Skeletons R Us

John had some errands to run last weekend, and since Home Depot was not on the list, I decided to ride along with him. We did have to go to Tractor Supply, and I was greeted by the skeletal evidence that Halloween is near. There were skeletons everywhere!

I like how the giant rooster skeleton looks like he is daring to step outside the red lines on the floor. I don't like how the manufacturers have chosen to skeletonize the comb and wattle. (In real life, they're not even made of cartilage, just connective tissue, but I get that giant rooster skeletons are not real life.)

If you don't want a giant rooster skeleton, maybe a smaller duckling will do. Those are spiders on the right. I realize that spiders are typical Halloween decorations but spiders don't even have a skeleton composed of bones. In real life, spiders have a chitinous exoskeleton but skeleton displays are clearly not real life. 

I think the manufacturers may have run out of animals to skeletonize, and I present the hummingbird skeletons on the left. Those don't make any sense to me for Halloween but they are only $4.99. I do applaud the snakes - creepy holiday decor and anatomically accurate!

I think real turtles are kind of cute but these turtle skeletons just fall short in so many ways. 

How about a pile o' pig skeletons with a dog on top and a little rat? (No, thank you.)

I resisted buying any skeletons of any sort but for those of you who might need some, you better hurry. Only 84 more days until Halloween!

Unraveled Wednesday: 8/7/24

I'm happy to join Kat and the Unravelers today on this first Unraveled Wednesday in August. I had hoped to finish my HotM but I have a couple of excuses for not doing so. First, it's too hot and humid to knit, but I've used that one for most of the summer. Next, I misspoke last week when I said I had 40 rows left. Because of the way this shawl is constructed, you knit from the edge to the middle using one color, knit the last stitch in the color you are working with together with a stitch from the other color, then knit back. You do that 10 times, then do the same thing on the other side with the other color. (My apologies if that is clear as mud.) Because of this, one row is composed of knitting to the middle and back, so I think I should have said I had 80 rows to go. (Now my reasons really are beginning to sound like excuses.)

But my biggest reason is that I ended up with some sort of large and oddly floppy stitch. I kept on knitting even after I noticed it, then I started to tell myself that I could run another piece of yarn through it and tighten it up, until finally I quit lying to myself and took a good look at it.

I'm still not sure how or why it happened, but I finally admitted that no fix would look right and the only thing to do was unravel. So that's what I did.

It took me most of the afternoon on Monday to unravel those piles of ramen yarn, get the stitches back on the needle, and figure out where I was in the pattern. I've knit a few rows and think I have things situated correctly. 

I'll spare you another photo since the shawl is smaller than last week (and it's also really dark outside because it's raining torrentially). I'll just say I hope to finish this Hitch on the Move sometime this summer (without any more self-imposed deadlines and weird floppy stitches).

I did read one book last week, Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger. Like Mother, Like Mother is a novel about three generations of strong women who must deal with having been raised by an abusive father and absent mother. Lila Pereira is incredibly hard-working and successful. Her upbringing by her abusive father (he was truly reprehensible) and a mother she has been told died after her husband committed her to an asylum has affected the way she raises her own three daughters. She makes sure they're well-cared for by their father but Lila has chosen to work long hours and immerse herself fully in her work as an executive editor at The Washington Globe newspaper (think Katharine Graham). Lila makes no apologies for her actions and lack of maternal caring. Her husband, Joe, is the true parent, but the lack of motherly love affects her youngest daughter, Grace. As an adult, Grace finds her own success but remains curious about what really happened to Lila's mother Zelda. Did she really die or did she escape? Grace sets out on a quest for Zelda that Lila herself never sought.

Susan Rieger has taken a look at the consequences of maternal involvement (or lack thereof) through three generations of women and the effects on those who love them. This challenges the traditional gender roles that are most often assigned to women. Through her characters, Rieger asks "How are we affected by the women in our lives who might dare to reject those roles and what has this cost those women themselves?" I'm not sure I ever understood generational trauma before, but this book certainly provides a good fictional explanation. There are many characters in the three generations with a guide at the front of the book in case you lose track like I did. This one was three stars for me. 

Thank you to The Dial Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on October 29, 2024.

What are you making and reading this week?

Unraveled Wednesday: 7/31/24

I'm happy to join Kat and the Unravelers today on this last Unraveled Wednesday in July. I didn't weave any potholders this week, so how about a look at my Hitch on the Move? I am making progress, but slowly.

Counting tells me that I have 40 more rows to go, but the blue section is very long (and getting longer) so I'm not even going to do the math to figure out how many stitches that is. It's a lot, but I trust that I'll be done by the time it's finally getting cool enough to wear it. The ants were pretty interested in it, or maybe I just disturbed them when I threw the shawl down on the patio. I made sure to brush them all off before I came inside. I fight ants in the kitchen all summer, and I don't want to be allowing them to hitchhike in on a Hitchhiker. 

