It's Friday!

Here's hoping the day goes quickly and we can all fly into the weekend like this silly pup!

(I have no idea what was going on here. I was making dinner in the kitchen, and when I turned around, she was like this.)

Have a good weekend, all!

Unraveled, Week 15/2026

What a week it has been already! I'm glad we've reached the midpoint of it, which means it's time to join Kat and the Unravelers and to give you an update on my crafting and my reading.

Though it's felt like slow going at times, I have been making steady progress on my sweater, and you can really see how much I've done when you compare this photo to last week's:

The last time I measured the body under the arm, I had about 5 inches knit. The pattern tells me to knit until I have 12.2 inches (yes, that's a weird measurement; I presume the designer started with metric and converted to imperial) before the ribbing at the bottom, so I'm nearly halfway done.

And I am getting close to the toe of the first Home Movie sock, which -- as predicted -- did some fun pooling throughout the gusset decreases:

I've done a ton of reading this past week and finished six(!) books, but because it's been a busy week, I'm going to stick with brief reviews today.

Good People by Patmeena Sabit

5 stars

This the next Read With Us selection, and I predict we'll have an amazing discussion about it! This debut novel tells the story of a tragedy in an immigrant family in a truly inventive way: in a series of short statements given by friends, neighbors, reporters, police officers, and others who all have an opinion of what happened. And what happened isn't clear; I'm convinced the author made this deliberately ambiguous. I don't want to give any more than that away. Suffice it to say that it's a nearly 400-page book and I flew through it in just a few days. Highly recommend!

Go as a River by Shelley Read

2 stars

I'd seen the cover of this one a lot of places and it had decent reviews, so I listened. I should have listened to my gut when it was telling me to DNF it during the first quarter of the book. I found the plot and characters to be a bit far fetched and I wasn't impressed with the writing. I only kept listening because so many people seemed to love it and I thought it would get better. Sorry to say it didn't for me. (It might be better read with the eyes; the narrator was not to my taste and I'm sure that colored my opinion quite a bit.)

The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson

4 stars

I found a hardcover of this book in the nearest Little Free Library (aka the good one!) and recognized the title as one a couple of friends had read. It's a quiet novel in which the narrator, sick with a fever, pulls a book off her shelf that leads her to remember four people from her past and the role they'd played in her life. I thought the last one was particularly affecting. 

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved by Kate Bowler

4 stars

I've enjoyed listening to Kate Bowler on one of my regular podcasts but had never read any of her books until Carole's review of her new one convinced me to give one a try. This memoir that deals with her diagnosis and treatment for Stage IV colon cancer was available, so that's what I started with. I was surprised by how funny and uplifting a book on such a serious subject could be, but that's the kind of person Kate Bowler is. 

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

4 stars

Another quiet book, this is a memoir about the comfort the author found in observing the life and behaviors of a snail brought to her bedside by a friend while she was recovering from a serious illness that prevented her from doing much other than lying in bed. It reminded me quite a bit of Raising Hare in its focus on a singular animal that led the author to learn more about it. I know several of you have read and enjoyed it, so thanks for the recommendation.

Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan

4 stars

This is sort of a romance but also pokes fun at the world of romance novels and their common tropes. It's set in the world of audiobooks and their narrators, clearly informed by the experience of the author -- a well-known and well-respected narrator herself! I was looking for something entertaining and more lighthearted, and this certainly fit the bill.

Currently reading: The Hakawati and The Personal Librarian, plus I've got Kate Bowler's newest book on audio from the library!

Gotcha

One year ago today, Ruthie joined our family. Can you believe it? It's been quite a year. There were the early weeks of sleeping in the family room with her and taking her out at all hours, when her most comfortable place was curled up in my lap and when she was so scared of everything that sometimes when we'd go on a walk I'd have to pick up her and carry her home. Then she made friends with other dogs in the neighborhood and learned the pleasures of picking up sticks on walks. We've been through vet visits, puppy kindergarten, several days when she was left home alone with the Mister, and the two weeks she spent boarding in December.

I still remember the day we brought her home and how surprised we were by how tiny she was:

Our lives have changed a lot, especially mine, but for all the lack of sleep and accidents to clean up and vet bills to play, I wouldn't change anything. She's my velcro dog, my best buddy, and my napping companion. Happy Gotcha Day, Ruthie!

Never Dull

Well, friends, life was certainly ... life-ing this week. The Mister was away for work, so that meant two school runs a day and cooking and cleaning up in the evening (plus dragging the garbage and recycling to the curb). All of it doable, just more. When I took Ruthie in for her rabies booster, they told me to bring a stool sample. And wouldn't you know it? It tested positive for parasites. So I had to go back to the vet to pick up some meds. Then, yesterday, she decided she was no longer interested in eating her food at breakfast and it sat in her bowl most of the day while she occasionally ate a piece or two. (She was her normal self at dinner and gobbled it all up. Seems she just wanted me to worry more all day.) And all week my brain kept waking me up way too early, like before-5-a.m.-early in some cases.

