I used the above tutorial to make my sample ornament and the instructions were great. I used Microsoft Publisher to size my picture to roughly 2.5″ round. I don’t think I put enough mod podge on mine before placing the photo on it. So make sure you have a nice, thick layer. I didn’t use a heat tool, but instead put mine in front of a fan for a couple of hours. I probably should have waited longer.
My next mistake was that I rubbed a little too hard getting the paper off the picture once I applied the water. It ended up rubbing off some of the picture, but luckily it was just the background. I didn’t worry too much about it because it added to the rustic feel of the ornament.
As always, we’d love to see your finished projects. Feel free to upload them to Facebook.
The Online Book Club, if you’ve never joined us before, is a book discussion group that takes place entirely online. Each week, I write a new blog post that talks about different aspects of the book, and you can interact directly with me and other readers by leaving your comments. Check back each week and see what new topics we’re talking about.
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares follows protagonists, Dash and Lily, as they write messages to each other in a notebook and embark on a series of Christmas adventures in New York City. This book is full of intrigue and excitement and the Christmas spirit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awJtIQYNE-k
If you want to follow along with us but you aren’t interested in reading the book, you can always watch the movie version called Dash and Lily which streams on Netlflix. Don’t have a Netflix subscription? No worries! You can request one of the library’s Netflix Roku sticks to stream the show for free in your home. Request a Roku stick here. Check out the trailer above if you want to get a feel for the movie. Feel free to still leave comments on the blog posts, even if you’re only watching the movie and not reading the book.
We’ll read the first 6 chapters for next week. I can’t wait to hear from you in the comments section!
Welcome to Week 4 of the Online Book Club discussion of A Long Way Home.
Were you satisfied with the ending? Did all of the details wrap up like you wanted them to?
At the beginning of this section, Saroo makes it to India and decides to walk the streets to find his childhood home. Were you surprised that he was able to walk the streets so confidently? I don’t know if my memory for directions would be so reliable, but he really spent a lot of time as a child wandering around, so it makes sense that he would know the area intimately. Did your heart sink when he made it to the house, but it was abandoned? I know that was mentioned in the prologue, but still, it was hard to read! It’s so lucky that that stranger happened to be nearby and was able to recognize Saroo’s childhood photos. I can’t believe he was able to find his mother so easily.
What were you more surprised about once Saroo was reunited with his mother–the fact that she stayed in the neighborhood, so he could find her if he ever made it back home, or the fact that his name was actually Sheru, and he had been misprounouncing his own name for decades? I thought both of those details were pretty interesting.
I could not believe that his brother, Guddu, died on the day that Saroo was separated from his family. Did that surprise you? I wondered if something had happened to Guddu since he was not featured in any of the family photos in the middle of the book, but I couldn’t believe that he was dead. And, that he had died the day that he left Saroo. I can’t imagine how hard it was for his mother to have to identify his mangled body.
I was glad to read that Saroo’s siblings seemed to have good and successful lives. They both had important jobs–I was glad they were not still living in extreme poverty.
What did you think about Saroo’s train journey that he takes at the end of the book? Can you believe he made such a long journey as a little boy? I bet riding the train and having the whole experience provided him with a lot of closure. I was glad that he was able to see the juvenile detention center he had stayed in, and I was glad that he was reunited with Saroj Sood. I am so glad he was connected with such an amazing woman–she definitely helped to save his life.
What are your final thoughts about the book? Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend the book to other people?
If you enjoyed this book and would like to read similar titles, check out this list I created. Make sure to let me know if you check out anything on the list!
In the epilogue of the book, Saroo writes about an extended interview 60 Minutes in Australia did about his two mothers meeting for the first time. If you’d like to watch that interview, check out the clip below. You can watch the whole thing–it’s really interesting, even though it’s long, or you can fast-forward to the 21:55 mark to see the part about his mothers. Let me know if you make it through the clip without crying!
Thanks for following along this month. Make sure to leave a comment to let me know what you thought about the book! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts. Finally, make sure to check back next month as we read Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares.
Welcome to Week 3 of the Online Book Club discussion of A Long Way Home.
How are you liking the story? Do you enjoy Brierley’s writing style? Are you excited to get to the end of the book, so you can see how the story comes together?
At the beginning of this section, Saroo explains how his parents chose to adopt. I thought it was really interesting that his mother had had a vision of a child with brown skin standing by her side. What did you think of his adoptive parents? Did you think they sounded like interesting people? They sure provided some cool experiences for Saroo once he made it to Australia. I think the thing I was most shocked about in this chapter was the fact that Brierley arrived in Australia only 3 months after his parents were approved for a child. I have never heard of an adoption moving that quickly!
