My summer of reading

At the start of the year I started logging what I was reading on Goodreads, and set myself a target to read 20 books in 2020. I used to be an avid reader, but that had dropped by the wayside as life became busier with children, work and general life stuff. I started the year well, then the pandemic hit, and my reading slowed back to almost nothing as I go distracted by what was happening in the news. At some point a few months ago, I made the conscious decision to spend less time scrolling on my phone, and more time reading. At the minute I have four books on the go at a time: one ebook, one paperback, one hardback and one audiobook, which seems to cover all eventualities! I am lucky that I can read at the same time as knit, so if I'm knitting a large stretch of stocking stitch, I'll have a hardback or ebook on the go at the same time. If the knitting is a bit more complicated, I'll listen to an audiobook. The paperback is saved for when I go to bed, so that book will often take me ages to read!

Here's what I've been reading for the past few months.

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Pretending by Holly Bourne

I listened to this on Audible while doing chores and it was fantastic!

Story review:
Holly Bourne has a reputation for tackling challenging issues in a really engaging way, and Pretending is no exception. April has been hurt in a previous relationship and convinced herself that men only want perfect women, women like Gretel, who April creates as an alter ego.

April sets up an online dating profile as Gretel and soon meets someone who seems to really like ‘Gretel’. But is Gretel what men really want? Or is it April?

Bourne investigates how it is possible to recover from an abusive relationship and regain trust in others. This book was sensitively written and offered several interesting points of view.

Audible review:
The narrator has a fantastically charismatic voice that was really engaging. Some of the production was poor, which the odd short repeated section that was distracting. Overall a good listen though. 4.5 stars 

 

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Sunny Side Up: A Story of Kindness and Joy by Susan Calman

I enjoyed Calman’s first book, so picked this up on a whim when I saw it on sale. This book is about finding joy in the little things, and I can definitely get on board with that, but the book was far too long and rambling for my liking, and was mostly directionless. 2.5 stars. 

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The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman* 

The Thursday Murder Club centres on a luxury retirement home, where a group of residents get together once a week to solve unsolved crimes. One day, a real crime happens in the area and the group set about solving it.

I’m familiar with Richard Osman from Pointless and comedy panel shows, and I feel this book was written in a style that is in keeping with his voice (warm, with wit and sarcasm). The style makes the book a real page-turner, and the characters were all interesting.

I was engaged throughout, and was desperate to know whodunnit! I didn’t predict the final outcome, but it was sufficiently plausible, and overall this was an enjoyable, easy to read, murder mystery. 4 stars.

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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

I listened to this in the car on a long journey, and it really kept me going.

Where do you go when you die? Maybe you go to The Midnight Library, where every possible life is lined up as books on the shelves. If you open a book, you get to live that life, if you are not disappointed by it, you can stay forever, but if you are, you can go back and choose another life.

Nora hasn’t done well in life, as a child and a teenager, she was full of potential, but none of it came to anything, and after a particularly bad day in her thirties she decides it is time to die. She finds herself in The Midnight Library and is excited to try out some of her new lives.

This book has an interesting idea at its heart: how do each of our decisions change where we end up, and if we could change any one of those decisions, would we be happier? I did, however, work out quite quickly what the final conclusion would be, but that didn’t stop me enjoying the story, however, I feel this is probably a book to read in as few sittings as possible so it doesn’t lose momentum.

Audible note: Carey Mulligan has a gorgeous soft voice. I got annoyed that she didn’t pronounce ‘Marcello’ consistently, she called tacos ‘tar-coes’ and read Caius College phonetically, rather than as ‘Keys College’. 4 stars.

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The Power by Naomi Alderman

The paperback version of this book has been sat on my bedside table for ages, but I didn't get more than a couple of chapters in as the font is tiny! I picked this up on Audible for a long car journey, and got on much better with it.

The idea behind this book is simple: one day women around the world wake up with the ability to create electricty within their bodies and harness this power to their advantage. Men suddenly become  second-class citizens. The book is written as a historical document, telling the story of the origins of The Cataclysm, interspersed with the labels on museum exhibits.

