Five book reviews for the price of one!

Spellbound is the second book in the Spell trilogy by Blake Charlton. I recently read the first book, Spellwright which was seriously impressive. This was still a good book - it opened very strongly and was rather hard to put down, but it didn't quite have the edge the first did. It also used one of my least favourite tropes, but I'd rather not spoiler it for you, and in connection with said trope, something that was stated to be impossible naturally happened and despite the predictability it was presented as a major reveal. Despite some flaws it still comes highly recommended to those who enjoy original high fantasy.
No release date has been given for book three yet. I hope it isn't too far off!

After becoming aware of the male-protagonist-dominated nature of my paranormal detective reading I've been looking for a good paranormal detective series with a female protagonist that doesn't rapidly head down the erotica or maiden in distress route for a long time.
Greywalker by Kat Richardson is the most promising I've sound so far. I like that the protagonist takes some time to get used to her abilities and that this is not done in too twee or convenient a manner - she takes time to start to control her new abilities and by the end of the book she's still got some way to go - a good thing as this is the beginning of an ongoing series. I like that she's got some useful skills but recognises the ability of others and uses the variety of skills that her friends and aquaintances have rather than being a one person solution to the ills of the world. I was briefly worried that it was taking a turn down the erotica route that so many have before but thankfully Greywalker proved me wrong.
Perfect? No. Looking foward to reading book two? Yes. Recommended? Also yes.

'Monday 17 April 8st 13, alcohol units 6 (drowning sorrows), cigarettes 19 (fumigating sorrows), calories 3983 (suffocating sorrows with fat-duvet), positive thoughts 1 (vg)

Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary is one of the very few chick lit books (and movies) that I really enjoy. It's really not my genre, but this stuff is really funny and, reading it (again) as a single nearly-thirty, at times it's absolutely nails things - the quote above isn't one of those things, thankfully. I found this on a market stall while on holiday in Brisbane when I was nearly out of reading matter. With a third book due in October it was well worth the time. I'll have to find the second before the new book is out!

“If you’re brave enough to try, you might be able to catch a train from UnLondon to Parisn’t, or No York, or Helsunki, or Lost Angeles, or Sans Francisco, or Hong Gone, or Romeless…”

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville is another re-read from my Brisbane trip. I loved this book and I'm sure I'll read it plenty more times. Don't be put off by the recommended age of the book - it's great for adults too. A wonderful surreal world that evokes a feeling of wonder. A story that takes the tropes, runs with them for a bit and then turns them upside down to make something beautiful. Absolutely recommended.

When interviewed by Erin Morgenstern Neil Gaiman explained 'I told my publishers there was a novella on the way, but then I did a word count at the end, and realized I just wrote a novel by accident!' (source)

I was excited to hear that a Neil Gaiman novel was coming and I was not disappointed. I picked this up at the Queensland State Library bookshop when I was about to run out of holiday reading (again). The ocean at the end of the lane delivers a very different and dark fantasy based on places and events from Gaiman's childhood. Just go read it. Really.

Review: The Solitaire Mystery - Jostein Gaarder

I have several reviews to catch up with courtesy of my holiday reading but I've chosen to do this one first because this is a book that just might have changed my life.

I first discovered The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder in my high school library when I was about 14. It is a deeply philosophical novel that I realised I didn't fully understand. I enjoyed it, but I knew there was more that I couldn't see. I firmly resolved to read it again when I was older.

This was a resolution I promptly forgot until I was in a second hand bookshop in Darwin last September. I came across this and decided it was definitely time to see if I could comprehend the book better - my first reading was now half a lifetime ago.

A couple days later I was in Alice Springs walking around in a daze as I compared the messages of The Solitaire Mystery to the place my life had got to - it pointed out to me that in many ways I'd settled for something that was comfortable and easy and had just accepted the place I'd landed in rather than striving onward as I'd promised myself years ago when I chose to change careers. Where I found myself in work and home life wasn't what I'd wanted, exactly, but in my mind I was conscious I'd decided that it was good enough. That reading of The Solitaire Mystery might just have been the wake up call I needed.

