Joining Kat and friends. Go see what the others are up to.

Knitting.

This will be a Sockhead hat for my brother in Canada after many more hours of knitting. I had forgotten how long it takes to do 4″ of ribbing and 9″ of stockinette on US#2 and 2-1/2 needles and fingering weight yarn. (Hint: a l-o-n-g time.) The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll in ‘Rhapsody’, 100% merino and very soft. He asked for a cotton lining in the hat because apparently his skin is like mine, very sensitive. I tried that but it was nearly impossible, so instead I went for the merino. I keep rubbing it on my face to confirm that it does not itch. When this one is done, I will make another in a slightly different yarn in a slightly different shade of blue for SIL.

Reading.

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Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. This book is by the same author as A Gentleman in Moscow, which I listened to and enjoyed. Civility reminded me of The Great Gatsby simply because it was set in 1938 New York. Main character is a young woman who has moved to NYC and eventually gets a job as assistant to the editor of a new magazine. She moves among the bright young things, has love affairs, attends parties with Ivy Leaguers, yada yada. Overall, I enjoyed this book; sadly, I don’t remember it terribly well. 3.5✭

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The Judges List by John Grisham. This is Grisham’s latest tome, this one about a Florida judge who is a serial killer. Kinda improbable, but I am willing to suspend my disbelief in service to a good story, It’s a page turner, as always, but worth it. A frightened woman comes to the Florida Board of Judicial Conduct with a story about the man who killed her father, a law school professor, and she has information about another dozen or so murders he probably committed, all in different states. 3✭

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Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker. I only got about two pages into this one before I decided it did not suit my mood. It seemed like it was going to be a cozy set in rural France, and I have given up on cozies, particularly ones with an adorable setting. 1✭ YMMV.

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Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. Reading the reviews of this book on Goodreads, I found that people either loved it or hated it. Count me in the latter group. Three large, different time periods with little or no apparent connection to each other, characters that pop up in different periods within the larger one, time jumps both backward and forward, and lots and lots of description, I made it about 30 pages into the (600+ page) book before I threw up my hands and threw down the book. Don’t let my non-love for the book stop you from trying it; many of the reviewers loved it unconditionally. It was just not my cup of tea, plus I didn’t want to work that hard to follow it. 1✭

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Lightning Strike by William Kent Kruger. I have read every book Kruger puts out. Having grown up in northern MN, where all his books are set, I recognize the landscape and the people. Beyond that, he is a good storyteller. This book is a prequel to the Cork O’Connor series and explores Cork’s roots and his father’s influence on him (father was the sheriff in Cork’s boyhood and was killed on the job) . 4✭

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Listening.

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The Warmth of Other Suns. Still listening. I have 12+ other audiobooks in my Audible library waiting to be *read*. As much as I am liking this one, which tells the stories of three Blacks who migrated from the deep South to the North, I am ready for it to be done. 5✭

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Watching.

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We are through season 1, 6 to go! I don’t know why, but we seem to gravitate toward cop/crime shows — Criminal Minds (canceled a couple years ago, sob), NCIS, NCIS LA, all the flavors of Law and Order, etc. Cold Case is well done and believable, with endearing characters. Smokey pointed out that it seems to have been filmed on the East Coast, so the actors all look like real people rather than Hollywood starlets and whatever is the male version of a starlet. 3.5

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Bosch on Amazon Prime. Another cop show. This is what I watch when I want to knit and Smokey is not around to watch Cold Case. I have a slight crush on the actor who plays Harry Bosch, Titus Welliver, as well. Seven seasons! I love it when a show I decide to watch has many seasons; longer until I have to find another. From this review, “Detective Harry Bosch is… a maverick homicide detective, quick tempered and intuitive, likely to bend some rules while staying true to his own code of conduct and demanding that others do the same.” 3.5✭