The book is a clear critique of modern society, and was a brilliant listen, even if the histrical document format was a little odd, and I don't think added anything to the story. 4.5 stars.

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Blanket the books are resting on is Fluffy White Clouds by me, available on Ravelry** and LoveCrafts.

*Book supplied for review purposes via NET Galley. All opinions are my own.

**Ravelry may cause issues for people with photosensitivity. Proceed with caution.

Yarn Along March 4th 2020: World Book Day

It’s been a while since I last wrote a Yarn Along post, but it’s World Book Day tomorrow, and I’ve actually read some books recently, so the timing seemed right. 

My current work in progress is a jumper for a magazine, and the body consists of a lot of stocking stitch, so at the weekend I sat on the sofa and did a lot of (very bright!) knitting. The major advantage of stocking stitch in the round is that all you have to do is knit, which I can do without looking, so my eyes are free to read. Reading while you knit is easiest with an e-reader (I have a Kindle), but it is possible to read without one: at the weekend I was reading a paperback, which I broke the spine on (don’t tell the reading police, needs must…), and held it open with my phone (I have also been known to use a clothes peg or bulldog clip to keep the pages open, but it’s harder to turn the pages). Once I’d finished the paperback, I moved onto a hardback book I’d borrowed from the library. Hardback books are much easier to lie open, and library copies definitely lie flatter as their spines have been opened and closed many more times than a book that is read once.

So, what have I been reading? I’ve been reading The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley for what feels like forever, and thought I’d made a lot more progress than I actually have when one of the kids moved the bookmark on by 300 pages… The Seven Sisters is about seven sisters who were adopted in turn at birth by one man. When their adoptive father dies, each of the sisters is given a clue to their birth story. I’m about 150 pages in, and so far the book is written in two time streams: one in the present day, and one from the time before the first sister’s adoption. I’m finding the book rather slow, and it is the first in a series of (somewhat predictably) seven books, so I’m not sure whether to continue. If you’ve read the book, is it worth carrying on?

 

As a break from The Seven Sisters, I picked up a couple of books by Jenny Colgan, who is one of my favourite authors if I want an easy read. Both books are from the Summer Seaside Kitchen series, set on a fictitious island to the north of Scotland where the winters are long and dark and in the summer the sun never sets. I read The Summer Seaside Kitchen and A Very Distant Shore a couple of summers ago and loved them both, The Endless Beach and An Island Christmas are the third and fourth books in the series, and I read both in quick succession over the past couple of weeks. The Endless Beach catches up with all the original characters: Flora and her distant boyfriend Joel, Lorena, the headteacher at the island school, Fintan and his boyfriend Coltan, and Saif, the doctor who is a refugee from the Middle East, who lost his entire family when war broke out in his homeland. The book covers a huge range of topics, including mental health, isolation and loneliness, racism and homophobia, all told in a warm and welcoming writing style. While the book could definitely be classed as chick lit, I feel it offers a lot more depth than many authors in the field. I can’t tell you much about An Island Christmas without giving you spoilers for The Endless Beach, but Jenny does include a synopsis of the earlier books at the start, should you want to dive in with book four. I didn’t find An Island Christmas as enjoyable as The Endless Beach as it lacked the depth, but it was an entertaining enough diversion for me to read the book over a 36 hour period, and I was sufficiently engaged in the lives of the characters to sob the whole way through a couple of chapters towards the end.

As I said at the start of this post, tomorrow is World Book Day, and having spent this morning trawling the shops for a Poppy the Troll wig (not possible to buy locally, so I ended up buying the whole costume; no planet-saving points acquired there), and a green t-shirt for my son to wear so he can be Howard Hutchins from Captain Underpants (trickier than anticipated – green is not one of the colours of the season, so I’ve had to buy an adult-sized one that may be on the large side; at least he’s made his own comic book to take, so he does get some points for creativity), I can’t help but feel that the meaning of World Book Day has been lost amid the fancy dress. Surely my money would have been better spent on some actual books? In an attempt to reclaim World Book Day for the books, tomorrow I plan to camp out somewhere and do some very obvious reading in public, and to ask everyone I see for book recommendations. Let’s start here: what are you currently reading? What have you read recently that you would recommend?

