I have one and a half more mosaic charts left to knit and then I return to the wasteland of ribbing and an icord bindoff. It’s possible I’ll finish the shawl in the next month, which would be great, because I’m over knitting it.

Jared Reck’s Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love has had a slower start than I would have hoped, since who doesn’t love the idea of a doughnut and kebab sandwich food truck? I also wanted a little space from the audiobook I started last week, so I decided to pick up a long-neglected listen, Michelle Obama’s Becoming. We just reached the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which is when most of us first became aware of her husband.

Head over to As Kat Knits for the weekly roundup of reads and crafts.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl is a seasonal favorite of mine: the top ten books I’m looking forward to reading this fall:

1. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
2. Miss Moriarty, I Presume? by Sherry Thomas
3. The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee
4. Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell (first I have to read Wayward Son, though)
5. The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
6. Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
7. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
8. Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
9. Stuntboy by Jason Reynolds
10. Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore

How about you? What are you looking forward to reading now that fall is nearly upon us?

I finally made it out of the ribbing section of my shawl. I’ve got two and a half mosaic sections left before the final ribbing section and the bindoff. At this rate, I may finish it right around the time it gets cool enough to wear it.

I’ve got four books going (these three plus an audiobook, Happily Ever After by Elise Bryant). The graphic novel is middle-grade, and the other three are YA, and none of them has wholly grabbed me yet. I’m hoping one does soon.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share favorite books with numbers in their title:

1. Crazy ’08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History by Cait Murphy
2. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
3. The 13 Clocks by James Thurber
4. Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
5. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
6. For Every One by Jason Reynolds
7. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
8. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
9. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
10. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Apparently I enjoy books with numbers in the titles; I easily could have kept going with this topic. How about you?

About to return to the mosaic knitting, just as we’re about to head back to school with Jerry Craft’s Class Act, a second look into the microaggressions a Black kid has to go through at a prep school in New York City.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share ten books guaranteed to put a smile on your face. I am a sucker for a happy ending, so here goes:

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Epic post-war love story. The movie isn’t as good as the book. Does one even need to say that?)
2. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (Are you a hard-hearted jerk? No? Then this will make you smile.)
3. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (I bought, but haven’t yet read, her sophomore novel because I so loved her debut.)
4. Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks (Combine a love of fall foods, farm life, and friends falling in love in this adorable graphic novel.)
5. Jo & Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz (I mean, it’s in the name.)
6. Bandette by Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover (Who doesn’t love a Hepburnesque Parisian cat burglar/righter of wrongs who loves chocolate bars?)
7. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle (If you can read this without laughing, you may need to get your funny bone looked at.)
8. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (The movie is almost as good as the book, but not quite.)
9. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart (You’re going to bawl before you get to the smiles, though.)
10. Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White (I’ve said it before: anything that has me cackling on an airplane is a winner in my opinion.)

How about you? Are there books you’ve read that you’d prescribe for someone feeling down?