Unraveled Wednesday: 11/6/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with a finished green hat and the beginning of reknitting the blue one that was originally too small.

I was completely happy with my modifications on the green hat, so I unraveled the blue hat and started reknitting a modified version. That lovely blue yarn was just too nice not to use, and four inches of K2P2 ribbing is the perfect way to keep my hands busy so my mind doesn't wander too far into Anxiety Land.

I read an interesting book last week, Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner. It is a captivating and raw exploration of sisterhood, mental health, and resilience, narrated from the perspective of Amy Shred, the quieter, more responsible younger sibling who tries to manage the chaos her sister Ollie brings into their lives. Set in the 1970s to the early 1990s, the novel follows the sisters as Ollie’s bipolar and borderline personality disorder cause disruption, chaos, and heartbreak throughout their family.

Amy’s journey, which is marked by her struggle to reconcile her loyalty with frustration toward Ollie, forms the novel's emotional core. Betsy Lerner powerfully captures Amy’s internal conflict as she feels both love and resentment, especially as Ollie’s disorder brings instability to everyone around her. The narrative is laced with bittersweet reflections on unconditional love, personal boundaries, and the complicated bonds between family members. It felt like Lerner brought authenticity to her characters, rooted in psychological insights and nuanced portrayals of mental illness. The book felt emotionally intense but not terribly hopeful. The familial bonds did remain strong despite constant challenges in this debut novel. The characters in this novel had access to mental health professionals and enough resources to deal with the mental health issues for the long term. These are not always the case in real life. I gave this book three stars. 

I also read The Answer is No, a short story by Fredrik Backman. I rarely choose one of the free books available from Amazon Prime each month because I've often found that they are just not things I'm interested in reading. This short story was included as a bonus in November and I thought it was great. I won't give too much away, other than to say this: "Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?" I couldn't agree more with Lucas, and if you get a chance to read this you can see if you do, too. This one was 4.5 stars for me. 

What are you making and reading this week?

(I thought about not posting today as there is honestly not enough knitting, reading, or vodka to make this okay. But I decided to keep calm and carry on because I'm going to have to start figuring out how to navigate the next four years without becoming angry, bitter, and disillusioned. Right now that's about all I'm feeling.)

Read With Us: Why You Might Want to Read Intermezzo With Us

I'm here today to present some reasons why you might want to consider reading our current Read With Us selection, Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. 

The first few reasons I came up with were relatively easy.

1. Immerse yourself in Intermezzo to distract yourself from worrying about the election and the results. I'm sure you've all voted and done whatever you can, so now is the time to read Sally Rooney's latest and most eagerly awaited novel.

2. There is no time travel in this one, and no nuns!

But here are a few more serious reasons:

3. Rooney provides a unique insight into young relationships. She's explored these in her previous books, and in Intermezzo she continues to explore the complexities of love, friendship, and the emotional currents that shape these relationships. If you enjoyed Normal People or Conversations With Friends, you'll appreciate how Intermezzo dives even deeper into these themes.

4. Intermezzo is filled with sharp, thought-provoking dialogue. Known for her knack for realistic dialogue, Rooney crafts exchanges that are honest, challenging, and often heartbreaking. Her characters express ideas and insecurities that resonate with readers, leaving you thinking about what was (and wasn't) said.

5. Rooney often tackles contemporary social issues like class, privilege, and the impact of economic struggles on personal lives. In Intermezzo, she also writes largely about grief. All of these themes are woven into the plot and characters' lives, inviting readers to reflect on their own experiences and the larger societal forces at play. I would argue that gender also figures largely in this novel. 

6. Rooney’s characters are frequently relatable and flawed, portrayed with a blend of vulnerabilities and strengths. In Intermezzo, these traits make her characters feel raw and real, allowing readers to see reflections of their own lives, fears, and desires in her prose.

7. Rooney has a signature style— atmospheric, intimate, immersive, and introspective—that pulls readers into her characters' worlds. The atmospheric quality of Intermezzo immerses readers in settings that are almost like the characters themselves, enhancing the emotional experience of the narrative.

8. Miscommunication and misunderstandings are central to Rooney’s narratives, reflecting real-life relational challenges. Intermezzo examines how people can be so close yet feel worlds apart, making readers contemplate how often we all fall short of truly understanding each other.