All of this is to say that it's been a long week and I'm ready for the weekend. And there are good things, too. The Mister is back and working from home today. Passover ended last night, which we marked with pasta for dinner and freshly baked brownies for dessert. Molly has PSAT's today (this is just for practice; they don't really count for anything until next year) and is done at school at 10. And it looks like we're going to have a full weekend of spring.

You know what else is good? How these colors are pooling in my current sock WIP:

It's been a good number of years since I knit a multicolor variegated sock, so this is entertaining me more than it probably should. I'm sure it'll get even more wild as I get through the gusset.

So it's been an interesting week. Molly joked that Ruthie has taken her place as the family member I worry about constantly, and she's not wrong. I suppose that's a common feature of parenting, whether we're talking about humans or pets!

We've got nothing on the calendar this weekend, and that's just fine by me. I plan to have as normal a weekend as possible, and even if Ruthie wakes me up at 6 both days, it'll still feel a bit like sleeping in.

Have a good one, friends!

Unraveled, Week 14/2026

I'm thankful that Monday whooshed by and we've arrived at the middle of the week. Time to join with Kat and the Unravelers with an update on my making and my reading!

I promised an update on my sweater and here it is, in all its glory on Matilda:

I'm now at the point that should be going pretty fast but hasn't really in the past several days because this is my evening knitting project and my evenings have been full of late (we were out to dinner over the weekend and then I had multiple loads of laundry to fold several evenings). But it's all stockinette for quite a while now, and all I have to pay attention to is changing strands when I get to the end of round. I expect I will have made much more progress by this time next week. Or at least I hope so.

I also cast on the socks for my sister-in-law, and as I expected, I'm getting some really fun pooling with this yarn:

Please forgive the less-than-optimal lighting; I didn't want to wake the sleeping dog.

I'll be making these with a relatively short leg, both because this sister-in-law has rather shapely calves and because her feet are so much bigger around compared to the other recipients that I don't want to risk running out of yarn.

It's been another good week of reading! I finished four books this week.

I would classify I Cheerfully Refuse as dystopian fiction, as it's set in the United States at some unspecified time in the future when the divide between the wealthy and powerful and everyone else has broadened drastically and even the president is illiterate. Most people are just trying to get by, and some of them are still willing to do kind things for others. Rainy is one of those, offering a room for rent to a fearful man who has clearly run from a punishing work contract. Offering him shelter is the kind thing to do but leads to tragedy for Rainy, who is eventually forced to flee from his home and take up residence on a boat on Lake Superior. It's a difficult plot to explain, but it's a well written story that praises the values of human kindness, finding joy in the moment, and the power of music and the written word. I gave it 4 stars.

After having it on my shelf for at least a year and following way behind Katie in our buddy read, I finally finished Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. I'd first read the epic poem way back at the beginning of high school, and the translation we'd read for class was old even then. I thought this newer one was so fresh and modern and certainly much more engaging. Though the setting is ancient, the characters feel like people you might encounter today (well, maybe not Polyphemus the cyclops or Athena walking around in disguise, but you know what I mean). I think it took me just as long to read the introduction and the translator's note as it did to read the actual poem, but I wouldn't have skipped those parts and wouldn't recommend that anyone skip them -- they're full of great information. I really enjoyed this experience and gave it 4 stars as well.

My next finish was an ARC, so if this one interests you, I'm sorry that you'll have to wait about a month to read it. I have now read all of Douglas Stuart's novels, and I have to say that his newest, John of John, is my favorite of the three. Cal is in his early 20s, and after finishing his degree on the mainland but not succeeding in finding work, he is headed back to the small Scottish island where he was raised by his stern Presbyterian father, a sheep farmer and home weaver, and his maternal grandmother, Ella, after his mother left them when he was young. Cal has always had a difficult relationship with his father and feels a bit of a failure in heading home to this insular community where everyone knows everything. But everyone in his family is also keeping a secret, and these secrets, if revealed, would have the potential to devastate the entire family. Both Cal and his father wrestle with their inner demons and their relationships as they try to figure out how to live a life in this place where it's becoming increasingly apparent that their way of life won't be an option much longer. There is some poverty, some family discord, and even some physical violence, but it's nothing like what was depicted in Shuggie Bain or Young Mungo, which I know a lot of readers struggled with. It's clear that Stuart is drawing on some of his own life story again (the knitters will likely enjoy the bits about weaving and yarn and sheep!), but this iteration feels more hopeful. I gave it 4 stars. Thank you to Grove Press and Edelweiss for providing me with a digital ARC in return for an honest review. This book will be published May 5, 2026.

