Joining Kat and friends to talk about knitting and reading.
Knitting.
I wimped out on my afghan marathon and cast on another Baby Surprise Jacket. My excuse is that a friend wanted to knit one, and I was pretty sure she would not be able to follow EZ’s rather idiosyncratic instructions. I know I had a fair bit of trouble and ended up finding another set of instructions. For my friend, I typed up a more explicit pattern with stitch counts every other row. But since it was a couple months since I finished the second BSJ, I wasn’t sure they were fully accurate. Solution? Cast on a third BSJ.
Reading.
I am marching my way through the Ruth Galloway series of mysteries by Elly Griffiths and enjoying them a lot. Ruth is an anthropology professor who occasionally works with the police to identify and date bones that are found. She unmarried, 40-ish, and a few pounds too heavy; she is also a single mother after a one-night stand in the first (second?) book. The characters are interesting and develop over the course of the series. The latest ones I read were The Outcast Dead, The Ghost Fields, The Woman in Blue, and The Chalk Pit; sadly, only three to go. 4★
When I finished The Chalk Pit, I was out of library books, so I dove into my Kindle books. Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to Donald J. Trump by Michael Cohen was the choice. The writing is decent and readable, and the book gives the reader a look into the disordered mind of our president. Cohen repeatedly states how blindly ambitious he was himself and how he totally lost any moral compass he had; that gets a bit tiresome, but it is so, so true. I found this book better than any of the other tell-all books by various tRump cronies. They all were told as though looking in from the outside of the president’s mind, whereas this one opened up that mind for scrutiny. If you want to know what goes on behind that orange face and ridiculous hair, this is the book for you. 4★
The Fifth Seed is the one I started, and I desperately want to finish it because the writing is so bad. The only reason that I am still reading it is that it is a bit of a cliff-hanger and I want to know how it turns out. Looking back in my reading list it turns out I started it back in 2018 but didn’t finish; I guess that is why I don’t remember the ending. 1★
Whilst browsing in the Kindle app I happened up The Last Mrs. Parrish, which I had apparently started but not finished. So I finished it. The plot revolves around the wife and would-be wife of a sociopathic real estate mogul. Improbably but entertaining. 3★
Listening.
I neglected to tell you about at least one audiobook I listened to this summer: The Martian by Andy Weir. It was entertaining in a sci-fi kind of way. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a DIY fanatic; roughly 98% of the book was about how the main character, stranded on Mars, cobbles together everything he needs to stay alive there for a year and a half. One thing he does have is a sense of humor, which in my opinion is the thing that kept sane. 3★
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nihisi Coates. Excellent, and required reading/listening for we White folks. 5★
Right now I am halfway through How to Be an Antiracist by Ibrim X. Kendi. Another excellent read, and one that is educating me. 5★
kmkat & her kneedles 
I love your excellent reviews – good and bad. I appreciate your honesty! I love Coates writing but, Kendi is the best teacher I have come across in a very long time.
Now the knitting. BSJ… back in another lifetime when I was first learning to knit, the LYS sold me EZ’s Opinionated Knitter and some skeins of yarn to knit a BSJ. I was lost and did not understand the directions, or how to read my knitting. And that LYS? Well, they did not understand either. I abandoned that BSJ and put the book away. I tried again several years later, this time with a greater desire to knit that sweater. I learned about gauge, swatched, and slowed down to read the instructions row by row. To do what EZ said and not over think it. (thanks Cat Bordhi for that lesson) and that BSJ was a success. I knit another for Genevieve, and could not have been happier with the result. It is the best “comfort” knitting and I love being in communion with EZ as I read her notes while knitting.
You write the best book reviews! 🙂 A few years ago, I was a literacy tutor and my then-student wanted to read The Martian in a BAD WAY. It was far beyond his reading level, though, so we read it aloud together. (And by that I mean I mostly read it to him, and he read a few paragraphs now and again.) The story will always be linked to that experience for me. (He stayed active in the literacy program for exactly as long as it took us to read the book. Then he quit.)
PS – The movie The Martian is very good. XO
Loved the Martian. Enjoyed Artemis as well but not as much. Look forward to your book reviews and since I don’t read as much as you I have my reading list prepared for some time. Thanks
I enjoyed the Ruth Galloway series also and I am glad you mentioned them because I think I have a few to finish so I have put them on my library list.
Have you read “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson? I heard him speak the other night on PBS and he was so moving. I have put that book on hold at my library as it appears to be popular.
Have a great day!
I love your book reviews, too! I’m currently on the waiting list for the first Ruth Galloway – looking forward to it!
I really loved listening to The Martian! So much fun. And I am currently reading the ebook version of How to be an Antiracist, and it’s a bit dense but still very good and educational. I find that I have to re-read sentences more than usual, even for non-fiction books.
I’m reading Kendi’s “Stamped” right now. Remarkable stuff.