I thought it was interesting that Saroo seemed a bit rudderless for a while. He definitely seemed to be struggling to figure out who and what he wanted to be. It was during this time tha he finds out about Google Earth and decides that it could help him figure out his past. I can’t even imagine how much time and effort it took to look so diligently. I think I would be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task. He didn’t say exactly how long it took him to get results, but I felt like it was years. Could you believe that a random search was the one that brought him to his hometown? He was so lucky to just stumble on that line. When he gets to the train station, he realizes that the place he traveled to was called “Burhanpur,” and after consulting the Facebook group, he finds that his town was called “Ganesh Talai,” not “Ginestlay.” Can you believe no one was ever able to help him since he was so close with the names? I guess that shows just how vast India is and how small his town was.
If you’d like to read more about Saroo’s process of searching using Google Earth, check out this blog post. Make sure to watch the video on the page! It shows real pictures and is narrated by Saroo.
At the end of this section, Saroo decides to head to India. Were you surprised that he wanted to go alone? I think I would need someone to come with me and help me not get too emotional. He was very brave to go alone.
Before you go, check out this interview with Dev Patel, the star of the movie version. Let me know what you think of the interview in the comments section!
Thanks for reading with us this week! Make sure to leave a comment, so I know how you enjoyed this section. Join us again next week as we discuss the end of the book!
Welcome to Week 2 of the Online Book Club discussion of A Long Way Home.
Did you enjoy reading this week? Once I got started, I felt like I couldn’t stop. I just wanted to know what was going to happen to Saroo. Wasn’t it so hard to read the train section where Saroo is separated from his family? I just kept picturing a little, tiny boy riding alone, and I couldn’t imagine how scared he was. I know how scared I would be to be trapped in a train, not knowing where I was going, so I can’t imagine how much harder it would be for a little boy!
This section was definitely the most action packed out of all of the sections. I feel like there are a million things to talk about! I guess I should just start at the prologue where Saroo begins with a major spoiler/cliffhanger. He starts the story as an adult who has arrived in India. He arrives at his family home, only to see that it’s abandoned, but not all hope is lost, because a stranger in the crowd says that he can take Brierley to his mother. That’s a pretty great way to start a story, right? Don’t you just want to fly through the story, so you can pick up where the prologue leaves off?
The beginning chapters were hard to read from an emotional standpoint. It was hard to imagine a little boy experiencing such hunger and hardship. One of the saddest details was the fact that his little sister ate pieces of charcoal, so her belly wouldn’t be empty. That broke my heart. I was also surprised by the fact that Saroo was responsible for the care of his sister, even though he was only 5 years old. It was shocking, too, that he felt comfortable leaving her alone, so he could accompany his brother, Guddu, on the train.
Guddu sold toothbrush kits on the railway platform–that sounds like a dangerous job. But, he agrees to let Saroo accompany him on a trip, and that’s the decision that changes Saroo’s life forever. He falls asleep on a platform, gets scared, tries to look for his brother on a train, and then is trapped. Eventually, he makes it to Calcutta, but once he’s there, he encounters more and more dangerous situations. He almost drowns in the river, he almost gets hit by a train, and then, he is almost kidnapped by the railway worker and his friend that promised to help. That section, especially, made me really sad. I know there are a lot of horrible people who are looking to hurt others, but I couldn’t stand reading about it. Saroo is so incredibly lucky that he had the maturity and street smarts to know that he should run away from those men. I can’t believe he had to crawl in a sewer to escape, but I’m so glad he did.
Eventually, he is helped by a teenaged boy. I was so relieved that that boy actually ended up being a helper. Weren’t you relieved when Saroo finally made it out of the detention center and was in the orphanage? The detention center seemed like a really dangerous place–did you catch the part where he said people were climbing over the walls to take children? But, the orphanage seemed wonderful. I’m so glad he was rescued by Saroj Sood. She seemed like an amazing woman.
I was relieved that Saroo was willing to go to a new family. I can’t even imagine the bravery it took to make that decision. He took all of the changes in stride, it seemed. I was glad that his transition to Australian life seemed like a pretty seamless one. His adoptive parents seem really cool, and they were obviously the perfect people to have him. If you’d like to see how the Brierley meeting scene played out on the big screen, check out the clip below.
