Unraveled Wednesday: 11/20/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with the blue hat once again. I had hoped to be finished but I managed to do a bit more reading this week, so I'm just on the crown decreases. Twelve more rows and I'll be done. 

I'm really enjoying the simple cable crossings every other row so I might look for another project with similar characteristics. I do have the Sparkly Hitchhiker waiting in the wings so I'd also like to finish that soon-ish. 

Jane recommended The War That Saved My Life last week and I thought it was wonderful. It's a deeply moving historical novel that takes readers on a journey of resilience, healing, and the transformative power of love. Set against the backdrop of World War II, this middle-grade novel doesn’t shy away from complex emotions and difficult topics, making it equally compelling for both younger readers and adults.

The story follows Ada, a young girl born with a clubfoot, who has endured a life of abuse and neglect at the hands of her mother. When the evacuation of children from London begins, Ada seizes the opportunity to escape her grim existence. Along with her younger brother Jamie, she is sent to the countryside, where they are placed in the reluctant care of Susan Smith.

Bradley’s portrayal of Ada’s inner world is extraordinary. Her growth from a terrified, self-loathing child to a brave and self-assured young girl is beautifully paced. The story doesn’t oversimplify Ada’s trauma but instead shows how healing is a gradual, often painful process. Susan’s own struggles with loss and loneliness add depth to the story, creating a poignant parallel to Ada’s growth. The author’s depiction of wartime England is vivid and immersive, bringing the historical setting to life without overshadowing the emotional core of the narrative.

This book is as heartwarming as well as heartbreaking. It’s a story that reminds us of the enduring human capacity for kindness and courage, even in the face of cruelty and adversity. I haven't been able to concentrate very well on reading since the election results and both the subject and the fact that this is a middle grade novel made it a perfect book for me at this time. I am anxiously waiting for the sequel The War I Finally Won from the library. This was 4.5 stars for me, rounded up because Jayne Entwistle is a wonderful narrator for the audiobook.

I also read several other books. One was The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke.  It was a quirky little story but the illustrations were quite captivating; I gave this one three stars. What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella is an interesting semi-autobiographical novella. While Kinsella is best known for her light, feel-good romantic comedies, this is slightly more introspective. Kinsella was diagnosed with glioblastoma and to help process her feelings she wrote these vignettes about her brain tumor and treatment.

I found tender insights (especially because Kinsella and the novella's protagonist, Eve, are both mothers to five children) along with humor. I don't know if Kinsella and her husband are like this in real life, but she has written Eve with a lot of humor.

My main critique is that the novella's short format left me wanting more emotional depth and development. I realize it may be unfair to criticize the way the author chose to write the novella as she wrote it as a way to better deal with her feelings. Glioblastoma is a serious disease, and while humor is needed and necessary, I would have welcomed a more thorough work of non-fiction to better deal with the medical realities or the impact on family and relationships. This one gets 3.5 stars from me.

The last book I read this week was The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. It's a poetic exploration of emotions and experiences that feel deeply familiar yet are unnamed. A mix of a linguistic treasure trove and a philosophical journey, this book turns the ineffable into language, offering readers the words they didn’t know they needed to articulate the complexities of their inner lives. John Koenig opens the book with this quote:

“I read the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.” --Steven Wright

 and this book is just that. Each definition is more than a cold description; it’s accompanied by a narrative, vignette, or reflection that reads like poetry. Koenig doesn’t just define emotions—he evokes them, and his prose captures the deeply personal nature of these experiences.

Yes, the book is a collection of made-up words, but if you're a fan of poetry, philosophy, linguistics and the conjunction of them, you will most likely enjoy this four-star book as much as I did. As an example, here is one of my favorites:

aimonimia n. The fear that learning the name of something—a bird, a constellation, an attractive stranger—will somehow ruin it, inadvertently transforming a lucky discovery into a conceptual husk pinned in a glass case, leaving one less mystery to flutter around in the universe.

I read The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and was entranced. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Unraveled Wednesday: 11/13/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with a decent bit done on the blue hat redux and some bonus sparkles.

