Bogormen

Title: The Art of Circular Yokes
Author: Edited by Kerry Bogert
Genre: Craft
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 329
Date read: May, 2019

Subtitled: A timeless technique for 15 modern sweaters.


This is an awesome book! Extremely detailed and useful for knitters no matter if they want to try their hand at designing or not.

The first part is aimed at designers and knitters who need to modify yoked sweaters. Beware, you'll find maths. Loads and loads and LOADS of maths! All very clearly laid out, and with good examples that makes it easier to understand, but you'll definitely want to follow along with paper and pencil next to the book, as you enter in your own measurements. These are NOT formulas you should ever expect to be able to learn off by heart, but it is a brilliant reference guide, and absolutely indispensable for figuring out where and how to include your increase rows.

But don't worry! Just as it all starts to become too much, and your head starts spinning from all the numbers and formulas, you get to the carrot at the end of the maths - because the second (and larger) part is all about the patterns! 15 absolutely gorgeous pullovers and cardigans, ready to be swatched for and cast on. The patterns are clearly written, with nice, large charts and photos both of the details and of the full length garment. I've found at least 5 I want to cast on right away, and can't wait to go stash-diving for yarn for them.

Sprinkled out throughout the book are quotes from the various designers, with small insights into the specific designs themselves, or their approach to designing in general.

Title: The Passage
Author: Justin Cronin
Genre: Dystopian, paranormal, horror
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 963, ~36hrs
Date read: May 2011, May 2019

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear - of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey - spanning miles and decades - towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.


Really, really fascinating book. And a somewhat unusual book as well, in that it completely changed focus/style about half way through. The first half was about the creation of the disaster, the second half about the aftermath - almost 100 years later! I'm used to books being either one or the other, so it was a bit of a mental shift to have to make. It somehow seemed a bit like a mix of "The Stand" by Stephen King and "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan.

It's a long book, but 'deserved' its length, in that it didn't seem drawn out at any time. The writing was tight and the characters believable. I loved Amy and Wolgast, but somehow didn't get as attached to any from the colony - except Auntie, but then I've always loved wise, old women ;)

The only thing I was really annoyed about was the very last paragraph. Seemed a bit like a cop-out, but I guess Justin Cronin was just setting the stage for book 2 in the series - which I'll definitely want to read.

Really, really fascinating book. And a somewhat unusual book as well, in that it completely changed focus/style about half way through. The first half was about the creation of the disaster, the second half about the aftermath - almost 100 years later! I'm used to books being either one or the other, so it was a bit of a mental shift to have to make. It somehow seemed a bit like a mix of "The Stand" by Stephen King and "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan.

It's a long book, but 'deserved' its length, in that it didn't seem drawn out at any time. The writing was tight and the characters believable. I loved Amy and Wolgast, but somehow didn't get as attached to any from the colony - except Auntie, but then I've always loved wise, old women ;)

The only thing I was really annoyed about was the very last paragraph. Seemed a bit like a cop-out, but I guess Justin Cronin was just setting the stage for book 2 in the series - which I'll definitely want to read.


Reread in 2019 "Read" it as an audiobook this time, which didn't quite do it justice. At 36hrs it was just too long. I was surprised by how MUCH I had forgotten of it. I remembered most of the first half, but after they left the colony I almost felt like I was reading it for the first time again. I liked Peter and Michael a lot more than it sounds like I did on my first read-through, and enjoyed Sarah's diary entries. But despite the open ending it still feels very self-contained (an oxymoron, I know), and I don't actually know that it really needs a sequel after all. I'm still going to give it a try though.