Sweater Quest

I've had it on hold for a while, and yesterday it finally came in. Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini kept me up way past my bedtime, and kept me from laundry and dishes this morning. Not that housework gets me all excited, but today at least I had a better excuse than usual. Adrienne has a very companionable writing style. It's like sitting and the kitchen table with her and talking about knitting. The book is about her 1 year process of knitting Alice Starmore's Mary Tudor cardigan. Sometime around 1am I snuck out of bed and got my copy of Tudor Roses so I could see what she was describing. Made me want to cast on right then. A Henry VII for my DH? Elizabeth I for myself or one of the girls? Anne of Cleves, maybe?

But it's not just that. The questions she asks are interesting questions, and the process of answering them is like a mini journey inside of the larger journey. Parenting without losing yourself, copyright, creative control, the process of knitting and learning, dealing with a delightful and sometimes frustrating obsession are all there. I hope the second half is as good as the first half was. At this rate I'll be done by morning.

A surprisingly great read

I went to the new library about a month ago and just wandered around for a while. I walked by a display and saw How to build your own spaceship : the science of personal space travel by Piers Bizony. I checked it out and found it was a very good book. I suspected it might be dry or overly technical, but it was not any of those things. It spent a month in my purse as my "walking around" book, and I was always glad to have a few minutes to read more.

There was lots of information about the science of space flight, the physics of getting large things into space, kinds of businesses you could start in order to get into space. But there are also great stories about the history of spaceflight, both manned and unmanned, from around the world. Tales of success and of failure, Of grand ideas and practical alternatives. As a kid who watched the Apollo take offs, I was enchanted. Bizony never talks down, but he manages to convey the information in everyday language, explaining technical terms simply as he goes.

While I have no plans for a backyard rocket, I'm very glad I read this book and would recommend it to anyone interested at all in space.