Both of these have provided enjoyable knitting time when I feel the need to withdraw from the world for a while. The cable crossings in the hat are different every other row and this provides just enough for me to concentrate on without being overwhelming. Working on a Hitchhiker and knitting meditative garter stitch is good for what ails me, and the sparkles (even if you can't see them in the photo) make it even better. 

I haven't been able to concentrate enough to read much but I did manage Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. I have previously enjoyed two of Burkeman's books, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking and Four Thousand Weeks, so when I saw this one, I immediately placed a hold at my library. It seemed to take forever because they only had one copy, but I'd like to think that The Universe had a little something to do with me getting this book the week that guy was re-elected. While not specifically about that guy, Burkeman does offer ways for me to think about things that may make it easier to accept.

What is true is already so. Owning up to it doesn't make it worse. Not being open about it doesn't make it go away. And because it's true, it is what is there to be interacted with. Anything untrue isn't there to be lived. People can stand what is true, for they are already enduring it. - Eugene Gendlin

The author has arranged the book in short chapters and the reader is advised to read one each day. The first week is Being Finite; week two is Taking Action; the third week is Letting Go, and the last week is Showing Up. Burkeman suggests that peace comes not from adding more tasks and trying to accomplish them efficiently, but by accepting what we cannot do or control, a theme he discusses with honesty and humor. Unlike conventional self-help books, Burkeman’s work feels less prescriptive and more reflective, encouraging readers to confront uncomfortable truths about time, imperfection, and deciding whether you want to face the consequences of the choices you might be considering.

I've done a poor job of reviewing this book, but I think that almost anyone and everyone could benefit from reading it. Each of us has to decide what we care about and how we spend our time, and while these short chapters might be simple, that does not necessarily translate into easy or simplistic. As soon as I finished the book, I bought a copy because I knew this is a book I wanted to read, re-read, and truly absorb. I don't have four thousand weeks left, but I'd like to make the best use of and enjoy the approximately (hopefully) four hundred weeks left to me. Four and a half stars rounded up.

Just a note about the quotes Burkeman chose to include: I thought they were some of the most enjoyable things about the book, and they illustrate his ideas well. They are almost like fortune cookies in that they can apply to many situations and they are wonderfully entertaining at the same time.

If you find yourself lost in the woods, fuck it, build a house. "Well, I was lost, but now I live here! I have severely improved my predicament!" - Mitch Hedberg

What are you making and reading this week?

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.)

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?

Unraveled Wednesday: 10/23/24

Hooray! Kat's back so I'm joining her and the Unravelers today with a modified green version of the Rows and Arrows hat in progress.

I've made a few minor changes so far, like knitting the ribbing on size 5 needles instead of 6 so it won't feel so floppy. I also put a fold line in the middle of the ribbing by switching the knits and purls. I've only done this on one other hat, but I liked it and thought this might be a welcome change. 

I'm not sure what's going on with reading. I finished listening to Intermezzo but have yet to write a review. I kind of want to sit with it for a while (or maybe I'm just lazy). I'm still reading a couple of ARCs from NetGalley but am feeling uninspired. It's not the books, it's me, but I'm sure my reading mojo will return someday. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Unraveled Wednesday: 10/16/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with a completed hat. There's no official linkup today because Kat is enjoying Presque Isle but it's still Unraveled Wednesday in my mind. The hat (Ravelry link) took me a while considering it's just a hat, but I really like the pattern. It looks more like downward-facing arrows when it's being worn on a head and the cables are stretched out a bit, but I had a few problems. 

I'm a bit concerned that the hat isn't deep enough to fit Justin very well. It only measures 7.25" in depth to the bottom of the folded ribbing, and Justin works outside and wears hats to keep his ears warm. I don't use Ravelry nearly as much as I used to, but it was helpful in telling me that the hats I've previously knit for him were 9-10" deep. I plan on knitting this hat again, repeating part of the pattern a second time to hopefully make it another couple of inches longer. Also, the pattern calls for ending the hat with 27 stitches, threading the yarn tail through those 27 stitches, and pulling tight to close the hole. Twenty-seven stitches seemed like an awful lot to close up, so I did a second round out K3tog to make the hole smaller. Nine stitches looked a lot better than 27. 