9. The narrative style in Intermezzo invites readers to examine not just the characters’ choices but their own responses to those choices. Rooney’s introspective narration encourages readers to consider their own viewpoints and possibly see their personal experiences reflected in the story. I'll admit that Peter's introspective chapters initially drove me nuts; they were a reflection of his inner thoughts so Rooney wrote them in fragments. Once I started listening to the audiobook, this was no longer a problem for me. 

And just to make it a nice even 10 reasons, John contributed this one:

10. Reading Intermezzo is something you can do quietly while others in your household nap. 

Kym and Carole will be doing promotional posts throughout November. Discussion day for Intermezzo is scheduled for Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 7:00 pm Eastern time, so mark your calendars. We'll ask questions on our blogs that day and then host the always fun, educational, and entertaining Zoom discussion. 

I think this book is quite discussable and I do hope you'll Read With Us!

Old Dog/New Tricks

This old dog learned a couple of new tricks this weekend. I wanted to make the fresh ginger cake I wrote about on Friday but wasn't looking forward to peeling and slicing the knobby hunk of ginger I needed. A few minutes on the internet gave me a couple of the tricks I needed. The first thing I found out is that ginger can be peeled with a spoon. It was simple and there was no danger of cutting my fingers. The next thing I learned is that ginger can be blitzed in the food processor. I froze the peeled pieces for a few hours, put them in my food processor for a few seconds, and voilà, chopped fresh ginger to bake this:

It was delicious. This is not my grandmother's gingerbread, but a strong ginger cake. It was great with whipped cream

and I think it would be equally tasty with some vanilla ice cream. 

I hope your week is off to a good start and that you have cake or something just as yummy to carry you through the

rest of this fraught week. 

I Thought I Was Done

I thought I was done blanching, freezing, fixing, and figuring out ways to use the garden produce, but that was not the case. We went to visit Ryan and the garden earlier this week after a hard frost. The garden has already gotten frost three or four times before, but this time Mother Nature meant it. John managed to salvage a meal's worth of green beans and snow peas but then asked if I could do something with a five-gallon bucket of green tomatoes. I wasn't going to give out fried green tomatoes for Halloween, so I convinced him that just a big bowlful would be much better. Ryan found a recipe for tomato relish that sounded very interesting to me (no vinegar!) so I decided to try it. 

The first thing I learned was that fresh ginger is completely different than ground ginger. I cut off a hunk, peeled it, and reveled in the scent. After I added the cumin and lime juice and zest I was really hooked. 

I added the rest of the ingredients and then diced the green tomatoes for what felt like forever. In actuality, it only took about 90 minutes but I was quite happy that I did not have a five-gallon bucket full of the things. 

After all the peeling, juicing, zesting, and chopping, I put the pot on the stove to cook down. This recipe called for ripe tomatoes and cooking it down for approximately 30 minutes but I cooked mine down for about 90 minutes since I was using green tomatoes that were much harder.

I doubled the recipe and we had to have hamburgers on Thursday night so I could taste my relish. It's damn good! I love the taste of limes, cumin, and ginger, so I may be making more of this stuff with canned tomatoes once I finish these jars.

But for now, the good news is I have enough ginger left over for a fresh ginger cake, and enough limes to enjoy several vodka & tonics with plenty of lime, just like I like them. I'll be pacing myself with the drinks so I have enough vodka and limes to last through at least Tuesday (and I'll probably need to replenish the ingredients so I have more on hand for at least a week afterward). 

I hope you have a great weekend!

Unraveled Wednesday: 10/30/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with another look at the green hat. (Really, I'm here hoping to see more pictures of Franklin Delano Pug!) I've knit another repeat of the cable pattern to hopefully make the hat a little deeper. I should finish this and know if it's worked to my satisfaction by next week. If it works like I hope it will, I'll unravel the previously knit blue hat and re-knit it with the extra repeat of the cable pattern. Fingers crossed ...