Finally, a quick audiobook (I listened to all of it in a day). I'd heard about Abigail Thomas from Honoré and had her short memoir What Comes Next and How to Like It bookmarked for several months. When I needed a short audiobook, it fit the bill perfectly. This isn't a typical memoir as it's not really a sequential story but rather a collection of short vignettes. Thomas tells stories about her relationships, her friendships, her children, her alcoholism, her dogs. She is blunt and to the point, and I really enjoyed her voice -- both literary and literal, as she reads the audio. I don't think her life has been extraordinary, but then I tend to like hearing about the lives of ordinary people. She kept me good company on a run, two dog walks, and while folding a load of laundry. I gave the book 3 stars.

I am currently reading a short novel in translation before bed, and I just started Good People, the next Read With Us selection, yesterday.

What are you making and reading this week?

Two Days, Two Seasons

Well, that was a super weird weekend! On Saturday, it was a little damp from the rain overnight, but the sun soon came out and it warmed up -- a lot. We reached a high of 83ºF, and I got a bit sweaty walking Ruthie even though I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. We actually had to turn the air conditioning on because it was so much warmer in the house and we'd had trouble sleeping because of it. Yesterday, I woke up to rain again, but it was about 40 degrees cooler -- I needed a jacket, a hat, and gloves to walk the dog! I felt really bad for the little girls out in their Easter dresses and the kids out hunting for eggs in the wet grass, but I guess this isn't all that unusual for early April in Western Pennsylvania.

Fortunately, it was comfortable inside the house, and while I didn't sleep as much as I would have liked, I at least got a fair amount of downtime. It was enough to finish the first pair of sister-in-law socks:

They aren't quite a perfect match, but they are good enough. I did wind off a little yarn to start the second sock in the same place in the stripe sequence, and you can really only tell that they're not exactly the same if you look at the toes. And they're done, which is the best part.

I spent a little bit of time going through my sock yarn bin and came out with this skein for my other sister-in-law:

This is Knit Picks Stroll Hand Painted, a 75/25 superwash Merino/nylon blend, in the colorway Home Movie. I expect this will pool and flash rather than stripe, especially at the 80-stitch circumference I'll need for this recipient's feet. But I am rather enjoying the patterning that happened when I wound it into a center-pull ball!

This week Molly is back at school (so her bad mood will likely be back as well) and the Mister has a work trip, so I will be doing a lot of chauffeuring. Ruthie also has an appointment at the vet this morning to get her rabies booster. She'll be mad at me for withholding breakfast this morning (which I always do before she has to go in the car), but I'm sure they'll give her treats there and I'll make it up to her later in the day. And the cold will be sticking around for a few days yet, so I guess my hand-knit socks will get a few more wears before they go into hibernation.

I hope you have an easy start to your week, and I'll see you back here on Wednesday with a big sweater update!

Good Friday, Indeed

It's been a busy week, so I am feeling happier than usual about the fact that we've reached the end of it -- though perhaps the fact that I am done with work at 2 p.m. this afternoon has something to do with it! 

It's been a wet start to the month. We woke up on Wednesday having gotten an inch of rain overnight, and on a walk, Ruthie and I discovered that a neighbor had a pond in their backyard.

Fortunately when it's rainy outside, I feel less guilty about staying inside to read and knit! And progress has been made on both projects since you last saw them.

I've finished the colorwork on the yoke of my sweater, though that wasn't until last night after dinner and I had to take the photo earlier in the day, so what you're seeing here is about a round and a half short of completion.

It's been quite interesting to see how both yarns have striped, though the main color is obviously more subtle than the contrast. I've been working with the smallest skein of the three I have for this section, but now I'll be alternating to blend the skeins and avoid very obviously lines. I've also noticed that the purple yarn is a bit more robust than the other yarn, so there's an added textural element to the colorwork. I'm hoping that blocking will help to even it out a bit.

I've also gotten to the gusset of the second sock in the current pair, which means I'm about 75% of the way done with them.

On my to-do list for this weekend will be to pull out my bin of sock yarn and pick something for my other sister-in-law. She has the biggest feet of the four recipients, so perhaps I shouldn't have left her for last, but at least there's still more than a month left before Mother's Day and that should be plenty of time.

We had some interesting Passover Seders this week (four kids under 6 the first night made for a rushed and noisy time of it!). My mother, as per usual, made about twice as much food as was needed, so I expect we'll be eating leftovers for a while. Meal planning will be a little difficult for next week without our go-to of pasta, but we have more options than we used to since the Reform movement ruled that a lot of things that Eastern European Jews used to avoid during Passover (like corn, rice, and legumes) are, in fact, permitted -- but those aren't necessarily things Molly will eat, so it's still complicated.

