Unraveled, Week 32/2022

This week has been such that it took me a minute or two when I got up this morning to figure out what day it was, but it is Wednesday (I double-checked!), which means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers and to talk about making and reading.

This week I've primarily been focused on my Twofer Tank, which is rapidly approaching completion.

I have reached the specified body length before the hem given in the pattern, but I am on my fourth ball of yarn and still have two full skeins remaining, so I'm going to keep knitting for a while. I've also decided that I'm going to ignore the decreases before the hem listed in the pattern and might even do an increase or two so that the bottom edge isn't fitted. Obviously this is going to need a good blocking, but I'm happy with how it's knitting up and I have tried it on a couple of times to ensure the fit is good. I'm excited to wear this top very soon!

It's been an excellent week for reading with three finishes -- all books I thoroughly enjoyed!

Mary recommended Bomb Shelter to me a couple of months ago, I think, but it took a while for my library to get it and then I had to wait patiently on the hold list. It was worth the wait, though. This memoir in essays deals with subjects both serious, like her son's seizure in the middle of the night and subsequent epilepsy diagnosis, and hilarious, like the turtle who regularly "knocks" at the family's front door and becomes a beloved visitor. Reading these essays is a lot like sitting down and chatting with a friend, and the book reminded me a lot of Ann Patchett's These Precious Days -- so I was not at all surprised to find that not only do the two writers live in the same city, but they also know each other! I identified a lot with Philpott's worries about parenting and life in general and laughed out loud at several points. I gave this book 4 stars.

Up next was The Colony, which is on the Booker Prize long list and came highly recommended by Mary and Margene. I was only able to get it on audio from the library, and I understand that listening to it takes away some of the impact that the printed copy has, but it was still a powerful read. The story is set on a tiny Irish island on a summer in the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and follows two visitors to the island, an English painter and a French linguist studying the inhabitants of the island, who may be among the last native speakers of the Irish language. Interspersed in the narrative of what is happening on the island are brief mentions of the violence in the north, almost emotionless reporting of who is killed and why. The book as a whole examines the long-term impacts and trauma of colonization, and I'd say it's a real contender for the Booker this year. Highly recommend! I gave it 4 stars.

Finally, in the late to the party category, I read The Glass Hotel. I'd been wanting to read it for a while, but there was always a long wait at the library, so I finally picked up a copy at my local bookstore earlier in the summer. I didn't adore this one like I adored Station Eleven, but I really, really liked it. There's something about Emily St. John Mandel's writing that just clicks so well with my brain and pulls me in. I didn't think I would find a story about a Ponzi scheme (quite obviously modeled on the Bernie Madoff scandal) so intriguing, but I did. It was fascinating to me how Mandel manages to have several seemingly unrelated stories all come together in the end, and I enjoyed the explorations into alternate realities and the supernatural. I gave it 4 stars (and I have Sea of Tranquility on hold!).

I have several holds I'm waiting for, so in the meantime I started My Name Is Lucy Barton last night. I have only read one Elizabeth Strout book, and seeing as everyone is reading Oh William!, I figured I should read this one first.

What are you making and reading this week?