NetGalley Reviewer nix21230

Vera Swanson recently lost her husband and decided to relocate to be nearer one of her children and grandchildren. She packed up the old family home and moved across the country, only to find out a short while later that her daughter's family was moving away due to work. With Thanksgiving out of the way and Christmas around the corner (which she seems to have to spend on her own) her spirits are down. A sudden knock on her door sets in motion a whole raft of events, involving making new friends and sharing her love of quilting with a group of beginners. Hearth-warming and thoroughly enjoyable read for the holiday season! This will be perfect for the informal book club I run in my online quilting group (20k members).  PS. Is there any chance there may be a pattern available to make the Nordic Star quilt on the cover (of the version used on Netgalley)? It seems to be made up of a couple of different blocks rather than just a full repeat of the traditional Nordic Star quilt block....

This book seems to have two different titles: 'Hostile Environments' and ' The Social Distance Between Us: How Remote Politics Wrecked Britain'  This is a MUST read!! A real eye opener and a perfect book to base important discussions on. Yes, the book contains views belonging to certain political camps, but the painstakingly detailed research that has gone into creating this book including a huge number of real life examples make Darren McGarvey and his book forces to be reckoned with. Politicians, policy makers and those who want to, or more importantly can , influence decision making in Britain, should make it a priority to read this book.  The book extensively discusses how proximity is one of the biggest reasons for failure in most of the political system used in Britain today. The lack of actual lived experience of policy makers in Whitehall and the devolved nations, make policies fail miserably; in many cases not by ill-intent, but because the policy makers just c...