I did get out of my election-induced fetal position to read a few books and I even managed to write accompanying reviews. First up is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. This is a difficult book for me to rate, and I really think it needs to be discussed. I think I enjoyed (maybe appreciated is a better word) it more than Rooney's other books and I especially like how she dealt with grief. Peter and Ivan are two emotionally stunted brothers dealing with the death of their father. This is a watershed moment in the lives of most people but they both seem to think that they're just going to attend the funeral and go on with their lives as usual. I wonder if the book would have been different if Rooney had written about two sisters. Rooney's writing style of staccato sentence fragments for Peter's chapters initially drove me nuts and he was also fairly unlikable. I felt like people, including his family, underestimated Ivan and seemed to think he was the same person he had been as an adolescent, but that is the nature of families. I didn't understand the big drama around the age gap between Ivan and Margaret.

I have to give this book 3.5 stars but can't round up. It's the book for Read With Us and our discussions always give me fresh perspectives. I very much look forward to our discussion and may feel differently after I hear from others in the group in January, but for now, it's just a 3.5 for me.

Next, I finished an ARC entitled Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan. I'm not usually a fan of dystopian novels (they often feel too close to a near-future reality) but a friend raved about Awake in the Floating City and made it sound like something I had to read. Thanks, Kat; you were right! It is set in a future San Francisco where climate change means that it rains all the time and the few remaining people live in high-rise apartments as there is no land. Commerce and gardens exist on the rooftops and many people have fled.

That is the dystopian part but the book is really an exploration of the relationship between Mia and her caretaker Bo. Bo has presumably lost her mother in the flooding and even though she had the chance to leave with her cousin and uncle, she can't bring herself to leave. She becomes a caretaker to Mia and also immerses herself in Mia's history and the history of San Francisco. This becomes a way for Bo to begin making art once again after a long hiatus. Kwan's prose is lovely as she explores the beautiful relationships that can happen even as the world is drowning, and how art can play an important part.

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on May 13, 2025.

Lastly, I read This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay. I found This is Going to Hurt on Hoopla while searching for a diversionary audiobook. It fit the bill and I quickly became interested in Adam Kay's diary of his time working for the National Health Service. I appreciated his account of progressing from House Officer to Senior Registrar and learning how the NHS compares to the health system in the United States. It seems that they are both awful in different ways. There is plenty of humor in the book, and snark seems to be a part of Kay's personality in addition to being a way to cope. There are also plenty of poignant moments and Kay writes all of them well. This one was four stars for me. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Ten Things ...

... I've been doing to avoid anxiety over the election. 

I consider myself reasonably well-informed, and I usually read the news in online form once a day. For the past several weeks I've stopped doing that because it makes me:

A). Angry
B). Fearful
C). Both of the above

I also used to listen to NPR when I was working in the kitchen, but I had to stop doing even that the other day. When we're not involved in a contentious and consequential election, NPR often provides a good mix of news, human interest stories, music, and interviews, but now it's all just dire headlines. When this happened last week, I stopped my dinner prep, went to the CD drawer, and put on the first CD I grabbed. It has made a huge difference in my mood, so I started thinking about other things that are helping me avoid anxiety. Here are 10 of them.

1. Listen to music - The CD I grabbed was The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma. It was exactly what I needed and I've listened to it enough that John is almost sick of it. But then I just used Bluetooth with my hearing aids to stream it directly into my ears. I think it's brilliant, and when I tire of it, I'll look for more Yo-Yo Ma or something else. 

2. Dance It Out - I'm not much of a dancer, but I've watched enough Grey's Anatomy to know that this seemed to work for Meredith and Cristina. I can hardly listen to Attaboy and Fiddle Medley from the CD above without dancing. There are plenty of Dance It Out playlists on YouTube and Spotify, so choose one and let yourself go.

3. Take A Walk - This is a good one as it can be long or short, a relaxed saunter, or a walk fueled by rage. I can almost guarantee that you'll feel better by the time you're done. 

4. Read - This usually works for me, but I've had to make some adjustments. I've tried reading outside of my usual genres because I was finding that I just couldn't concentrate on literary fiction. I tried some short stories and cozy mysteries but they weren't much better. I'm now listening to Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas (a gothic mystery/thriller). After a strange beginning, it has at least been interesting enough to keep me listening, but we'll see. I'm also reading The Tree Collectors by Amy Stewart. Subtitled Tales of Arboreal Obsession, this work of nonfiction has 50 illustrated vignettes of people whose lives have been transformed by their obsessive passion for trees. I didn't know there were even five people obsessed with trees, but it's great so far!

