Unraveled, Week 18/2024

Good morning! It's not an official Unraveled Wednesday this week as Kat is away, but it's such a part of my weekly routine that I couldn't skip it. It's a big day here -- today, my youngest nephew turns 1! And Mo and her entire class are also leaving this morning for their class trip to Washington, D.C., so the house is going to be a bit empty for a few days.

It's been a busy work week (my boss dumped 40 pages of content on me on Friday when she took the day off), so I haven't gotten a ton of crafting done over the past several days but have been adding a round or two here and there on my socks and am almost to the heel placement on sock number two:

I am supposed to have a two-hour Zoom professional development workshop this afternoon, and I expect that will be the perfect time to get some more done on these.

But I've also been feeling the call of spinning lately. Somehow I managed to go an entire month without spinning at all -- I think when David of Southern Cross Fibre announced he was retiring, I kind of lost my mojo for a while. I have since received my final club shipment, but I am expecting one more package from him (today, in fact) because I ordered some coordinates. I have been very good about not buying yarn or fiber this year, but I figured this was okay because it's the last purchase I'll ever be able to make from him. I already have a sweater pattern picked out and know exactly how I am going to spin what's coming. In the meantime, I think I'll work a bit on this scrappy project from last summer:

I've finally managed to finish some books in the last week!

First up, an ARC: Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. This book follows the lives of the members of a Jewish American family after the dramatic kidnapping of the father and examines the impact of that trauma on his wife and his three children. They all grow up with some major life issues, but is the trauma to blame? They also grow up with the comfort of the family's money, but is it a help or a hindrance? The writing is smart and often entertaining, but I feel a bit conflicted about the book because the characters all seem to be awful. I both wanted to find out what would happen to them and also didn't want to read more because they just seemed to be getting worse. Did no one think of getting therapy? As much as the characters make messes of their lives, I think this book poses some really interesting questions about how we deal with trauma, both personal and cultural, and about whether trying to ease our children's path in life helps or harms them. I gave it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review. This book will be published July 9, 2024.

Next up was When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant, winner of the 2000  Women's Prize for Fiction. Set after WWII, Evelyn Sert, a young Jewish British woman, longs for a different life and sets out for the British mandate of Palestine, where she tries on several different identities: kibbutznik, gentile hairdresser, spy. She is a witness to the final period of British colonial rule in the area and to burgeoning Jewish state, from the Socialist idealists to the more radical underground groups. Given the current state of the region, it was a very interesting read from a political standpoint -- especially seeing that while the world has changed a lot in the nearly eight decades since, the core conflicts haven't changed much at all. I gave this 4 stars.

Finally, I read a quick book that my brother had lent to me. The Golem of Brooklyn is set in more or less present day and details what happens when an art teacher in Brooklyn decides to see if he can create a golem out of clay he's taken from his school. In the stories, a golem can only be created at a time when the survival of the Jews is at stake, and it seems that in our time, the threat is from white nationalists. What follows is funny and rather ridiculous. It felt a lot like a revenge fantasy (the same kind of feeling I got from watching the movie Inglorious Basterds). I probably wouldn't have read it had my brother not given it to me, but it was quick to read. I gave it 3 stars.

I am currently reading The Forgotten Names, another ARC, and Kairos. I'm hoping to have more time with both of them once I can finish up the pile of work on my plate!

What are you making and reading this week?