Unraveled, Week 52/2024

Good morning and merry Christmas! I know that there's no official link-up today, but this is my favorite blogging day of the week, besides which I like finishing things, including the weekly count of Wednesdays. Also, I'm waiting for our Christmas cinnamon rolls to finish their rise, so I might as well put together a post!

I think I mentioned in my last post that I was feeling pretty confident that I didn't overpack on the knitting; in years past, I've worried about running out of things to knit and have added yarn for one or two "emergency" projects (which I've never actually needed). This year, I finally gave myself a good talking to and only packed what I could reasonably accomplish. And if, for some reason, I run out of things to knit, there's a Michaels nearby where I could get some kitchen cotton and a real LYS that we discovered on our last trip. But I don't think I'll reach that point. I did finish my sock early on, as I expected, so I cast on two new projects:

On the left is my handspun Polwarth sweater (which, it turns out, I did not mess up when I started -- I had just misread something), and on the right is a charity hat using the Fibernymph Dye Works suicide prevention fundraiser colorway. The sweater is likely to see the most attention in the evenings while we're watching TV or a movie (or, today, while we're watching the Steelers/Chiefs game). The hat is good for working on while reading and if we end up going to see a movie. 

Speaking of reading, I officially hit my totally arbitrary Goodreads annual reading goal this past week with two finishes! I'm not stopping there, of course, but the number of books I've read this past year has been lower than in more recent years for various reasons, so it was good to at least complete that goal. I finished two books in the past week.

A couple of weeks ago, the topic of "cozy horror" came up on Zoom, and Mary mentioned Comfort Me with Apples. It was available on audio on Hoopla and only a couple of hours long, so I bookmarked it then and ended up listening to it on Friday while I cleaned bathrooms, did laundry, and packed for the trip. Because this book is so short, it's pretty difficult to describe it without giving anything away, though I'll say that at first I was thinking of Stepford Wives and the story Bluebeard's wife. Then I started thinking of the weird clues dropped in Twin Peaks. But what's actually going on is quite clever and inventive (and yes, rather creepy). I don't know that I'd call this cozy, but it certainly wasn't too scary or gory for me, and it was interesting to see where the story went. I gave it 3 stars.

I have long been a fan of Jennifer Weiner's books -- they are always a comfort read for me because her characters always feel so familiar to me. Often that's because they're Jewish women, but mostly it's because they so often feel Less Than in some way -- inadequate, unworthy, unlike others, etc. It's been a while since I last read one of her books, so I was excited to see that a new one is coming out next spring. The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits is, as you would expect from the title, a story about sisters. Zoe, the oldest, always wanted to be a star. Cassie, the youngest, was born with immense musical talent but was always awkward around people and wanted to be invisible. Together, they formed a band that became an overnight sensation in the early 2000s -- and then a tragic incident not only broke apart the band but tore the sisters apart. The book opens 20 years after those events, when Zoe's daughter Cherry, a talented musician herself, decides to leave home to seek fame and fortune and, perhaps, bring her aunt and her mother together again. We learn the story in flashbacks that alternate with Cherry's present-day effort to compete on an American Idol-style reality TV show and find the aunt she's never met and who has been hiding from the world for 20 years. While the novel is largely the story of the band, at its heart, it's the story of family, why and how we hurt those we care the most about, and forgiveness. I gave it 4 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with a digital ARC in return for an honest review. This book will be published April 8, 2025.

I am currently reading The Wedding People, which I started yesterday and am already about halfway through (my mother was finishing it up when we came down), and I'm expecting to get the latest Louise Penny from the library at any time!

If you are celebrating today, I wish you a very merry Christmas! If you're celebrating tonight, I wish you a very happy Chanukah! And if you're celebrating neither, I wish you a great Wednesday!