Unraveled Wednesday: 6/12/24

I'm happy to join Kat and the Unravelers with my slightly larger Hitch on the Move and a few different animals are posing with it today. 

It's getting too big to fit the whole thing in one photo, but here it is folded up a bit. 

And a closeup of Relaxing Rabbit and Joggi the Hedgehog. 

There are no photos with Nugget or reptiles (yet). I've only been down to Justin's twice and was concerned about giving the snakes and lizard water and making sure their cage lids were secured. Then I sat with Nugget and gave her treats and neck scritches while she purred so I could recover from my reptile ordeals. Maybe I'll get a little braver as this week progresses. 

I finished two books this week, one newly published and one that will be published in September. The first one is Clear by Carys Davies. It's simply a beautiful, luminous novel. Written with spare, gentle prose, Davies tells the story of Reverend John Ferguson, sent to evict a Scottish island's lone inhabitant, Ivar. He was part of the Highland Clearances in 1843. After only a day, John falls off a cliff and is tended to by Ivar, who knits him socks and feeds him porridge. John and Ivar don't speak the same language but they still manage to communicate. I don't know why I've never read anything by Davies before, but this book full of quiet optimism and dignity makes me want to read more. I borrowed a copy from the library but have thought about it so much that I bought the audiobook so I could listen to the superb narration by Russ Bain. This was four stars for me, but I could easily stretch that to five stars after a second listen.

The second book was Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson. I eagerly anticipated reading Kate Atkinson's newest Jackson Brodie novel and it did not disappoint. Reminiscent of an Agatha Christie country house cozy mystery, Jackson, now a private investigator, is called to a Yorkshire town to investigate the rather tedious theft of a painting. There is an atheist vicar, a duchess, several aristocrats, and quite a few other characters who may have been meant as a homage to Christie, but often felt like stereotypes (except for the dogs called Tommy and Tuppence). The action proceeded ever so slowly until all of the characters finally converged, something that I had been hoping would happen through much of the book so the pace would pick up. It does, and there is plenty of humor, but this was not my favorite Jackson Brodie installment. (But even an average Brodie book is better than none at all!) Three and a half stars rounded up because of the humor. Thank you to Doubleday and Edelweiss for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on September 3, 2024.

What are you making and reading this week?