Joinig in with Yarn Along, hosted by Ginny.

Yarn Along: Tiny windows

It's the first Wednesday of November, so today is Yarn Along day (on time for once!).

The knitting I've done since my daughter arrived has been done in tiny windows: a row or two in a waiting room; a few rows during a feed; the odd slightly longer period in the evenings when she sleeps (those are a little few and far between at the minute!). And I'm actually starting to see progress on a few things.

The big breakthrough in the past week is that I have suddenly worked out how to do intarsia round a feeding baby, and have actually finished a multi-coloured project apart from a little bit of finishing. I can't share that project at the minute, but will be able to soon. My new-found intarsia skills do bode well for getting the blankets for my nieces finished* - they were meant to be new-baby presents (the girls arrived in the summer), but have been reassigned as Christmas presents. If I get my act together they might actually be ready for Christmas Day!

I've also seen good progress on my Marie Curie socks. I'm knitting these for the Marie Curie Sock Quest 2018 being organised by Sarah Holmes. These socks will be a gift for a patient in a Marie Curie centre over Christmas.** I chose to knit size 12 socks as Sarah said that most people knit smaller socks. These socks have 80 sts per round, so are rather slower than my usual 64 st socks! I am determined to get these finished on time.

My Vinterskov sweater has been growing too. I'm still on the body as each round takes ages (220 sts per round), but it's definitely getting bigger. I have decided on the contrast colour for the yoke: the main colour is Purple Heather and the contrast colour will be Lavender. I've gone for a pale purple as I thought a cream or white would be too stark and I couldn't find a shade of grey I liked. Hopefully I'll be on the sleeves by the time I write again.

I've been really enjoying the #showoffyourwoollysocks challenge on Instagram (I'll post the summary for days 1-7 on the blog tomorrow), and it's been inspiring me to cast on some more socks! I have resisted so far as I'd really like the satisfaction of completing something. I do have a lot of Christmas sock yarn though, and would love to have a new pair of festive socks ready for Christmas...

And what have I been reading recently?

My Teenage Diary

I was reading this collection of excerpts from celebrity teenage diaries last time I wrote, but moved to something else while I was travelling last month. I’m not totally sure I’ll get back to reading it in full, as I did find some of the chapters a bit boring. I might dip back in and read the chapters written by the celebrities I’m more interested in, then return the book to the library!

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

I’d seen a few recommendations for this book on social media, and chose it to read while I was away last month. The book (based on a true story) tells the story of Lale, a prisoner in Auschwitz, and his improbable survival. The key question in this book is ‘how far would you go to ensure your own survival?’ As most of the story is set in Auschwitz, it is harrowing in many places, but also filled with an optimism provided by the main characters, Lale and Gita, who become lovers while in the concentration camp. I’d definitely recommend this.

Eve of Man by Giovanna and Tom Fletcher

I fancied reading this having enjoyed books by both authors, but am no quite yet far enough through it to tell you what I think. So far the plot can be summarised as follows: For many years, no boys have been born, until one day Eve arrives and finally there is hope for the human race.

That's all for now. What are you working on this month? Are you all about the festive knits, gift knitting, or making something lovely for yourself? Whatever it is, tell me all about it in the comments below.

Linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along.

*Peter Rabbit blanket by me.

**They also count for the Festive Cheer KAL!

Yarn along: In with the new

The past week has been one of many firsts: first day of infant school; first day of junior school; first day back at work for my husband after paternity leave; first day of looking after a newborn on my own in rather a long time. And somehow we’ve taken it all in our stride. I’m still in that happy newborn bubble, where to do lists have been replaced by lists of achievements (some as mundane as hanging out the washing and getting it back in again before the rain), and all that really matters is that we make it through each day in once piece.

