Unraveled, Week 28/2021

It is Wednesday again, so I'm linking up as per usual with Kat and the Unravelers to talk making and reading.

If you can believe it, I'm down to just one knitting WIP -- I'm as shocked as you are! It's my ADVENTuresome Wrap, which has sadly been largely ignored for quite a while. I took it with me on our trip to Michigan but never took it out. I've decided that it's been neglected long enough, so I am going to focus on it now until it's done. Last night I started the fifth stripe (remember that there will be a total of 24):

I expect that it won't be very long at all until there's another project on the needles. I'm taking Rainbow to the orthodontist on Friday to get her first appliance put on and may be there for as long as an hour and a half, so I will need something to keep me busy -- maybe some socks or another charity hat.

Reading has been good this past week, though that pesky day job has shortened my time to read a bit. I've finished three books:

I had been meaning to read Suite Française for quite a while, since I heard the story of how it came to be (the short version: the author wrote it in France during WWII and had planned it to be a series of five books but was deported to Auschwitz, where she died, before she could write the last three; the two volumes she finished were only just published in 2007). I have read a lot of WWII/Holocaust fiction -- it's probably my most-read genre -- but this is the first one I can remember that focused solely on stories of non-Jewish civilians. I did enjoy it, though I didn't quite get a sense of a cohesive narrative; I suspect this is largely due to the fact that it was unfinished. I gave it 3 stars.

Bingo square: Originally published posthumously

Dear Senthuran, by the author of The Death of Vivek Oji, was recommended by Margene in one of our Sunday Zoom sessions. It's a memoir in the form of letters, and in it, Akwaeke Emezi explores and tries to explain their identity and how this identity has complicated and enriched their life. I was really fascinated by this read, though at times I felt that there was much I was not getting or fully appreciating. Emezi identifies as trans and as not a woman but a non-human god, an ogbanje. While I still have much to learn about the broad spectrum of gender identity, I can honestly say that this identity is one I have never come across, and I am now anxious to read Emezi's debut novel, Freshwater, which sounds quite informed by their own experiences. This is a hard read, and I admit it made me occasionally uncomfortable, but it was worth it. I gave it 3 stars.
Bingo square: Epistolary (card #2)

I did not intended to read two books about the trans experience back to back, but Detransition, Baby popped up from my library holds on Saturday morning and the timing was perfect to get lost in a book, so that's what happened. This is an excellent read and well worth the buzz surrounding its release earlier this year. I can honestly say that I learned a ton from reading this book, even though it is fiction. I would hope that, given that the author is trans herself, it's an accurate representation of what it's like to be trans on a day-to-day basis. I will note that this book is fairly explicit in its sexual content, so if that makes you uncomfortable, it may not be the book for you, but I think it's well worth reading if you are cis and want to be a better ally. I gave it 4 stars.
Bingo square: An LGBTQIA+ author (card #2)

I now have just five squares left to fill on my first bingo card, and I am going to focus on filling those squares before I read any more for the second (and I know exactly which books I'll be reading for those as yet empty squares, too). My two current reads are Their Eyes Were Watching G-d, which, though a short book, is going slowly because of the dialect, and No One Is Coming to Save Us, which I just started yesterday and is my current reading-while-spinning choice. My three remaining squares consist of two books I own in print and one that I can borrow from the library via Hoopla, so there will be no waiting to get to those.

What are you working on and reading these days? How is your bingo card coming along?