Unraveled Wednesday: 9/17/25

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers with more rainbows. The scarf hasn’t changed much in appearance, except that there’s simply more of it now.

I’ve just started the second skein, and honestly, these cheerful stripes are so much more fun to knit than the lonely sock waiting in my knitting bag. The poor sock hasn’t seen a single stitch of progress. Maybe next week will be a calmer news week with fewer reasons to reach for endless rainbows.

 

 

I did finish two pretty good books this week. T. Kingfisher has a gift for twisting fairy tales into something both eerie and deeply human, and Hemlock & Silver is no exception. This reimagining of Snow White is less about poisoned apples and more about the slow, creeping corruption of power and secrets. Anja, our healer who drinks poison as part of her trade, is a wonderfully unconventional heroine - practical, stubborn, and brimming with curiosity about the natural world. Her mix of grit and compassion kept me rooting for her from the start.

As always with Kingfisher, the side characters shine just as brightly: the stoic guard, the insufferably entertaining cat, and of course, Snow herself, whose illness carries a haunting mystery. The mirror-world element gives the familiar Snow White tale a chilling twist. This adds a gothic, unsettling atmosphere that balances the earthy humor and warmth of Anja’s narration.

If I had a small quibble, it’s that the pacing drags a little in the middle, with some of Anja’s experiments feeling repetitive before the story pushes forward into the mirror realm. But the payoff is worth it - dark, tense, yet tinged with hope in the way Kingfisher does so well.

Clever, spooky, and surprisingly tender, Hemlock & Silver is perfect for readers who love fairy tale retellings with sharp edges. This was four stars for me. 

More Than Enough was another four star book. Anna Quindlen has always had a gift for writing about ordinary lives in a way that feels luminous. This is a novel that quietly gathers power as it explores the tangle of family, friendship, and identity.

Polly Goodman is such a deeply relatable character—an English teacher who balances the joys of her classroom, the frustrations of IVF struggles, and the comfort of her book club friends with an honesty that never feels forced. The book club itself is one of my favorite aspects of the novel: their banter and intimacy capture how sustaining long-term friendships can be. When a joking gift of an ancestry kit stirs up unsettling questions about Polly’s family history, Quindlen handles it not with melodrama but with nuance, reminding us that the past has a way of shaping our present in ways we don’t expect.

What makes the book especially moving is how it balances heaviness with light. Quindlen’s humor flickers through even in moments of grief or self-doubt, and her prose carries that clear, conversational tone she’s so well known for. The themes—what makes a family, how friendships evolve, how we redefine ourselves through change—are timeless, but here they feel both personal and fresh.

I enjoyed how many threads Quindlen successfully weaves together: Polly puzzling over how she might be related to her “niece,” navigating the medical ups and downs of IVF, watching her father’s heartbreaking decline into dementia, coping with the stresses of her teaching job, and wrestling with her lifelong conflicts with her mother. It’s a lot, but that is pretty much how life unfolds. Messy, layered, and never neatly contained. Quindlen captures it with warmth, wit, and an eye for important small moments.

The book shines in its portrayal of friendships, especially Polly’s book club, which feels wonderfully lived-in—like people you know, not just characters on a page. A few sections get weighed down by introspection, but overall the novel is deeply engaging, thoughtful, and beautifully written.

For readers who love stories about identity, family, and the sustaining power of friendship, this one is more than enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on February 24, 2026.  

What are you making and reading this week?