I have managed to fit in a bit of reading, and some knitting (an additional bonus of all those hours spent feeding!). My reading for the last couple of weeks has apparently been sponsored by the Fletcher family, as I’ve read Happy Mum, Happy Baby by Giovanna Fletcher, followed in quick succession by The Creakers, which is written by her husband Tom Fletcher. Happy Mum, Happy Baby was passed on to me from my sister, and could be described as a memoir of early parenting, covering Giovanna’s personal experience of her first few years of being a parent first to one then two small boys. The book was the perfect read for the first few days of having a newborn - I have the hardback, so could lie it on a surface and not have to worry about losing my page, the font was quite big and the content light and chatty. The read was enjoyable, but don’t expect anything revolutionary, this really is just one mum telling the reader about her experience of parenting. Most of her parenting choices are very similar to mine, which made the read a comforting one, but if your views are very different to hers I suspect this book would annoy you massively!

The Creakers was a Christmas present to my son, which we tried reading together earlier in the year, but he didn’t enjoy it (all the parents in a town go missing within the first couple of chapters), so we stopped reading really early on in the story. The book’s been living on my bedside table ever since, so I picked it up last week, as children's books are perfect for reading whilst feeding in the middle of the night! I’m enjoying the story so far - it’s got a good level of suspense, and the story is really engaging. The tale is a classic 'things that go bump in the night', and I'm excited to see where Fletcher takes it.

My needles have been pretty quiet since the baby arrived. I've finished a baby cardigan, which is just adorable (it's a Baby Vertebrae, but I striped the yoke). I have contemplated casting on something new and exciting (possibly a cardigan for me), but instead have continued with the socks I was knitting for the Yarndale sock line. I have absolutely missed the deadline for these (they needed to arrive in Skipton by the start of September), and at a few rounds a day they may still be on the needles when Yarndale actually happens, but that's fine, I'll donate them next year. I'm using Cascade Heritage Prints* in the colourway Lights, and it's beautiful to work with - the yarn is smooth and non-splity and the colours are really vibrant. Maybe next month I'll have something new on the needles, but don't hold your breath!

What are you reading and working on at the minute? Any book recommendations?

Linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Happy knitting!

Not Yarning Along

Rachel, who took over with the Yarn Along knitting and reading theme that was started by Ginny, has decided to pause the offical weekly Yarning Along, but have no fear, I am going to continue to have a crafting and reading post on a Wednesday beacuse I enjoy writing them, and it gives me an excellent excuse to take half an hour off from work and share what's happening in the rest of my life. I might even give the feature a new name, although I am currently drawing a blank on that! If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them in the comments. And if you want to join in sharing what you're reading and crafting on, go ahead and share that too. I've started a book post in my Ravelry group too, if you prefer to chat on Ravelry.*

This week I've been surprised by the sudden approach of winter. October was warm, but last weekend the cold snap happened and I had to dig out all the winter woollies. I am always caught out by the start of winter, never fully believing that the weather gets that cold in the UK until the first frost. My car has been to the garage for it's annual MOT and service, so I've been relying on the buses. This morning, after one person too many smoked a little too close for my liking, I decided to walk home from town. It's a good few miles, but the clear skies and glorious sunshine made it worth it. I happily crunched through the leaves and enjoyed the last of the autumnal colours.

The other thing I've been doing this week is frantically knitting to try and get the last couple of commissions for the season complete. Between 8pm on Sunday night and midnight on Monday night I knitted an entire adult UK size 7 cabled sock in 4 ply. Even I am not sure how. I know I knit fast, but that was pushing it even for me! I have one more magazine commission to complete before I can properly get started on my Christmas crafting, but things are a little more relaxed round here now.

My Christmas socks are now on the needles, and I'm pretty certain the yarn is going to microstripe, with larger white stripes and a variegated section spiralling round the leg. This pair of socks is going to become my out and about knitting, so don't expect speedy progress, but I am hoping to have them done by Christmas.

For a change, I started a small cross stitch project this weekend. I bought this kit from Hobbycraft last year, but it's taken me until now to start it. It's my first time sewing with the fabric held in a hoop, and I pretty quickly abandoned the hoop and held the fabric freehand. I am enjoying the sewing, but not the chart - the squares are tiny, so it's very, very tricky to keep track of where the stitches should be. If I had a colour printer I would be scanning the chart in and printing out a larger version to save my eyesight!

