Robynettely

LHC #330: "Real Ones" by Katherina Vermette. Hard copy. At the start I had a hard time keeping track of which sister was which. Sometimes I wonder if KV did too? I was expecting more strife, but the only repercussions of the whole pretendian thing were some uncomfortable conversations.  LHC #331: "Red Team Blues" by Cory Doctorow. Audiobook. I have read a lot of his blog posts, and it's interesting to see him work those ideas into his fiction. I think I get the idea though. Sort of reminded me of reading "The Jungle" (Upton Sinclair), I suppose that's a good thing to be compared to? Wil Wheaton is a good reader.  Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam. Hard copy. I've had it around the house since pre-covid. I didn't realize it was the same characters as On the Ravine until I was reading that one. Way better than On the Ravine, that's for sure.  LHC #332: "Anatomy: a love story" by Dana Schwartz. Hard copy. Mayb...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51:   Nothing. Persephone (probably not its real name): Nothing. Vinterlys: Finished Chapter 4.  Critted 4 Got back 1 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). Took it on vacation and did two pattern repeats (!) mostly in the car. It's now just over 6" long. I agreed with a comment I saw on Ravelry, that this was a very tedious pattern to knit. And I loved seeing some people had abandoned the key pattern at the armholes, or done the sleeves plain, or the like. I'm optimistic that it will become less hellish when I get to the armholes. Maybe I'll get there sometime around Christmas?  Quattro socks (knitty). Tidied up the danglers on the first sock, finished the second. I did not enjoy this pattern, though I will try it once more in a different size and with a different organization of balls of yarn.  Plain ordinary socks #2 : Last month I had started the cuff on the first sock. Now I'm just pas...

  LHC #327: "Interference" by Sue Burke. Hard copy. Sequel. All the characters seem sort of neuroatypical. I liked this volume better than the first, but it's totally necessary to have read the first one to enjoy this, I think. The 120-page chapter narrated by Stevland the bamboo plant was a challenge, but if it had been told by anyone else it would have been twice as long, so there's that.  "The Candy House" by Jennifer Egan. eBook, for office book club. It's a mosaic novel, and some characters' chapters were easier to read than others.  LHC #328: "How Infrastructure Works" by Deb Chachra. Hard copy. It made me think about the social contract in a much bigger way, really cool and interesting. I found this oddly organized, though I don't really know what I expected. What a smart author though, such interesting connections!  LHC #329: "The Golden Enclaves" by Naomi Novik. eBook. Third book in a trilogy. Alex had told me she...

  Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Nothing.   Persephone (probably not its real name): Nothing. Vinterlys: Got bored of working on Chapter 4 and started working through the rest of the setting that starts with Chapter 4. For this project, working through each setting as a block seems like a good strategy (so far).   Critted 4 Got back  2 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). Another inch.  Bongo Basketweave (knitty): Started the month with just the finishing to do. Done!  Plain ordinary socks. Started the month halfway through the leg of the second sock.  Done! Quattro socks (knitty). Started the first. I'll probably do 3 pairs of these, finished the first sock except for about 50 danglers, started the second.  Plain ordinary socks #2 : Needed something mindless to work on because the four balls of yarn on the Quattro socks are too fiddly. Did a cuff.  Sashiko project: Nothing.  ...

LHC #324: "The Annual Migration of Clouds" by Premee Mohamed. eBook. Beautifully written, but I wanted it to be more expansive.  LHC #325: "How to Suppress Women's Writing" by Joanna Russ. Hard copy. Very angry! Now I know about Aphra Behn!  "The Crow Trap" by Ann Cleeves. Hard copy, lent to me by a friend. I read it on the train. It was fine.  LHC #326: "On the Ravine" by Vincent Lam. Audiobook. A bit pedantic. I learned a lot, but I had to listen to it at 1.15 speed. Everyone made pretty bad choices. I found Memorex/Iawagaing (forgive my spelling, audio book!) sort of unbelievable but whatever.  "The Library at Mount Char" by Scott Hawkins. eBook. This was awesome. Great voice, so funny. I loved this book. Everyone made such bad choices! 

"Karate Do: My Way of Strife" by Norma Foster. Hard copy. I've saw her in person once, in Edmonton in 2019. My sensei lent this to me. His marginalia was great. because sometimes he was there.  LHC #322:   "A most remarkable creature" by Jonathan Mieberg.  eBook. Loved it.  "The Dream Hotel" by Laila Lalami. Hard copy for office book club. I found part 1 very distressing and was happy to set it aside because that was all Book Club was covering in our first meeting. Then the meeting got postponed and I missed it because I was out of the office, and I read parts 2 and 3 for the next meeting and found it hard to not keep going! The ending left a lot of things hanging for me, but that's okay.  LHC #323: "The Fractured Dark" by Megan E O'Keefe. Hard copy. Sequel! I enjoyed it until the main characters hooked up, and then all they did was touch each other all the time and it was so cloying. Ick. Don't know if I'll read the sequel. ...