Knitting.

I have noticed several people on Instagram — looking at you, knitorious — who are doing a 100 Day Project. Then I realized as I was knitting last night that I have a 100 Day Project of my own: finishing my fingering weight Boxy. Since I picked this project back up last Wednesday or Thursday, the 100 days will end around May 21, assuming I counted the weeks correctly.

I started this in September 2019 when people were casting on their @jojifallkal19 projects, knowing full well that it would take me a LONG time to finish it. (Every sweater I have knitted since starting this blog has taken at least two years to finish, and nary a one of those was fingering on US#4. And I was right.) Given my, er, ample size, such a sweater is very nearly a worst-weight-afghan-sized project.

Reading.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. I have the same reaction to the book as Kym (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5…). The writing was atmospheric and induced claustrophobia that felt to me to be exactly what the characters were feeling. The ending/non-ending felt right to me, although of course I would have liked to find out exactly what had happened to cause their isolation. One nit to pick: I found it highly unlikely that anywhere on Long Island would have no cell service; I live in n.w. Wisconsin, where lack of cell service is a way of life. 4★, but YMMV.

x

x

x

Never Ask Me by Jeff Abbott. This book was a page turner right up to the last few pages. The explanation for all the weird things that happened was far too complicated — it lost me after a page or two — and completely unbelievable. 3★, only because most of it was intriguing.

x

x

x

x

x

The Crown: the Official Companion by Robert Lacey. I picked this to learn more about the history of the period covered in the first series of The Crown. It is a thick book, and I found I was not interested enough to read every word. I skimmed it, reading parts that interested me, and studied the photos, some historical, some from the series. If one is interested in the history this book is an excellent source. If one is mildly interest, like me, it is still an excellent, although overwhelming, source. 3★

x

x

x

Watching.

A Very English Scandal on Amazon Prime. This is a four-episode miniseries based on actual events from the 1950s and 1960s. Hugh Grant plays a Liberal Party leader who has a brief homosexual affair that ends with other party completely disillusioned with the Grant character. That character goes on concoct a ridiculous and ultimately unsuccessful plot to murder the other party. It is by turns dramatic and humorous, and the acting is superb. It was a bit shocking to see Hugh Grant so much older than I remembered him. 4+★

The X Files on Hulu. This seems to be the one series Smokey and I both like, so unless there is something really good on network TV — like a new episode of NCIS or NCIS: LA — we watch an episode or two from X Files. Currently on season four, episode two. As Boomers who grew up with Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, this series checks all the boxes for us.