As for reading, I have paused on The Power as I've had too much else on to concentrate on the story. Last night I started reading Into The Water, which I am enjoying so far, and can read it while knitting as it's a hardback and stays open. Maybe it's time to start only reading on my Kindle...

What are you reading at the minute? How's the Christmas crafting going?

For those of you that entered my 1st birthday giveaway, I drew the winner last week and the prize went to Mary in Toronto. Thank you to everyone who entered, and for your thoughtful responses. If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a different prize, how about joining my Christmas Knits KAL? It's running until the end of November, and all you have to do is knit something festive and join in the chatter in my Ravelry thread.*

*This is a Ravelry link. You'll need to be logged into Ravelry to read the thread.

Yarning Along: A top-down challenge

This week's Yarning Along finds me just the tiniest bit tired. On Sunday I went to Yarndale with my friends Sam and Jo and had the best time (yes, there will be a full post about Yarndale in a few days time), but that combined with the usual mild winter lurgies means knitting time has been a bit limited by my need to get a few early nights!

I'm currently working on a lot of top secret projects that will make their appearance in the new year, but there is one project I can share: some top-down socks in Regia Pairfect.* I've used this yarn before and it really appeals to my perfectionist tendencies. The yarn is designed in such a way that it will always result in two perfectly matching socks, and comes with stitch counts for various foot sizes. The one drawback with the yarn is that it forces you to knit the socks top-down, which is unusual for me. I'm using the basic sock pattern from Custom Socks (an excellent comprehensive book, for the sizing charts alone), but I did somehow manage to knit the heel flap over the wrong number of stitches as I hadn't divided the stitches evenly for the ribbing and didn't think to check before working the heel. So I'm now halfway through my second attempt at the heel.

I am still reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and am a little less enthusiastic about it than I was last week. I am finding the writing style very, very readable, and have been making an effort to read when the house is quiet, but the main character is annoying, and I'm finding that certain aspects of the story aren't ringing true for me. I was starting to think that the story might be a little predictable, but the bit I was reading last night had a sudden change of pace, so it's possible this book might be surprising in the end.

One other thing I've been doing a bit more of in the past couple of weeks is baking. I haven't especially enjoyed the current series of Bake Off; I'm finding the editing of this series is making the format more formulaic than it needs to be, and am annoyed that the adverts make the running time of the show excessively long. I wondered whether doing some baking myself might make me more enthusiastic about the show, so last week I baked some blondies with peanut butter** that were amazing (and the kids didn't like them at all, so I didn't have to share), and this week I baked a simple chocolate cake, which was delicious, and I did enjoy last night's episode a little more, so maybe it's working!

Linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

*Affiliate link.

**Recipe from Bake by Rachel Allen.

Yarning Along: On to the sleeves!

This week's knitting is focused solely on sleeves, because the body of my Pavement Sweater is done! Ideally I would have it completed in time to wear to Yarndale on Sunday, which would involve getting the jumper knitted and cast off by Friday so that I can get it washed and blocked in time. I'm not certain that's going to happen, but I can try. If I can get a sleeve done by the end of today I feel like there might be some hope! On thing that did hold me up yesterday was picking up the stitches for the sleeves. I had allowed the marker indicating the centre of the underarm stitches to travel down the sweater as I knitted, then removed it when I was knitting the hem. It turns out I needed the marker to indicate where to start picking up the stitches. Oops. As a result I had to do rather more counting yesterday than I had hoped...

I have finally finished reading The Miniaturist! I feel like I've been reading this for ages, but this week I have made a concerted effort to spend a little more time reading rather than watching TV. I really enjoyed The Miniaturist; I found it a bit slow at the start, but once I had read a third of the book (the point where the first mystery in the book is resolved) I started really getting into it. The book is made up of several small mysteries within one larger story, resulting in a story with a lot of twists and turns, and everything is resolved neatly at the end. This story had me guessing the whole way through, and I would definitely recommend it.

Last night I started reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which Amy recommended to me and I picked up at the weekend. I have only read a couple of chapters, but already know that I am going to enjoy it. I'm glad I got it in hardback as I can read it while I get on with my sleeeves. I wouldn't be that surprised if I finish it by next week's post.

What are you reading this week?

Linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.