Ravelry was also useful in telling me that I still had several skeins of Madeline Tosh Vintage in my stash, so I dug through and was happy to find three skeins in Moorland. It's a nice green that I've used for hats for Justin before, so I'm winding yarn this afternoon and knitting him a second (hopefully improved and better-fitting) Christmas hat. 

I didn't finish any books this week but I'm listening to Intermezzo and reading an ARC of Awake in the Floating City on my Kindle. I'm enjoying both of them, much more than I was when I first started them. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Unraveled Wednesday: 10/9/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with the same hat, still in progress, and just one book. 

I may be too used to knitting Hitchhikers somewhat mindlessly as I find myself making careless mistakes on the hat and having to tink back. But it's a good lesson in paying attention to what I'm doing, like crossing cables correctly and actually counting the numbers of knits and purls correctly. Things go better when I do that and don't try to do something else that takes some of my attention (such as answering John's questions about how many bags of mulch he should get or what Medicare Part D program I have). Those questions can wait but he seems to only ask me things when I'm counting.

I requested The Ideological Brain from NetGalley because it sounded like it might help me better understand how people become radicalized and believe in rigid ideologies, especially during this polarized political season in the US. In a combination of psychology, politics, and philosophy, the author argues that some people are biologically predisposed to rigid ways of thinking. Belief in strict ideologies has long been attributed to social forces but Zmigrod's research looks at this in terms of neural and cognitive principles. The book is written in a scholarly manner and can honestly be a little dry to this non-academic reader, but it has at least shown me that there may be reasons for political beliefs that I see as bordering on crazy. She also describes what an open and flexible thinker looks like. Three and a half stars rounded up.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on April 25, 2025.

I do have two new ARCs that I'm reading now. Three Days in June is a new novel from Anne Tyler and Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan. I loved Kat's review of the latter so much last week that I wanted to read it (and I'm not even a big fan of dystopian novels)!

What are you making and reading this week?

Unraveled Wednesday: 10/2/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with a new hat on the needles (for the second time) and a book or two.

After taking a closer look at the hat I showed you last week, I thought that the circumference around the bottom looked a bit large and the ribbing seemed floppy. When I measured it, it was 28 inches. My kids have big heads but not that big! Then I took a closer look at the needle I was using and after squinting at it in bright light, found that I was using a size 8 instead of a 6. It was a rookie mistake, and there was nothing to do but unravel and start over again. I worked on the ribbing while spending time in the car and even managed to do a few cables in the car. So the hat is moving forward, albeit slowly. But the yarn is so nice I'm knitting it twice. 

Last week Sarah reviewed Happening, and I decided to give it a try. It is a non-fiction recounting of the author's abortion in France when she was 23 years old. There is evidence of Ernaux's relative immaturity at age 23 (alternately worrying about getting rid of her pregnancy and almost ignoring it) but since abortion was illegal in France at the time it is also horrifying. The author states that she is recreating this event decades later based on her diaries and she has trouble recalling feelings and moods. Reconstructing material procedures was awful enough but I wish the author could have included more of what she thought and felt at the time. Three and a half stars rounded up.

I also read Small Rain by Garth Greenwell. Brilliant, evocative, and vivid are words that come to me when trying to describe Small Rain. This is a novel about a poet who experiences sudden debilitating pain and eventually ends up in the ICU. It is about medicine and the dysfunctional American healthcare system but also much more - meditations on art, beauty, memory, poetry, and introducing his literature students to a poem by George Oppen. His poem "Westyrn Wynds" gives the novel its title. Greenwell's narrator has quite a bit of time to muse while in his hospital bed, and his thoughts veer off into interesting tangents like his childhood, his life with L., and their disastrous home renovations. I appreciated the contrast between the narrator's literary mind and the clinical logic of medicine. The author narrated the audiobook and his voice added to this marvelous book. Four and a half stars rounded up.

