What an ipad really needs

Is of course a beautiful case.

As you may have noticed, the inhabitants of 2CC are recently into sewing. We are generally keen on making, (against the universal trend, I found myself hearing from the Prof of Making at UCL on Material World the other night).

My lovely iPad's lovely jacket started life as a shirt:

another shirt that I don't have a picture of, and to tart it up, a gold shawl found in a charity shop that cost £4 for one by one point four metres of glistening gold silk. No, I don't suppose it really is silk at all, but something synthetic. 

When initially cut up they looked like this:

and then this:

There is a wonderful website called the Missouri Quilt Company, where a very enthusiastic lady with a lovely accent, (very American but pronounces her T's as T's, so I imagine this to be a Missouri way of speaking), shows ways of putting bits of material together so they look better than they started. 

Following her directions, we then got to this:

The poor ipad has been living in a Jiffy bag for the last few months, and I thought it would miss this, so I opened the bag out and quilted the patchwork to one side, and the pocket part of the shirt to the other:

Finally, E brought back an excellent earthenware button, almost willow pattern, from the Kitting and 

Stitching Show at Olympia yesterday:

and look how well they go together:

What do you think?

Mr B's Reading Year - Daughter of Smoke and Bone

I love trilogies. Are trilogies a genre in their own right? I guess not, but there's something about this medium that just intrinsically appeals to me. So many YA books are trilogies now that I suppose I'm not alone in thinking that. What do other people think? What is it about trilogies that appeals so much?

Anyway, before I get started I have to say: I love this book. I've seen it around on Good Reads before and it's vaguely filtered through that it might be my kind of book, but I haven't gone  out of my way to read it. Do you know how big my to-read list is?

And that's only about a quarter of it! But this one got the VIB (Very Important Book) upgrade to the top of the pile.

Anyway, I was really pleased when Emma, my bibliotherapist, sent me Taylor's novel. Here is what Emma said:

Welcome to your Mr B's Reading Year! I'm Emma and I will be your bibliotherapist for the next 11 months. With arch book you will receive a book mark where you can collect your thoughts and share them with me if you like either by post or by email. For your first book I'm sending you the first part of one of my favourite new fantasy trilogies? It is incredibly imaginative and has a very mythological feel to it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Isn't that such a nice note to receive? She picked out this book especially for me! I can't quite believe it. It was so exciting receiving the beautiful parcel with Mr B's seal on it. The whole set-up of the reading year is fantastic, it quite makes me want to be a bibliotherapist! It's fun picking books for people, particularly if their tastes are similar to yours. I doubt it's as amazing as I think; it probably doesn't involve going to work and reading from 9-5 every day...

Am I rambling? Yes. Let's get back to the book.

Emma was right about how imaginative it is; I personally haven't come across a book quite like this, although it has different elements that are similar to other novels. It has a bold start, effectively introducing you to our central protagonist, Karou, her best friend, and ex boyfriend in one go. Although a very 'every day' occurrence (a class at college), Taylor is able to make it interesting and really quite fun. We are also introduced early to the idea that Karou is different...

Although she acts like a normal college girl within her classes, she is secretly living a double life. She lives with chimera, entities who are part animal, part human in Elsewhere, another

world. She never knew her parents and these people are her family: Brimstone, particularly is like a stern father to her.

It is a very engaging, well paced novel, and I loved the nods to mythology throughout. There were a couple of points I was dubious about (for instance, Karou's best friend barely batting an eyelid when she discovers the truth about Karou) but mostly Taylor's characters were very believable. I care about them, I care what happens to them. 

Although there's some pretty heavy and difficult things going on for the characters, Taylor also manage to create humour, and some of the ordinary trials of teenager, so it never got too dark. I have a sense that the next book is going to be a lot darker than this one... What a way to end it! Complete cliffhanger, holding on the rock face and slowly slipping down... I need to read the next one soon!

Thank you very much, Emma - 4 star review.

Sleepytime Blanket for Baby J

After finishing baby A's blanket I was rearing to make another one, this time for a friend of mine who gave birth at the beginning of March in Northern Ireland. It was rather a hard labour, but both mummy T and baby J are well and healthy.

We knew he was going to be a boy, so I decided to go down the very traditional route and make a blue themed blanket. I also used quite stiff backing, so it is more like a play mat than a blanket, although it can be used for either.

I was really inspired by some wonderful fabric from Plush Addict.

