Yesterday’s post ended by saying that I’d be back next Monday, but I decided to pop in again today and stay on top of my weekly updates. I finished two very good books last week and wanted to make sure I wrote about them while my brain was still fresh. So this post includes those two books plus a tiny knitting update. Onward!
Knitting:
Yesterday I mentioned that I took your advice and chose another ball of yarn to finish the Inclinations Cowl. Thank you again for all of the feedback! I chose a blue that was very similar to the one I was using and you almost can’t tell that I’m just trying to make this work. And even if you can, that’s the beauty of variegated yarn – it could have been intentional, right? Maybe it’s just a fun little fade shawl that was all the rage a few years ago?
I should finally have enough yarn to see this project through so I’m going to look for some knitting motivation over the next couple of weeks and get all of this fisherman’s rib (technically half fishermen’s rib, I think?) finished and blocked. The fabric this is creating is so smooshy and cuddly and I’m very excited to have a new cowl this fall. It’s a good thing my current audiobook is 38+ hours long!
Reading:
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
(Amazon | Bookshop)
($1.99 on Kindle as of this writing!)
My interest in the character of Clytemnestra was piqued after listening to Stephen Fry’s Odyssey a couple of weeks ago, so I was delighted to find it on Libby with no wait. She was Helen of Troy’s sister and married to Agamemnon, the brother of Helen’s husband. This novel tells us about Helen and Clytemnestra’s childhoods, the tragic events that led up to Clytemnestra’s marriage to Agamemnon, her life in Mycenae while her husband was fighting at Troy, and the revenge she sought against Agamemnon when he returned.
I found this book to be engaging and fascinating. I felt like I got to know these characters and understood their motivations so much better than I did when reading The Odyssey or The Iliad. Books like these make it clear how the women of these stories were simply used as tropes in the original tellings; we are so lucky to have so many retellings that draw these characters out as human beings, with their own interests and contributions to the prevailing narratives.
And like all of these retellings, I spent a lot of time wondering if the author was following canon or if she was changing the common storylines to suit her own artistic freedom. Which, to be clear, is absolutely okay with me. And still, all of these novels makes me want to hunt down the Euripides and Virgil plays and become a classicist here in my basement. One day!
Ply by Hernan Diaz
(Amazon | Bookshop)
(published in the US: 9/29/26)
This book kept me on my toes! Set hundreds of years in the future in what felt like a decaying NYC, there’s tight control over water and electricity. One of the most dangerous jobs is being a pincher, a person who syphons electricity from the electric grid and sells/trades it back to those who need it. This is how we meet our unnamed protagonist, who simply goes by “the pincher” in this story. We slowly learn her backstory as she becomes caught in a complicated web after she meets Pola, a brilliant scientist living in an abandoned museum who’s experiment promises earth altering breakthroughs in understanding the space/time continuum and on working “the loom of the universe.” When a young orphan, Ines, shows up and needs their help to survive, the trio is complete. The allusions to the maiden, mother, and crone are hard to ignore: the three are intertwined in ways that are coded into nature.
Ply switches perspectives in interesting and thoughtful ways. Sometimes we’re in first person, sometimes close third. There were times when it switches between characters in the same paragraph, which left me wide-eyed and breathless. The purpose for this becomes clear: we are all part of a system and are connected in unexplainable ways.
This novel is rich in its thematic explorations. What is a void? Can we all be made of the same star dust? How can music speak to us on a cellular level? Why are some people born into such wealth and privilege while others experience such hardship? How far can science take us? How far should science take us? What will be our unraveling point? There is so much to discuss and my mind was spinning while reading. This book is about connection and requires connection to pick apart all of its ideas. This was so fun to read!
Thank you to Netgalley and Riverhead Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The publication date in the US for Ply is on September 29th. Links for preordering are listed above.
And friends, we are just hours away from the Booker Prize announcement today. It will be announced at 9am here on the East Coast. We’ll be in the midst of a morning of school but I’ll be sure to take a quick peek as it’s being released. If I’m feeling up for it, I might decide to write a third blog post about the choices!
Whatever happens with me, I hope the rest of the week goes well for you. Take good care!
The Cozy Burrow 
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