“My ignorance was an indictment of something, me, my education, the public schools where I was raised, that I could be so helpless when it came to anything useful, that the only technologies I knew anything about were antiquated, unnecessary technologies: iambic pentameter, functional harmony, the ablative absolute. They were the embellishments of life, accoutrements of civilization, never the necessary core—though they were necessary to me.”

What are you making and reading this week?

Unraveled Wednesday: 9/25/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with a new hat on the needles and a book or two. After perusing Ravelry, I decided that Justin might like a Rows and Arrows hat (Rav link). He is an avid bowhunter and the cables look enough like arrows that he'll see them and I really like the design (especially the crown). I usually knit hats for Justin with dark green or camouflage yarn so he can wear them in the woods, but I decided that this blue Rios was too beautiful to pass up. He once told me that he wished his truck was bright blue (it's white) so I felt okay with choosing blue. It's a wild life and I'm living it. :-)

It doesn't look like much now, but I think it will look great with the second batch of cables and the crown decreases. I really enjoy knitting this hat, so I might knit a green one with the leftovers from the Washington Beanie but we'll see. I probably shouldn't count my cables before they're crossed.

I wasn't quite sure what The Safekeep was about before I started reading it, and I'm not sure I know now after finishing it. Another reviewer called it "a novel of post-war Holland that isn't quite sure what it wants to be," and I think that is the most accurate description. Isabel, a Dutch woman, feels fiercely protective over her home and is quite disturbed when she's forced to host her brother's girlfriend Eva for a few weeks. Eva has ulterior motives which are even more unnerving to Isabel. I may be a reader who needs a more straightforward type of book rather than one that hides its message with dissemblance. This three-star book just wasn't my cup of tea. 

I believe firmly in reproductive care for all women, and I'm Sorry For My Loss: An Urgent Examination of Reproductive Care in America explores that from all aspects. As the subtitle says, this is an urgent examination and one that I wish everyone passing policy in state and federal governments would read and heed. The authors cover the piecemeal medical rules, insurance policies, and laws governing what choices women can make, and more importantly, what lack of treatment they are subjected to due to their inability to make medical choices that are right for them and their situations. The language we use suffers from inadequacy, implying that all kept pregnancies are wanted, and can also serve to make women feel that they are somehow to blame for miscarriages. Post-Roe America is a scary place for women, and the statistics that Little and Long present are sobering. Twenty-five percent of women have had an abortion and the current US maternal deaths is awful at 32.9 per 100,000. The maternal death rate for Black women in the US is terrifying at 69.9 per 100,000. Reproductive care is not simply an abortion issue, but rather how the United States views women's health. This book is necessary and heartfelt.

Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on September 24, 2024.

What are you making and reading this week?

Unraveled Wednesday: 9/18/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today for a look at unraveling, a couple of potholders, and a couple of books. I've unraveled what I had knit on the Washington Beanie for Justin and have officially moved on to something else. Once I wind the new yarn I ordered, I'll give you more details about the something else(s) I decided on.

I wove another potholder for Ryan. This is the smaller seven-inch size and the pattern is called Square Spiral. Like some of the other spiral/maze ones I've woven, the back looks different from the front. I can't give you a good, weaving-based explanation why this happens other than some sort of potholder magic. 

I wove a larger 10-inch one for my SiL. It's just a collection of somewhat random colors that I liked with no special pattern. We're going up to visit them next week and when I sent her a photo of the first one I wove, she said it was "a damn fine potholder." Clearly, she deserves one of her own. 

I finished two NetGalley books last week, one fiction and one poetry. I often judge books by their covers, but in the case of Shy Creatures the badger on the cover was a good sign. Clare Chambers has written a book with an interesting plot, and believable characters, complete with lovely prose. It is based on a real event but Chambers has given the main character, William, a slightly nicer life. Set in the mid-1960s, Helen Hansford is an art therapist in a British psychiatric hospital. There she meets William Tapping who has been admitted after an altercation in a nearby crumbling mansion. He is mute, with waist-length hair and beard, and after he shows an interest in art, Helen digs into his past to find out he ended up this way. The author is an acute observer of the human condition, and with this book, she raises questions of love and protection vs. control and wants and needs vs. what is in a person's best interests. This four-star novel was emotional without being overwrought, humorous at times, hopeful, and compassionate, with a moving ending. It will be published on November 12, 2024.

