Unraveled, Week 30/2026

Happy Fri -- er, Wednesday! It's the end of my workweek but only the middle of the week in general, and today as per usual I'm joining in with Kat and the Unravelers.

I'm still working on that sparkly purple charity hat and on my current spin, but today I'm planning on casting on a new project, a Sophie-ish scarf using this recent skein of handspun:

I figure I have knit enough shawls in my day that I can wing it without needing a pattern, though we'll see if I'm actually successful. I have a work meeting (online) right after lunch today that I have to attend but not really pay close attention to, so I'll be casting on then.

Because of a big project that got dropped in my lap late last week, my reading slowed a bit and I only have three finished reads to share this week (two of which were started at the beginning of the month). But they are all nonfiction, which is rather unusual for me!

In Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue that some of the policy decisions that were made decades ago and that may have been well intentioned at the time have led to major problems today: a shortage of affordable housing, worker shortages in certain industries, climate change, a problematic environment in which to conduct research. There's a lot of interesting content here, but a lot of it went in one ear and out the other (so maybe this wasn't the best book to read on audio and I would have retained more had I read with my eyes). It was a relatively short listen, despite having to slow down my usual speed (Ezra Klein can be a fast talker!), and I did feel I learned a few things, but when I finished I didn't feel like I had a solid grip on the content. I gave it 3 stars.

I have been wanting to read more of Toni Morrison's work (I have read only two of her novels, The Bluest Eye and Beloved, as well as her short story Recitatif and a collection of her essays and speeches), and some other readers I respect recommended that I read On Morrison before I do. Written by Harvard professor and novelist Namwali Serpell, this book is like taking a graduate seminar on Toni Morrison and her writing. It covers all of her novels and some of the other writings, examining their content, context, and creation. It's a comprehensive work and clearly written by someone who admires Morrison very much, but a lot of it was way over my head, especially when it got into the weeds about the mechanics of writing and literary devices. I think I got the most out of the chapters about the books I have read, and I can see myself going back to reread chapters as I read other novels and can make more sense of the discussion. I gave it 3 stars.

I previously read and enjoyed Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing and his podcast, and I had been wanting to read his new book, so I was delighted when my parents passed along a hard copy. London Falling investigates the death of a London teenager, Zac Brettler, under mysterious circumstances made even more mysterious when Zac's parents discovered that he'd been posing as the son of a Russian oligarch and possibly gotten involved with some very shady characters. Like everything PRK does, this book is meticulously researched well beyond the inciting incident of Zac's death, even to the point of taking you down rabbit holes you didn't even know about to expect (did you know, for instance, that there was once a very large and prosperous Indian community in Uganda?). There are no clear answers and no real resolution, but it's a fascinating read nonetheless. I gave it 4 stars.

I'm now officially past the halfway mark on a very long new release on audio and have just started a digital ARC on another nonfiction work.

What are you making and reading this week?