Joining Kat and her merry band of Unravelers. Go see what the others are up to.
Knitting.
My goodness, it has been a month since I did an Unraveled post! Let’s catch up, shall we?
My hat binge is coming to an end (finally).
Don’t know if there will be a grandchild to wear these, but I bought the yarn, so why not cast on? If the IVF fails again, surely there will be a child somewhere who could rock these baby jeans.
Reading.
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Gallows View (Inspector Banks #1) / Peter Robinson. This is a new author for me, and I am absolutely delighted that he has written 28 books in the Inspector Banks series. Tragically, only a very few are to be found in my library system. I shall have to resort to interlibrary loan and possible eBay or Kindle for some. 3.5✭
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Bad Boy (Inspector Banks #19) / Peter Robinson. Given the dearth of Inspector Banks books in my library system, I resorted to one that was totally out of order but was at least available. 4✭
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Dead Lions (Slow Horses #2) / Mick Herron. Gayle got me started on watching Slow Horses on Apple TV. I watched the first two seasons, but decided I would rather read the books and save my TV time for other watchings. The series is set in Slough House, London, where MI5 spies who have screwed up are sent to wither away and, it is hoped, quit. Slough House becomes “slow horses” in MI5 slang. The author is excellent at description, and the plots are just convoluted enough that I have to pay attention. Plus the character Jackson Lamb, head of Slough House, is a genius at insulting his underlings. 4✭
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Real Tigers (Slough House #3) / Mick Herron. Also a good read. 4✭
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Spook Street (Slough House #4) / Mick Herron. The more I read this series the more I appreciate the writing. Not so much for the plots, although those are intriguing, but for the visuals and the humor. For example: Lamb, the head of Slough House, is called to a crime scene in the middle of the night. 4✭
A uniformed policeman stood there, observing Lamb’s approach with the wary contempt a street copper feels for the Funny Brigade. ‘Help you sir,’ he said: three bare words, neither question nor statement, Lamb might as well have pulled a string on his back.
In place of a answer, Lamb produced the belch that had been brewing for the past five minutes.
“Very convincing, sir. But I’m going to need to see something laminated.”
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The Lost Victim (Ryan Strickland #1) / Jennifer Hunter. Given that I read this in early April, it does not not bode well for a review that I cannot remember a thing about it. So I shall not bother to rate it.
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It Ends With Us / Colleen Hoover. This author is prolific and extremely popular. Back when I read this in early April, it seemed that her books made up over half of the NYTimes best seller list. The story is a romance, but much better written than the Harlequin stuff. 3✭
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Walk the Walk: How Three Police Chiefs Defies the Odds and Changed Cop Culture / Neil Gross. The author is a sociologist and former cop. He s recounts two years embedded within three unusual departments—in Stockton, California; Longmont, Colorado; and LaGrange, Georgia—that have confronted the aggressive culture of policing and replaced it with something better, healthier, and more community-minded, with a code focused on equality before the law, racial reconciliation, and the preservation of life. 4✭
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Listening.
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Local Woman Missing / Mary Kubica. It took me an incredibly long time to finish this audiobook because I started it before the knee surgery and then couldn’t drive for weeks. (I only listen to audiobooks in the car.) It was definitely not worth the time. Very few clues along the way until nearly the end, then an unbelievable plot twist. 2✭
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The Marriage Portrait / Maggie O’Farrell. I suspect many of you have already read this one, the story of Lucrezia de’ Medici of Florence, and her disastrous arranged marriage to Alfonzo II, duke of Ferrara. I am not generally drawn to historical fiction, but this one is superb. The author brings us into the mid-17th century court in Ferrara, and the tension builds throughout. 5✭
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Watching.
I have gotten hooked on The Morning Show with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon on Apple TV+. The cutthroat world of morning TV is the setting, and the tension among its denizens is riveting. Pretty sure I won’t be cancelling Apple TV any time soon. 4✭
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Oh, yeah, Ted Lasso continues to charm me, as it has millions of others. The characters — except Rupert — are endearing, and the stories are interesting. Great TV! 5✭
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Belfast, a movie written, produced, and directed by Kenneth Branagh and based on his own life. He was born in Belfast in 1960, and the movie focuses on a Belfast family at the beginnings of The Troubles in 1969. Branagh’s family left Northern Ireland for England tat that time to avoid the war, as does the family in the movie. What a wrenching decision — to leave everything and everyone you have ever known in hopes of a peaceful life. I watched the movie in preparation for Kym, Carole, and Bonny’s Read With Us discussion of Trespasses on June 6. (The book is on order for me.) 5✭
kmkat & her kneedles 
Fascinating book choices. The jeans look adorable.
Okay, I am off to find those Mick Herron books! I love Slough House… so much! I am also adding the policing book to my TBR list.
I loved Belfast and just binged a PSB series on The Troubles – Once Upon A Time in Northern Ireland. (I think it is only on the PBS app)
Mick Herron sounds like someone I’d like. Particularly since I have just finished reading all the Inspector Banks books I could find (why are they not readily available??_.
… and to think I thought the clean living Jackson Lamb aka @GaryOldman was a breath of fresh air until I read the epic fact based spy thriller, Beyond Enkription in #TheBurlingtonFiles series as part of my MI6 induction program. It’s a must read for espionage cognoscenti.
I’m enjoying the Herron books, too, and have just finished his first book which was the kick-off to a private detective series. I do hope he stays busy!
I haven’t read any of the Robinsons, but I did watch several seasons of the Inspector Banks TV series and liked it, so I’ll have to look into the books.
So many books, so little time…
Slow Horse sounds wonderful – I’ll put that on my list. And you say Lucrezia de Medici, I say Niccolo Machiavelli – Intrigue! Suspense! Drama! I’d better look for that too.