Audiobook review - Ozark Dogs

 I just finished listening to Ozark Dogs by Eli Cranor, narrated by Eli Cranor. And overall, I have some mixed feelings. I'd say maybe a 2.5/5.

This was pitched as a thriller and, honestly at least for me it didn't seem that thrilling. It's definitely a different style than most thrillers I had read, it feels grungy and dirty throughout the whole book. Really not my style of reading, I had a bit of a hard time relating. But I probably should have been able to guess that from the main plot of the junkyard.

I found it much less suspenseful than a lot of thrillers, and I'm not sure if that was due to the plot or just not relating to many characters. It certainly had like danger and threat to a character, but I didn't feel hooked in or all that invested.

Honestly, the redeeming quality of the book to me is the major twist at the end. Usually with thrillers there is something at the end, and often I find it guessable, but this one wasn't, though without giving much away this one was also less related to the plot of the book than most.

Overall, I think it's clear the author really cares about his story, and did a better job narrating than I had expected for an author, though wasn't as good as a professional narrator imo. But ultimately, he failed to make me care as much as he did, and I didn't enjoy the general atmosphere or grunginess of the book. It is very real in that regard though, so if that is something you think you might enjoy, I'd say give it a try.

Weekend of finishes

I actually finished some stuff! I know, crazy concept. But it did happen and I’ll show the proof!

First off was this kit by LucaS. I’ll probably do a full review later, overall I really like their kits. The thread seems high quality and was easy to work with, not to mention I ended up with tons of most of the colors left over. 

As a horse lover, even though I’m not big into horse shows, I couldn’t resist this kit. I stayed up late Friday to finish it which seemed like excellent timing as the American eventing championships were this past week. One of my riding instructors horses and a girl from my barn got 11th in their division which is amazing and seemed so fitting for this. 

My second finish was a kit by Vervaco. I actually had 90% of this done for months but had run out of two colors needed to finish. This might have been my fault as I was stitching in a not particularly thread conservative manor, and their customer service was very friendly and offered to send more or give me the DMC numbers for just true colors I ran out of, which is what I ended up opting for. Then of course the craft store only had one of the colors 🙄 so it took me quite a while to get the colors and finish it up. But here it is

He’s adorable. I have some more cute kits from vervaco, so I’ll see if I run out of thread on those before passing an opinion on them or writing a full review on their kits. 

Lastly it’s going to be in the mid 90s this week, which is the perfect time to try to channel fall vibes, so I had a bit of a new start. A cozy autumn kit by Riolis that so far is stitching up fast, though it reminded me I hate back stitching. 

Due to the aforementioned heat, I choose to cancel my horse back riding lesson this week. So while the lack of ponies is tragic, I might have more time to stitch this assuming I also make some good progress on the never ending blanket  

10 rows a as day

 About a week ago I hit 100 rows on the baby blanket, which is about 1/3 of what I have planned. 

Sorry for the rotates picture, I don’t know how to fix it. 

I was pretty excited about this milestone and realized that if I did 10 rows a day I’d finish in about two and a half weeks. The problems with this are

1. That’s still two and a half weeks and frankly I’m bored. So bored. I’m ready to be done now 

2. Ten rows a day is A LOT. The rows are long and double knit so double the stitches. Doing ten rows a day feels like it takes all my hobby time. I did this for about a day and a half before burning out. 

So I’m the past week or so with burning out that means I’ve done 20 rows total. RIP. I’m realizing that this project might just haunt me forever, I’d like it done by October or at the latest thanksgiving and at the rate I’m going….

Guess I should start knitting instead of cross stitching :(