Unraveled Wednesday: 1/24/24

I'm joining Kat and fellow Unravelers with the Funfetti Hitchhiker, but in an effort to keep from boring you with a photo that looks much the same as the previous week, this one is slightly different. While I've been knitting, I've wondered what it might look like if I laced ribbon through the yarnover rows. 

After seeing this, I'm not sure that ribbon adds anything. First, I'm not sure what I would do with the ends of the ribbon. Maybe just fold them back and tack them down with a few stitches? I only tried light blue and pink ribbons because that's all I had, but there are lots of differently colored speckles in the yarn - purple, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, and hot pink. I think it would detract from the lovely yarn if I used multiple ribbons with all of those colors. So I guess I'm leaning away from ribbon, but if you have any thoughts, please feel free to share them. I have 10 more teeth to go; hopefully, that will happen before next week. 

I spent my reading time last week on two NetGalley books. The first one is The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes. That great sheep on the cover piqued my interest, and the book didn't disappoint. Caoilinn Hughes has written a lovely tale of sisterhood in which three of the orphaned Flattery sisters come together to find their oldest sister Olwen who has disappeared without a word to anyone. Each of the sisters is different and has a distinctive personality and story. Olwen is a fervent geology professor and Maeve is a caterer and cookbook writer. (The descriptions of her food are wonderful!) Rhona is a high-powered political science professor and poor Nell has cobbled together a living from adjunct positions in the United States. I enjoyed reading about several of the sisters more than others, but they each have their ideas of what is important to care about, whether it is environmental cataclysm, sustainability, citizens' assemblies, or philosophy as a way to reach meaningful goals. Each of the sisters has a Ph.D., but Maeve is quick to tell people that hers is an honorary degree. One of the things that I appreciated the most was that each woman and their interactions are written with very few male characters. I don't have anything against the male gender but it's delightfully refreshing to read about four women finding their paths with very little interference or influence from men. This book will be published on April 16, 2024.

Books that reveal medical research and information through families are interesting, informative, and heartbreaking at the same time. A Fatal Inheritance by Lawrence Ingrassia is no exception. We learn about the research of Dr. Frederick Pei Li and Dr. Joseph Fraumeni, beginning in the 1960s when cancer was considered to be caused by very bad luck but very little was known about real causes. Through their research, the doctors discovered Li-Fraumeni syndrome, an alteration in the TP53 gene. This gene provides instructions to make tumor protein 53, which when properly functioning acts to suppress tumors. The author, Lawrence Ingrassia experienced things in a much more personal way. Cancer killed his mother, brother, and sisters, in terrible and tragic ways. Many of the family members had multiple types of cancer, with some of them beginning at very young ages. After genetic testing, the author was found to be one of the few members of his family that did not have the abnormal gene. When Ingrassia's brother Paul (also a fellow journalist) died after having lung, prostate, and pancreatic cancer, Lawrence felt compelled to tell their family's painful story in parallel with that of Drs. Li and Fraumeni.

This is a difficult book to read, mainly because of the incredibly painful family history of the Ingrassia family. But it may also be the best way to learn about genes and cancer so we can always remember that there are real people behind genetic research. It will be published on May 14, 2024. 

What are you making and reading this week?