yarn along: a fool's reviews

I finished a couple of books and projects last week, within a few days of the end of the month.  I don’t usually commit any reviews to writing, at least anything more specific than liking (or not liking) a book, the reason being that I am exceedingly unqualified.  Recently though, the books I have been reading bear a little more scrutiny than a thumbs up or down.

Waverley is my first finished book for the decade.  I began it over the summer and spent the first hundred pages or so grappling with Scott’s prose.  I know people rave about Scott, and especially this novel, but to me it fell flat.  Edward Waverley, with his vacuous personality, did not deserve the reader’s sympathy or concern.  The way he was buffeted from mishap to mishap through no virtue or fault of his own (except his foolishness) reminded me of Renzo, the hero of The Betrothed.  In addition to a rather unappealing hero, the development of the other characters was lost in a maze of scenic description and contemporary inside jokes/Gaelic dialogue.   The characters had no complexity, and the book ended totally predictably.   It’s definitely not on my re-read list.

I started Mr. Midshipman Easy on February 1 and, contrary to my expectations, it is an absolute delight.  I assumed it would only appeal to a masculine audience, so I decided to pre-read it for my boys.  However, Captain Marryat had me completely engaged at the first paragraph.  It’s delightfully funny--very Dickensian--and right up my alley.  I was hoping this was the first in a series, but I had Mr. Midshipman Easy confused with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (another book/series I’d like to read). Oh, well.  I will savor every page of this stand-alone.

This month I also started The Way of a Pilgrim, which I first read almost two decades ago.  I'll have to go back and re-read which sections of it I transcribed into my journal at the time.   They're probably the exact passages I am writing in my commonplace notebook right now, which bears witness to the book's timelessness.

I'm in the middle of A Return to Modesty, with the hope of participating in the Lenten reading group with Auntie Leila.  I'm interested to see what discussions the book sparks.

I've gotten more into the Audible habit, and I'm thirty-nine hours into Gone with the Wind.  I've been listening here and there since this summer, but the majority of those thirty-nine hours have been heard in the last two months, while I clean house.  It was highly, highly recommended to me by a homeschooled friend, which is funny because having listened, I can't picture her reading it.  Scarlett is another anti-hero, not in the Waverley type, but quite another type altogether.  I can't stand her, and I deplore most of the decisions she has made to this point.  And she's so dim!  In fact, Melanie Wilkes and Rhett Butler are the only two characters in the entire tome that I have come to respect.  I'm not sure what I think about the portrayal of social class, money, race, and the Civil War.  Is it accurate?  More research in that vein is definitely warranted.  But I'm hooked, it's making me think, and there's still a chance Scarlett will change.  Only ten hours to go.

I finished two projects right at the end of January--a pair of socks for T's upcoming Name's Day, and a shawl (I can't remember the pattern name!  but the yarn is here, bought here) for my mother's birthday next month.    There are several other projects that I have been wanting to work on, and a couple I'm pushing to finish.  I was a little flustered about it, despite all of my lists and flow charts and self-imposed rules.  Then Wool and Honey posted about The Gideon Method on their blog.   I'm excited to see how this helps my progress along a variety of different projects.  I've divided the day into 6 hour increments; from 6 am until 6 pm are the two blocks of easy knits, and from 6 pm to midnight is the block for my more challenging projects, including some sewing and cross-stitch (basically things that need my full attention).


Joining Ginny...