April's Books and Knits

 Black River Orchard, Chuck Wendig.*

Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver.*

All the Dead Lie Down. Mary Willis Walker.

The Clinic. Cate Quinn.*  

The Unquiet Dead. Ausma Zehanat Khan.*

Mysteries and thrillers are still my favorite.  I've been trying a lot nonfiction and poetry, but it just doesn't land.  My mind wanders and I've restarted a few nonfiction books on religion that I really do want to have read, but don't enjoy reading as much as some grim story set in a place that isn't what it seems.  Black River Orchard and The Clinic both fit that bill nicely.  Prodigal Summer was very Barbara Kingsolver-y.  I've already picked up another one of her novels from the library.  I found The Clinic when I was wandering through the library in search of another Conner Quinn book.  

All the Dead Lie Down was a paperback thriller I found in a used book store.  I thought the title sounded intriguing and the premise seemed promising enough.  It was pretty ridiculous, but I was engaged.  Oh well.  It will go in a little free library and someone else can enjoy it.  

The Unquiet Dead was interesting. I didn't really like it, because of the subject matter (genocide) and because there's so much backstory for several of the characters that I felt like I was reading the fifth novel in a series.  It's actually Khan's first novel, and apparently there's a few more novels with the main characters.  

I haven't gotten much knitting done this month.  My shoulder hurts a little and life is busy.  When I do knit, it's socks.  Not a lot of progress to show there.  I finished my husband's birthday socks during the Knit for Food Knitathon.  I spent 12 hours knitting and darning and posting about it on Instagram and Facebook to raise money to go to Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels. 

Overall, everyone raised $530,840 to be distributed equally between the groups.  I was a tiny fraction of that, but it's nice to be a part of it.  I'm going to try to start earlier next year with the fundraising and might even set out my own account so I can be better about thank-you notes.

I also did a lot of mending and started a pair of socks for my dad's birthday.  They're going to be late.  It's good ol' Patons Kroy socks with steel needles.  They'll be finished before it's cold enough for my dad to want to wear wool and they'll be good and tough. 

My family and I went on the Rock Cities Book Crawl.  We made every stop and had fun.  Each store was pretty crowded and chaotic, but in a mostly lovely way.  Book people are pretty nice people.  I bought too many books, my husband bought none, and my daughter bought one book and some fun stickers.  One of the books I bought was all about greens.  I meant for it to be a Father's Day present for my husband, but then I got excited and gave it him as soon as we got to the car.

I've been reading bits and pieces of the T. S. Eliot collection and I think The Loch might be my before-bed mindless read.  I'm looking forward to getting into all of these!