Reading this week included one book that I've been meaning to read for a long time and one that will definitely be among my favorites this year. The first one is Maisie Dobbs. I may be one of the last people to start the Maisie Dobbs series, but I've always kept it on my list of "books to read when I run out of other more interesting ones." I finally got to that point a few days ago, and had no excuse not to listen to it after I found it in my Audible library. This first installation is the story of how Maisie goes from being a maid to college to a nurse in WWI to apprenticing with a Scotland Yard detective. Maisie is full of charm and pluck (possibly a bit too much at times for my taste) but I will read the next installment someday in hopes of more than just a pleasant story.

Leonard and Hungry Paul is the witty and poignant tale of two ordinary 30-something young men negotiating life. It's also bound to be one of my favorite books this year, and that is saying something for a book where not much happens. It's only 240 pages long but the author has written a lot into those pages, and for me, it was not a book to be rushed. Rónán Hession has written about the two friends and the lives they are comfortably leading. Leonard loses his mother, so the book touches upon grief but is also filled with board games, tea drinking, and the occasional chat. Leonard begins a relationship with a woman in his office that he finds "breathtaking", Hungry Paul enters a contest designed by the local Chamber of Commerce to write a new send-off for emails. (His entry is perfect.) There is humor in Leonard's first date, and Hungry Paul is also quite funny when he tries to complain to the supermarket about a tin of expired candy (but there is a surprise at the end).

Some of the things I liked best about the book were that it was kind, gentle and that the humor was not at anyone's expense. Hession seems to have an excellent sense of this as he is Assistant General Secretary of the Department of Social Protection in Ireland and has written about kindness in fiction. This book is so much better than I have made it sound, so please trust Rónán Hession's take on it and make sure you read this book:

"In my debut novel, Leonard and Hungry Paul, two gentle young men try to find the balance between engaging with the world and becoming overwhelmed by it. It is a novel about friendship, family, kindness, and, above all, the contributions quiet people make to society."

Four and a half stars rounded up.

What are you making and reading this week?

Ich lerne Deutsch

Translation: I am learning German. 

My SiL (a family practice physician) has this theory that you need to tax your brain occasionally and present it with challenges in order to help stave off dementia. I'm not sure if this is scientifically true, but I also don't think it can hurt. Following a knitting pattern can be a small challenge, and the last potholder I wove was quite a test. I play word games every day, but I wanted something more taxing. How about learning another language?!

I took four years of French in high school and I can remember how to count to 10 and order veal and spinach in a restaurant, so clearly I don't need any more French. John thought I should have picked Spanish because I would have more occasions to practice it, but that wasn't really my goal. We just had a Hispanic painting crew here to paint the second-story box gutters and soffit, so I guess I could have been out there saying, "Por favor ten cuidado en la escalera" (Please be careful on the ladder) and "¿Quieres un poco de agua helada?" (Would you like some ice water?). But we managed to communicate by nodding, smiling, and saying "Si" often. So I decided to try and learn some German with Duolingo for maximum brain challenging. 

I've been doing this for 17 days so far, and Duolingo says I've learned 119 words. I'm not booking my flight to Germany anytime soon, but I could order pizza, bread, beer, and wine, so that's a good start. 

I have some trouble with articles (der for masculine nouns, die for feminine, and das for neuter nouns) but this will take a lot more practice. Duolingo is set up as kind of a fun game, and I want to keep my streak going, even if I mistakenly call the menu masculine. 

I do like saying "Entschuldigung"!

Welche Sprachen kennen Sie? (Which languages do you know?)

Three (+1) on Thursday

Three on Thursday is more nicely alliterative, but since I finished a fourth book I added the +1. Here in order from worst to best are the books I read this week. 

Radically Content is proof that you can't judge a book by its cover. I came upon this book while searching for something entirely different from the library, but it sounded interesting, so I placed a hold. The basic premise of Radically Content is one I agree with (your worth needs to come from within) but given the author's shallow writing style and what felt like endless repetition, I think that her ideas are better suited to Instagram. I was unaware of her content there, mainly because I already follow her advice to not let social media make me feel bad. I'm unclear if this book is meant to be a memoir, self-help, or some combination, but for me, it didn't accomplish either one very well. She writes about affirmations, healing, self-acceptance, body image, journaling, and how moving to Paris can help - a lot of buzz words but no depth or substance. The biggest help I can offer if you are looking for contentment and satisfaction is not to waste your time reading this book. 1.5 stars rounded down.

The publisher's blurb for The Book of George makes George sound fairly unlikeable. Maybe that would be the case in real life, but I enjoyed the person that Kate Greathead writes about in this story that covers his life from about age 12 to almost 40. George isn't a completely pathetic character, he just has very little motivation, or maybe it's not placed in the right areas. We meet his father, mother, sister, and long-term girlfriend Jenny, and begin to understand better why he might be the way that he is. Jenny provides much of the motivation that George lacks, and later on, George's mother and sister are his rescuers. The book does have some humor, but often it's presented in a humor-tinged poignant way. I'd like to hold out hope that George was eventually learning to take the reins and not just give up, as shown by his making multiple attempts to get a dead squirrel out of a car engine. Three stars for this one. 

