riding the echo down

I have not been reading all that much* lately. Since the last post I have finished three books, all of which are from the old murder mystery list -- mostly because I have them on my phone, and I've been reading them in waiting rooms. In decreasing order of how much I liked them:

1. The Middle Temple Murder by J.S. Fletcher. 4 stars. I didn't entirely follow the plot, and I'm not sure if I was supposed to. But it was well written and the characters were great. review
2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. 3 stars. It's a classic, I understand why it is a classic, but I also don't think it is worth reading unless you are already a Christie fan. review
3. The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen. 2 stars. Unlike the Fletcher book, where me not following felt like a me problem, here I felt that the author was going out of their way to make it hard to follow. Also, all the characters are dickheads. review

* not counting a bit of short fiction, a lot of Heated Rivalry fic, and chapters out of a lot of books that I haven't actually made it to the end of because it requires focus I haven't had.

uni: sent the ethics application to supervisors on ... Tuesday. Have started setting the foundations for the next sub-project, but haven't gathered together all the notes yet. This will be hunting for kids books. I am being optimistic and also grandiose about how much I'm hoping to achieve.

annual not-goals: reading (1) and music (4) are on track; the others either I've not really done anything on or they aren't currently achievable.

medical: 7/15 treatments down; I look mildly sunburned. I'm getting the expected kinds of side effects, albeit at levels that seem higher than is warranted for such a small area of body (today I am so crashed and food is a struggle, and language is a bit wonky; I told the nurse my head was full of glue). I have found some details that help with the overstimulation: I wear non-slip socks (no shoes on the bed, no bare feet to stress the staff, no taking shoes off), I keep my eyes closed and focus on breathing except when watching the 'how much to breath' lights, I take my belt off even though I don't need to so it doesn't dig in.

craft: I have been making progress on one of the two knitting projects that I'm counting as 'active' which means that some time this year I might get to the pattern that buttonsbeadslace shared with me (which needs to be done for ... September, because b'day gift. and then a second for october, and a third for December, because I think I'm funny). No other craft has had a look in. I did do weekly drawing for a bit but didn't find the spot in the routine it fits and keep forgetting.

music: I have played some of the Hanon's exercises roughly once a week. Monday group (viola) is going well; Wednesday (violin) I've made it to more than I've missed and alternating Sundays (recorder) are also good although there is less music happening there than would be my preference (P's house guest is in the final throes of writing a PhD thesis in mathematics; P does not do math; ariaflame and I have tangentially relevant knowledge, house guest take the opportunity to talk about their maths)