Ten months later my life is in a very different place. A lot has changed and I realised earlier in the year that I'd achieved enough of my long-term goals that I needed to go looking for more - I can't give The Solitaire Mystery credit for all of it but I think it helped get me moving again. I though I should read it a third time while I was away in Brisbane and see what revelations it might have for me this time. I enjoyed it again but it didn't have the impact it did last time. Maybe the twists in the plot were too fresh in my mind, maybe I was happier with the image in the mirror this book presented me with. It was still time well spent.

I would absolutely recommend this book, it's somewhat quirky and different with a strong surreal element but the philosophy is wonderful and the themes are really intriguing. Maybe the ideas and concepts might give you one of those fantastic revelatory moments that a good book can bring. It's well worth finding out.

Found Alphabet - P

I just spent four wonderful and very relaxing days in Brisbane. I thought it would be a good chance to get this alphabet back on track. I've not found much to inspire a P post - at first I was just too busy, then I just couldn't find anything I liked. I think the holiday was very much needed... I feel refreshed and renewed, if somewhat tired from the late flights that I took in order to maximise holiday length.

The final choice is part of a sculpture near the Queensland State Library - found on my last day in Brisbane, the only one that wasn't blue-skied and sunny. It was nice not to be cold for a few days! The internet tells me the sculpture this is from is Approaching Equilibrium by Anthony Pryor.

The second below is also from a sculpture, this one in the Queensland Art Gallery - Elvira Madigan by Ron Robertson-Swann. This was the first of the images I found and after some weeks of feeling a bit disconnected from this project I suddenly had to scoot back to the cloak room to grab my camera. Hopefully this new rush of energy for the alpha-hunt continues.

I also did a lot of reading. I told you about Spellwright by Blake Charlton but read another four books too. That's a story for another post.

Review: Spellwright - Blake Charlton

The author bio in Spellwright explains that Blake Charlton was severely dyslexic as a child. That perspective is evident in the magic system in this novel - wizards, druids, gods and other wielders of magic use a variety of languages to write their magic. Magic users are authors, to subdue their ability is censoring and those who cannot use magic are illiterate. Nicodemus, the main character, is an apprentice wizard held back by a disability that affects his interactions with magic - cacography, which is essentially a magical form of dyslexia. He cannot spell his spells correctly, has difficulty distinguishing similar words from each other and spells and magic objects that he touches develop misspellings that cause anything from eccentric behaviour to catastrophic failure.

The original magic system is at the heart of what I loved about this book though it was generally enjoyable. A number of other elements of the story are very well-worn cliches, but they're executed decently enough so it's not a problem. I'm looking forward to reading book two soon, I just hope it can maintain the development of the magic system which I enjoyed so much.

I'd love to tell you more however today I have very limited internet access - so you'll just have to read it for yourself. It comes recommended for anyone who enjoys a good fantasy read.

Review: Relish - Lucy Knisley

The last graphic novel I reviewed was Brian Vaughan's Saga which was brilliant - but I mentioned that due to its confronting nature it's not one I'd feel comfortable recommending to people who are not already into comics.

I do want to present a graphic novel that is more approachable as I often encounter people who love reading but vehemently insist that they'd never read a graphic novel as they are in some way a lesser literary form. I want to challenge this view as I've encountered many brilliant works that deserve equal status with quality works of prose.

So here's one that is a lot easier to approach for someone not yet comfortable with graphic formats. Relish is an autobiographical work with a  number of recipes that tie in with the stories presented as comics. I was already aware of some of Lucy Knisley's other work, particularly the webcomic Stop Paying Attention which is another autobiographical work and well worth the time to read.

The stories are fun and honest and now I want to cook every single one of the recipes.

So far I've tried two - the first is a recipe for chai which was remarkably simple and seriously delicious. I'll be making that one quite a lot in the cold weather we're having now! The other I tried was Carbonara - the hardest part was not eating the fried garlic and white wine infused pancetta before it was time to add it to the rest of the ingredients. If you do make it it's definitely worth the search to find pancetta instead of bacon.

The recipe presentation is clear with illustrations making the steps easy to follow and every one of them looks delicious.

Even if you are not normally a reader of graphic novels, if you enjoy interesting memoirs and are looking for a recipe to try why not give this a go?