Isn't it amazing? I LOVE the little deer and the bees, although the second fabric up from the bottom was a bit weird. I didn't use that one. The rest was going to be scraps, so I drew out a rough plan for how I wanted it to look.

Some scraps were left over from baby A's blanket, some were from Coombe Cottage's material box, and some were from some charity shop clothes. They made a really nice selection of mostly boyish colours.

First I made the diagonal patterns. Each diamond was a quarter of a charm pack size (I'm learning the lingo!) Charm packs are 5 by 5 inches, so my quarter squares were 2.5 by 2.5 inches. Obviously this includes the includes seam allowances, so in the finished project they are smaller than this.

Here is me laying out the squares:

The green colours from my leftover fabric really add a nice element. I'm very into blue so I was worried they'd be too dull and spoil it, but it all worked out fine.

Then Tilly and I stitched them together in diagonal rows, like this;

Coming together, isn't it? This is always the exciting part of a project, when what's in your head begins to take shape. I made another panel the same, and then cut out the larger panels, tacking them together.

Isn't the 'Bambi' fabric wonderful? I love it! And i still have quite a lot left over... More projects to come, no doubt!

Then I pinned it to the backing - I used a wadding that had material on one side, which is easier to do, but the finished item won't be as pliable. Here it is pinned:

I know that it's a bit lopsided and everything, but I think the overall effect is okay. THEN, it was time to sew it together and to do the quilting! I did 'real' quilting this time- basically just sewed all of the diagonal lines to make sure thquilting didn't slip. Tilly struggled a bit getting through the quite thick layer of fabric (she's only little after all!) but we managed.

Do you want to see the finished product? Here goes...

TA DA! Yes, it still looks lopsided, but it is handmade after all.

With my Brave Little Bird label all stitched in.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with it, despite all its imperfections. And I think that Baby J likes it too:

He's only two weeks old - look how big he is! And how beautiful! Wishing Mummy T and Baby J all the love in the world

Hope you've enjoyed my blanket too, dear readers. Leave a comment if you want to.

Xx

Introducing Mr B's

This year I am the proud recipient of a Mr B's Reading Year! Both A and J have had this in previous years and now it's my turn. I haven't read the book yet (my to-read list is dangerously out of hand) but doesn't it look so exciting wrapped up? And a personal note from my bibliotherapist; what a wonderful parcel to receive. Can't wait to get started!

Sewing Adventures: A Tote Bag

Do you all remember my sewing machine? Here she is:

She has now been christened Tilly, short for Mathilda. (I'm not sure why this is her name, it just worked out that way!) So, the other part of my rather wonderful Christmas present this year was a course at Beckenham Crafty Bees on learning to use your machine, and to make a tote bag in an afternoon! I actually made the blanket for baby A before the course, so I already knew the ropes, but the pattern for the tote bag was very satisfying and we also learnt about proper seam allowances and clever things like that.

We started with the lining and the moved onto the outer layer. It has a pocket and everything! It was a really well run session - a good balance of assistance and doing things yourself, and we got to keep the pattern at the end so I can recreate as many bags as I like. The most exciting part was turning it inside out. Want to see?

Tada!

(Sorry for the poor photos.) It's taken me a long time to write this one up, but I had to wait until after Little M's birthday as this was her present. So now Tilly's little creation is many miles away as Little M is in Czech-land. Very exciting!

Stay tuned for more adventures with Tilly and lots more books!

I can't give out the pattern here, as it belongs to Beckenham Crafty bees but here is their website - they offer lots of different sewing and other arty courses.

xx

Book Reviews: Mad Governments and Missing Husbands

Riot by Sarah Mussi

Riot by Sarah Mussi

2018. That is what makes this book different.

There are a lot of dystopian YA books out there at the moment (believe me – I've read most of them!), but the majority are set in other similar world to our own, or our own world but further in the future. The unique thing about riot is we are only talking about four years time. AND it's in Britain – not America. That's terrifying; the events of Riot could really happen in the very near future. And that is precisely what makes it such fascinating reading.

Mussi tells the story through first person in the eyes of Tia, daughter of a key politician. Overpopulation has pushed the government into a highly unpopular bill called the “No More Children in Need Bill.” This means that people of the unemployed and uneducated classes will be “snipped” and therefore be sterile. Tia and thousands of others take to the streets and to the murky back alleys of the internet to undermine and overthrow the bill. But events spiral way beyond what Tia even thought possible...