We've got another quiet weekend ahead, and that's just fine with me. Molly may be working tomorrow (I expect they'll be busy because it's supposed to be close to 80!), and I have a couple of errands to run, but we have no fixed plans. And Monday she goes back to school, so it's the last weekend of spring break.

I wish you a very happy Easter if you're celebrating this weekend!

Unraveled, Week 13/2026

It's Wednesday and the first day of April, so no fooling around -- time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

I've worked some more on both my sweater and the socks for my sister-in-law, and while I've made some progress since Monday, it's not enough to make it worth sharing an update so soon, so today I thought I'd share my most recent yarny acquisition. Now, we all know I don't need more yarn and have actively been trying to use up stash for a while. But I'm all about moderation, and that means that occasionally I feel it's acceptable to acquire some new yarn. In this case, it was done for a good reason. I think you all know that I am friends (in real life!) with Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works. Earlier in March (on my birthday, actually), she had hip replacement surgery. I knew she was worried about it and wasn't sure how long she'd be out of commission as far as dyeing yarn is concerned, so I wanted to help her out a bit by making a purchase -- nothing huge, just a little business thrown her way to help while she's unable to work. So here's what I ordered:

On the far left is Bounce (fingering weight) in her 2024 anniversary colorway called A Legacy. It was inspired by a zig-zag crocheted blanket that Lisa's grandmother made, one she still has. I remember my grandparents had one in their den, though theirs was in peak 1970s colors (browns and oranges), and I like the colors of Lisa's much better. The other two skeins came in a mystery grab bag; I knew the bases but not the colorways when I ordered. The center skein is Beguiled, a DK superwash merino/nylon/sparkle, in the colorway Mountain House Autumn, and the one on the right is Strong DK (superwash merino/nylon) in the colorway Gnome Place Like Home. That last one obviously needs to be made into something for my brother, but what I will do with the other two skeins is still up for discussion.

It's been another productive week of reading, largely thanks to audiobooks (I used to listen almost exclusively to podcasts while running/walking, but a number I subscribed to have stopped production, so I find myself downloading more audiobooks than ever).

Private Rites is set in a version of England where climate change has caused the rain to be unceasing and the water levels to constantly be on the rise. Three sisters whose relationships with one another have always been fraught come together in the wake of the death of their father, a rigid and demanding man who was celebrated as an innovative architect. The moment causes all of them to reflect on their childhood days, the mystery of what happened to the mother of the two oldest girls, and the strange memories they could never make sense of. This is billed as a retelling of King Lear, but honestly I didn't see much of a connection other than three sisters and a father who is cruel to them. I thought the writing was great but the story was just so-so, and frankly I'm still not sure what happened in the climax at the end. I gave it 3 stars.

After my experience with Lincoln in the Bardo, I knew I wanted to listen to George Saunders's newest, Vigil, and I'll tell you up front that that was a great choice -- it's excellent on audio with its full cast. The vigil of the title refers to the role Jill is playing and has played several hundred times. After dying at a young age, her new job is to comfort those who are close to death. This time, her charge is a former oil company executive, a man so sure of how he has lived his life that he sees no need for comfort. But other spirits are visiting, too, trying to get the man to atone for her contributions to climate change, and in such a charged atmosphere, Jill finds her thoughts straying back to her own life and death. It's sad, it's funny, and it's completely original. There's no question that George Saunders has a fascinating mind, and he is perhaps the only writer who could take the idea of a dying man being visited by a spirit in such a creative and unusual direction. I gave it 4 stars.

I heard about The Art Spy on one of the few podcasts I still listen to and immediately put it on hold because it sounded right up my alley: narrative nonfiction about the Germans entering Paris in WWII, determined to plunder the art held by France's museums and private (predominantly Jewish) collectors and the efforts by the French museum staff and resistance to prevent it -- yes, please! The book focuses largely on Rose Valland, a highly educated French woman well qualified to work as a curator who was repeatedly blocked from advancing in her career by men in positions of power. But in the war, her unassuming figure and the fact that she had a near-photographic memory enabled her to work right under the Germans' noses to keep track of where plundered artwork was going. The book also follows the Rosenberg family: Paul Rosenberg was a prominent Paris art dealer who represented Picasso and Matisse. His family fled the Nazis and escaped to New York, while his son Alexandre went to England to join Charles de Gaulle and the Free French forces and would be in the military group that eventually liberated Paris. And of course the book focuses on the Germans who took any and all artwork they desired, whether it was for German museums, Hitler's own collection, or themselves. I certainly knew that the Nazis stole a great deal of valuable art from European Jews, but I wasn't aware of the scale of their operation or the efforts of those in the occupied zone to attempt to counteract it. In addition to covering the entirety of the war, the book provides a comprehensive accounting of efforts to recover the stolen art and Rose's large role in it. I highly recommend this one. I gave it 4 stars (frankly, it would have been 5 stars except that I kept getting annoyed with what looked like sloppy copyediting to me).