5. Knit - I didn't choose the hat pattern I'm currently knitting (Rows and Arrows) for its ability to distract me, but it is serving that purpose well. It's just a hat, so it's not overly complicated but there are cable crossings every other row, and I'm at the part where I'm trying a modification to make the hat longer. More complicated than plain garter or stockinette but not too difficult is working for me. 

6. Clean - I dislike cleaning a lot, but I've found that scrubbing my toilets, cleaning the whole bathroom, or mopping the kitchen floor have been productive ways to curb anxiety and think about how two people can spill so much stuff on the floor.

7. Play A Game - John hates games, so I've been playing Scrabble on my Kindle. I've adjusted the settings so I'm playing a difficult game against the computer, and having to try my hardest to think of words to beat the computer keeps me from focusing on other things. I've also dusted off my Switch and spending half an hour on Utopia (my Animal Crossing island) is enough to calm me down. 

8. Watch Something - I've been immersed in The Lincoln Lawyer and The Great British Baking Show. I love listening to Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller and I've learned what frangipane is. For some reason, I thought it was a fruit, but it's really a creamy mixture of ground almonds, butter, sugar, and eggs that can be used to fill tarts. Bruce Springsteen's Road Diary documentary on Hulu is also definitely worth watching. 

9. Connect With Others - This might mean leaving a comment on someone's blog or an email exchange with a commenter (I love these and have enjoyed many email conversations with many of you!) It might mean a conversation with your neighbor or maybe calling your sister. I hesitated to call my sister because I love her dearly but her political leanings differ greatly from mine. We avoid talking about politics and just talk. 

10. Nap - I realize that not everyone can take naps, but I'm retired and have been learning to appreciate the restorative power of a good nap. Being well-rested is good self-care. 

So I'm wondering if you are feeling apprehensive about the election (or really the results of the election)? If so, what have you been doing to ease your nervousness and dread? We are all in this together, and I'd love to hear the ways you are coping. 

Three on Thursday: It's Pumpkin Spice Season!

Kym and Carole had an idea to get together for a Three on Thursday Pumpkin Spice post and I'm joining in. I honestly hadn't been paying any attention to various pumpkin spice things, but I found plenty when I went to Walmart with my eyes open and ready to take pictures. So here are Three Pumpkin Spice Things plus several bonus products.

These Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights probably taste fine; I just think they look a little creepy. 

Pumpkin Spice cookie mix sounds fairly normal but I was not tempted by Pumpkin Spice Chips. I'm not sure what they taste like; the ingredients are sugar, a bunch of oils, and "natural flavor". What that natural flavor might be, I do not know. 

I almost fell for this, Febreze! I love a nice slice or two of pumpkin roll and thought it might be pleasant to have my house smell like it. Except I know I would break down and bake an actual pumpkin roll and probably eat the whole thing myself.

I had to smell this for myself. While Pumpkin Spice Latte wasn't a bad scent, I do not want to apply that to my underarms. But these were the last two left at my Walmart so there may be plenty of others that do. 

Manufacturers seem to have figured out most of the places where the taste and scent of pumpkin spice might be appreciated by consumers, but I wonder if they might be overlooking some segments of the market. I have a friend who puts a dollop of pumpkin in her cats' food (maybe for a shiny, healthy coat?) so I wonder why there aren't pumpkin spice products marketed for pets. 

But wait, Tidy Cats makes Fall Frolic cat litter! I don't know exactly what it smells like, but what cat wouldn't enjoy Pumpkin Spice cat litter? (Nugget. Nugget would definitely turn her nose up at this stuff.)

I wash most of my dishes by hand and I honestly wouldn't mind the scent of pumpkin spice to make the job a little bit more pleasurable. No worries, Dawn has already thought of that.

If you look to the right of the Pumpkin Spice Powerwash, you'll also see Fresh Pine and Frosted Cranberry. Procter and Gamble has covered all of the holiday scents through the end of the year.

And then there is this photo that Justin sent me:

(Yes, it's photoshopped.)

What is the oddest pumpkin spice product you've seen? Or maybe a better question is what is the best pumpkin spice product you've used? Inquiring minds would like to know!