Tia is an excellent central protagonist: she is likeable, gutsy and down-to-earth (although I got annoyed by how often she said 'frigging!') Both her and her key partner-in-crime character, Cobain, were very well portrayed and, as a reader, I cared about what happened to them. Never underestimate the power of likeable characters. Although the subject matter of the book is very heavy, there were lighter moments as well: banter and an evolving relationship between the pair alleviated what could otherwise have been a very dark story.

Chapter one throws you straight into the action: Tia is at a march where they chant “HANDS OFF OUR BODIES!”, telling the government that there is no way they will let this bill go forward. I was drawn straight in; unfortunately, Tia's thoughts were a little all over the place for the first chapter which meant it was a little confusing. I would have preferred the first chapter to be more clear and I also would have scrapped the prologue, which details someone having the “snip.” It was so much more exciting to be brought straight into the march.

Although Tia and Cobain were strong characters, I found Tia's father too much of an archetypal villain: he was predictable and a little unrealistic. Tia's mother also seemed to be the epitome of a stereotype (although a very different one) and I couldn't quite believe in either of them. This was unfortunate because such feisty people as Tia and Cobain need equal rivals. The only aspect of Tia's character that I felt dubious about was her fairly limited vocabulary; it made me doubt her reputation as a master hacker, as she sometimes came across as fairly simple. And, as I've mentioned, if I never hear the word “frigging” again, I'll be happy!

Overall, a really enjoyable book. I haven't come across Sarah Mussi before, but I'm on the lookout for her other books. I would recommend Riot to anyone into YA fiction, dystopia and contemporary politics; it is captivating and exhilarating.

And I know we should never judge a book by this, but the cover is awesome!

Note: I received a free e-book from Hodder Children's Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

'You Should Have Known' is the title of Korelitz's novel, and also the title of her central protagonist's self-help book in which she chastises women for choosing the wrong partners. It's an interesting premise; having a psychotherapist as the main character made me hope for insightful introspection and compelling contemplations on the nature of relationships.

It's difficult to say what I think of Korelitz's novel. At times it was compelling, but I also wanted to read it very fast at times – not due to its compelling nature, but because I just wanted to get through it. The first third or so was particularly tedious; it was very slow to get going. Korelitz's character Grace Reinhart Sachs actually reminded me of Bridget Jones at the start in a slightly alarming way. The likeness did not continue and the connection may have been entirely superficial (both lone mothers with children at very posh schools, and their interaction with other monied parents) but it struck an impression nonetheless.

After this very slow start, the real story starts. There is a crime, gradual realisations and an escape, before an entirely too-tidy-for-my-liking ending. There is no bang at the end; it's more like a little whimper.

I'm not sure what genre this book is. Although there is a murder, it doesn't feel like a thriller, but it's not 'fluffy' enough for women's fiction either. It strides the gap rather uncomfortably, uncertain of itself. I did enjoy it to a certain extent, but, as I said, I had to stop myself skimming some of the earlier sections and I was left dissatisfied with the ending.

One interesting thing to note (spoiler alert) is that we never meet Grace's husband, Jonathan. Now, we have plenty of opinions of him, plenty of knowledge and suppositions but we, as readers, never meet him. You scarcely notice this as the plot plays out and it was only at the end that I realised it entirely. I think this is very clever of Korelitz; to have such a key character that we never directly engage with is a very clever device. We never get any kind of real view of him, unbiased or otherwise. And, as Grace realises he is not the man that she married, this seems quite apt: she feels as blind as we do, left to make judgements based on someone we do not know.

Overall, I somewhat enjoyed it but it was rather unsatisfactory. Some major editing wouldn't go amiss for the beginning, and a stronger ending: these things would make me more enthusiastic. Promising – I may try some other books by Korelitz.

Note: I received a free copy of the e-book from Faber and Faber in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Book clubs view of Extremely loud and incredibly close

A says: It was a select group at book club this evening but we managed a good discussion of this book and managed to watch the film adaptation of it together too! As ever there was disagreement about the book! So it was well written AND tedious, thoughtful AND formulaic, believable AND stretching credulity. I think we were all touched by the painful viewpoint of a youg boy on his fathers sudden death, and enjoyed the rush of relationships, chaotic happenstance and history that the book portrayed.

