Saturday, November 6, 2010

On Books and Miscellany


We've finished The Tudors. I think that reading Alison Weir's Henry VII The King and His Court maybe spoiled the last season a bit for me. Or maybe it's just because he started out so young, so chivalrous, with so much promise and then he just sort of fizzled out with his weird and tyrannical behavior...I find it hugely ironic that he pretty much considered himself a Catholic to the end. At any rate, I enjoyed the series, I thought the last episode was well done and I got a lot of knitting done. (Thanks, Kirsten).

I started reading Wolf Hall a while ago and was very surprised that it simply didn't grab me. At all. You'd think with my Tudor obsession I would have liked it, but I didn't finish it. Maybe it's because the show covered the fictional interpretation of it enough for me? Everything else I've read about them has been non-fiction (The Wives of Henry VII, The Children of Henry VIII, The Life of Elizabeth I).

I just finished A Christmas Blizzard by Garrison Keillor which Girl-child got (a signed, dedicated copy) for us last Christmas. Very enjoyable; lots of laugh-out-loud moments in that one. (Thanks, Sweet Pea). Now I've started Let the Great World Spin and it looks promising. I recently read a couple of those fluffy knitting novels by Gil NcNeil; they were lots of fun. I also devoured You Better Not Cry which I read only by chance; I'd forgotten my book when I went to Rapid City last month and so picked it up at the airport. The last two essays were the weakest, but the book overall was fantastic. What a delightful, sick, funny guy!

Speaking of delightful, sick and funny, be sure to check out The Bloggess, especially her encounter with Neil Gaiman. And don't miss the hat, which I found on Ravelry either here or here (now I just have to find someone who'll wear it and I can make one).

And one more bit of sick, we've been watching Dexter (thanks Marcus) and enjoying it a lot, even if some episodes are way, way better than others. Another great way to get knitting done.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I read both The Bloggess's and Neil Gaiman's blogs, but I didn't recognize the hat as being a sock monkey hat -- duh. Who will be your vict--, er, recipient? (It just occurred to me to knit one of those and send it with the hats for the homeless -- wouldn't that be cruel? I'd never do it.)