Today I learned that Agatha Christie was a surfer.
“Oh it was heaven! Nothing like rushing through the water at what seems to you a speed of about two hundred miles an hour. It is one of the most perfect physical pleasures I have known.”
Books - Check 'em Out*
Feb 2nd The Scorpion's Tail by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
Started out a high 3⋆ but as it progressed and especially the deus machina ending drove it down to just barely a 3⋆
Feb 11th Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 1/2
Feb 16th Wires and Nerve Vol. 2: Gone Rogue by Marissa Meyer ⋆ ⋆ ⋆1/2
Feb 19th Wednesdays in the tower by Jessica Day George
Enjoyed but didn't feel like a complete story on it's own.
Feb 21st Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
Felt like it fit well with Batman canon while providing a plausible backstory of Bruce Wayne beginning his vigilante journey.
re-read Howl's Moving Castle ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
*These were all read as ebooks checked out from the local library using Overdrive app
☆~☆~☆~☆~☆
Book Ratings Guide
1 ⋆ just, no
2 ⋆ ⋆ meh
3 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ sufficed [as expected, nothing outstanding, but enjoyable for what it is]
4 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ very much enjoyed
5 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ found it overall delightful or expanded my mind in some way
Books - Check 'em Out*
Jan 16- Supernova by Marissa Meyer (Renegades, #3) - Conclusion to trilogy about {super powered peoples}. Honestly, it felt like too much crammed into one book but still enjoyed the conclusion. Things were all wrapped up and the epilogue left the story open for continuing with focus on a new protagonist. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 1/2
Jan 20- The Broken Spine (Beloved Bookroom Mystery, #1) by Dorothy St. James - Cozy mystery. A library in a small Southern town is going paperless and there's been a murder! Parts of this felt amusing & delightful and then other times the characters were {idiotic}. While reading this, I kept feeling like I had already read it but it is not an old book so I think it must just be that the who-done-it parts were very obvious. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
Jan 26- Nemesis Games (The Expanse, #5) by S.A. Corey - Suspenseful story, catastrophic events and focus on the Rocinante crew as individual storylines. I really enjoyed this book which is kinda par for the course with me and these books now. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
*These were all read as ebooks checked out from the local library using Overdrive app
☆~☆~☆~☆~☆
Book Ratings Guide
1 ⋆ just, no
2 ⋆ ⋆ meh
3 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ sufficed [as expected, nothing outstanding, but enjoyable for what it is]
4 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ very much enjoyed
5 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ found it overall delightful or expanded my mind in some way
Grief
Two separate thoughts from two different people that just really hit home and settled in the last few weeks.
Allowing for and acknowledging the grief of the child that did not happen.
Sometimes grief is manifested in a frenetic need to help others.
Finished in 2022*
Books - Check 'em Out
Jan 1st: Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells
⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ Full-length Murderbot novel. ART pulls Murderbot into an adventure involving alien tech. Hilarity** and mayhem ensue. Book#5 in series; Nothing ground shattering here but really enjoyable, like sitting down to watch a favorite television series; comfort entertainment. [ebook]
Jan 7th: Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells
⋆ ⋆ ⋆This is a murder mystery/detective story with Murderbot as the curmudgeonly detective who just can't get along with the local police. Book#6 in series. Having just finished #5 the week before, it really threw me off trying to figure out the where this story fit in the timeline... why it is marked as #6 in the series but makes no reference to the events in #5. Instead it seems like, possibly, a short story of events happening before the story in book #5- a forward or footnote of explanation would have been much appreciated. Murderbot had made some seemingly huge realizations in Network Effect and was on the cusp of heading off in a new direction and so I eagerly started Fugitive Telemetry to see what they would be doing next and then...huh, did Murderbot go back to doing what the job with Mensah like nothing happened or is this actually something that happened before Network Effect?? This confusion really took away from my enjoyment, so that in the end the story felt just kinda meh. [ebook]
Jan 13th: Cibola Burn (The Expanse #4) by James S.A. Corey
⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆This book is my sci-fi jam - space cowboys/pioneers, exploration of new worlds/alien tech while trying to problem solve with limited resources. And in the end...Everything works out more or less ok for the main characters. This is the 4th in the Expanse series and I am hoping that the other crew members will get some more fleshed out stories soon. Spoilers - To me, it feels like Naomi and Alex spend a lot of time in these books on the ship, away from the main action happening while Amos and Holden are fighting the "bad guys" or whatever. Naomi, often seems to mainly be relegated to solving some technical problem so that her and Alex can swoop in with the Roci and save Amos & Holden. When Naomi was captured, my first thoughts were annoyance. Like seriously, she is just going to be sitting in a jail cell instead of doing anything??? Her capture did basically allow her to turn the security officer to her side but seriously, it would be nice for her to be something other than someone else's conscience. [ebook]
Yarn Over
One crocheted hat using an improvised pattern of crocheting a flat circle until it was about the size of the top of my head and then decreasing a few rows, then crocheting around until it seemed long enough to fit on a head, then decreasing a few more rows until I stopped. Made with Lion Brand Homespun Bulky Acrylic Polyester Blend Gray Yarn*** and probably a J size hook****
The hat that apparently was 99% done probably back at the beginning of 2021. I just hadn't been sure about if it needed a brim***** and if so, how to exactly do that in crochet & so had stuck it in a bag with a bunch of other unfinished yarn projects. Pulled it out in November of 2021, when I was looking for something else, and was startled to realize it basically could be finished if I just secured the last stitch and wove in the ends ::facepalm:: So...I did that, and it was done. To me, the shape was weirdly abrupt where it transitioned from the top to the sides but the finished product looked freakin' adorable on my MIL****** so I'm calling this a win. 🏆
*Ongoing series, hopefully...we'll see...I'm not that good at staying on top of things...
**Hilarity is highly subjective, of course
***probably??? it's been a really long time since I bought this particular yarn and I've started to use it for knitting hat/scarf before but it is weird and difficult to knit. I have no idea its exact details but it's a gray, cream & golden beige blend color.
****this is exactly why I need to start keeping track of what the heck I am doing
*****that might not be the correct term...the ribbed edge of a beanie type hat...whatever that is called
******To be honest, she is probably the entire reason the hat looked adorable
☆~☆~☆~☆~☆
Book Ratings Guide
1 ⋆ just, no
2 ⋆ ⋆ meh
3 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ sufficed [as expected, nothing outstanding, but enjoyable for what it is]
4 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ very much enjoyed
5 ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ found it overall delightful