I bought A Well-Trained Wife on a whim when it was a Kindle deal; I've always found memoirs to be a great way to learn about lives that are very different from mine, and certainly the "Christian patriarchy" of the subtitle is about as different from my life as I can get. When Molly was a newborn and I'd lie down in the afternoon while she napped, I'd often turn on TLC. At the time, the Duggars were very popular, and I was strangely fascinated by them. In this book, the author gives her perspective on the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement, showing that there is a very dark side to the wholesome public appearance. In short, she was expected to be obedient, submissive, and silent. Her exposure to the outside world was limited, and she was physically "punished" if her husband felt she was not respecting him, not doing her duty, or generally not following all the rules of their restrictive religious teachings. I admire her for her honesty, but I found the book itself to be hard to read and follow at some times and frequently got overwhelmed by all the theology. Plus, now I think I have yet something else to worry about with respect to the future of this country (the fundamentalist view of how it should be run). I gave it 2.5 stars.

Finally, another memoir, this one a little more lighthearted: In Everything I Know About Love, Dolly Alderton writes primarily about her teens and 20s and her evolving understanding about relationships and what matters. As you would expect, she gets wiser as she gets older, but through it all she maintains a sense of humor. I think many of the references were lost on me because I'm not British and because I'm older than the author, but I could still identify with feelings about friendships and getting older. I also really enjoy it when an author reads their own work, particularly memoir, so it was enjoyable to listen to. I gave it 3 stars.

I'm still reading The Odyssey -- but I've passed 400 pages, so I'm in the home stretch -- and have just started John of John, Douglas Stuart's forthcoming third novel. April is National Poetry Month, so I'm going to prioritize reading some of the collections I've acquired in recent years this month, too!

Passover starts this evening, so tonight we'll be at my parents' with all the family, and then tomorrow it'll be just my side at my brother's for the leftovers. Today Molly and I will be making charoset and roasting potatoes. I will likely be complaining about the food in a couple of days, but this is my favorite Jewish holiday, so I'm looking forward to it!

Restorative Weekending

As I was hoping, it was a calm, relaxing weekend. I even slept in a little on Sunday when Ruthie didn't wake up until 6:20! It was colder but sunny, so I had the blinds of the family room open in the afternoons while Ruthie napped, and I noticed it was still a little light out when I took her out for her last potty break on Saturday evening.

So what did I do with my quiet weekend? I had a nice dinner with my side of the family on Friday. I got in two long walks on my own. I finished two library books. I finished the first sock of a pair (and started the second):

and I put in at least half a dozen rounds on my sweater, including the final increase round:

I snipped some daffodils from outside and put them in a vase on the kitchen counter. I took my time drinking my coffee in the mornings. I did the household chores that needed to be done but no more, and I snoozed a little in the afternoons when I was reading and my eyelids started to get heavy. I enjoyed the calm and quiet. It was exactly the weekend I needed, especially with a holiday week ahead!

Time to Rest

I'd planned for a quiet(ish) week, but I did not anticipate getting a migraine on Wednesday, with an aura that hit in the middle of my run. When this happens, it starts with a blurring in the middle of my visual field, much like a spot you see if you look directly at a bright light, and it gradually expands so that I lose all peripheral vision on my right side. It can be pretty scary, and I'm thankful that it's never happened to me while driving; in this case, it was a major inconvenience. I did get safely back home, took a quick shower, and then forced myself to eat some lunch so I'd have something in my stomach to go with my Tylenol. And though I'd prefer never to have a migraine, having one when Molly was home was ideal if I had to have one. She was able to entertain Ruthie while I ate and generally checked in on me all afternoon to see if I needed anything. I wore a hat and sunglasses to take Ruthie for a walk, and then we both curled up for the afternoon. The pain eventually went away and I went to bed before 10, sleeping until almost 6.

Yesterday I was better, though I did had that weird migraine hangover where it feels like my brain is sloshing around in my skull. That meant another quiet day was called for, and Ruthie was kind enough to oblige.

I can tell I'm on the mend if I can knit and read again!

Today I'll be trying to keep things calm again. I don't really know what triggers my migraines -- at one point I thought it was dehydration, so now I make sure to drink plenty during the day -- but in this case I'm choosing to blame looking at page after page of names for commencement. That is nearly done for this go-round, and I hope all I'll spend today reading is my current library book. Tonight we're having a family dinner with my side of the family, so I'll get some snuggles from my niece and nephew (well, my niece for sure). And the only thing I have planned for the weekend is going to get some fasting bloodwork done first thing tomorrow, so there will be even more resting in my future. I'm hoping this leads to a good long time before another migraine!

