Best among my reads in 2020!

Wow! I just can't believe we've completed six months of 2020—the year I was so looking forward to... But as I had written in the first post, this year certainly has been momentous!!! We have all been subjected to an unprecedented event that has had all of us—even the home-loving introverts like me—scrambling to adapt and adjust. The new norms are bearable, but still take a lot of getting used to—like suddenly having to be a partially homeschooling mother to big children.

The one thing that has not changed in these cataclysmic times is reading. I still thrive on books. On physical books, on Kindle, whatever! Even in the seeming calm of not having to go out of the house, sometimes my mind finds it tough to switch off at night. That is when I creep out of bed and curl up with a book, reading into the wee hours of the night. 

If you look at my reading list for this year, you can see that it's a hodgepodge of all kinds of books. I have been reluctant to tell everyone about the books I read for fear of judgement. Especially because I have certain friends who read nothing but the most literary and mind-boggling books. I have become wary of asking them for book suggestions because the result is often akin to being hit on the head with one of those huge volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. This year I have decided to make my reading list public, shedding all inhibitions! 

Here are the ones I liked the best among the books I've perused this year:

1. Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino: I am savoring my way through this author's detective fiction. Its pace is slow and soft, with plenty of brain and little action - a lyrical poem of a murder story. Last year I read The Devotion of Suspect X. Usually I gobble up any series that I am enamored of. But this, I am determined to take in slowly.

2. Martha's Vineyard - Isle of Dreams by Susan Branch: This multifaceted artist whose handwritten books are so adorable, completed her autobiographical trilogy with this one. It had long been on my wish list and I finally  succumbed to buying it this year. Chronologically, this is the second book of the lot. This and a Fine Romance are vying for the first place in my heart! Each of her books is a treasure for always. First you read it for the story, then for the lovely handwriting, then the quotes, then the artwork... it simply gives and gives!

3. A Job You Mostly Won't Know How to Do by Pete Fromm: A bittersweet story of a widower bringing up a newborn, trying to keep things together with help that is both wanted and unwanted, fighting depression, and trying to stay solvent at the same time. The tragedy is tempered with humor. The wild Montana landscape is as much a part of the protagonist's life as are the people in it. Looking forward to more Pete Fromm.

4. Open by Andre Agassi : I was a firm Agassi and Steffi Graf fan in my teens. This book should be read by all the youngsters who want to take up sports at a professional level. Of course, one doesn't need a scary father like Agassi Sr., but the dedication, the patience, the tolerance for pain and mind games... Granted, some of Agassi's criticism about famous sport personalities feels a tad bitchy, but hey, everyone is entitled to be the hero of his own life! Really worth reading. Perhaps one should  read Brooke Shield's There was a Little Girl too along with this.

5. Seven Secrets of the Goddess by Devdutt Pattanaik: Pattanaik is fast becoming an authority on Hinduism—the ever-evolving religion that expands indefinitely to envelope many beliefs, philosophies, deities and methods of worship. In this book, he examines the evolution of the worship of the feminine principle in Hinduism, the Goddess in her myriad forms and expressions. A true eye-opener. 

6. Shunya by Shri M: A novel about a holy man written in simple language, propounding great ideas. So easy to read that one might miss the gems that are embedded in it. 

7. A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C A Fletcher: May be not the most reassuring thing to read in this pandemic era, but I was intrigued by the title. The world's human population dwindles due to a mysterious malady that spread a few generations ago. The world inhabited by Griz is sparsely populated and strangers are not always welcome or trustworthy. Then Griz has to leave his tiny, safe island to find his dog. The post-apocalyptic world is exquisitely detailed. Thrilling and lyrical. A beautiful twist at the end. What more can one want?

8. No Regrets by Kaveree Bamzai: The book's subtitle says it all: The Guilt-Free Woman's Guide to a Good Life. The book speaks to educated and employed women in somewhat affluent circumstances. The author provides advice for women who are tugged apart to bits by job and family responsibilities. The points she makes are valid and the presentation is so attractive that I liked the book very much even though I am a confirmed, voluntary stay-at-home-mother. 

9. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: This is the book I like the best among those I have read this year. Usually I avoid Russian or Russia-themed books. It must be a reaction from having tried to read the classic Russian novels in my early teens and being put off by all the complex nomenclature of the characters. It seemed to me that they kept changing their names from paragraph to paragraph just to muddle me and I often had to go back to the beginning. I have never finished the Brothers Karamazov even though I tried valiantly several times. But I am happy that I overcame the aversion to read this one. I got the Kindle edition, but I have put the physical book on my wish list. Because I want to go back to the Metropol again and again, dip into the little attic room, run along the service stairs, have dinner in the restaurant, served by Count Alexander Rostov himself... A wonderful story of inventiveness, adaptability, courage and sheer joie de vivre.