The film adaptation chose to concentrate solely on the main story and did manipulate things around to simplify and sentimentalise and tidy the plot. So the back story of Oscar's grandparents and the convoluted Black's tales were only lightly drawn. However it too was a moving portrayal of the distress and grief of this young boys experience. 

In both film and book none of us really believed the portrayal of the mother. The suggestion that she orchestrated or followed oscars journey, yet never positively intervening, was not one we could really accept. It seemed like the desperate act of an author who'd written a tale only to find a flaw it's basic conception and plugging this gap with a crudely thought out get out clause...

J says: Our book-group on IL+ EC by Jonathan Saffran Foer.

Last night, despite the outside attractions of the Northern Lights, apparently visible in the south of England, a warm fire, good company, wine and popcorn kept six and a half of us indoors. This was only half of our full book group, as two were so emotionally affected by the book that they didn't attend, two were off meeting literary folk at the Bath Festival, and one/half has post-India disease, possibly malaria.

It was a good group nonetheless, though less intense than it sometimes is. Friday evening finds those of us who work (three out of six of us at last night's group) pretty tired. No-one has ever fallen asleep and they didn't last night. Opinion was somewhat divided about how good a book it was, but not to the extent of arm waving or shouting. Certainly not as I see on Goodreads, where it is either rated 1 or 5! One of our book group, who is the most frequent offender for not finishing a book as he finds it too awful, said it was one of the ten best books he has ever read! 

For my thoughts, see my review in Goodreads

We moved straight on to watching the film, which thankfully is not very long. Everyone stayed awake for that too. The popcorn supply held out and there was tea and coffee, though no break, at 10pm. We found that the film simplified the story a great deal both its plot and emotional content. The plot had to be simplifie as there was too much without making it a very long film with a lot of explanatory dotting backwards and forwards in history. The emotions? Well, that was disappointing, and I don't know that it was necessary. One of the central aspects of the story is Oskar's relationship with his mother in the year aftermath of his father's death. All the way through the book one asks oneself: 'Where is she?'. 'Why is she letting her nine year old son be so independent, so ignored?' Then at the end, this is answered to an extent, with the reader allowed to continue to guess and fill in. The film didn't allow this, and put in a weepy cuddly-again scene between Oskar and his mother at the end. We are told that she knew EVERYTHING about him, had in fact been tracking him and arranging his life. Nothing was left to infer. Tidy, and perhaps how one might want a mother/son relationship to be. Not as Foer meant, I think, and just not believable from a practical point of view: how did this woman find the time to track her son about New York and work, without him noticing her absence? 

Never mind, it was a good film in its own right, and a good variation on our usual book group night.

Paws and Whiskers: An Anthology Chosen by Jacqueline Wilson

When I was younger, I loved Jacqueline Wilson's books. I practically devoured them, reading and reading my dog-eared copies until the spines split. I wanted to be her characters: Eliza from The Bed and Breakfast Star, Ruby from Double Act (although I was probably more a Garnet), Tracey Beaker in the dumping group, and even Lottie from the Lottie project.

Now I'm a twenty-something year old, I've obviously grown out of that. Of course. Now, I've realised that who I really want to be is Jaqueline Wilson herself.

This was a really lovely and well-chosen collection of stories and extracts about dogs and cats. I myself am more of a cat person than a dog person, so I had a natural swing to enjoy those stories more. But I still loved the dog stories, particularly the extract from “The Incredible Journey.” It was really moving.

One concern I had about this novel was that reading only short snippets from stories would feel so incomplete that no satisfaction could be gained. Luckily, I was mostly wrong with this feeling, as I knew most of the books they came from: One Hundred and One Dalmations, Just William, Dick King Smith... I haven't read Jean Ure's novel Ice Lolly and this particular extract was unsatisfying for me. It left you with too many questions; questions can be very good, but this was too much. I was delighted to see The Cat That Walked by Itself; it has inspired me to reread Just So Stories.

The first story, Jacqueline's own, was lovely, and her oh-so-familiar and comforting authorial voice shone through. I liked Leonie, and it was a very complete short story – I wasn't left feeling cheated. Amongst the old favourites were some unexpected surprises: I never knew that Ian McEwan wrote for children! (Note to self: must find out more!) I was also shocked to see the Patrick Ness' extract from Chaos Walking, as the rest of the stories were aimed at much younger children. I would feel uncomfortable with a young child reading Ness' books because, brilliant though they are, they are very violent. It seemed a little out of place to me.