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on October 8, 2024.

Here One Moment was a real page-turner! I wondered if I was really the reader for this book as I've never read anything by Liane Moriarty, but I couldn't resist the pre-publication copy from the publisher. On board a delayed flight, a woman gets up from her seat, points at passengers, and announces, "I expect," and proclaims their cause of death and the age at which they will die. Some passengers are told they will die at advanced ages, while others receive pronouncements of their death not far in the future. This is unsettling and unnerving for almost everyone, especially for those who are told they will die in the next several months, or the mother who is told her son will drown at the age of seven. As the book progresses, the short (and sometimes choppy) chapters alternate between Cherry's story (the Death Lady) and more details about some of the passenger's lives and reactions. There is a slow reveal of the Death Lady's details, and there were times that I wished for longer and more detailed chapters, but they did serve to propel the story forward. The explanation for the Death Lady's actions on the plane was a little weak, and some suspension of beliefs is necessary at the end, but the book was a nice examination of "Can fate be fought?" Three and a half stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and Crown Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on September 10, 2024.

Seven Deadly Sins is both original and quite interesting. Guy Leschziner looks at the seven deadly sins (wrath, gluttony, lust, envy, sloth, greed, and pride) from a biological point. He considers genetics, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and pathology to explain how and why humans may do things that are cruel, or behave in a greedy or lazy way. Each sin is dealt with in its own chapter, and the author presents case studies with rare genetic diseases and illnesses that illustrate and cause the patient to act in a "sinful" manner. Some chapters offer fewer biological reasons for sins, like lust and envy, but even those provide curious and intriguing facts. I will be looking at people's index and ring fingers to judge how much fetal exposure to testosterone they had in utero, beginning with my two sons. Lest you think the author is trying to excuse the sins of the Holocaust or genocide and wars that have arisen throughout history due to wrath and greed, he has also written a chapter on free will and its importance. The glossary at the end of this book is especially helpful for those of us who have forgotten the structures and areas of the brain that we may have learned 45 years ago. This book can help us begin to understand how and why we humans act as we do and the ways biology may play a part in our actions. Four and a half stars rounded up.

I hope Mr. Leschziner's next book is about the Seven Cardinal Virtues, but until then I will be reading another one of his books, The Man Who Tasted Words, an exploration of our senses and how the brain understands and/or misunderstands the world around us.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on December 3, 2024.

Here's hoping you're reading something good!

Unraveled Wednesday: 7/24/24

I'm happy to join Kat and the Unravelers today with a potholder that took me a long time to weave but it was worthwhile. There is no linkup today as Sherman has crossed the Rainbow Bridge, so please keep Kat in your thoughts.

The pattern is called "Right Hook" from Piglet's Potholder Patterns, and the description is as follows: "Combining a parallel row of double floats with a single diagonal twill stripe gives this pattern a dramatic twist." The patterns on Piglet's site are in black and white, and it's up to the maker to determine what colors they want to weave with. I'm still a bit unsure about choosing colors, but I'll be weaving this pattern again someday and will try different (or maybe fewer) colors. I had to print out the pattern and use a post-it note to keep track of my weft and the over and under symbols. I could be heard muttering "Over, under, over two, no wait, that's under three", but it worked. 

And for the really cool part, take a look at the back of this potholder:

It's a different pattern! I can't give you a weaving explanation of how or why this works, but to me, it's almost like magic!

I read quite a few books this week, so I'll put all of my books in a separate post tomorrow or Friday. 

What are you making this week?

A Gathering of Poetry: July 2024

It's the third Thursday of the month so I'd like to welcome you to A Gathering of Poetry. Those of you who receive The Washington Post Book Club newsletter may have read this poem. In the June 21st email, editor Ron Charles wrote about the long-awaited re-opening of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. A specially commissioned poem by Rita Dove is inscribed in a marble border that wraps around the west garden walkway. I'm not sure I'll be visiting the Library any time soon, but I keep returning to this poem again and again, so I'm sharing it here.

Clear your calendars. Pocket your notes.
Look up into the blue amplitudes,
sun lolling on his throne, watching clouds
scrawl past, content with going nowhere.
No chart can calibrate the hush that settles
just before the first cricket song rises;
no list will recall a garden’s embroidery,
its fringed pinks and reds, its humble hedges.
Every day is Too Much or Never Enough,
so stop fretting your worth and berating
the cosmos – step into a house where
the jumbled perfumes of our human potpourri
waft up from a single page.
You can feel the world stop, lean in, and listen
as your heart starts up again.

====

You can read more about the incredible story of the poem here, and listen to Rita Dove read the poem here. 

You can also read more about Rita Dove (Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate) here. 

Thanks for reading and joining us for our monthly Gathering of Poetry. You are more than welcome to add your link below if you would like to share one of your favorite poems. The more the merrier!

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