The only sewing I’ve gotten done since my last post, almost a month ago now, was unsewing: ripping out the seams from the pieces I’d sewn on backwards, referenced in that past post. I got that done this past Saturday. I’d planned to sew them back together on Sunday but I just wasn’t feeling it. I think it may have been low-grade depression sinking in. I was coming off a week of being down with something, though not sure it was actually The Virus, because they’re only testing people in certain populations or if you end up in the ER.
My husband came down with something about two weeks ago—same issue, but he was pretty sick. So he quarantined himself from the rest of us which meant I moved into my daughter’s bedroom (she’s still up north) and started sharing the kids’ bathroom with my son. Although the room is quite comfortable, I felt displaced, plus my son mostly stays in his bedroom and without my husband around, I spent almost all day alone. I had tremendous sympathy for everyone who is always in that position—and I’m an introvert!
Then I came down with something, somewhat different symptoms, but definitely sick. I had headaches and the cough and the over-reactive lungs (not drastically so), but the biggest issue was fatigue. I could only spend about an hour at my computer every day before I needed to go back to bed. At that point my son pretty much locked himself in his room as the last man standing. Last night, I was past contagious stage and feeling much better, so my husband and I took ourselves off quarantine from each other; I’m back in my own room and my own bathroom, and I suspect my son and I are both a lot happier now. It’s amazing what a difference that made to my mood.
However, low energy aside, I did have a very productive two hours on Easter Sunday completely cleaning out and reorganizing our pantry. With three of us living at home now, and all sorts of people running out for groceries at random times and having to buy whatever was available, the pantry had gotten to be a complete mess. I feel much better having that back under control and was quite pleased to be able to use several items that had gotten buried in the back of shelves to make dinner last night. I also think some bread-making is going to be on my schedule as I found a lot of flour. A. Lot. Of. Flour. No idea.
Reading-wise, I have a few updates. I abandoned the Eric Metarxas book on William Wilberforce (Amazing Grace). It irritated me because Metarxas completely hero-worshipped Wilberforce—nothing the guy did was ever wrong, even when he was a child. I was annoyed. I was surprised because the Luther book was eminently more readable and was more even-handed in his treatment of his subject. I think Amazing Grace was an earlier book so his style hadn’t developed. Anyway, glad I’d gotten it from the library so I could set it aside with no worries. (And now, of course, it’s still sitting on my dining room table as libraries shut down and stopped taking returns a few weeks ago.)
I’ve been doing a lot of reading, so that’s what I can write about at the moment. Top of the “really enjoyed” list is The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, by Eric Larson. I’ve read several Larsons and have enjoyed most of them immensely. He does nonfiction extremely well. That was the only reason I picked this book from my Book of the Month Club because I’ve never been all that interested in a biography of Churchill. But, true to form, Larson did it with excellence. It focuses on the first year to 18 months of Churchill’s serving as prime minister, through the worst of the blitz. It is a pretty incredible story. And Eric Larson doesn’t hero-worship his main characters. He obviously has a lot of affection and admiration for Churchill but he also addresses the problematic aspects as well.
I’ve read several fiction works as well, but haven’t been blown away by any of them of late. I read both Akata Witch and Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor, the author of the Binti trilogy I loved so well. These two, however, read more awkwardly; I just couldn’t quite embrace these, although that was mostly in comparison to Binti. I did still enjoy them as some light fantasy reading. I also finished (in two days) my other Book of the Month Club pick for last month, The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. It was just meh for me. It was well-written, but perhaps I’m just getting tired of the unreliable narrator trope. It was clear she was doing Girl on a Train with a Hitchcock Rear Window twist. Even given it was an homage, it could’ve been more original. Still, if you dig the unreliable narrator and like something with twists, you may certainly enjoy it more than I did! I’m about to start another Book of the Month Club book (I chose two for April as I felt like I’d probably have a lot of reading time!): The Library of Legends by Janie Chang. I have high hopes for this one as it ticks a lot of boxes for me: Asian history with Asian legend/folkore, a little bit of fantasy, a little bit of adventure. I’ve really enjoyed a lot of books in this genre in the past (cf The Astonishing Color of After, Pachinko) so hopefully I won’t be disappointed.
By the way, I’ve been doing Book of the Month Club for several years now. I’ve tested out a bunch over the years but this is the only one I’ve stayed subscribed to. If you’re interested, here’s my referral link: https://www.mybotm.com/wq8wna0bwoo?show_box=true.
I’ve added a widget to the side of this blog (the web version) in which you’ll see my “currently reading” shelf in GoodReads. It’s usually a mix of work and play. I’m trying to get better again about actually writing reviews but they don’t tend to be long. I don’t track quilt books in Goodreads anymore—though I probably should. I used to when I was buying a lot more books, so that I wouldn’t end up with duplicates. Now I might buy one or two a year (just ordered one yesterday, in fact).
Hopefully my next blog post will be back to quilting!