Nick Sharratt's illustrations were similarly comforting, memories of reading by torchlight in tents and gobbling down books in some vague fear that they might leave if I didn't! It was odd to see Nick Sharratt's drawings in place of the traditional pictures for some of these stories (One Hundred and One Dalmations, Alice Through the Looking Glass) but I enjoyed the change. I also loved the cover under the dust jacket!

Overall, a wonderful anthology, and for a very worthy cause. It will appeal to animal lovers of nearly any age, anyone who knows about the bond you can feel to a dog or cat. Very enjoyable. And a proportion of royalties all go to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home - you get to feel virtuous through reading!

Now, excuse me while I go away to find a copy of Just So Stories...

Note: I was given a pre-publication copy of this for free, but all opinions expressed are my own.

Signs of Spring

Spring coming to my windowsill garden!

Spring coming for a new sewing project! (more to come on this later)

And most of all Spring coming to Two Coombe Cottages!

Bring it on!
 

xx

Spread Some Indie (book) Love this Valentine's Day

 

http://www.b00kr3vi3ws.in/2014/01/bloghop-spread-some-indie-love-14th.html

Hello readers, and Happy Valentine's Day! I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Valentine's Day, but I saw this post and thought it was a great idea! I have been reading quite a lot of self-published books recently (for reviewing purposes) and what better place to publicise them all, and read about some more?

Head over to www.b00kr3vi3ws.in and look at some other people's posts - let's give self published authors a chance!

I've decided to review a few different 'indie' books that I've been reading recently; also go and check out my post on From Thine Own Well by Norm Hamilton, which is also self-published.

Let's start with a book of short stories: Questions and Answers by James R Holden.

It's kind of odd - short stories are my favourite medium to write. I love writing them, love the constraints of word limits and fitting so many subtleties into such a short space. I love breaking the normal rules of beginning-middle-end and the creation of back stories that only get hinted at. I love making twists that leave you gasping.


But, I'm not that keen on reading them. I've always thought that writing them is just more enjoyable than reading them. (Does that make me some kind of authorial hypocrite?)
This collection was an exception. As promised, they were "love stories but, unusually perhaps, most are written from a male perspective." And this was what made it exciting and different for me. I'm not much of a romantic, really (I might even call myself a sceptic at times), but these were real. Real, guttural emotion. Real characters. Real writing.
James Holden's collection is a real gem. I'm not sure what I expected from it - I won this book through a First Read giveaway, and wasn't sure what kind of quality the writing would be. I was, pleasantly, surprised by it. Unfortunately, there were a few typos and grammatical errors that left me screaming (I'm completely a grammar nazi), but I let them slide.
Of the thirteen stories, I think my favourites were the two that had very alien cultures in them: Highlands and Bleed. The countries of Ethiopia and Indonesia were brought into full technicolour - I could really see them. I also enjoyed The Dog Group and Cracks in the Wall a lot.
A really promising set of short stories from new author, James R Holden.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in a GoodReads giveaway.

 

"Eight thousand candidates sign up for the Suicide Game. Only one can win. Their destination: the Night Stadium, a place of makeup and music, fear and adrenaline, blood and romance, celebration and death.
Each candidate has his or her own reason for entering the Game. The Council runs the Game. The outcome of the Game is left to fate...in the laps of the gods. The candidates will jump to their deaths in order to win everything, before capacity crowds in the Stadium. The public follows every jump, live on TV and on their mobile screens, choosing their favorite candidates and betting on their lives.
The Game’s community also includes geeks, mafia, makeup artists, master chefs, models, musicians, ordinary workers, spies, terrorists, and many others. SG - Suicide Game is the story of the candidates’ journey. It boldly imagines a place where death and denial are interwoven with hope, choices and the innate desire for happiness. Impressive in the totality of its vision, it is an exploration of the best and worst things in our lives, nightmares and especially, our dreams."

