Last winter, having not done a book or yarn swap in a while, I signed up for the Ninja Book Swap. I agreed to send books to a stranger off their wishlist, as well as some gifts from local shops that related to their interest. I sent mine off in early March and it was received a few days later. Knowing this was an international swap, I was prepared to wait a bit for my package to arrive, so I did. And then I waited some more. I emailed the organizer, who assured me the package was en route, but from someplace with unreliable mail service. I waited some more.

I admit that around May 1 or so I sort of gave up expecting a package. Things get lost on occasion. I grew up in a post office family: I know they happen even with the very best intentions. But letting go of expectations is way easier than letting go of hopes, so every time I got the mail, I’d peer into the area of our building where packages await their owners, wondering if I’d see one covered in foreign stamps and looking as if it had arrived by camel and in spite of pirate attacks.

Then, one night in mid-June, I arrived home from work late one evening to discover an unexpected package waiting on my chair: four and half months after being mailed my bookish surprises had arrived!

My partner turned out to be Megz, who lives in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, which looks beautiful. She sent me a lovely package that contained postcards and tourist information about her area, a tin of candy-coated, chocolate covered gummy candies in a fun lion container (with googly eyes!), and a box of rooibus tea, an herbal drink native to South Africa.

She also sent me two books I’ve been wanting to read: Mansfield Park is the only Jane Austen completed novel I haven’t read (I also haven’t read her unfinished novellas), although I’ve seen film adaptations, and Sense & Sensibility, by Joanna Trollope, is part of the recent series of books where modern authors reinterpret, reimagine, and contemporize Austen’s works. I’m really excited to read both novels.

Yesterday’s Top Ten Tuesday from The Broke and the Bookish asks participants to list the last ten books they acquired.

The two books from Megz were the most recent physical books that came to my house to live.

AudioFile is doing their annual summer reading giveaway via AudioSync, where they pair a contemporary YA title with a classic work. I’m not religious about downloading the books, but I liked the two offered this week, so I now have The Explorer’s Club by Nell Benjamin (David Krumholtz does one of the voices!) and Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days on my phone.

Otherwise, my top ten is rounded out by books that came home with me for a visit from the library last week:

• Unusual Chickens for the Extraordinary Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones (which I read over the weekend and loved)
• The Great Good Summer by Elizabeth Scanlon
• One-Hour Cheese by Claudia Lucero
• Prudence by Gail Carriger
• The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
• Rose Water & Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes from My Lebanese Kitchen by Maureen Abood

Three middle-grade, one YA, and two cookbooks.

I finished the final chapter of Saint Mazie earlier tonight, so it’s on to a new book tomorrow. Another work of historical fiction, All the Light We Cannot See, already read by so many of you, is probably next up, although I have several other choices if it doesn’t grab me.

Having finished my two-at-a-time socks over the weekend, I’m back to working on my Lazy Katy shawlette. I’m working on completing works-in-progress and unfinished objects for my annual Tour de France knitalong contenders (the polka dot jersey, in case you were wondering). I’ve got less than nine rows to go in the lace border, and then I’ll be done with this project. I’m excited. You should see some other long-neglected projects next week.

Yarning along with Ginny.

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting and reading recently, so thought it was time for an update on both. I’m Yarning Along with Ginny.

It’s the final week of the Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge and I’m on my fifth and final (new) book for the challenge. Fablehaven is the first book in a middle-grade modern fantasy series about two young siblings who spend a few weeks with their somewhat estranged grandfather one summer. I expect to finish it up in the next couple days and then it’s on to Station Eleven (which I hear is dystopian for those who don’t normally care for dystopian) and Saint Maizie (a historical fiction about the Queen of the Bowery). And I started Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on audiobook last night, for listening while knitting.

My two-at-a-time socks are speeding along. I’ve picked up the stitches after the heel turn and am now decreasing toward the toe. My final class is next Wednesday, so they’ll be done in a week. So excited to add a new skill to my knitting toolkit.

