Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday.

Knitting.

Well, I screwed up my courage and knit the short row section of my red Boxy. It was so intimidating that I think I never did more than one or two rows at a time. Call me a coward, but I found this soooo challenging. Not difficult, mind you, but mentally challenging. Once that bit was done I finished the back posthaste, put the shoulder stitches on holders, and began the upper front. As noted below, we are camping on the North Shore; I should be able to finish the front and perhaps even start on the sleeves by the time we get home.

Behold, (some of) the blue hats!

Reading.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. This is the book Kym, Carole, and Bonny chose for their current book club read. Although I have never actually participated in their discussions, I read most of their picks. I have only started this one, so I cannot rate it yet; at this moment we are camping on the North Shore, and I should finish it by the time we leave.

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The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness. This is the third book in the All Souls trilogy, which I enjoyed immensely. Imagine Outlander with witches, demons, and vampires along with time travel and a passionate love affair, and you have this series. 4.5✭ (I reserve a 5 rating for a book that changes my life. As good as this series is, it is simply well-written, delightful escapism.)

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Anxious People by Frederick Backman. I have read a couple other books by this author and loved both of them, so it is no surprise that I loved this one, too. Backman writes about his characters lovingly, no matter how goofy or screwed up they are. This one is about a bank robbery goes horribly wrong — spoiler, no one is hurt — and a home viewing that interferes, plus a story about a cop whose son is also a cop. 4✭

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Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith. This is the fifth book in the Cormorant Strike series. It is another doorstopper from J.K. Rowling — nearly 1,000 pages, but I enjoyed every one. 4✭

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The Shadow Box by Luanne Rice. This was a freebie Kindle book courtesy of Amazon Prime. Suspense novel set among the privileged and the proletarians in a seaside Connecticut village. Ok, not great. 3✭

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While Justice Sleeps by Stacy Abrams. Abrams has written several books, and she writes well. Plot, pacing, characters are all standard suspense fare. 3✭

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Choose Me by Tess Garritsen. Another freebie from Amazon Prime. Standard suspense fare. 3✭

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The Darkest Flower by Kristen Wright. Another Amazon Prime freebie*. Murder in suburbia; which one of the PTA members did it? 3✭

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df* Lest you think that I read this drivel, I only resort to reading freebies when I run out of library books. I meant to go pick up my latest requests yesterday but forgot. Whenever I run out of library books, I resort to the Amazon freebies.

Listening.

Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous. Somehow I started following Duchess on Twitter, back when I used to peruse that site. She is delightful, witty, sarcastic, and completely fictional. You can read a review in WaPo here. If you prefer the canon, read her Twitter feed here. You won’t be disappointed.4✭

Watching.

The X Files. We finished season 7 last week and are waiting for season 8 to arrive at the library. (There are 11 seasons.) We both agreed that season 7 was not nearly up to par compared to seasons one through six. There was one episode back in six that pretty much explained the entire mythology of the series — conspiracies, aliens, rebels, abductions, all of it. When I was a kid my dad loved to watch westerns — Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, etc. Occasionally he would proclaim an episode as dumb; these were always episodes that were based in humor. Season seven was like that — silly. 1✭

Rake on Netflix. The protagonist, a barrister in Sydney, is a dissolute, ethically challenged, alcoholic, drugged, womanizing character. Seasons one through three focused on that; all his nasty pigeons come home to roost towards the end of season four. His downfall began in season three when he went to prison for manslaughter. In season four he is (finally!) disbarred and seems to have lost all his lovers and friends. I can’t wait to see what happens next; season five is the last one. 4.5✭