Note: this was another book that I received free in a GoodReads giveaway. 
I was slightly worried that this would be just a rip-off of The Hunger Games (which I love), but it turned out to be totally different. The comparisons are natural because of the genre and nature of the book, but they're not really even similar! Really quite an unexpected read. I think that Haidji's first language may not be English, which did unfortunately show through the writing: at times it felt stilted and awkward.
The basic premise of the book was intriguing, and there were stories within stories, all layered upon each other. At the outset, we appeared to be seeing a little into the lives of some of the random contestants in separate chapters: their characters, their interests, family lives, and most of all what had motivated them to take part in the Suicide Game. However, it transpires that these are the last seven candidates alive, so it is much more relevant knowing their backgrounds. I think that these early chapters were my favourite ones actually: the insight was really interesting, and I loved all of their backstories. I would actually have liked to have known more, if I'm honest. I became particularly fond of a couple of characters, attached to their personality quirks, especially the bike-rider.
However, there were parts of this novel that left me disatisfied. The entire Suicide Game was rigged because they were choosing which lines to cut; I was never clear how much the public knew this. It seemed obvious and, in this case, why would they choose to invest large amounts of money in it? I have already mentioned the stilted writing style, but also some of the point of view shifts were confusing.
Overall, an interesting, but ultimately a little disapppointing read.

In The End is the story of a disparate group of individuals trying to survive in the immediate two week aftermath of a nuclear attack on nearby Denver. Allegiances and friendships are forged at the same time as violent conflict is unleashed between the group, as their true colours are shown.
Edward M Wolfe has written a pacy and compelling narrative; not a single chapter occurs without excitement and movement of the plot forwards. The characterisation of some protagonists, particularly Tori and Trey who are brother and sister, felt reasonably believable and their actions fitted their situations. However, I was uncertain about others' reactions, and I wonder how much experience Wolfe has with small children, as Elizabeth did not behave as a three year old would be expected to. Similarly, college students, Angela and Jim, were not as convincing to me.
Although the plot was fast-moving and action-packed, there were some continuity issues: for example, unexplained inconsistency as to whether to the power was off, and Monica's husband changing name at one point! Some of the writing needed more editing in my opinion, as the point of view shifts made some chapters very confusing. There was also a tendency to go into too much detail on technical issues, which most people (myself included) would find a little tedious.
Overall, it was a fun novel to read due to its subject matter, and plenty of people would enjoy it. Personally, it wasn't my cup of tea but I can see potential in Wolfe's writing.

Note: I received a copy of In The End as GoodReads giveaway.

Gone by Julie Elizabeth Powell has a truly unique and interesting premise. It is inspired by her real life experience of a daughter being in a vegetative state for seventeen years of her life, after being resuscitated at age two, before dying a second time at nineteen. Her mother, Powell, questions: where was she gone in that time? This novel offers one explanation.
From this question comes a bizarre and adult Alice-in-Wonderland style world (complete with a pair called Fun and Games - any reminders of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee?) in which a mother travels, meeting her daughter in Avalon, then moving to another facet of the same world, Caprice, where she rescues a bunch of strange creatures from an evil fate. It is a bizarre book - compelling in its way, but I couldn't quite get into it. I really wanted to enjoy this book a lot, and I'm not sure what got in the way for me. The bizarreness of the worlds started to grate on me, although I liked the various characters: I think I needed a little more grounding throughout to enjoy it fully. However, this is not to say that others will feel the same way, and I really commend Powell on such an innovative and different book. It is truly unique - I have never read anything like it - and I was moved by her story.
Note: I received a copy of Gone in exchange for an honest review.



Rafflecopter Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway Alternately You can grab the Rafflecopter code from here: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NDkxZDFkOGJiZDFlZWY2OGFjYzNkODJiMGM3Y2NlOjEwNA==/ Linky Code for Blogger Platform: Linky Code for WordPress Platform: Goodreads Giveaway Bookshelf HTML:

Thanks everyone for reading - please leave a comment! What do you think of self publishing? One thing I would say to all authors who self publish is proof-read, proof-read, proof-read! Mistakes are easy to miss but annoying to find!

E xx

Promising Debut: From Thine Own Well by Norm Hamilton

This book really appealed to me because of the subject matter; it's set in the Canadian near future and is about, primarily, the consequences of over-mining and fracking. Fracking is of particular interest to me because my cousin, Little M, is quite involved in anti-fracking activism and has been to Canada as well! So, this was a theme close to my heart; when the book giveaway was announced, I had to go for it!

This review is part of a review tour, so head on over to the other blogs and check out their thoughts too!

The author is Canadian Norm Hamilton, who has lived in Yukon for 40 years, where From Thine Own Well is set. He is now retired and living on Vancouver Island with his wife, hoping to dedicate more time to writing. This is his debut work of fiction, although he has published a non-fiction book about photography, another passion of his.

