July 2017 QuickLit

Happy Saturday! I’m linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy’s QuickLit post again this month.  This monthly check in gives me an opportunity to share what I’ve been reading lately.  Check out the post and some of the other linkups – there are some great recommendations hiding there!

What I’m Reading

I’m listening to As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, which is the seventh Flavia de Luce story.  By golly, I think this one is my favorite so far!  Flavia has moved to Canada, of all places, and is a student at a private girls school that her mother attended as a child.  Of course, she quickly finds a dead body, discovers ghosts, and is swept into the mystery of the school.  This is really the first time that Flavia has been around girls her own age and there are several girls there who are just as mischievous as she is!

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  I finished my first Ishiguro earlier this year and was simply enchanted, so I scooped this us when I saw it on Overdrive.  There was a movie made a few years ago with Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield, but I remember so little about it that I wasn’t worried about the plot of the novel being ruined. I am loving it. Ishiguro is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers, so I’m already adding more of his work to my wishlist!

This book was included in a roundup of novels with unreliable narrators, so I’m reading this with my antennae waving.  Kathy tells the story in such a hazy way. It’s almost like the camera is zoomed in on particular scenes, but the edges of the shot are all fuzzy.  She is a student at a boarding school at which everyone is being raised to be donors: people who were created to donate their essential organs to others. It’s still unclear why society needs this and how it all came to be, but I expect that I’ll learn more as the story goes on. This book is carefully and beautifully written, just as the Ishiguro that I read earlier this year.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle – I’m reading this one aloud to my boys as they ransack the house at night. They are only 2 and 3 years old, so I’m really reading it more for myself than them, but please don’t tell them that. I read this whole series as a child and don’t remember too much about it, but alas! They are making a movie about this one too, so I knew that I needed to refresh my memory. The cast and crew for this one looks SO exciting — holy cow, I might make this one a date night with my husband when it’s released in theaters!

What I’m Itching to Start

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier – I recently read Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, so I can’t wait to read more by du Maurier. Her stories have been gothic, romantic, and swept me off of my feet!  I might decide to read this one as fall starts to approach New Hampshire, maybe early September?

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay – I ordered this book a few weeks ago and haven’t started it yet. I’ve read several nonfictions recently and have already met my yearly goal of 6, so I might wait on this one, but I have it standing by as soon as I’m ready to tackle it.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly – WWII genre piece, which is what I adore reading! Of all the books in my queue, this is the one I’m most likely going to be reading next!

What I’m Knitting

I’ve been working on the Utu Cardigan from the most recent issue of Laine Magazine.  I’m using wollmeise yarn for the first time and I can see why it’s so popular. The wool is so soft and creates the most gorgeous drape. The hanks are generous on yardage, so it’s actually more affordable to use this for a cardigan than some of the other nice brands out there. I’m excited to have this in my autumn arsenal! I’m about 4 inches past the armholes, which means I have about 8 inches of the body to go.  Then I’ll be knitting up the arms and sewing on the buttons and this beauty will be on.my.body!