I was going to say that Water, Water is Billy Collins' best poetry collection to date, but I don't know if I've actually read any of his other books. I've certainly read other poems of his, and these rank right up there with the best of them. In this book of 60 new poems, I found only four or so that didn't speak to me. The author can write about Elsie the Cow, wondering who wove the daisy garland around her neck, figuring it was probably a little girl, and where she is now. One that I liked the most was about spying a cardinal and its mate and vowing not to tell his wife about them. "Indeed, I would take the two cardinals to my grave." I'll let you read this book of accessible poetry yourself to find out all that Collins told his wife (or not), in addition to the many other relatable poems in this collection full of beauty, humor, and satisfaction. It will be published on November 19, 2024.

What are you making and reading this week?

Good News!

I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Strout and most of her books. I didn't love Amy and Isabelle, and I think Abide With Me and The Burgess Boys only earned 3.5 stars, but for me, the rest of her books are easily four and five stars. 

Tell Me Everything was published on September 10, and it was probably my most anticipated book this year. I got excited when the cover design was revealed, and even more excited when I requested and was approved for an ARC. Once I had the book in my hands I wanted to read it in one sitting but somehow still savor it to make it last.

Strout tells us more of Bob Burgess' story; remember him from The Burgess Boys? But the book is about so much more and so many more people, including Bob's wife, Margaret, and his first wife, Pam. It's also the story of how Bob comes to defend a local man accused of murdering his mother. There is a small mystery about who committed the crime, but it's more about the changes that Bob helps the accused man make in his life. Bob's brother Jim also appears in this novel with some important revelations for Bob.

Bob meets Lucy Barton frequently so they can take walks together. Their relationship is one of good friends who share a special emotional intimacy until possibly, they don't. This part was a bit worrisome for me, but it all came together wonderfully at the end. In one of my favorite developments, Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge get together to tell each other stories about "unrecorded lives". I will be thinking about these stories and their meanings for a long time.

I greatly enjoyed revisiting many of Strout's past characters, especially Olive, Lucy, and Bob, and their interactions with each other now that many of them live in Crosby, Maine. Because Strout has caught the reader up on many favorite characters, this book feels as if it could be an ending to the Lucy Barton series. There were parts of the book that felt as if they might be moving too slowly, but Elizabeth Strout's novels have never been page-turners or plot-driven. They are stories of humanity, love, loss, empathy, and true human connections, and in these respects, this is one of Strout's best. 

Lucy stood up and pulled on her coat. "Those are my stories," she said, and then bent down to put her boots back on. "But you're right. They are stories of loneliness and love." Then she picked up her bag and said, "And the small connections we make in this world if we are lucky." And then to Olive's amazement, Lucy said, smiling at her with a gentleness on her face, "And I feel that way about you. A connection. Love. So thank you."
Olive said, "Wait." As Lucy turned, Olive said, "Well, phooey. I feel connected to you too. So there. " She stuck out her tongue.

 

Much of my enjoyment of this book was tied to the fact that Strout brings Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge together for some great conversations. Despite the fact that she can be a curmudgeon, Olive is one of my very favorite fictional characters. We get to know her in Olive Kitteridge and see her struggles to become “oh, just a tiny—tiny—bit better as a person" in Olive, Again. So what's the good news I was referring to?

I read this interview with Strout in The Guardian last weekend and then I got to the good news:

Any chance you’ll be revisiting Lucy, Bob and Olive?
I don’t know; but I do know that no matter what happens, Olive Kitteridge will never die on my watch.

I was half afraid that Olive was going to die at the end of Tell Me Everything, but she does not. Now I can keep hoping that maybe I'll get to visit with Olive again, especially because I now know that Elizabeth Strout will keep her alive. That's the best news I've heard in a long time! 