What stuck out to you the most in this first section? What surprised you the most? Did any of this first section make you feel really emotional? Make sure to leave a comment below to let me know what you thought of this first section!
Make sure to read chapters 6-9 before joining us next week! Thanks for reading with us this week!
Welcome to Week 1 of the Online Book Club discussion of A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley.
The Online Book Club, if you’ve never joined us before, is a book discussion group that takes place entirely online. Each week, I write a new blog post that talks about different aspects of the book, and you can interact directly with me and other readers by leaving your comments. Check back each week and see what new topics we’re talking about.
In A Long Way Home, Saroo Brierley tells the story of his life, explaining how he was separated from his family as a young boy in India and was eventually adopted by an Australian family. 25 years after he left India, Brierley decides to use Google Earth to figure out more about his Indian family and past. The results of his search are surprising and heartwarming.
If you want to follow along with us but you aren’t interested in reading the book, you can always watch the movie version called Lion that stars Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman. Check out the trailer above if you want to get a feel for the movie. Feel free to still leave comments on the blog posts, even if you’re only watching the movie and not reading the book.
We’ll read the first five chapters for next week, so make sure to check those out before reading the next blog post. Our comments section is back up and running, so I can’t wait to hear from you in the comments this month!
If you’re new to cross stitching, this instructional video may be helpful for learning the basics.
Instructions:
Fold your Aida cloth in half and then in half again. Unfold it and you should see the center point of the fabric. I usually mark this center point with the needle.
Next, put your fabric in the embroidery hoop trying to get the center point as close to the center of the hoop as possible. If you don’t, you may have to take it out and adjust it when you’re finished stitching.
I began stitching from the top of the acorn to the bottom. From the center point, count up 33 stitches. That will put you at the very center of the first line of the acorn (not including the stem). Begin stitching according to the pattern.
When you’ve finished stitching and are ready to finish it, first make sure the design is centered in the hoop. Then cut the excess fabric around the outside in a circle leaving 1.5-2″ all the way around. Sew around the outside to gather the fabric and then I zigzag from side to side for added stability (see picture and video at the end).
Next, trace around the hoop on the piece of felt and cut it out. Use a blanket stitch to attach to felt to the back of the fabric. See the video for more detailed instructions.
Did you enjoy reading this last section? It was not what I was expecting at all. I really thought we were going to get some sort of answer to the big Earth questions, but that didn’t happen. I at least thought we would get a word answer, not just a number! What did you think when it was announced that the answer to everything was 42?
I had trouble with this last section in general. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around all of the things that were going on throughout. This world is just so different from our world that I couldn’t picture so many things! I appreciated that so many improbable things were happening, but it’s hard to keep track of completely improbable events and details. Did you feel that way? What section did you have the hardest time understanding?
We find out that Earth was created as a supercomputer that will eventually answer the meaning of life questions. Since Earth was destroyed, the mice who ran Earth ask Arthur if they can buy his brain, hoping that his brain will help them answer the questions. They don’t want to wait millions of years for another Earth to find the answer. Arthur, of course, doesn’t want to give up his brain. It looks like all is lost, but the whole crew is able to escape. Did you notice that when Arthur would not give up his brain, the mice decided to make up a fake question that would provide the answer of 42? They decided to say that the Ultimate Question is “How many roads must a man walk down?” Not the fake question I would have come up with.
At the end, we find out that Marvin the computer was responsible for the fact that the police starship didn’t attack. He talked to them so much that they ended up killing themselves. I was not expecting that.
In the end, they all settle in to the starship and head off to their next adventure. Was this a satisfying ending for you? Are you excited to read the next book in the series?
If you enjoyed this book and would like to read similar titles, check out this list. Make sure to let me know if you check out anything on the list.
Did you know that this book also had a video game adaptation? It wasn’t a visual game like we would imagine now with graphics and game characters. It was a text-driven game. Read more about the game here, and if you’re feeling brave, try out a web version of the game here. I could not get the hang of the game, but you might have better luck!
Before you go, check out this interview with Douglas Adams from 1990. Let me know in a Facebook comment what you think of the video!
I hope you’ll join us again next month as we read A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. Thanks for following along this month!
This week’s reading was really something, wasn’t it? I never knew what was going to happen from minute to minute. And, I don’t think I really understood all of the fantastical descriptions, but I think I grasped the important details.
