Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday.

Knitting.

The afghan slog continues. One of these weeks I will be able tp post a photo of a finished afghan. This is not that week.

Reading.

Burn the Place by Iliana Regan. I didn’t get very far in this memoir by a chef. Her writing style was choppy and put me off. YMMV. 2✭

The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase. Sort of mystery, sort of suspense, a good story about families. 3✭

Long Bright River by Liz Moore. This book was so good! The opioid crisis in Philadelphia and in particular in the Kensington area where the novel is set are clearly important to the characters and thus to the reader. It is a police procedural and so much more. Protagonist is a 30-something woman police officer in Philadelphia whose younger sister is an addict on the street. They were raised by their grandmother after their mother ODed and their father disappeared. Granny is a hard, cynical woman. Clearly, the culture of this novel is a l-o-n-g way from anything I ever experienced or knew. The extended family is all blue collar with a not-insignificant number of other druggies and dealers among them. Acceptance of one’s lot is the norm. Their attitude towards anyone who tries to improve themselves by going to college or aspiring to anything better than the gritty lives in Kensington is that the person “thinks they are better than us.” Protagonist was accepted by two colleges, but granny refused to fill out the financial aid forms, saying that she would not help her granddaughter incur a load of debt that wouldn’t benefit her. The writing is rich and evocative, the scenes so real. 5✭ (That is a rating I almost never give.)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlepig by Tad Williams. This novella had been bouncing around in my Kindle app for at least a year, but the title put me off. It shouldn’t have because this was a delightful little fantasy read. 3★

Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante. Although mosmanyt readers adore this author’s works, I have not been able to get into them. I tried unsuccessfully to listen to My Brilliant Friend; I hoped this book would be better. It may very well be for others, but I quickly ran out of patience with the main character’s histrionics when her husband abandons her and their children. The Italian temperament depicted turned me off. Once again, YMMV. 2★

Between the World and Me by Ta-Hehisi Coates. Yeah, I am at least three months behind the rest of the world in reading this book. I am listening to the audio version and trying to absorb as much as possible. My thought while listening was how a life-long state of stress and high levels of cortisol may go partway to explaining the shorter life spans and generally lower levels of health of BIPOC. What we Whites have done and do to BIPOC is heart-breaking and shame-making. 4★