Wednesday, September 23, 2015

{Yarn Along} Bean Trees



I will finish my Soft Shoulder Cowl this week. I had gotten stalled by my improv seed stitch not coming out like I wanted it to but I didn't know what to do from there. I am ripping back today and will count my stitches again to see if the knot stitch or the bee stitch is the best choice, as I need a certain number for either one.

I am reading two books at the moment. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver has started off well. I don't want to put it down but as I told someone, I'm not sure it is for the right reasons! I had nightmares all night long and I am sure the book is only partly to blame, with the nightly news headlines being the most guilty culprit. You may know this author from her most popular novel, The Poisonwood Bible. The Bean Trees was her first novel and I don't know about you but I was just starting chapter books in 1989.

Also going (on audio) is EM Forster's A Passage to India. I'm having a hard time getting into it, as none of the characters have started off strongly. I also finished Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers in what was quite possibly the longest time a short book has taken me. I enjoyed it a great deal and found myself chuckling often.

I do not recall if I mentioned that I read Jan Karon's new title, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good. It completely fell flat for me. I felt like there was no plot for a rather out-of-the-blue suicide attempt. Perhaps I am too far removed from the tiny town of Mitford to have appreciated it as it has been about five years since I read the rest of the series. I hope the next book, Come Rain or Come Shine, shapes up a little better.

What are you working on? Show and tell with Ginny and the others at Simple Things.


9 comments:

  1. And that is the reason I no longer watch the news, so I can sleep at night, otherwise I am awaking worrying about things I can't change. I have both The Bean Tree and The Poisonwood Bible that I've started, but not finished; I need to remedy that soon.
    Ha, I was married with three babies by 1989 ;)
    Yes, I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, it's one of my favorites.

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  2. I used to feel guilty when I didn't watch the news. Then I read Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (about living and eating local) and learned that her family takes a news fast every year, just to be sure that they are present to their local needs.

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    1. I don't watch the news at all. I get a subscription to This Week - an email of the top 10 things I need to know today. It is great at keeping me informed about necessary topics to be able to engage in current events conversation with others but it leaves out the sensational headlines. What got me yesterday was an article someone posted on Facebook. I got sucked into something I had no business reading. I hate that.

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  3. I felt the same, just the same, about Jan Karon's latest! So did my mom. A disappointment. Ah, well. What are your favorites of hers? I love the one where he's up at the tiny mountain church. Can't remember the name. But my very favorite is the not-in-Mitford In the Company of Others. I tried but couldn't get into The Bean Trees, but I have a sister-in-law who loves it.

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    1. I like that one, too. I think Shepherds Abiding is my favorite one (the Christmas one, of course). It rubs me a bit wrong, about Bean Trees, that I feel the author is being sensational in places where she just could be normal because it was a first book and she wanted to shock people. We will see if I get over it.

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  4. I am curious to her next book! Sayers is fun! Cheery colour for your knit! Thx for your comment today! I will have to read Child's autobiography, it's waiting for me in my cookbook writers section!

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  5. I am curious to her next book! Sayers is fun! Cheery colour for your knit! Thx for your comment today! I will have to read Child's autobiography, it's waiting for me in my cookbook writers section!

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  6. I love the color of your current knit.
    I loved The Poisonwood Bible but was just "so so" about The Bean Trees.

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  7. I loved the bean trees and poisonwood bible, she is a great writer.

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