Unraveled Wednesday: 9/11/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today for a look at knitting and books. I've been waiting for an order of potholder loops for a week and a half and they just shipped yesterday, so no new potholders this week. I have been working steadily on my Sparkly Hitchhiker, so this is what it looks like. 

There are three groups of (yarnover, k2tog) every twelfth row (they're hard to see) and I'll probably continue this to at least row 48. I was sure I wanted to knit something with sparkly yarn, but to be honest, every time I pick it up, I'm less attached to the sparkles. I'm far enough along that I'll finish it and maybe it will be a gift for someone who wants or needs sparkles more than I do. 

The designer of the Washington Beanie that I was knitting for Justin released the third revision of the chart for the hat last week but I haven't worked on it since she released the second revision. I will probably rip out all the colorwork that I've done and maybe re-think the hat completely. I like how it looked when I first saw it on instagram, but the chart is something of a nightmare and I'm not sure I can produce that hat from the chart. The revisions were made so there would be fewer duplicate stitches but I think I'll have to completely rework the chart. So I may just spend some time perusing Ravelry for a better hat for Justin and see what I can find. 

I've been dragging my feet on finishing up an ARC from Netgalley and I'm also slowly reading The Pocket. So I would have an audiobook to listen to while I was knitting, I chose Up to No Gouda. I haven't been able to settle into a new book for quite a while and then saw this series at the library. The title pun was slightly amusing so I gave it a try. Up to No Gouda was worthy of 2.5 stars rounded up but that's about as far as I can go. Carly Hale is a young widow who has dreamed of opening up a grilled cheese restaurant and she returns to her hometown in Vermont to do just that. Lyle Bagley, the town bully, gets killed behind the dumpster of Carly's restaurant so, of course, she needs to solve the mystery of who murdered him. The grilled cheese varieties that Carly served were some of the best things about this book, but even they were not exceptional. This is the first book in the Grilled Cheese Mystery Series (stop laughing; it's a thing!) but I don't think I'll read the others in the series. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Unraveled Wednesday: 9/4/24

I'm happy to join Kat and the Unravelers today for the first Unraveled Wednesday in September. I've been working on my Sparkly Hitchhiker but it looks pretty much the same as last week except it has a few more teeth and some more rows of yarnovers. You've seen it plenty of times before so I'm sharing a potholder that has taken me way too much time this week. This pattern is a labyrinth so the top/bottom and side/side are not mirror images of each other. That makes it a little harder to weave (at least for me) because each row is different, with varying configurations of over and under. 

I'm leaving it on the loom until I have plenty of time to check my weaving. This one will be for Ryan, and he's detail-oriented enough to find any mistakes I've made. I think I've corrected all my mistakes and dead ends but I want to be sure when I bind off. It was a fun one to do!

I only read two books this week. I've loved Frindle ever since my kids read it in elementary school. Andrew Clements wrote a draft for a sequel before he passed away in 2019. His family worked with his Random House to publish The Frindle Files posthumously. I didn't write a review for Frindle on Goodreads; it seemed unnecessary for a middle-grade book published 28 years ago. But Frindle has a special place in my heart, so I was anxious to read The Frindle Files. In this sequel, Nick Allen has grown up and become an English teacher himself. While the original story taught readers about the power of words, The Frindle Files continues that lesson with the added question of whether technology can add or detract from the potential of language and how it's used. I didn't find this book quite as charming as the original, but I am grateful for Andrew Clements' draft and for his family and publisher making Mr. Clements' last story available to readers. Three and a half stars rounded up.

What are you making and reading this week? 

Unraveled Wednesday: 8/28/24

I'm happy to join Kat and the Unravelers today for the last Unraveled Wednesday of August. The Sparkly Hitchhiker has grown with some yarnovers and a few more teeth.

And I'm enjoying knitting Justin's hat inside out, thanks to Kat's tip. 