The year is 2036, in Yukon, Canada. It is a dystopian future where restrictions on mining and fracking are virtually non existant - a piece of legislation called The Agreement means that foreign companies do not have to adhere to Canadian law. This means that international companies, mostly Chinese, have come in and exploited the land in whatever ways they wish.

From Thine Own Well tells the story of some activists, fighting for their right to know the truth of what is going on, andjustice for the area and its people. They are a very eclectic mix of people - a reclusive old man, a young couple with children, a lesbian couple, a renowned photographer, an elderly nurse... The diversity of characters is one of the appeals for me. Hamilton has also given us the perspective of the corporate and governmental officials, meaning we see both sides of the battle. 

Without giving much away, From Thine Own Well encompasses both global and personal tragedies in a sensitive way. It brings you from an individual perspective to looking at things more generally, allowing you to see the impact these companies have in all the different respects. There are also some unexpected twists - I really didn't see one thing in particular coming!

I really enjoyed the topic and setting of this book. It is a very novel idea: I don't think I have ever read a dystopian book set so immediately in the future. As I said, the premise appealed to me personally, and it was fascinating what Hamilton had done with the idea. I've never read a book quite like it.

Unfortunately, the characterisation of some of the "baddies" was quite stereotypical, and they seemed almost like caricatures of evil people. The exception to this would probably be Wolfgang Grimm, who had some more depth to his character, but the others (particularly Sam Chong, the Vice President of the Department of Peace and Well Being, who takes over when Grimm does not manage to contain the situation in Yukon) need some work on.

I also felt that there were too many coincidences for the novel to be entirely believable. For example: the characters meeting each other (Stone meeting Kirsten, Nora approaching Landon, Danielle and Sherry meeting Gerard) fell into place a little too easily, and was therefore a bit contrived. There were moments when I felt too skeptical to be drawn into the story.

As I said before, there was a brilliant plot twist to do with Paddy, one of the activists - I was flabbergasted! Hamilton successfully hid some of the truth about him from readers, and I enjoyed being surprised in this way.

Overall, I enjoyed From Thine Own Well, and I am glad to have had the opportunity to read it. It is a really promising debut, with a brilliant premise, only slightly let down by some sloppy writing. With more practice and perhaps a different way of editing, Hamilton's future novels could be works of real genius!

Thank you for the opportunity of reading this book!

 

Adventures into Sewing

It's been a while since our last update here, and I'm going back a bit to update things. My Christmas present from A and J this year was...

                               

A sewing machine! A lovely dinky little one from John Lewis. Isn't it sweet? I wonder whether I should name him/her... is it normal to name sewing machines?

I was home for a few days around Christmas, and this seemed the perfect time to try it out - I do know how to sew, but have always been very under confident machine sewing. Hand sewing? Fine - I've done quite a lot of it, involving various sorts of embroidery and cross stitch. (Although I still can't get the hang of French knots!) But machine sewing? It's sort of bee a scary block for me - my little experience has been at school, which was fine although uninteresting, and on Alison's machine, which was unsuccessful and terrifying! 

Fortunately, my little machine came up trumps. It isn't fancy, like these digital ones with all kinds of amazing stitches, but it sews and doesn't get stuck and has quite enough stitches to be getting on with.

Mr Father Christmas had given me some beautiful material squares, so I decided my first project would be a patchwork cot blanket for baby A, the daughter of one of J's ex-colleagues.

Using a rather nice Liberty sewing book I got last year from Christmas, I decided on a simple brick pattern.

                  

I started my cutting up all the beautiful material:

                   

Isn't it a lovely selection? Part of me didn't want to use it because then it would be gone! But that's such a stupid reason that I managed to cut it up, and started sewing. It was so much easier than I thought... 

                         

Ta-da! Dont the colours all look so wonderful? I love it. Then came the slightly harder part of sewing it to the backing, and using quilting. J was sent out on a mission to find wadding at the nearest Dunelm Mill shop and came up trumps. For my first quilt, I wasn't able to do 'real' quilting, so I made single knots through the layers at every other corner instead. Not the proper way to do things! But, for my first foray into machine sewing, I have to admit that it hasn't come out half badly. Would you like to see?

                    

Isn't it lovely? The dark blue backing fabric was taken from A's material box. R, J's ex-colleague, and baby A seemed to like it. Do you want to see it again?

Okay...just one more.

                           

Small, but satisfactory. 

Stay tuned for my next adventures in the world of machine stitching!

Xx