{Yarn Along} The Birds

Wanna guess what this is? The chart and color of the yarn might give you a bit of a clue.  (Looking at my Ravelry Queue would be cheating!)  

What is is is a fun little challenge. I'm not sure if the intended recipient will like it or not, but if it keeps my fingers busy for a couple of evenings and uses up some stash yarn, I'll call it a success.

For years, I've wanted to read The Birds by Daphne du Maurier.  I finally found it in a collection of her short stories and I'm just stunned. The short story is far creepier than the Hitchcock movie. I waited until the night before the book was due back at the library and only had time to read the one story, but I'll be checking it out again as soon as I get a chance to see if her other stories are as much fun.

I'm not as sure about The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E. B. Hudspeth. The cover describes it as "two extraordinary books in one," which it is. The first part is the story of Doctor Spencer Black and the second part is a fabulous set of illustrations. According to the fictitious Doctor Black, mythological creatures were actually real, the ancestors of modern man.  If you've ever wondered how the muscles and skeletal systems of mermaids and minotaurs would fit together, you'll find plenty of answers here. I wish the first portion had been longer. As a convincing biography of an imaginary man it works, but I'd love to have read it as a fleshed out novel.

Hollow City, the sequel to Miss Peregine's Home for Peculiar Children picked up exactly where the first book left off, so it took me a while to remember what was going on and why I'd loved the first book so much. The magic wasn't nearly as strong in this one, although I did wind up too concerned about those bees again.

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.