Molly and I were talking about going to No Kings rally tomorrow, but she is working and I'm not really interested in going alone, so I'll be supporting those of you protesting from home. It is supposed to be cold again tomorrow, so it'll be good opportunity to wear my Melt the ICE Hat while I'm walking Ruthie!  Whatever you have planned for this weekend, get some rest and be kind to yourself.

Unraveled, Week 12/2026

Although we had a return of winter here to start the week -- there were brief snow showers on and off on Monday, despite the fact that we hit a record high (84ºF) on Sunday -- it's been a nice start to the week. The combination of longer days and less running around because of spring break has meant that life is feeling a bit more leisurely. I spent much of Monday working my way through commencement lists, including the biggest one at 42 pages in Word, but by yesterday morning I'd gotten through all the lists I'd received and I had some time to myself again. As we've now made it to Wednesday, it's time to join Kat and the Unravelers to talk about my making and my reading.

The newest socks I've cast on seem to be flying off the needles; after starting them Sunday morning, I found myself starting the heel flap by Monday afternoon. I've now completed that, turned the heel picked up stitches, and begun the gusset.

I tried to take this photo on Ruthie for scale, but she objected.

My sweater also is moving right along. I am more than halfway through the chart and have just one increase round remaining, which means that there are a lot of stitches on the needles and each round takes a good amount of time. I'm able to get several rounds done most evenings. The circumference of the yoke is now larger than my 40 inch needle, so that's a good sign of progress!

As predicted, my reading time has been somewhat curtailed, but I still managed to finish three books this week.

The Paris Express is a fictionalized account of the real-life crash of a train at the Montparnasse station in Paris in 1895. The novel follows the course of the train throughout that day, focusing on members of the staff and passengers in turn. In many cases, the characters are people who existed and were on the train, though the author created many details of their personal lives for the purposes of the plot. It's an interesting premise for a novel, given that it's known how it will all end, but how it happens ends up being the source of the suspense. I'd picked this one up because I loved The Pull of the Stars and had heard an interesting description of this latest release, but I'll admit I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't as suspenseful as I was expecting and didn't quite capture my full attention. I gave it 3 stars.

I honestly can't remember how I first heard of This Is How You Lose the Time War, but it had been on my radar for a long time and I'd finally put it on hold at the library (but still had a long wait). Had it not been for that long wait and the fact that I was able to listen to it all in a day, this likely would have been a DNF for me. It's a science fiction novel in which two agents on opposing sides of a war write to each other in spite of their enemy status and somehow come to care for one another. My main problem was that I couldn't ground myself in the story; I just didn't understand the world in which this was taking place, who the opposing sides were, or why they were fighting. Perhaps reading with my ears was part of the problem, but I suspect this was just a bit too far outside my comfort zone. I gave it 2 stars.

I'd just heard of Kakigori Summer on a podcast last week and was happy to find it on Hoopla. This 2025 release follows three sisters, the children of a British father and a Japanese mother. Eldest Rei lives in London and works in finance, middle daughter Kiki is a single mother who lives in Tokyo and works in a nursing home, and youngest Ai is a singer in a J-pop group. When Ai becomes the focus of a scandal, her two older sisters come together to help her, and the three women (and Kiki's young son) escape to their childhood home next door to their 90-something great-grandmother. Being back in that quiet village leads all of them to reflect on their earlier lives: the effects of their parents' split, their mother's disappearance and presumed death, and how their "half-breed" status has meant perpetually feeling like outsiders no matter where they are. I thought this was a beautiful story about family and how your family can be your home when nowhere else feels like it. Although there's a fair amount of Japanese in the book, I could figure out most of it through context, and I had the benefit of a narrator who knew how to pronounce the terms. I will note that I had a bit of confusion early on, when I confused "Ai" with "I," but a reread of the synopsis cleared things up. I really enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars.

I'm still working my way through The Odyssey and am getting close to the halfway point. I've also started a memoir and a fascinating work of nonfiction about art in WWII.

What are you making and reading this week?

A Mixed Bag of a Weekend

How is it already Monday again? And why do weekends always go by so quickly, even when you're not doing much? (And why don't dogs understand that weekends are for sleeping in?)

My weekend started early -- at 4:50 a.m. on Saturday. Ruthie is still having some occasional tummy trouble, and I guess that's when she needed to go. (She's now getting daily probiotics and some pureed pumpkin with her meals. Things seem to be getting better.) It was a much earlier start to the day than I'd hope for, but there is something kind of fun about being the only one awake and having a slow start to the day, particularly if there's a puppy curled up next to you while you nurse your coffee. Because that first trip outside was so early and because Molly and I were going out to lunch with my mother, we got an extra walk in during the day, and I don't think Ruthie minded one bit!

