1. The sock-making continues. Slowly. I’m beginning to see actual ribs forming, though I fear I may have gone a bit off track with the past couple of rows and messed up the ribs completely. I cannot tell for sure, however, so I’m going to have to make at least a few more rows so I can see if I’ve truly screwed up, or if everything is fine after all. It could go either way, so there is some suspense going on in this sock-making endeavor. I’m tempted to begin making a kitchen towel with the lovely orange yarn I bought specifically for that purpose. Do I need two ongoing knitting projects? Probably not. But is it tempting? Absolutely. The towel project would, I think, be less frustrating overall as it is something that’s made flat, while the sock uses the magic loop method, which is useful but forces me to stop every twenty-eight stitches to move the work on and off the needles. It’s hard to get into a rhythm like that because as soon as I pick up the rhythm of the work, I have to stop and slide stitches around. So. A new project may be in the offing.
2. My ‘classic popular music album’ listening project is going abysmally. I haven’t listened to a single album on the list for about a month. I should get back to it, but there are so many other interesting albums to listen to instead. For example, Florence + the Machine released a new album on Halloween, so of course I had to give that a try. Everybody Scream is a dark album that is singer Florence Welch’s response to current events, a near-fatal miscarriage she suffered, healing, and the cycles of life and the seasons. I’ve listened to the album in full twice now and I’m still forming my opinion of it as a whole. Mostly, I like it though not as much as the group’s second album, 2012’s Ceremonials. I think my favorite song so far on Everybody Scream is ‘The Old Religion’. I’ve also been dipping into The Last Dinner Party’s music. Their second album, From the Pyre, came out a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t listened to it in full. But so far, I like it. It’s hard to go wrong with music by witchy, gothy women who know what they’re doing when it comes to music. I’ve also been listening to the Norwegian group Wardruna’s latest album, Birna, but mostly while reading so I haven’t focused on the music specifically. But It provided the perfect atmosphere for Sam K. Horton’s gothic folk horror novel, Gorse. 3. Every year when the Oscars come around, Hollywood studio execs trot onto the stage and host a pity party about how theater attendance is in decline, but can you really blame theater-goers for now showing up when what’s on offer is yet another superhero remake, yet another live action remake of an animated movie, or yet another paint-by-numbers film made by committee? I’ve never been much of a movie-goer, but so far this year I’ve seen one whole movie (Sinners) in the theater because nothing else that’s come here has been particularly appealing to me. So I haven’t gone. But when something I’m interested in does show up in theaters, it’s even odds as to whether or not it will come to a theater anywhere near me. Cast in point: Guillermo del Toro’s latest gothic offering, Frankenstein, which saw a very limited release on October 17 and has inched into other theaters in the weeks since then. Until last Wednesday, I thought the closest showing was going to be three hours away, and while I love Guillermo del Toro’s films, I’m not up for a six hour round trip to see a movie in a theater. Fortunately, I discovered that Frankenstein has come to an AMC relatively near me. One theater. In the entire state. So I will be driving forty miles to this movie I have been eagerly awaiting, and will spend this fine November day sitting in a big, dark room having an excellent time. What I’ve Been Reading: Savage Blooms by S.T. Gibson - Adam and Nicola are a pair of American college students who head to Scotland to find a legendary cave from Adam’s grandfather’s bedtime stories. But when a storm washes out a road, they blithely go with a broody groundskeeper named Finley to a remote mansion a whole twenty minutes away from town where they get themselves wrapped up in the estate owner Eileen’s erotic games. Also, there are angry fairies in the background. Did I go into this book assuming I wouldn’t like it? Absolutely. But as often happens, morbid curiosity wins out. The book’s synopsis promises a dark, atmospheric story of faerie folklore, old family curses, and plenty of sexiness. What we’re given is clunky prose, inane characters, some vague faerie lore, medieval motifs that don’t actually show up in Scotland, and some of the least sexy sex scenes I’ve ever had the misfortune to read. Gibson will go on and on on her social media pages about how very queer and transgressive this book is, but the relationships are almost exclusively M/F, the women are in exclusively submissive positions, there is one M/M sex scene toward the end of the book, and the sole F/F romantic scene is abruptly cut off before anything can happen. Add to that an overarching plot that is as thin as wet tissue paper, too many unlikely scent descriptions, and zero atmosphere. The ‘gothic’ description rests on its taking place in an old house, the class issues feel unrealistic in a 21st century setting, and while Eileen is described as chronically ill, this feels more like it’s meant to be an aesthetic “sick girl” choice rather than being something that truly affects her day-to-day existence. Suffice it to say that I don’t recommend this book. Gorse (The Eythin Legacy #1) by Sam K. Horton - It’s 1786, and change is coming to even the remote village of Mirecoombe in the Cornish moors. Though the aged Lord Pelagius Hunt has served as the area’s Keeper for years, keeping the peace between the people and the fae creatures who live in and below the moors, his influence is being eroded by Reverend Jacob Cleaver’s fiery sermons that draw more people away from the old beliefs and threaten the balance. As death begins to stalk the people of Mirecoombe and Pel pulls further away from the community, his protege, the magically gifted young Nancy Bligh is determined to do what Pel will not and maintain the balance that keeps the moors and the people safe and content. I re-read Gorse to refresh my memory about this story before I read the sequel, Ragwort, which came out last month. After the abysmal experience of Savage Blooms, it was a relief to sink back into a story by an author who actually cares about the craft of writing, the setting, and the folklore upon which the story is based. I love how truly atmospheric Horton’s writing is. You can feel the cold bite of the air and hear the frozen ground crunching underfoot. When the characters suffer, you feel for them, even if you don’t like them, because they read as full humans who are suffering from grief, among other things. My sole critique of the story is that it is a touch too long; Horton draws certain discussions out a bit longer than they needed to be, but on the whole I adore this book, and I’m looking forward to reading Ragwort.
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Sunday, November 2, 2025
Three Things #9
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