Unraveled Wednesday: 1/31/24

I'm joining Kat and fellow Unravelers on this last Wednesday in January. I have made progress on the Funfetti Hitchhiker, but I'm still two rows and a bind-off away from completion. Then there is also blocking and baking a matching Funfetti cake for a photo shoot, so I'm sparing you from yet another photo this week of knitting that looks almost like last week. You did convince me that ribbons were a pretty dumb idea (but in the nicest of ways)! Instead, I've compiled a list of other "making" I've been doing this week:

• dinner (every damn night)
• grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch
• the decision to finally buy a new printer
• a monumental effort to clean out the computer desk (which yielded two bags of trash)
• the effort to find out where to recycle old printers (Staples but they weren't happy about it)
• progress on the three NetGalley books I need to finish

And because every blog post needs a photo, I also made a purchase that I hope will serve me well through this year's election nonsense. 

I've already had my fill of political discussions with a few people and I may just resort to carrying this mug around with me. In a foolish move, I sent my "I Just Want to Do Some Knitting and Pretend Trump Is Not President" mug (it was a real thing!) to Goodwill after the 2020 election. I was too busy dancing in the street to remember that he could run for a second term, but I will buy another one if I have to.

I did read a great book last week, The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers. After several failed attempts to read two of Dave Eggers' books (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and A Hologram for the King), I gave up on him, figuring that I just didn't want to read about existential crises. But when I saw that he had won the Newbery Medal for The Eyes and the Impossible I decided that it was worth a try. It certainly was.

Johannes is a dog that lives in a large coastal park and he proclaims that he can run at the speed of light. There are also three bison that live in an enclosure in the park; they are Keepers of the Equilibrium. The bison have tasked Johannes with being The Eyes and reporting back to them what is going on in the park. He is assisted by a squirrel, a raccoon, a pelican, and Bertrand the seagull. Then changes begin to happen and Johannes has some decisions to make. The author warns in his introduction that" ... most crucially, no animals symbolize people. It is a tendency of the human species to see themselves in everything, to assume all living things, animals in particular, are simply corollaries to humans, but in this book, that is not the case." Sorry, Dave, it was hard for me not to apply some symbolism.

Charlotte's Web is one of my favorite books and will always be my benchmark for animal stories. The Eyes and the Impossible doesn't quite reach Charlotte status but it is a darn good book. With a little weirdness, some humor, excellent writing, wonderful characters, and a strong plot, I can't think of any reasons not to read this book. You can treat yourself to terrific narration by Ethan Hawke and listen to the audiobook. The only things you might miss with that are some exceptional illustrations by Shawn Harris that other reviewers have raved about. I'm going to the library as soon as I finish writing this to borrow the hardcover version so I can see the illustrations and read the book again. You should definitely consider doing the same thing. Four and a half stars rounded up.

What are you making and reading this week?