May: Mother

The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond: a review

A photographer named Abby has recently become engaged to Jake, a single father and is trying to bond with his 6-year-old daughter. Abby takes Emma to the beach one day, looks away for a few seconds to take some photos, and when she turns back Emma is gone. Abby and Jake launch into a full-scale hunt for Emma, but the very few clues they have don't lead anywhere. The strain takes a toll on their relationship and the wedding is postponed indefinitely as their search continues with ever-dwindling hope.

I picked this book for the BAM challenge because the theme for this month is "mother" and I thought the book was about a mother who loses her child. Instead, it is a woman who hopes to soon becom a mother to a child, but instead makes a mistake and loses her. Abby is racked by guilt and questions why she ever believed she could be a mother when she can't even keep a child from harm. Woven into the story of her search for Emma are some of her childhood memories about her own mother and the rest of her family; meanwhile, Abby receives updates from her younger sister who is pregnant with her first child. There are many mothers in this story, and women who want to be mothers, and people without mothers. It fit into the theme for Mother's Day month even more than I expected.

For a large portion of the book very little is happening other than Abby's internal struggles and the impression that she and Jake are doing the same things day after day as the search for Emma stretches on for the better part of a year. But somehow it was strangely compelling and I found myself spending every moment I could spare reading this book. It was dismal, for obvious reasons, but also completely satisfying.

Beaded Rib Socks

Or, the Socks that Would Not End.



The socks are nice. (Wish I could say as much for my floors. Ugh!)

I really love this colorway of Tofutsies. It's a combination of off-white, tan, and grey that overall looks very pebbly. I used the Beaded Rib Pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. It's rather similar to the pattern for another pair I made recently, which I think is why this pair felt like it took so long. I just got bored, and it didn't help that my other project is off-white. I need to knit something colorful now!

This is only my second pair of toe-up socks and I think I can definitively say that I don't like that method. Short-row shaping is so awkward and messy, and look how terrible the heel looks:



Definitely not the neat orderly sock heels that I love. No! Big gaps and loose stitches on both sides of both heels. I still like the socks though. I'm wearing them now and they are quite comfy, which I suppose is the most important thing.

Libraries and self-published books

I've been reading a lot the last few days about why libraries don't purchase self-published books. Vanity presses are being discussed on Publib, and the Librarian In Black posted about the elitism and laziness of libraries that won't purchase these materials. I disagree with "elitism" but maybe not with "laziness." This is part of a larger issue of collection development. It is too often a reactionary process - librarians look at reviews being fed to us from a small number of review journals and order what the reviews recommend. It should be more than that: we should be examining the collection, determining what is missing, and then finding it. Otherwise, your collection will be incomplete. There are entire subject areas absent from review journals.

In terms of self-published books, there are good reasons why libraries traditionally don't purchase these books. Generally they're not very good, hence the reason they are self-published. Libraries have a limited amount of money to spend and will spend it on the books that are popular and in demand. Historically, self-published books haven't generated demand as there's no publisher creating that demand through marketing. Although books of quality have been self-published there is no way to find out which ones are worth purchasing without reading them, and libraries simply shouldn't be gambling with their budgets.

But the publishing industry is changing, and libraries need to change with it. Some books are gaining popularity through online resources without traditional marketing or reviews. A Thingology article illustrates a perfect example of this. Getting Real, a book about building web applications, was originally made available in pdf, then released in print through Lulu.com. It is a big seller, but according to WorldCat only 3 libraries own it. If it's popular, libraries should have it, but how are we to know it even exists without looking for it? There is a growing need to start looking at non-traditional sources to guide our collection development and luckily this is becoming easier.

But there's another hurdle: even if a library is willing to purchase a self-published book, ordering it isn't easy. Public libraries order with purchase order numbers and then pay the invoice later, which isn't the way that self-published books are sold. How fantastic would it be if we all had corporate credit cards and could order what we want from any vendor we want? Alas, it is not that easy. Even small presses are difficult to order from using a PO. Sadly, purchasing policy is determined by the cities we work for, so the needed changes have to happen at a higher level than the library. We just need to convince our governing bodies that it's in their interest to evolve. Good luck to us with that!

Aran sweater progress

I haven't shown you any progress on my knitting in a while and, in fact, it doesn't feel like there's a lot of progress to show. But I'm forging slowly ahead on the St. Enda sweater.