I'm not sure I see trees yet when I turn it right side out, but I have reached a temporary stopping point. My kit had two balls of the ivory color that is used at the crown and none of the lightest green, so I'm just waiting for the right yarn to arrive. Then I'm sure the trees will be obvious. :-)

I finished a NetGalley book this week, Pretty Dead Things by Lilian West. I was drawn to the cover illustration and the description of this book: a young woman discovers long-lost wedding rings in a jar full of marbles, buttons, and costume jewelry that she purchased at an estate sale. Jars like that are the first things I look at in thrift and junk stores, and even though I've never come across anything especially valuable, I still like that feeling of undiscovered treasure, even if it turns out to be a beautiful blue marble or a special cut glass button. Cora wants to do the right thing and return the rings to the family that they belonged  to, so this creates a cozy mystery as she sets out to find who this might be. This mystery is pursued in dual timelines, and I personally enjoyed the 1940s timeline more than the present-day one. The characters were a bit more interesting, and I found Cora bland and naive in the present day. I do wonder why she was getting married as she didn't have any interest in planning even a simple wedding, and her fiancé seemed unhappy with almost all of the choices she was making towards returning the rings.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on December 10, 2024.

What are you making and reading this week? 

Unraveled Wednesday: 8/21/24

I'm happy to join Kat and the Unravelers today as August flies by. After finally finishing my HotM last week, I cast on for two new projects.

The first one is a sparkly Hitchhiker. I have no idea why I was so set on knitting one with sparkly yarn, but it seemed like that was all I could think about, so that's what I'm using. You can see the sparkles in the ball of yarn, and I can assure you that they are there in the Hitchhiker, too. 

The next one is a Christmas hat for Justin. I saw it on Instagram a while ago and knew that's what I wanted to knit for him this year. I ordered the kit from Nancy Bates Designs, and I also ordered a whole skein of Malabrigo so I could make the brim long enough so it could be folded up. I've only done one row of the colorwork so it doesn't look like much so far, but this is the third time I've gotten this far. Colorwork is not one of my best knitting skills, so I have to concentrate on getting Goldilocks tension (not too tight, not too loose) and keeping my floats short. I think I'm getting the hang of it. This is what I hope the hat will look like by December:

I read a couple of books last week. The Bletchley Riddle was the pleasant surprise I had hoped for. I love books about Bletchley Park, and this middle-grade historical fiction provided a great story with plenty of details (Alan Turing and explanations of the Enigma Machine) that were interesting and educational. The story is told in short chapters, alternating between brother and sister Jakob and Lizzie at Bletchley Park during World War II. Jakob is hard at work trying to decipher German codes and Lizzie is an observant messenger at Bletchley. They are unsure of whether their mother is alive or dead so that part of the novel provides a personal storyline. I learned some things about Polish codebreakers that I was unaware of and thought this intriguing novel was worthy of 3.5 stars rounded up.

 Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group and Edelweiss for providing me with a copy of the book. It will be published on October 8, 2024.

The second one, Soldier Sailor, was more than I hoped for. My own children are 31 and 33, but Claire Kilroy has written a novel that took me back and immersed me in the early days of motherhood. Soldier Sailor was an authentic, intense, emotional book to listen to, when your world is reduced to just you and the child and you are living in sleepless, chaotic isolation. I've read plenty of other books about motherhood, but I don't think anyone has managed to capture all of the emotions so well as Claire Kilroy. She has written about all the difficulties a mother might encounter like exhaustion, loss of independence, and lack of clear thinking, but also with humor and hope about all of the unsentimental love she feels for her child. Soldier Sailor will undoubtedly be among the best books I read this year. This one was five wonderful stars.

"And you know, men, men, men nod solemnly at that Blade Runner speech—tears in the rain and fires on Orion—and they feel themselves part of a noble endeavour, believe they’ve experienced something epic right there with a beer on the couch. Here’s my ennobling truth, Sailor: women risk death to give life to their babies. They endure excruciating pain, their inner parts torn, then they pick themselves up no matter what state they are in… and they tend to their infants."

What are you making and reading this week? 

Unraveled Wednesday: 8/14/24

I'm happy to join Kat and the Unravelers today on this second Unraveled Wednesday in August, with a completed Hitch on the Move. 

