Joining Kat and friends for an Unraveled Wednesday.

What you see are the beginnings of a pair of super-warm socks for Elder Son’s GF. It’s what I have been working on for her Christmas present. She is in nursing school, and she told us that when she does her clinicals her feet get cold. So she wears her hiking socks — thick, wooly, and warm. But her supervisors get annoyed with her because they are Not.White.

She can wear these socks and make all the superiors happy while quietly hooting behind her paws, knowing there is a forbidden burst of color hiding in her shoes.

The latest book from William Kent Krueger is a stand-alone novel. It is a quest story, four children escaping from a nightmare home for Native children and seeking a better life. It is set mainly in Minnesota, later in St Louis. The book has gotten very good reviews, and I found nothing to contradict that. Four ★.

This is a suspense novel par excellence. I had to stay up until 2am to finish. Recommended if you like that sort of thing. 3 ★.

Back in my professional tax accounting days I did hundreds of tax returns for various members of the Pillsbury clan and for their trust funds. This book is an exhausting history of the family and their good influence on Minnesota. I didn’t read the whole thing, only the latter part covering the period from about 1960 to the date of publication in 2011. Lots of names familiar to me, and facts about them that I didn’t know. For example, Charlie Pillsbury’s roommate at Yale — they all went to Yale — was Garry Trudeau, the cartoonist, and the character of Michael Doonsbury in his comic strip was based on Charlie.

I just started this one, and so far I am unimpressed in the extreme. 2★.