a week before their marriage, Christine's fiance calls off the wedding, leaving her heartbroken. With hopes of helping her through a difficult times, Christine's best friend Jessica enrolls them both on a humanitarian mission in Peru, to work at an orphanage called El Girasol - The Sunflower.

It s while working at the orphanage that Christine meets Paul Cook, a successful and charistmatic American doctor who has fled the States after one fatal day took away his career, his faith, and the woman he loved.

Unplanned events lead Paul and christine into the jungle of the Amazon, where she must confront her deepest fears, and she, and Paul, must both learn to trust and love again. But her ex-fiance asks her to return to his side......

Reading - Paradise Fields

Paradise Fields by Katie Fforde



Nel Innis fits the standard quite nicely but in her own way is quite different from previous incarnations. A widow for 10 years, she has raised her three nearly adult children on her own. They, along with the family dogs, vast numbers of friends, and multiple charitable interests, have filled her life quite well, if chastely, until now. In comes Jake Demerand, mysterious, fearfully attractive, and, unfortunately, working as the lawyer representing the opposition in a land battle that threatens her most valued causes. Paradise Fields is in the Cotswolds, the site of a hospice for seriously ill children and a seasonal farmer's market. The current owner wants to build houses. Development is inevitable; how it will be done is the issue that Nel takes on. Will she succeed? What happens with Jake?

Reading - Cinnamon Kiss

Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley



Desperately needing more money than Easy can raise to send his adopted daughter, Feather, to a Swiss clinic to treat her rare blood condition, Easy almost agrees to join his deadly best friend, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, in an armed robbery. Boatman catches all the nuances of their first scene together—Easy full of moral qualms and practical fears; Mouse as calm and reassuring as a shoe salesman. When Rawlins gets a job in San Francisco, Boatman gets the chance to play crooked detectives and lawyers, mysteriously sexy females and that now-familiar gallery of supporting characters only a black Balzac could create.

A Pink Lady

My friend AM is wearing her pink A-line jacket. Is she beautiful ? When she looks at HS's (our other friend) a-line jacket, she yells she must have one and hope it can be worn during Chinese New Year (that is Feb 7, 2008) , so this pink one is knitted for her. It is lucky that it can be finished before time. She love it very much.









Pattern : just a simple a-line jacket pattern
Yarn : Nako - Bambu (from Turkey)
Material : 65% Cashmere, 35% Bamboo
Usage 12 balls x 50g(100m)
Needle : 4.2mm (Japanese size)

There is no special difficult in knitting this. This yarn is quite cheap to buy, the original cost is about USD6.15 per ball and after 25% discount off, it only costs USD4.60.

Reading - First Impressions

First Impressions by Nora Roberts



Escaping the rat race and the lure of gold-digging women, wealthy businessman Vance Banning moves to a small, rural retreat, telling the townsfolk that he's an out-of-work carpenter. All he wants is peace, quiet and to keep away from women. So the last thing he needs is a charitable neighbor - especially a beautiful, gracious and persistent neighbor of the female persuasion - but there's something about Shane Abbott he just can't ignore.

Vance is certain his cover story will stop his lovely neighbor from getting too friendly, but Shane is determined to break down his resistance. Vance has been burned once, so only a fool would fall the the same innocent act twice. And he's no fool. But he has no idea how relentless Shane Abbott can be when it comes to giving a helping hand - or a loving heart.

He needed to simplify his life and mend his broken heart. She was searching for a place to finally fit in and a man who could love her for who she was. Together they discover that all they really needed was each other, and that love is the greatest Christmas gift of all.

Reading - The Witch of Portobello

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho



An orphaned Romanian gypsy, adopted as an infant by adoring Lebanese parents, Sherine Khalil, aka Athena, finds the worship meeting she's leading—where she becomes an omniscient goddess named Hagia Sophia—disrupted by a Protestant protest. Framed as a set of interviews conducted with those who knew Athena, who is dead as the book opens, the story recounts her birth in Transylvania to a Gypsy mother.

Her short, early marriage to a man she meets at a London college (one of the interviewees); her son Viorel's birth; and her stint selling real estate in Dubai. Back in London in the book's second half, Athena learns to harness the powers that have been present but inchoate within her, and the story picks up as she acquires a "teacher" (Deidre O'Neill, aka Edda, another interviewee), then disciples (also interviewed), and speeds toward a spectacular end. Coelho veers between his signature criticism of modern life and the hydra-headed alternative that Athena taps into.

Reading - Gabriel's Angel

Gabriel's Angel by Nora Roberts



Pregnant, alone and on the run to protect her unborn child, Laura Malone found herself stranded on a snowy Colorado road, at the mercy of a stranger. Fortunately, Gabriel Bradley's only intention that fateful night was to provide her shelter.

She was an angel with midnight blue eyes and a shock of blond hair, and Gabe might have thought she had come out of the snowy night to save him -- if he were the kind of man to believe in such things. But ever since he had lost his beloved brother, he had lost hope. Now the only solace Gabe took was in his solitude.

Together they weathered the storm, sharing their intimate secrets and soon powerful passion. By the time the roads had cleared, a promise had been made. For Gabe understood Laura needed protection if she hoped to keep custody of her child through the coming court battle.

For her sake, he was prepared to offer marriage. But his motives weren't nearly so pure. Truthfully, this beautiful, vulnerable stranger had given him an invaluable gift. Life with Laura had given Gabe a reason for being -- courage to hope, and the power to dream that he could have the future.