Grandma's 90th Guest Book

Back in May my Grandma turned 90 - I can only hope I am as active and independent as she is at the same age. I wanted to make something for her but Grandma did ask for no presents - I figured a guest book for her many, many birthday party and visiting well-wishers would get by though!

I ummed and ahhed for a long time making this one but am very glad with the way it came out. It's very Grandma with roses and the colours I chose. I was very busy during the party but one of Grandma's younger sisters ran around with a pen and made sure that everyone signed it!

There's not a lot to say on the making of it with such a straightforward design - Paper flourish at Enfield helped me work out how to bind it and helped punch accurate holes using their hole punch - far fancier than anything I had. The rest was an arrangement of elements, the sentiment was printed.

At the end of the day the design was simple and construction not complicated. But everyone signed it and made it something really special.

It took a little while to get a photo of it - but when I visited Grandma recently I was able to get a quick snap. More people have signed it since the party which is wonderful!

It's been a fairly intense month but I hope to post more often again soon - one or two more things to deal with in the next few days then I can start chasing photos and reinstate my craft mat on the dining table!

Found Alphabet - O

I've definitely not had any trouble finding material to use for this project this weekend. If anything the challenge has been narrowing it down to a sane number to post.

I visited the Oi You! Adelaide art exhibition this weekend - it was fantastic though I'm sorry to say that exhibition has now closed. None of these shots are from inside though - they are from an outdoor work. There were a lot more put up on walls around the city for this event and I'm hoping that they're not planning on destroying them as I haven't had a chance to see most yet. Next weekend I hope to take the map I've printed out and go check out more of this work. If you happen to be in Adelaide it's well worth a look - what little I've seen myself and in the photos of friends has been amazing.

Most of the rest of the photos are also from the urban art festival or other bits of urban/street art I've seen around. There's a pretty cool mural quite close to my house though that has not yet made it onto here. I've had a fascination with street art in many forms for some time and I have a bit of a collection of photos I've taken - some day I'll have to link more of them out here.

It's been an amazing week on this blog. My TARDIS tutorial post got a couple of really big linkages and the view count went sort of crazy. Last I saw that post had passed the 8000 views mark. I'd sort of planned to do something interesting when I saw the 10k mark approaching... but a week ago when my view count was just past 4k I thought I had some time to think about it. Anyhow, it's amazing to see the power of a couple of links. The rest of the blog is just ticking along as normal as if nothing happened, but I enjoy sharing things whether it's with five or five thousand. My biggest problem of late has been having too many post ideas. I'm hoping to get more of those happening soon.

My major project at work also hits it's biggest milestone this week. I'm sure everything's going to go well but wish me luck all the same!

Fallout Vault Boy card - with Instructions

I've been playing Fallout: New Vegas lately and I'm gradually coming to the uncomfortable realisation I may have to own up to liking it more than Skyrim. Which has dragons so that's a huge achievement.

This could make a RADical birthday card with a stamp inside... I'm also tempted to frame it.

I've had a few new card ideas brewing in my head now so it was time to use one of those. The method I used to make this card makes it very difficult to reproduce exactly so there is no full tutorial but I'll give you some instructions, if you've got some crafty tendencies that should help if you're interested in making something like this.

First I found a graphic of vault boy/fallout boy and sized it the way I wanted it. I printed three copies on printer paper then printed a copy of his face with no surroundings - cutting his face in cardboard wasn't plausible but I didn't want full printed outlines.

I chose the coloured card from a set of many colours I have so that everything would have the same texture. You could easily use different textures/patterns to achieve an interesting effect too.

I stuck the printer paper templates to the coloured card just outside the cutting lines for each colour and used my exacto knife (and a brand new blade) to cut out the pieces. The dark blue is the full size of the suit, although you could cut it smaller layering makes one piece appear behind the other. If you start with the big pieces you can re-use each template a few times. To cut the face I held the paper template and card with printed face up to the light to line them up. All the pieces were stuck together onto a piece of black card and then trimmed so that any overhang was eliminated.

The base card is 4x6 yellow card in the same texture as everything else. To make the background I cut a piece of printer paper to 4x6 and sketched the mountain and mushroom cloud. I cut the mountain first then the orange section - the template for which I cut down again to make the red sections and then finally cut the grey. By cutting from the same copy of a template I increased the chances of everything fitting neatly.