10. The Hundred-Year-Old Man who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson: The title is long enough for a book! I came to know of this when Dr. Shashi Tharoor recommended it in an interview. Although we first get to meet Allan Karlsson when he does the thing described in the title on his hundredth birthday, his subsequent adventures are interspersed with episodes of the extremely colorful life of the man and the circumstances that have led him to bunk his birthday celebrations by climbing out of the window. The story reminded me of Forrest Gump. I look forward to reading the sequel.

There it is! I have limited myself to these ten even though there are many more that I more than just liked in the list. Hope I have whetted your appetite to try one of these!

Two finished projects

The past two weeks at Karthi have been busy with the kiddos returning to some semblance of schooling. The end of May and beginning of June saw us scrambling to get electronic devices suited for both to attend either live classes via Microsoft Teams (elder) or recorded classes via the school website (younger). Naturally, we have cut down TV time to after 7 pm and Prime only on the weekends, just like school time. What with the transition and new routines to plan and implement, my creative output suffered. But this week I got back in the groove.

Back in February, I had written about a tapestry crochet bag that I was making. The original design was for a tote that had handles that wouldn't take any weight. So I changed my project into a backpack, but found myself in uncharted waters. I had to create a flap, sturdy straps, affix these correctly to the body, attach a magnetic clasp, make a lining, and make pockets for the lining. I was in creative overwhelm. The new things needed a lot of fermentation time in my head, so I put the project aside and completed a crochet scarf and made a few masks. 

Proceeding in baby steps, I first found a very sturdy, double-layered crochet stitch for the straps. I made a smaller version for a loop that would serve to hang up the bag, then attached them to a crocheted rectangle and then sewed and crocheted the whole on to the back of the bag. 

Once that was done, I turned my attention to the flap, which I needed to taper to a point. Crocheted a few rows each day, gave it a contrasting border and and ta da!

Next, I hunted up a salvaged magnetic clasp from a dilapidated wallet and attached them with the help of some denim fabric because I didn't want to attach the prongs to the crocheted part.

The sewing of the denim patch on the flap wasn't as straight as I would have liked it to be as you can see from the picture below, but hey, I am a recovering perfectionist and the job was neat enough. The opening is of course the drawstring that I designed by myself. 

Finally, I found a length of cotton in my stash that had complementary colors and sewed the seams before hand-stitching it to the bag. For the pockets, I used the back pockets of a soft, stretchy jeans that I had massacred to make masks. 

And here is the bag with some books in it for ballast, on Ani's shoulder.

On the whole, not a bad job for a first-time bag-maker, hey? 

When I was finished with mask- and pocket-making from my old pair of jeans, the only part left was the waist band and the front pockets. So I made this...

My "house uniform" of salwar-kameez has a great drawback. It doesn't have pockets. At Karthi, you can often hear me requesting people to find my phone, because I leave it all over the house. This "belt", worn over my salwar, now keeps my phone near me all the time. The only problem is that my brain has not yet registered that this is my phone's new home. Yesterday, someone called as I was cooking and I searched the whole kitchen for my phone without realizing that it was safely ensconced in my pocket! 

As for our garden and yard, the monsoon rains have brought out the grass and weeds in full force. I have been subduing them with my weed-trimmer. I hated the thought of taking out my trimmer, because it has a bad habit of flooding very often. I always followed the correct procedure, using the choke sparingly. But after a couple of sessions, it would flood and respond to no amount of persuasion. Earlier, this meant a 30-km drive to the nearest Stihl service center to get it firing again. This month, determined to fix it myself, I searched and found a YouTube video and learned how to do it. If air was solid, it would have had several holes in it from all the punching I did the day I restarted the flooded engine by myself! So now the grass will not get a chance to grow higher than a couple of inches around our home. 

In pandemic-related news, each Saturday when we go out shopping, we find more and more people out on the streets, mostly wearing masks and giving wide berths to each other. But things are more lackadaisical closer to home, with neighborhood boys playing together outside and even elderly people wandering around without masks at our nearest junction. At Karthi, we are still in full vigilant mode. The kids have been so understanding of conditions and have adjusted much better to the lockdown than I had ever expected. That is something that I am very grateful for. DH did go to the office a couple of times to see what it was like. But he missed the hot tea and snacks that I provide at his table even if he is in conf calls. Both days he came back home hungry and crabby! So for now, he prefers working from home. 

That's all from Karthi for the time being. See y'all next week!