This is a fun project to knit. I like following charts! I changed the hem at the bottom, which was originally supposed to be the honeycomb pattern. I wanted it to look different but wasn't sure what to do. Finally, I decided to just knit it as written, but made an error and liked the result. I don't like knitting the honeycomb - it is tiny little cables, but they are very tight for some reason. I also have to keep checking the key because I get the symbols mixed up. It's starting to get easier though.

I'm getting nervous about whether it will fit. I took a lot of measurements, did math, and thoroughly swatched...so I should have no reason to worry, right?

April: Beauty

For this month's BAM Challenge I read Dinaw Mengestu's The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, a novel about an Ethiopian immigrant who owns a convenience store in Washington DC. Sepha Stephanos is caught between two worlds. He cannot go back to the life he left 17 years ago, but neither can he move forward in his new life in America. He tries when he meets his new neighbor Judith and her daughter Naomi; he comes to look forward to Naomi's daily visits and hopes for a relationship with Judith. When he discovers that Naomi's father was also African, he feels as though Judith just wants to fill the space he left and that he cannot possibly do it. He is still very taken with her but they are unable to ever really come together. Meanwhile, tensions in the neighborhood are mounting with increased rents and the resulting evictions. Judith is threatened, and when her house is burned down she moves away.

Sepha's two close friends are also African immigrants. Joseph is from Zaire and Kenneth is from Kenya. Like Sepha, Joseph's father was successful, but they both have very modest lives in America. By contrast, Kenneth's father was illiterate but Kenneth is now a successful businessman who dresses in suits every day and in many way embodies the American dream. Sepha and Joseph both talk about Africa continuously but Kenneth tires of their nostalgia for home.

Many issues are addressed in this book and I see now why some cities have chosen it for their One City One Book programs. It is especially pertinent to certain areas, like Somerville, that are also struggling with issues surrounding immigration and gentrification. But it's not just a book about issues, it's a beautifully told story about a man who just wants to be happy and have a better life, which is something we can all relate to.

Shedir, finished

This was a fun project. I used less than skein of the Lion Brand Microspun I had in my stash. My head is pretty small so I omitted a pattern repeat (or possibly two, I can't remember). It fits well and it's perfect for spring!

Eating locally

Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family moved to a Virginia farm and embarked upon a year-long experiment to eat only local foods, most of which they grew or raised themselves. They managed to get through the year in great shape with plenty of food, including what they canned, dried, and froze for the winter. I just finished reading her book about the experience, Animal Vegetable Miracle, and have been inspired to move to a farm and grow all my own food. Since this is a bit impractical right now, I'll settle for shopping at farmers markets and maybe growing just a few things at home.

Kingsolver's book has completely shamed me for not only buying produce out of season, but not even knowing when certain foods are in season at all. I have had vague notions, like lettuce=spring, corn=summer, winter squash=winter but I didn't know that, for example, the asparagus season is only a couple of weeks long. I think my upcoming foray into gardening will help me out in this department considerably.

In fact, we spent a good part of Monday in the back yard, raking up leaves and debris and clearing out rocks, used to outline some long ago garden beds. Also we took a trip to home depot for some plants and seeds. We have little pots of lettuce, basil, rosemary, and peppers on the window sill waiting to be planted, as well as packets of carrot, pumpkin, and string bean seeds. We're going to put a raised garden bed in one corner of the back yard and hopefully will grow something edible.

The farmers markets don't start up until late May, but now that the weather is better it is more practical to go farther afield for a better grocery store. After a long and lovely walk to Central Sq this weekend, we went to Harvest Co-op, my favorite natural foods store. There we found not only better produce than Stop n Shop (which isn't too hard) But! Also! LOCAL tofu and tempeh! Srsly. There's a company in Jamaica Plain called 21st Century Foods that makes tofu, tempeh, and a number of other exciting products. My newfound locavorianism also conveniently coincides with the news that my favorite coffee shop, the Sherman Cafe in Union Square, will be opening a market selling only local foods. How fantastic! It's still in the planning stages, but still - this is great news!

It's not exactly what Kingsolver and her family have done, but for someone living in an urban area I think it's a pretty good start. I'll probably never grow enough produce to can it for the winter (and kill us both from botulism, probably) but I do feel committed to taking these small steps towards a more local diet. I still want chickens, though. Maybe next year.