I lined everything up before finishing but it didn't look complete - I cut the road freehand and then added the road line and the ring to the mushroom cloud.

Some foam tape to add a bit of dimensionality and a shadow and he was done!

I'm very pleased with this guy - I have a few more ideas I'm working on now, including a dalek - I'm not satisfied with my design yet but I hope to bring him (and many other geeky cards) to life soon.

Afterlife of books

Creative Commons licenced by anneheathen

Following on from last week's blog - I mentioned that we don't take the books out the back and burn them, so after weeding is done we have to come up with some way of moving on the weeded stock. I've come across many variations on the theme but there are three main methods - sale, donation and disposal. If you know of any others please do let me know - the more knowledge the better!

First, of course, debited books have to be deleted from the catalogue and then defaced - the word has some nasty connotations but for most it means a cancellation mark and a cross through the barcode and spine label. This helps prevent books doing a boomerang impersonation and showing up repeatedly. It happens to some degree regardless. I've worked in a library which owned substantially more valuable stock that embosses a page in weeded books - this prevents people from faking the marks as a custom embosser is an expensive object. In a few rare cases the defacing is more drastic. But I'll get to that later when it's in context and doesn't sound so dire...

Many libraries run book sales - they might be occasional promoted events or a single shelf that's restocked as required. Larger sales, especially those held by more prestigious libraries, can be massive events that draw large crowds. I've been in book sale rooms where the people are packed in like sardines and still coming. Who benefits is an interesting question. Sometimes it's the library or a chosen charity that benefits but it might well go into the revenue stream of the governing body.

Donation of the books is also a popular option and here there are a lot of choices. The type of book might dictate which options suit. Locally child care centres are great for picture books and large print items often go to nursing homes as their high cost make it difficult for these organisations to establish good collections of their own. Other libraries who are establishing a collection from scratch, recovering from disaster or are experiencing tough financial situations might be able to use some items too. Libraries and museums with specialist subject collections might have some interest too. I once sent off a collection of very aged workshop manuals that were no longer of use to the public library I was in to a car museum that was very glad to have them. Prison libraries might appreciate donations, though they can be understandably choosy about subject matter. Charity bookshops can also be quite choosy as they want items that will sell rather than become permanent shelf occupants.

Some international aid groups also take books, especially those supporting schools in developing nations. In more than one library I've worked with there has been a regular representative from one of these charities who comes by to pick up items to send off. When one library had a large sale of books in many languages a charity group came in at the end and packed up every last remaining book to distribute to refugee groups and foreign aid projects.

Some books you cannot give away. Sometimes nobody shows interest in them for sale or donation, sometimes they're the risky items like pharmaceutical reference guides or mouldy books I mentioned in my last library post. These items still have to go somewhere, which is where we come to the least popular option, one which some libraries have to hide because public reaction can be so strong, and that is disposal. I love this quote for just this situation:

"Whether fortunate or unfortunate, many people regard books as sacred objects and have difficulty throwing them away … we need to remember is that it is not books that are sacred, but rather the thoughts, inspiration and accurate information they contain." - Doug Johnson

Libraries I have worked in mostly recycle old books that cannot be re-homed. Some books require the cover to be cut away first, this is the more drastic method of defacing I mentioned before. The first time you do this it feels almost criminal, but if no new home can be found after significant effort a chance to be another book in future might be the best that can be offered.

 The methods above are by no means exhaustive, I'd love to know what other methods you've come across. One of the more unconventional I've seen is shown in this photo that came from a post about the Hutt Street Library Outdoor Reading Room where they used a number of old books to create some really fascinating decorations. Sometimes a craft class held in a library might be able to do something with old books too though the attendee's feelings on this may vary! A quick Google search reveals vast numbers of book craft ideas that might be possible.

Found Alphabet - N

The cast iron decorative features in this town might just about form an alphabet by themselves - I found large number of Ns all the same - a couple were unfortunately a little fuzzy as it has been a quite dim day so here's a selection of the rest of the best.

With this post I skim on past the halfway mark of this project - it's been quite a week for projects for me! A lot of landmarks and while this is the smaller of the projects I have ongoing it is a milestone all the same.

So far I've learnt to see things in a whole different way - there are possibilities everywhere. I'm looking forward to continuing this.