No report on my knitting this week, but not because there wasn’t any. Rather, it is because I finished my Carbeth! And I am not taking it off! I did the last bit of seaming on Sunday night during Madame Secretary and have been wearing it ever since Monday morning. You may have seen the weather hysteria on the national news about how cold it is in the Midwest. I am here to tell you it is true. High temps on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: -10 degrees F, -13, and – 3, respectively. Predicted low Wednesday night: -32 degrees F. (That’s -36 degrees for my metric friends.) I even wore it to bed on Tuesday night because the bedroom was cold and I didn’t think my flannel nightshirt would keep my arms warm enough while I read. And. May not take it off until Friday. Hard to say, really.
Reading.
Tana French is an author whose every book I read pretty much as soon as it hits the library catalog, but somehow I missed The Trespasser when it came out. Happily, I remedied that last weekend. It was as good as the rest of the Dublin Murder Squad books, which is to say, very, very good. If you like mysteries with lots of good characters and plot twists and. Damned fine writing, I highly recommend this series.
The other good book was Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. The plot, while interesting, is secondary to the nature writing. The author is a retired prize-winning wildlife scientist who spent most of her professional life in Africa. Her writing about the flora and fauna in the North Carolina marshland where the book is set is marvelous. Although I discounted the plot, above, the book did hold me in its grip — I read the whole 368 pages in one sitting.
A disappointing book was The Left Hand of Darkness, the classic sci-fi book by Ursula K. Le Guin. It may be a classic, but I gave up after the first 50 pages; I was worn out by trying to remember all the strange people and place names. As always, ymmv.
kmkat & her kneedles 
As I mentioned before, my grandson is in Minnesota on a Soccer Scholarship so I have some interest in the Midwest weather. He told us yesterday that college was closed for 2 days because of the cold. It makes me ashamed that here in the UK we panic and everything closes down at the first sign of snow or truly cold weather.
I too loved Where the Crawdad’s Sing and I did not know about the author’s wildlife writing history! We talked about it last night at knitting and I am now enjoying her incredible detail in the wetlands of North Carolina. I will look for more Tana French! And, even though I really don’t like how my Carbeth looks on me – there is nothing that beats it for warmth so I too have been wearing it all.the.time!
There’s nothing like a just-in-the-nick-of-time knit! So glad your new Carbeth is keeping you warm during this brutal cold weather snap. Stay warm! (I loved every one of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series . . . but her latest novel? Not so much.) (It’s not part of the series.) XO
Echoing the Tana French love! I’ll have to hunt up Where the Crawdads Sing.
Living in Vermont all those years really messed up my perceptions of cold. -30? Well, yeah, it’s January, after all; of course it’s -30… (Every year I can remember, the ice-fisherfolk would be out on the ice setting up their shacks when it was that cold out!)
Awesome on the sweater! I’m glad you finished it in time to wear it when it was truly needed.
Sad to hear about the Le Guin book. I just DNF’d her The Lathe of Heaven after about 35% of the book. I didn’t care about the characters, so couldn’t be bothered to read it. It’s always a shame when a classic stops being readable to modern audiences, but it does happen.
I’m with you on the ‘names’ game in sci/fi fantasy. As I write, I try to figure if the reader is going to 1) be able to keep track of them by name, 2) have a decent chance of pronouncing the name. lol If I can’t figure out how to pronounce the name, how would some one else. Makes me think of a joke where someone was asked how to spell their name. “H, E, N, 3, R, Y. The three is silent.”
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! “The king is pregnant.” I SWEARRRRRR, IT IS GOOOOOOOD.
(oh, I’m talking about Left Hand. It is a bit . . . maybe dry? Spare? I don’t know where my copy is right now, or I’d start embarrassing myself over it. The personal and political relationships are very very good. And I say that as somebody who hates complex narratives.)
I wimped out on a 60-mile trip yesterday, and a shorter one today, but I did go out for a doctor appointment when it got up to -7 F. And I’ve found a very effective combination of layers, so I’m good from here on out. Till Saturday, when it gets up to freezing.
You just wear that sweater night and day! Its freezing here! Thanks for the book reviews. Im on the lookout for al.