Unraveled, Week 39/2021

It's Wednesday again, the last one in September, which means it's time for my weekly link-up with Kat and the Unravelers to talk making and reading!

After a couple of weeks where it seemed like nothing was getting done, I am back on track. I've been spinning and reading (that bobbin is filling up fast) and have pulled out my knitting again. I finished a sock to start the week, the first of the pair for my sister-in-law's Christmas gift this year:

I've decided to make the socks fraternal, though I'll be casting on the second sock so that the stripes will line up even if they don't match.

I've also made some noticeable progress on my handspun Shifty -- that progress keeper shows where I was Sunday night:

I got quite a few rounds knit on this yesterday while sitting through a work presentation that I'd been invited to and that turned out to be completely worthless to me (I had my camera off and my microphone muted the whole time, so it was easy to knit while I was listening in). I'm just a few rounds away from the final yoke increase round, and I think at that point I will put some of the stitches on another long circular needle so that I can check the fit. It's pretty much perfect right now, so my fingers are crossed that it stays that way.

My reading pace has picked up a bit, and I've finished two books in the past week:

I can now say that I'm a Claire Fuller completist, having finished Bitter Orange over the weekend. I can also say that it's probably a good thing for me that, having decided to read her entire back catalog, she's only published four books so far. She's a talented writer, and she kept me guessing to the end of this one, but it was a very unsettling read. It's creepy and strange and has me worried a bit about what is going on in the author's head that she keeps writing these troubling books. I appreciated what she did in this book and how she structured it so that you get little clues along the way that lead you to think you know what's going to happen (but you'd be wrong), but I can't say I truly enjoyed it -- I was really only compelled to finish it so that I could find out what happened. I gave it 3 stars.

Bewilderment just came out last week and I was really surprised to get the audio version from my library as quickly as I did. If you loved The Overstory as much as I did, then I think you will love this book as well. Although the novels are very different, they both have at their core a message of the urgency of environmentalism. This newest release is the story of Theo, an astrobiologist who is recently widowed, and his young son, Robin, who might best be described as neurodivergent and with some troubling behavioral problems. As part of an effort to solve those problems, Theo enrolls Robin in an experimental cognitive feedback therapy being trialed by a scientist who earlier ran a study in which Theo and his late wife were subjects. Ultimately, using data from Robin's mother in his therapy is what makes a difference to him -- but his ability to continue the therapy is put in jeopardy by a turbulent political situation that will seem very familiar to you (it's very reminiscent of the previous administration), and all of this is against the backdrop of climate change that is growing increasingly dire in its consequences and effects. Really, it's a remarkable book that is grand and sweeping in its scope -- there is so much in this relatively short book that I think I'm going to need to buy a copy to reread more slowly -- but at its heart is a truly touching and emotional story of a father and son wrecked by the loss of their wife and mother and trying to navigate a world that seems to be falling apart at the seams. I gave it 5 stars and highly recommend it!

I am still reading Jane Eyre but finally decided that in order to make progress on it, I needed to change up my mode of reading, so I've borrowed a digital copy from the library so I can read while knitting or spinning (and the print is a lot easier to read on the screen than in my little paperback). I'd love to be able to finish it up by the end of the month, and if work cooperates, that's an entirely reasonable goal.

So, what are you making and reading this week? Have you read either of the two books I've just finished? If so, what did you think?