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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Big Reads and Big Knits

It's Wednesday again (how is it that this keeps happening so quickly?), so I'm linking up with Kat and the Unravelers again to chat about my reading and my knitting.

Since this time last week, I've finished two more books:

For the "Originally published within 5 years of the year you were born" square on my second bingo card, I picked Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, primarily because it was on a New York Times "best books" list for the year I was born (it was actually published the year before, but that still works) and it was immediately available in audio from the library. Bonus: It was only about 6 hours long. I listened over the course of several days, while exercising and doing things around the house. I appreciated the writing, but after the first chapter or two, I was very confused and had trouble following it. I thought perhaps that it was a case of me not paying full attention (a common problem with listening to books for me), but the summaries I found online confirmed that I'd heard everything correctly. I just didn't get it. I gave it 2 stars, mainly because the writing was good but the story bizarre.

 

A much more enjoyable read for me was The Secrets We Kept, which I selected for the "Set in a place you'd like to know more about" square on my card. This book takes place during the early days of the CIA and in the USSR and follows several story lines by focusing on several women: a Russian-American woman new to espionage, a American veteran of the OSS (the precursor to the CIA), and the mistress of author Boris Pasternak who was said to the be inspiration for the character of Lara in Doctor Zhivago. I don't know how much of the story was embellished and how much was fact, but I found it to be a really entertaining read and plowed through it in just two days. I gave it 4 stars.


I now have three squares left to fill on my second bingo card. I am reading two of those books right now, and I think I've certainly made filling this card a challenge for myself, because both of these books are more than 500 pages! For the "More than 500 pages" square, I'm reading Stamped from the Beginning, which is an excellent read but not a quick one! It's essentially a history text, so it's dense and requires attention. For the "Classic" square, I am reading Little Dorrit, which I've had in my Kindle library and wanted to read for a while, since I watched the 2008 miniseries. It's good, but it's also Dickens, which means that it's not a quick read. My last square to be filled is "With more than one author listed on the cover," and I've already selected my book to fill it. I'm going to be rereading The Resilience Factor, which I first read in a college seminar (one of the authors was my favorite college professor). In addition to filling that final square, I think it will also be a helpful read for these times. I don't know if I can get through all three of these books in the next 13 days, but I'm sure as heck going to try!

I can't seem to read without doing something else, with the exception of the reading I do in bed right before I go to sleep, and over the past few days I've been working almost exclusively on my Torbellino. As of yesterday afternoon, the body is done!

It obviously will need a good blocking to get that hem to stop flipping, but I think it looks worse than it actually is here because the back part of the hem is lower than the front. I wove in most of my ends after I finished binding off the body, so now it's time to pick up for the sleeves. I am hopeful that they will knit up quickly -- we're still experiencing very hot, humid weather here, but I know fall will be here before we know it, and I'd love to have a new sweater ready to wear!

16 comments:

  1. You are reading some long, dense, and interesting books but I guess that's the way to end Book Bingo with a bang! And Torbellino is lovely, even without sleeves.

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  2. I just love your Torbellino! The colors you've chosen are perfect. Sounds like you have your reading cut out for you - good luck!! I do remember reading Housekeeping when it first came out...but I don't remember the book itself (which says something) other than that I didn't think it was all that great!

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  3. Your sweater is just beautiful. I have started Housekeeping a few times but never finished. And I am always in awe of being able to do something else when you read. My brain does not work that way.

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  4. I love your Torbellino! You are such a speedy knitter! :)

    And The Secrets we Kept sounds fascinating! I am off to find that at our library!!

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  5. You ARE reading some dense books right now, Sarah. (Although I wouldn't call The Secrets We Kept dense, I guess. When I read it, though, it made me want to dive right into Dr. Zhivago . . . which is definitely dense.) Housekeeping is a tough book. It will go down in history as the most-heavily-discussed (and controversial) book in my (old) book group! (Right up there with The Shipping News.) It's a book that benefits from a good group discussion, I think, and I imagine it might be "easier" to follow in a print format.

    Your sweater is lovely -- and going so quickly!

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  6. Your sweater is gorgeous - love the colours! I adore Dickens, he is my favourite claassic author to reread. Hope you enjoy Little Dorrit.

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    1. I really enjoy Dickens as well, but any of his books is an investment in time!

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  7. Your sweater! It's grown! I love it :) The colors are just amazing.

    Sorry - last week I got ahead of you by commenting on Housekeeping. I read a physical copy of it and didn't get the point either. Which was disappointing because I loved Marilynne Robinson's Gilead series so much. I was glad that Housekeeping wasn't the first novel I'd read by her or I never would have tried anything else.

    The Secrets We Kept was so interesting - I'm glad you enjoyed it. Good luck with your last few bingo squares!!

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    1. I'm glad to hear that in spite of not enjoying Housekeeping you've liked her other books. I'd like to give her another chance because I really did like her writing -- I just didn't get the point of the story!

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  8. BIG reads! The Secrets We Kept will be added to my list. Your Torbellino is really pretty!

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  9. I think I often think this...wouldn't that make a cute cap-sleeved sweater?! (Maybe that's because I really hate knitting sleeves!) I had Prescott's book checked out ages ago and had to return it before I could get to it--sounds like it's worth getting back in the queue! I'll be very curious to hear your response to Stamped. I just finished my slow read of How to Be an Antiracist yesterday, and I made a note in the margin to order Stamped. Kendi's style of writing it good for me--requires me to go slow, make notes, and repeat statements to myself out loud. Congrats on almost 2 cards! Fun.

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    1. I am really enjoying the book, though it's also a slow, deliberate read. It's really opening my eyes to just how one-sided my study of US history was.

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  10. Congratulations on a half-finished sweater!! It looks very elegant.

    I have only read "Oliver Twist" by Dickens - and of course his Christmas Carol, but I still have Great Expectations here ... and I'd really like to read a few more of his books. I just loved the biting irony in Oliver Twist.

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    1. I read David Copperfield in college (but I really don't remember it much) and then listened to A Tale of Two Cities. Since then I've watched so many movie versions of other books and really liked them, so I feel like I should read all the books now!

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  11. I enjoyed The Secrets we Kept. I thought the echo of all the different kind of secrets was interesting. Housekeeping is quite different isn't it? If I recall there was a theme of water that ran through the book and I could never figure out why. The sweater looks great. I bet blocking will take care of that hem flip.

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  12. What an awesome season of reading you've had - yay!!! I bound off a long-sleeved sweater this morning and since it's knit in a lightweight linen/cotton blend, I actually think I might be able to wear it by the time I get the ends woven in and block it!! BUT I am SO excited about cooler weather. and cooler weather knits!

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