It has been months since I have participated in a Yarn Along link up, so today I am joining with blogging friends of long standing, Taryn a
Mama Gone Green, Steph at
Woolythyme, Karen at
Pumpkin Sunrise , Ginny at
Small Things and others.
One great things about long road trips, is that they give plenty of time to work on long-ignored crocheting projects. I started my granny square afghan last summer, but then put it aside when school began and didn't do much unless I had several hours in the car to work on it. This year's vacation, gave me several days to work, so I am excited to share the progress I have made.
When I began this afghan, I was recovering from surgery. It proved to be the perfect therapy for those times when I needed to just sit and heal. I wanted to make it large enough to cover my king-size bed, but at the rate I am going, I may not finish it in my lifetime, so I decided to make it a nap-time throw for the couch in the family room. When I am finished, it should be just about the right size for that. I plan to complete the afghan with a double band of the bright variegated yarn, so the whole thing will be very bright, cheerful and colorful.
For my summer reading, I am currently into the book Elijah's Cup, which is about a little boy who is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. It is required reading for an online class I am taking about early childhood autism, but it is proving to be a very interesting and compelling read. If you have a person with Asperger's or Autism Spectrum Disorder in your life, this is a book you will want to read.
I recently finished Michael Lewis' book about the real estate collapse and subsequent recession, The Big Short. I usually write a brief review of the books I read and post them on Goodreads.com, so I decided to include my review of The Big Short in this post.
Every summer, my husband an I read the same book as sort of a "reading date." I had heard good things about this book, so for Father's Day, I gave us both a copy so we could read it together. My husband is a former accountant/finance guy and is very astute and the economy and markets in general. The most interesting and yet the most unsettling thing about the story told in this book is that it is true. It is the real tale of how our entire economy, society, and way of life very nearly went down the tubes due to incompetence, dishonesty, fraud and greed. The worst part is that the story isn't over, because the problems have not been solved and we, as a society, are setting ourselves up to have them happen again. We do not seem to learn the vitally important lessons we need to learn.
I finished the book before my husband, even though I read many parts of it 2-3 times just to make sure I understood it. (My husband took notes on much of it). It is not that the book is poorly written, Michael Lewis makes the very complex financial issues he writes about in this book about as clear as they can possibly be made, yet for someone like me, they are still hard to understand. Lewis says that a root cause of the Great Recession of 2008 is that even those in government, banks and brokerage houses, who are paid millions to understand the risks and rewards of our capitalistic economy, really had no clue as to what was going on in the sub-prime mortgage industry prior to 2007.
Lewis does not come across as either a liberal or conservation in this book, he simply tells the story, through the eyes of several of the key players, of how the shortsightedness and greed of a few brought the economy of the United States of America to its knees. In my opinion, every American needs to read this book or one like it. We all need to know just how fragile our system really is, especially when manipulated by greed and self-serving interests. There is some language when Lewis quotes the hedge fund managers who were manipulating our economy. Highly recommended - even though I gave it only four stars because it deals with such a complex issue. Don't let that deter you - READ IT!
What are you reading and working on during these hot summer days?