Today’s Yarning Along shot shows you two projects I’m working on:

The knitting, cast on this evening, is the project for the class I mentioned last week. I’m learning how to knit two socks on a single circular needle over the course of four weeks in June. This week’s class was devoted to casting on, so you see I’ve got a couple rows on a pair of socks. The yarn is Holiday Yarn’s Flock Sock in the Yarn Fairy self-striping colorway. It’s wound for two-at-a-time knitting, with both strands of yarn emerging together from a center-pull ball. The staff at the yarn store were excited by the idea of it and suggested they might see about carrying it.

The book is Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper and is the story of an 83-year-old woman who decides to walk 3,000 km alone to see the ocean for the first time. One of you recommended it last month on your blog, but I can’t find whom it was just right now.

I’m reading it as part of the #TBRTakedown challenge Leaning Lights is running this week. Since I picked this up at the library last week, it counts as a book from my most recent library haul. I’m not firmly committed to matches in the other categories, although Fablehaven and Ms. Marvel Vol. 2 are probably going to be the two series finishers:

Challenges:
1. A book that’s been on your TBR shelf over a year!
2. An unread sequel sitting on your TBR shelf.
3. A first book in a series on your TBR shelf.
4. An “out of your comfort zone” book on le TBR shelf!
5. A book from your most recent book haul!

Today marks the beginning of Book Expo America and its online counterpart, Armchair BEA. As always, Day One begins with a request to answer five of the posed ten questions:

Tell us a bit about yourself: How long have you been blogging? Where are you from? How did you get into blogging?

Hi! I’m sprite, blogging from Washington, D.C., for the past ten years. The blog was a birthday gift from my partner, Rudi, who wanted to give me someplace to write. I’m not sure that this is what he had in mind, but tough luck! In addition to Rudi, we share The Burrow, our subterranean home, with three cats and lots and lots of books. I’ve gotten away from book reviews in the last few years, but hope to pick them back up again soon.

What is your theme song?

Ellis Paul’s “The World Ain’t Slowing Down.”

I totally sing along and dance to it (I’ve choreographed different bits to the lyrics) when it comes on my iPod, whether it’s at home, at work, on the street, or on the subway.

What book are you reading right now?

I usually have several books going at once, unless I’m utterly absorbed by one. That’s not currently the case, so I have Terry Pratchett’s The Color of Magic in my purse, because it’s the first book in his DiscWorld series and I thought I should start there after he died earlier this spring. After finishing Kate Hannigan’s middle grade historical fiction novel, The Detective’s Assistant last night, I’ve returned to Fablehaven by Brandon Mull at home. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix remains my audiobook on my phone, after having to wait to take it out a second time when I didn’t finish it before it was due back in April. I don’t usually have only fantasy novels going, but I’m in the middle of the Once upon a Time Reading Challenge, which finishes up on the Solstice. That said, though, any of these could fall off the radar tomorrow in favor of a new book that catches my fancy.

What is the top book in your TBR pile?

In a literal answer, sitting atop the pile closest to where I’m sitting, it’s Gayl Jones’ The Healing, which I picked up at the library on Saturday and which I saw recommended in this article on (mostly) underappreciated writers of color.

What book are you most looking forward to reading this summer?

I haven’t yet read G. Willow Wilson’s second volume of Ms. Marvel comics, Generation Why, yet, so that’s high on my list. And I’d be lying if I ignored Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. Yes, its publication is problematic given the author’s current health, and, yes, I’d feel better about it if it had come out after she’d died, and, yes, I’m terrified it will be mediocre. But, come on! We’re talking about finding out what happens after Scout grows up. Aren’t you the least bit curious?

I am done knitting the body of my shawlette and need to move on to picking up the stitches around the edge for the border next. Conveniently, the pattern calls for yarn overs on every row for the ease of just this task, so I hope to be nearing the end of this project this month.

Tonight brought some bad news, so I opted to start a new book by the most amusing author I know, Jasper Fforde. It’s the third Jennifer Strange novel and the first few chapters promise as entertaining a read as the previous two books in the series.