Quarto sent me books in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

I recently discovered the Quarto Knows website and found a ton of books that I was eager to check out. Some of them were books that grabbed my attention because I wanted to own them, while others stood out to me as being good gifts for friends or family members. I liked so many that I will be doing a total of three blog posts about Quarto Knows! This blog post is focusing just on the adult books that I found, but I highly suggest that you check out the website becuase this is just a tiny sliver of the books available through Quarto Knows. When browsing the website if you find a book that you like there will be buttons available that will link you to where the book is available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Palm Size Softies is a book that includes patterns and ideas for 44 stuffed pets that are all roughly the size of your hand. I taught myself really basic sewing skills in high school and started out making very simple stuffed animals that were just two layers of fabric, and somewhat 2-dimensional. I didn’t know how to make fully 3D animals so I’ve relied on pattern books to help me grasp the basics. This book has more patterns than other books so there’s something for everyone and a range of difficulty which makes it suit people with a large range of sewing abilities.

Color Me Happy is a coloring book designed for adults that features 100 coloring templates that are all cherry or happy in look and feel. A lot of adults who enjoy coloring use it was a way to de-stress so the happy images inside of this book are a great match for those coloring for “therapy”. The book includes lots of nature based images including flowers, birds, sunsets and scenery.

Color Me Calm is very similar to the color me happy book, but with a calm/relaxing theme instead of a happy/cheerful theme. If you’re looking to color to de-stress or to avoid feeling anxious this coloring book is for you. It has 100 coloring page templates so you have lots of designs to choose from. The designs in this book have a lot of fine lines like you can see on the cover. The detailed designs are great for really focusing on your coloring skills. I like how the fine designs require a bit of focus while also being relaxing, so it really is great for de-stressing and relaxing.

If you’re interested in meditation, yoga, etc as well as adult coloring books then Mandala Coloring Book and Coloring Mandalas For Peace would be great coloring book choices. Both feature only mandala coloring designs. Mandala coloring book has 70 designs to color while Mandalas For Peace has about 200 designs.

The Calm Coloring Book is another adult coloring book aimed at helping you de-stress. It features cute and cheery designs that are detailed such as leaves with fine details. The images are all recognizable objects or parts of nature – there aren’t mandalas or other geographic designs to fill in. If mandalas or zentangles aren’t your thing but you’re still interested in detailed coloring pages then this book is a good choice. It features a lot of leaves, animals, flowers, etc. I can see this book appealing to teenagers who like to color but who might still want to recognize what they are creating as a concrete scene or object.

Fighting For My life by J J Joseph caught my eye because I am fascinated with attempting to understand people who perceive other people or even the world differently than I do. This interest of mine leads me to reading books written by people who I believe are very different from me in their perspective, as well as people who have done things that I couldn’t fathom doing in my attempt to understand those individuals better. Fighting For My Life is written by J J Joseph who was convicted of violently assaulting his wife. The book discusses his time while incarcerated and how it affected his emotional and mental state and caused him intense remorse. He spent his time while locked up reflecting on his childhood, relationships and past behavior and also was in counseling. The book discusses how he used that time of reflection and counseling to deeply change who he was.

The resurrection of Johnny Cash is about Johnny Cash around 1992. I think Johnny Cash’s life is interesting for several reasons, but the biggest draw for me is how he managed to capture the interest of a really wide range of people. While part of his wide appeal most definitely came from the fact that his music spanned multiple genres, it also seemed to come from how varied he was as a person. I’ve seen several debates online between people of either political affiliation trying to claim Johnny would have better fit in their party and using several songs, quotes, etc to back up their view. I suspect that in part, his views and personality changed several times over his life as he went back and forth between being sober and while not sober, but also in part because he was a complicated man both when sober and lost in his addiction. I’ve read several books on Johnny Cash but most of them center around his biggest era of fame, in the 50s-70s. this was the first one I had seen about the later years of his life and career. This book focuses on his life during the time periods of American Records, Redemption and Hurt when he managed to re-gain some popularity. If you know a Johnny Cash fan this book covers a time period that they likely haven’t read as much about making it a great gift choice.

Check out the Quarto Knows site for more.

Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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