Unraveled, Week 10/2025

We've made it to the midpoint of the week, one that's seemed longer than normal to me thanks to not one but two migraines (I blame the extreme swings in weather). The most recent was yesterday afternoon, which is why this post is a bit later than usual because I often get started on my Wednesday posts on Tuesday afternoon and skipped it yesterday. Joining Kat and the Unravelers is always a high point for me, though, so here I am with an update on my making and reading.

First, I have to thank you all for the lovely compliments you gave me on my vest. I've already worn it twice this week, including yesterday, when we reached the low 60s F for a high and it was the perfect light layer. I also found myself admiring the colors in the fabric frequently, so now I'm pondering how I could take fiber that's in my stash and mix it up to have that same tweedy look.

My only project on the needles at the moment are Molly's socks, which are now in the home stretch:

I took them to a long work meeting last Thursday and was able to finish the first sock and start the second over the weekend. I think I will easily finish these up by the end of the week, and I'm going to need to cast on some stockinette project soon because we're going to see Kimberly Akimbo on Saturday afternoon and I'll need something to keep my hands busy.

Yesterday afternoon I sat down at my wheel and plied up the yarn I started spinning last week; skeining and washing are on today's to-do list. It looked lots of fun while I was plying, so I'm excited to see the full skein!

I've finished two books this last week.

First was a reread: Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. I borrowed an audiobook via Hoopla, and there are so many versions that I couldn't find the one I listened to on either Goodreads or StoryGraph! I've read the book at least once before, but it's been many years, and I wanted to reread it before I read a modern retelling that's in my Kindle library. This book tells the story of Fanny Price, who is taken in by her aunt and uncle as a young girl; she is one of many children, and her mother's sisters have decided that bringing her up is a sufficient act of charity. Though she is brought up in better circumstances than her siblings, she doesn't rank as high as her cousins in terms of the opportunities available to her and thus is mostly an observer of their lives. Like all Austen novels, the subject of marriage as a means of social advancement looms large, and though I knew to expect it, I was struck on this reread by how little regard was paid to Fanny's feelings and moral beliefs when it came to who she might marry -- and how well she stood up to the pressure. Revisiting this novel was very pleasurable. I gave it 4 stars.

You might think that The Dream Hotel, set in a technology-rich near future, is the complete opposite of Austen, but in fact it shares the theme of a woman whose freedom to make her own choices is limited by her society. In this novel, the United States has taken an extreme step in fighting violence by using an algorithm to detain individuals deemed at risk of committing a violent act. It's no longer about just making threats, either; in this world, implantable devices design to help people sleep better also can read their dreams, and the content of their dreams can be used against them. That is what happens to Sara Hussein, a mother of young twins who sought help for her extreme exhaustion and ends up in a retention facility because the algorithm predicts she is at risk of harming her husband. Once she is in the system, she finds that it is hard to escape it, because not only can her own dreams and data be used against her, but she is also of value to the private company that runs the retention facilities. She is subject to the whims of those who supervise the retainees, who enforce the endless and often changing rules of the facility, and is under constant surveillance by cameras, microphones, and the device that continues to record her dreams, and every infraction lengthens her stay. She is torn between trying to follow the rules in the hopes of being released and fighting against an unjust system. What is so chilling about this book is that it doesn't seem that far-fetched, given how much of our lives we put online and how little attention we pay to the terms and conditions of the apps and sites and devices we use every day. Who is to say that all our data won't be used against us, particularly in the current political climate? Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was just published yesterday! And thank you to Bonny for putting it on my radar.

I'm still slowly making my way through The Secret History, with about 200 pages to go. And I've got another Bonny-recommended title up next on Kindle.

What are you making and reading this week?