At the beginning of the section, Zaphod, Ford, and Arthur all come together, and in this scene, we realize that Zaphod and Ford are “semi-cousins,” and Arthur has met Zaphod before. Zaphod masqueraded as a human named Phil and ran into Arthur at a party. I thought that was a funny details. Also, Arthur and Tricia McMillan have met before. That seems incredibly improbable that they have all met each other before, but I think the only thing we could guarantee in this section was that a lot of improbable things were going to happen.
Zaphod finds a planet called Magrathea–a rich planet that used to create custom planets. I thought that was a really fun idea that there were people who were so rich that they were able to create their own planet. Apparently, a lot of wealth is stored on Magrathea, and Zaphod hopes to steal it. Once the planet started shooting missiles, I knew things weren’t going to go as the team expected. Check out the video clip below if you want to see how that scene plays out in one of the adaptations. Is it what you imagined?
What did you think about the detail that the whale that was created after Arthur turned on the Improbability Drive crashed and opened up the secret passage into the interior of Magrathea? That was wild. I thought that there would be piles of money lying around as soon as they went in the passage, but there wasn’t. That sure would have shortened their visit to Magrathea!
Near the end of the section, Arthur meets an old man who explains that Magrathea has just been sleeping through an economic recession, and they are waiting to be able to make planets for people again. Then, he explains they are making an Earth 2 since Earth 1 was destroyed minutes before the completion of its mission. What do you think Earth 1 was supposed to do? Why do you think the author chose to say that Earth 1 is really controlled by mice who are doing experiments on people? That was unexpected, but I think it was a really fun idea. It was almost believable when the old man spelled it out for Arthur.
Don’t you just wonder about how Douglas Adams got the idea for this book? How did he think of all of these crazy things? He must have had a really creative mind. If you’re interested in seeing some of his personal papers, check out this article about his papers that are displayed at St. John’s College, and then, check out this one about some frustrations he had while writing.
Are you anxious to read the last section? Are you curious about what Earth’s purpose was? How do you think the book is going to end? Make sure to leave a comment on our Facebook page, so I can know what you thought of this section!
Make sure to finish the book before joining us next week! I can’t wait to hear from you!
How was your reading experience this week? I have to be honest–this is not the type of book that I would pick up and read on my own. I couldn’t tell you the last time I read a science fiction book. However, I did enjoy the section this week. It was creative, to say the least.
Did you know that the story was originally presented as a radio drama? I was shocked when I read that. I think it would be really neat to hear it presented in that way. I think it’s just the type of book that’s meant to be read out loud. If you’d like to get a taste of what the radio performance is like, check out a clip below of a live taping of the radio drama. It seems to follow the book mostly, but I think some of the action from the radio drama finds its way into the second book in the series as well.
The book starts pretty normally. We have a man who is upset because his house is going to be torn down. Then, the story suddenly shifts, and we realize that Earth is about to be destroyed, and Arthur’s struggling actor friend, Ford, is actually a galactic traveler who is working on adding entries to a book called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Ford whisks Arthur off of Earth, right before it’s destroyed, and that’s when the action really starts. What did you think of that beginning? Were you excited to keep reading to figure out what was going to happen to Arthur?
The first place Ford and Arthur visit is a Vogon ship. The Vogon’s don’t like hitchhikers, but there are cooks on the ship that let Arthur and Ford on. I think the thing that creeped me out the most when Arthur and Ford were on the Vogon ship was the fact that Arthur had to put a fish in his ear in order to understand the Vogons. That was absolutely disgusting! I didn’t like the description of the fish insertion in the ear, I didn’t like the idea of a fish in an ear–the whole thing was too gross for me! Were you affected by that section? The Vogons quickly decide to get rid of Arthur and Ford, and after reading them some weird poetry, they shoot them into space.
But, not all hope is lost for Ford and Arthur. They, improbably, are picked up right before they would die in space. They’re rescued by the Starship Heart of Gold, a ship that can cross great distances without hyperspace. We know that Zaphod Beeblebrox stole the Heart of Gold, but we don’t really know anything other than that. Zaphod is an interesting guy. He’s the president of the Galaxy, but he’s a thief? And, he has an extra arm and two heads? What do you think is going on with him? At the end of this section, Arthur and Ford are about to meet Zaphod, and Ford is acting a little bit weird. Do you think Zaphod will let them stay on the ship? What do you think will happen next?
Are you enjoying the story? Are you excited to keep reading, so you can find out more about Zaphod, Arthur, and Ford? I hope you’re excited to come back next week as we discuss the next 12 chapters! Remember, our comment section is down, so if you’d like to leave a comment about the book, head to our Facebook page. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about this week’s section!
