Weaving in Ends

I’m finishing up the toe on the second sock. Yesterday was filled with a lot of unexpected delays (some good, and some bad) and noise. Not a heck of a lot got done, including the baking project I was musing about. So today, I’m picking up the pieces, making some decisions about what I can and can’t accomplish before tonight. And weaving in sock ends is on the list. Unfortunately, lack of sun is making pics of finished socks impossible right now.

I did finish the Maxim Chattam book, The Cairo Diary. Even though I was warned that I might not like the ending, I kind of liked the unfinished feel to it, with multiple layers of truth. It is a book of fiction, and seems self-consciously aware of that, since the narrator takes care to leave things muddied a bit. If you’re squeamish, don’t read it. Yes, there are lush descriptions of Cairo during the 1920s, and the salt-scoured descriptions of the monastery with its strange architecture surrounded by the sea, but it still has harsh notes that may jar people to look away (it is, after all, billed as a thriller). I’m still glad I read it grimly on to the end. It rewarded me with lines like,

She spotted the fleeting pencil of light from a lighthouse far away on her right.

“And all these stars, the sole and silent witnesses of human tragedies since the dawn of time.”

It leaves with the question of “What is “truth” after all?” In a book that blurs historical scenery, from historical descriptions of a party held in a hotel in Cairo to gardens with mercury pools, with multiple layers of fiction and discussions about Rousseau, the mystery is in one’s perception of the whole. How will the reader react, and how much can the readers bring to the stories themselves? I do wonder how much I’ve lost by reading an English translation. I would have lost much more if I had struggled to understand the French version, of course.

Date Nut Bread

….or oatmeal bread with a cinnamon swirl? The first is a quick bread. The second involves rising yeast. Date Nut Bread recipe is here, in the Silver Palate Cookbook. The cinnamon oatmeal one is in the index box full of slightly faded favorites (with slightly suspect directions from my Grandmother, who always guarded the _real_ ingredients in her recipes). However, I have lots and lots and lots of walnuts in the refrigerator that are making me dream of baking date nut bread or date nut bars. So, for the holidays, which would you hope to have on the table?

The socks are almost finished. The Cairo Diary is almost finished too. Hopefully tomorrow I will have light to photograph the socks (with their somewhat ingenious heel flap design) and time to talk about my final thoughts on Mont-Saint-Michel, 2005 and Cairo, 1928. It’s been an interesting read.

Bookish quote

Since her adolescence she had developed a theory, which held that all the keys to the cosmos were assembled at various earthly points: libraries. An individual who knew all the books in a few libraries could understand the universe, right down to its most intimate, most savage elements.”

The impossibility of the task for a single brain and a single life reflected all the truth of this ultimate knowledge: It was not within the grasp of mankind.” – Maxim Chattam. The Cairo Diary.

Yep, I’m still reading along, in between work, walks, knitting, choir practice, and making dinners. So far, not too spooky. We’ll see how it goes. I’m a wimp. But this quote is one of those things I think about when in a library. That absolute thrill when I see all those books. And honestly, in today’s economy, the library is needed more than ever for job seeking, escapist reading, and a place you can sit and think without people asking you if you’re going to buy something.

November Reading

1. Tuesday I plan to read then cast my ballot. Lots of things besides the Presidential elections where I live, so it’s getting confusing. If you’re reading this, get out and make your voice heard. Me, I’m going to puzzle over the voter’s guide tonight while eating some ice cream.
2. I just finished a book, called Dewey, by Vicki Myron with Brett Witter. It’s a true story about a cat, a small-town library, and the changes that can happen when there’s a small change in a public space. There were tears at the end, but this has been an amazing story of a kitten rescued from a library drop box after a cold, winter night. Definitely worth a look-through at the library. Of course, I feel a bit through the wringer, since the book covers the librarian’s life, as well as the long life of Dewey Readmore Books. The link for the Spencer Library mentions that the cat has a facebook page, which seems odd. [If you want to look at totally unrelated cats lounging in the sun, etc, check out the Pumpkin-Patch blog here.]
3. I’m on to my next book, Maxim Chattam’s The Cairo Diary. I think a blogger from Europe, perhaps DGR, mentioned it and I’m thrilled to find it in my library. It looks like a pretty dark mystery. But what can you expect from a book that has the following lines in the prologue?

“The damaged monuments were dotted among more modest tombs. They were disproportionate in size, buildings of several stories surmounted by dizzy cupolas and flanked by silent minarets; they had courtyards, fountains that had forever run dry, spacious loggias, and everywhere those darkened openings, accoladed windows or holes designed to play with the light.

All at once the sand in the streets whirled up and was borne away by the dusk wind.”

I’m looking forward to finding out how Cairo of 1928 connects with Mont-Saint-Michel in 2005. I’m hoping that the book isn’t too thriller-ish. If it is, I’ll probably close the text and move on to Agatha Christie.