Unraveled, Week 20/2025

It's really Wednesday today, so that means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers! I'm kicking off this Unraveled Wednesday with two bobbins of singles that are ready to be plied:

I've got two meetings this morning, one of which I expect to last for a full hour, so I'll make a good start on getting through all the singles. I may have overdone it a bit yesterday trying to finish up the second bobbin, because my right wrist was hurting a bit last night. All is well this morning, though, and plying is a lot easier on my body than spinning singles, so I'm hopeful I'll have a finished skein to share with you on Friday.

I'm also making good progress on the socks and am in the home stretch on the second one after finishing the gusset decreases on it last night.

Reading has picked up a bit after a busy workweek last week. I've got three finishes to share today.

First up was my reread of The Secret History in preparation for the Read With Us discussion next week. According to Goodreads, I first read this back in 2016. I found I remembered a fair amount of it but not how it wrapped up. And my opinion of the book didn't change much on this revisit. The writing is absolutely fantastic, but the characters are pretty much all horrible people. I'd say it takes real skill as a writer to get your reader to root for people to get away with murder, but that's really what happens with this book. This time around, I was really struck by how Donna Tartt manages to make the story feel like it takes place much longer ago than it does. There are plenty of cultural indications that it takes place in the 1980s, but it feels like it could be the '50s in many ways. The way the characters speak and behave feels like they're out of a different era, which I suppose is fitting for a group studying the classics. In any case, I loved the writing but got an icky feeling throughout much of the book. I gave it, again, 4 stars.

After being with those terrible people for weeks, I needed something lighter. I'd say I'm the last person to read The Thursday Murder Club, but judging from how long the wait list is at my library, clearly there are a lot of people behind me. I was in that wait list for a while until the book popped up as a Kindle deal, and I took advantage -- $1.99 was worth it not to have to wait months! I'm sure many of you have read this by now, but if you haven't, I'd recommend it. It follows a group of friends in a British retirement community who get together to solve murders. They started with old cases, but soon there are several murders related to their community and they are on the case. Murder isn't particularly funny, of course, but this is a lighthearted take on it. And it's also a heartwarming look at how people with very different backgrounds can find commonalities and how individuals who most people would discount because of their age can find that they still have agency. I very much enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars.

When I was in need of something to listen to late last week, I borrowed The Plot via Hoopla. I'd heard mixed reviews of it, but I thought a mystery/thriller would make for good reading while cleaning the bathroom and folding laundry. Jacob Finch Bonner is a struggling novelist teaching at a low-residency MFA program when he comes across an arrogant student who claims he has a plot for a novel that is guaranteed to be huge success, and when Jacob hears the plot, he realizes the student is right. When the student's book hasn't materialized years later, Jacob learns that it's because the student has died -- and that means that plot is up for grabs. So Jacob uses the plot and writes a book that does indeed become a huge success. But then the messages and social media posts and letters start coming from an anonymous source claiming that he stole the book and threatening to expose him. The story is interspersed with excerpts from the book that Jacob writes using the plot, and eventually the big twist that is behind its success is revealed -- as is the reason how the person sending the messages knows where Jacob got the plot. This book was entertaining enough, but I saw the plot twists coming (both in the book and in the book-within-the-book). I also didn't much care for Jacob as a character and was annoyed with him for quite a bit. I think the author was trying to raise some bigger questions about writing and whether anyone can own an idea, but it all seemed a bit overwrought. I gave it 3 stars.

I am currently reading Leila Mottley's forthcoming second novel, The Girls Who Grew Big. 

What are you making and reading this week?