When I knit my first HotM, I wished that I had made it larger. This time I made sure it was big enough. 

As soon as it's cool enough for shawl-wearing, this is going to be keeping me warm.

I was a bit nervous during my last row and binding off. This little ball is all I had left of the cobalt yarn, but it worked out perfectly. You can see more details here on Ravelry. Now I'm winding yarn to make a regular old Hitchhiker. It's been a while since I knit one and I've missed it!

I read three books last week. The first was Nonfiction by Julie Myerson. Despite its title, the book is a fictionalized account of a mother's painful experience of her daughter's addiction. I chose this one from the library because of the interesting title and beautiful cover but I was not prepared for the gut-wrenching story within. The writing seemed to lack emotion at times and there were also places where the timeline was confusing because everything is narrated in the present tense. Myerson previously wrote a book The Lost Child: A Mother's Story in which she shared the story of her son's addiction. Critics called it a "moral failure" and a "betrayal not just of love and intimacy, but also of motherhood itself." Nonfiction seems to be more of the same with a different title. For me, the subject matter of addiction wasn't dealt with very well whether this was fiction or nonfiction and I gave it three stars. 

Next was some straightforward nonfiction, Volume Control by David Owen. My sons had been nagging me about getting hearing aids and my husband (who has hearing aids but rarely wears them) had been telling me that I mumble, so after a visit to the audiologist showed a mild-moderate hearing loss, I did get some at Costco. They helped and I wore them for about three weeks, but then I started really listening to what I was hearing. I did not like how it sounded like I was hearing in a cave or at the end of a long tunnel. Thanks to Volume Control and David Owens' excellent chapters on hearing aids, I now know that I object to the occlusion of my hearing aids. I will experiment with some smaller domes and fiddle with the settings on the app, but now I know the correct terminology to use if I need to return to the audiologist.

Aside from addressing a personal issue, Volume Control was a four star book I wish I had read decades ago when I could have used ear protection while mowing and listened to music at a lower level. At least now I understand the importance of ear protection so I can help preserve my remaining hearing. The author also covers deafness, cochlear implants, sign language, tinnitus and the lack of help for that. I wish I had read his chapters on hearing aids before I bought mine. There is valuable information for consumers on the incredibly high markup, along with other options patients might want to explore. Bose is not just a company that makes speakers but they also sell something called a Hearphone. It sounds intriguing and I might have checked into it if I hadn't already spent loads of money on hearing aids. This was an enjoyable and informative book about a subject that people don't think about until it's gone.

Lastly, I enjoyed Frostbite by Nicola Twilley. It's been a desperately hot and humid summer here, but that has made it a wonderful time to read about the "cold chain" of refrigerated storage in Frostbite. In this interesting work, Nicola Twilley gives lots of details about refrigeration and how our food arrives in the grocery store. She works in a frozen food warehouse for a while; I've always thought this might be sort of a fun job (I do like the cold) but it turns out to be quite dangerous and not a lot of people can manage more than a day or two. She watches while an engineer and co-founder of an HVAC start-up builds a refrigerator in his garage and I was surprised at how easy it was (as long as you've got the four crucial components). There is a lot about the history of ice, icehouses, storage and transportation before refrigeration in its current state existed. These parts were probably my least favorite, but there are so many facts that I wasn't even aware of that I did enjoy. I knew apples were often picked and stored for a year or more before they were available in the grocery store, but I didn't know that King's Hawaiian Rolls arrived at the cold warehouse warm from the bakery and were cooled gradually to avoid condensation and stored for several months. I was not aware that warehouses exist that are not just cold but also climate-controlled with different atmospheres to selectively ripen produce like bananas and avocados.

The author asks the question, "Has refrigeration made us healthier?", looks at ways that the future may not be refrigerated, and visits the Global seed Vault in Svalbard ("refrigeration's great promise to preserve the future of food"). All in all, this was a four-star, fascinating look at a subject I had simply taken for granted that answered more questions than I had ever imagined.

What are you making and reading this week?