Before I passed out early for the night on Saturday, I managed to finish up my mother-in-law's socks:

I used my usual sock recipe for these, worked over 68 stitches with a US 0/2.0 mm needle, but I worked the entire sole in 2x2 rib after picking up stitches for the gusset. Years ago I knit a sock pattern that had ribbing on the sole, and those socks always felt like a bit of a foot massage. My MIL has neuropathy in her feet, so I thought these might feel good. The yarn (Lorna's Laces Solemate) also uses an engineered fiber that's supposed to regulate temperature. It's exciting enough to have finished the socks, but do you know what's extra exciting? This skein was the last one from the stash enhancements that came home with me from SSK last summer. (We'll ignore the fact that I still have some yarn in my stash from my very first SSK in 2017, right?)

Now that I've got finished pairs of socks for both my mother and my mother-in-law and it's only mid-March, I though I'd knit two more pairs for my sisters-in-law so that all the moms in my family can have a new pair for Mother's Day. I've already cast on the next pair, using a skein of Fibernymph Dye Works that only recently came into the stash, as it was the "reward" skein for completing the FDW component of Lisa's make-along last year. The colorway is called Wishes for the Journey, and as you can see, it has an unusual stripe pattern.

These are such happy colors that feel so appropriate for the first days of official spring, just as flowers are starting to bloom and green is appearing on trees.

I've got a busy week ahead: It's the start of commencement season! I still plan to keep my usual blogging schedule, but I will likely spend much of this week reading lists of names rather than reading books. The upside is that Molly is on spring break this week and next, so I'll get a longer stretch of quiet time in the afternoon (while Ruthie naps) because I won't have to leave to pick her up at school. She's also promised to bake some cookies this week, so I can have a treat for finishing all that tedious work.

This weirdo hopes you have an easy start to your week!

Good Things to End the Week

It's Friday, at last! No one in my house is happier about that than Molly, who will officially be on spring break for two weeks as of 3:10 this afternoon (but mentally she's already there, because she has only one real class today). After last weekend ended up being more dramatic than anticipated, I'm looking forward to a do-over. The only thing I have planned is having lunch with my mom and Molly tomorrow, assuming my parents get back from Florida today as scheduled.

I thought I'd round up the week with a few good things that have popped up in my life recently and in general to try to counteract all the bad news out there. So let's focus on the happy things, shall we?

Good Thing #1: An Amazing Run
I think I may have mentioned that I had my longest continuous run ever on my birthday. This past Monday, I set out to run as far as I could, and it turns out I could run just a little more.

The only walking I did on this workout was the last half mile or so once I hit 8 miles. I think the fact that it was chilly and rainy helped -- I was motivated to keep moving at a faster pace so I could get home to my hot shower! I don't expect that I'll continue to run such long distances, but it's good to know that I'm physically capable of it, especially given that it's only been a year since I started running again after breaking my foot.

Good Thing #2: My Thumb Is Greener than I Thought
When we went to my niece's baby naming last spring, the centerpieces were potted peace lilies (because of her name), and one of them came home with me. I've been watering it regularly and have managed to keep it alive, even when we were gone for two weeks in December, but it's been nothing but leaves -- until now. Behold my first flower!

Good Thing #3: It's Officially Spring
Today is the Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, which means that after today the days will be longer than the nights. I've already noticed when I take Ruthie out for her last potty break in the evening that it's not as dark as it was. Pretty soon it'll be light enough after dinner to take an evening walk. Now, if it would just warm up a little and stay warm -- no more of this surprise snow!

I hope you've found some good things this week and have something fun planned for the weekend. Ruthie hopes you've got something you love enough that you want to curl up around it for your nap!

(That's a tennis ball that she's pulled half the felt off of)

The good things are out there if you look for them, friends. Let's do what we can to find them.

Unraveled, Week 11/2026

It's Wednesday again, friends, and it's time once again to join Kat and the Unravelers. Part of me thought I was being a bit silly casting on a fingering weight sweater when it had been so warm, but I knew that March in Pittsburgh is highly unpredictable and that turns out to have been the case. While it was 61ºF on Monday morning and I went for my run wearing nothing on top of my workout clothes but a light jacket to keep dry in the intermittent rain, by late afternoon it was snowing. Some parts of our area got six inches! I'd say we got about two, but because it had been raining all day and the snow was wet and then the temperature dropped overnight, we also had some ice. I can't say I was surprised that Molly had a two-hour delay yesterday, and actually I was pleased because it meant I couldn't go into the office for my meeting and had to join remotely so I could drive her to school for the 10 a.m. start. Oh darn!

In any case, while I still expect the weather to likely be too warm for a sweater by the time I finish it, I am making progress on it. I've started the colorwork, a little slow going at this point because there are some long floats, but once I move further through the chart it should move a little faster. There's just not that much to see right now.

I'm working through the gusset decreases of the second sock of the current pair, so I'm starting to think about what socks to cast on next (perhaps a pair for one of my sisters-in-law?).

