Book Club: Murder On the Orient Express

A few weeks ago, I told you about my impending brush with stardom as an extra on Creed 2. Sadly, I wasn’t discovered for the Hollywood A-Lister within. I did get to rock some of my favorite knits though, and another extra randomly came up to me on one of our meal breaks to talk about Brioche when she saw me wearing my Caffeinated Shawl.

I love that shawl. It’s one of those pieces that makes me feel really confident about my look no matter what I’m wearing. I’m sad to report, however, that being an extra is soul-crushingly boring. I snuck out early, which I don’t feel bad about since they weren’t paying me. I had signed up to be a volunteer extra, and for each volunteer the movie made a donation to the SPCA. I feel like the four hours I spent on set earned the donation. I brought knitting with me, but never got a chance to knit it. They were filming a scene for a big boxing match and all the extras were squished into seats super close together to make it look like the match had a really big audience. I get that. But I couldn’t knit without majorly elbowing the people next to me. Which would have been OK, despite evidence to the contrary I can make it a few hours without yarn, but they also locked up our cell phones in cases so we couldn’t use them.For three straight hours, I sat in a tiny seat squished between two strangers, and in that full three hours about 30 seconds of movie got filmed. It wasn’t a total loss. It was pretty cool to check everything out for the first hour, and Michael B. Jordan was seated near me, so I got to stare at him.

This week I’ve been reading…

I read Murder On the Orient Express this week, but just barely. I polished it off late Wednesday night. The book was great, and was my first Agatha Christie, but to be honest I’ve been mostly binge watching The Arrangement. I really liked Hercule Poirot. He reminds me a lot of Sean Spencer from Psych. He’s had this murder solved for a while, but waits for the best dramatic reveal to tell everyone else. The ending was super satisfying too. SPOILERS: You find out there were several murders, but they all had a really good reason for killing the guy. The victim was a horrible person and totally deserved what he got. And in the end, Poirot sets it up so they don’t all have to go to jail for doing the public service of that murder. I love a good anti-hero. Next week I’m reading The Lost Days of Agatha Christie by Carole Owens. I don’t know anything about the book, but the library app I used suggested it, and it seemed like a really appropriate follow up book.

Also, I know this is book club, and not the binge-watching club, but have you guys seen The Arrangement? I killed the first season in three days, and I just realized I’m about to run out of On Demand episodes of season two. I’ll have to wait for it to come out each week.

Waiting a week to see a new episode is like living in the dark ages.

[[Insert dramatic sigh here]]

It’s about an aspiring actress who enters into a contract relationship with a movie star who is deeply involved with “The Institute.” The Institute is 100% meant to be Scientology, but they never come out and say that. The actor she’s contracted to is much saner and cuter than Tom Cruise though. By the end of the first season, shit gets crazy. I’m about to start episode three of season two, and I highly recommend the show.

Currently on my needles…

The last clue of the Nessie Expedition comes out tomorrow, which means this time next week I get to actually show you the socks! And since I basically live for MKALs I’m working on the sample for the next one (more details on that in a few weeks). In the meanwhile, I have a bad case of cast-it-on-itis. I also have a giant bag of left-overs from other projects that I want to start working my way through.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhvBsH_nTJX/?taken-by=doctor_llama

I’ve decided to embark on a stash bust over the next year. Partially because I almost never knit things that are genuinely meant for me. I make most of Lattes & Llamas’s samples, which is awesome, but I can’t always wear them with reckless abandon since I need to keep them nice for shows and I’m hard on stuff. My ability to spill coffee on things is prodigious. And I have big plans for Christmas knitting this year, but it’s been a while since I made myself something just for the sake of making it. Luckily, all those samples in L&L yarn has resulted in a dragon’s hoard of super premium left overs.

I’m starting my bust with the YinYang Kitty Ankle Socks by Grenna Garcia.

Any great stash buster suggestions for me to add to my library?

~Megan-Anne

I gave serious consideration to using it all in one insane Dad-in-a-90s-sitcom style sweater.