Crocheting
A new venture for me, for those times I'm not in a book. I borrowed this Get Started Crochet book, bought two balls of yarn and two different sizes crochet needles, and started joining crochet and knitting groups at the library and senior center. The experienced crochet people were very helpful in showing simple stitches to this newbie.
From the book, Get Started Crochet: Learn Something New, I learned from both descriptions and pictures how to hold a hook, how to thread the yarn through your fingers so you could grab the thread with the hook using simple stitches.
Currently reading
I'm enjoying the thoughts, personality, and observations of the main character in Who Knows You By Heart by C.J. Farley (Nov. 11, 2025, William Morrow, NetGalley). The novel is described as a social thriller and romance. It's set in the world of modern technology and artificial intelligence.
Finished Reading
I enjoyed the bravado of Ellie Endicott, who takes her husband's beloved Bentley car as part of her share after his affair and their subsequent divorce, drives the car to parts unknown, namely under the English channel and towards the south of France. She takes along her housekeeper turned friend, Mavis, and an elderly friend, Dora. They land up in a little town near the Riviera, and like it enough to try to settle there.
Romance, adventure, a new environment follow, only marred by the threat of WWII and how it may affect them in this tiny hidden village in France. I followed Ellie's adventures and felt satisfaction when she discovers a new place to call home, and meets the challenges and misfortunes of the times she lives in.
Evil Genius by Claire Oshetsky (not yet published, Feb. 17, 2026), Ecco, NetGalley
Celia Dent is only 19 years old, but the term "evil genius" lives in her mind after a coworker Randall survives an affair after the woman's husband shoots her and then himself, leaving a terrified but alive Randall cowering and hidden under the marital bed. Celia thinks Randall is the evil genius who planned it all as a way to get rid of the husband.
Celia dreams of getting out of her marriage to her controlling and mentally abusive husband, Drew, and considers how she herself can become an evil genius, smart but considered too simple and bumbling to be capable of planning any retribution herself.
Told in the first person narrative, the novel is interesting because of the personality that is Celia, who does manage to be an evil genius in spite of her simple outlook on life. Her job in billing and collecting on the phone leads to all kinds of evasive and demanding customers, some of whom she wishes to avoid ever meeting in person.
The job circumstances figure prominently in how Celia's dream of an evil genius solution to her problems. An excellent read because of an unlikely character.
Want to Read
Aug. 12, 2025; Simon and Schuster, NetGalley
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink.
Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.
What are you reading, watching, or listening to this week?
Memes: The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday, Book Blogger Hop
No comments:
Post a Comment
Would love to have your comments!