It's been another excellent week of reading, largely done with my ears.

In Gliff, Ali Smith gave us a post-apocalyptic world where people disappeared without explanation and two young siblings left on their own made their way in the world with the help of a horse. In Glyph, adult sisters Petra and Patch haven't spoken in a long time but begin to talk again when Patch sends Petra a book that turns out to be Gliff. This gesture leads Petra to think about their childhood and the stories she told her younger sister to help her cope with her fear after a distant relative told them a story that scared her, in the process making up a ghost with an amazing realistic backstory -- something that ended up being an important part of their young lives in the wake of their mother's death. Patch, meanwhile, is dealing with her adopted teenage daughter's questioning of authority. An unexpected visitor in Petra's apartment brings the sisters together again, leading them both to question how much of their childhood stories were invented and what was real.

As is typical of Ali Smith's work, this novel isn't easy to describe or categorize, but it is fascinating and consuming. I've seen some reviews complain that it's overtly political and anti-war, but notably there is no specific conflict or position mentioned, only hinted at. What shines here are the stories, the dialogue, and the relationships. I gave it 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published May 19, 2026.

Having recently read and enjoyed Tayari Jones's latest, I decided to turn to her backlist and read Silver Sparrow, a novel I'd heard praised often but never gotten around to reading. It tells the story of two half sisters, nearly exactly the same age. One is illegitimate but knows of the existence of the other. The other is the result of a marriage that came about due to a teenage pregnancy years earlier. As the two girls mature, the smallness of the Black community in Atlanta brings them close together again and again, so you know it's only a matter of time before everything is out in the open. Each sister is given an opportunity to narrate her own story, giving the reader a perspective from both sides. I really enjoyed this, especially because the audiobook had a different narrator for each sister's part, and the format allows Jones to showcase her strength in depicting female relationships. I gave it 4 stars.

The Beginner's Goodbye is an older book (it was published in 2012) that came across my radar recently when it was mentioned on the What Should I Read Next podcast. I'd actually never read anything by Anne Tyler before, if you can believe that! This one is about Aaron, a man in his mid-30s mourning the loss of his wife, Dorothy, in an accident. As he mourns, he reflects on their life together -- how they met, how they dated, and what their married life was like -- as he seems unable to move on with his life other than going to work every day at his family's vanity publishing company. I thought the story was entertaining enough, and the narrator was animated and enjoyable to listen to, but I had a hard time accepting that he was supposed to be working as an editor given that I caught at least three grammatical errors (something I'm surprised Tyler's editor didn't catch!). It wasn't a very long book and kept me entertained while I was out exercising, but I'm not in a rush to read more of Tyler's work. I gave it 3 stars.

I'd had All the Colors of the Dark on my Kindle shelf for a while, but two recent positive reviews by podcasters I listen to pushed me to finally read it. This is a book you need to be ready for, not only because it's nearly 600 pages long and because it deals with some, well, dark stuff. It centers around the friendship of Patch (so called because he was born with only eye), being raised by single mother, and Saint, an orphaned girl living with her widowed grandmother. The story starts in the 1970s in a small town in Missouri, one of several in the state where girls have disappeared. When Patch stops the abduction of a classmate, the consequences of that action unfurl over decades and impact several members of this small community. I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the story of the friendship of Patch and Saint, who feel like outsiders who don't fit in until they find each other, was beautiful, and the book itself certainly kept me reading. But it also felt unnecessarily long, and there was something about the writing that didn't sit quite right with me, though it's hard to put my finger on exactly why. The author is British, and at times it felt like he was trying too hard to make his narrative sound American (I noted that he failed several times at this by using the term "conker" for what I'd call a buckeye; I've only ever heard this term used by Brits). There were also instances where a verb was used as a noun and descriptive phrases that seemed convoluted to the point of not making much sense. On top of this, I thought some of the plot points were a bit derivative (I couldn't help thinking of The OA and The Shawshank Redemption). Despite these issues, I did enjoy it overall. I dithered about my rating but ultimately settled on 4 stars -- it gave me several afternoons' enjoyment, after all.

Finally, partially influenced by a trailer of an upcoming TV series, I decided to reread The Testaments. I read it when it first came out in 2019 -- it was a rare hardback book that I preordered -- but didn't remember many details, so I decided to listen this time. Perhaps the current state of the world also has made me seek out stories where oppressive governments are taken down from within. In any case, I enjoyed the reread just as much as I did my first one, and I really appreciated the cast, including Margaret Atwood herself, doing the narration. I know some readers were unhappy with this sequel, but it was hugely satisfying for me. I gave it 5 stars (again).

I'm still slowly working my way through The Odyssey, and I've just started The Paris Express. I'm about a quarter of the way through both.

What are you making and reading this week? And have you seen snow, too?