September Book Reviews

Glass House by Patrick Reinken

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


With a setting split between a US courtroom battle and a South African diamond mine, as this book starts out it isn't quite clear how the disparate storylines will come together. A lot of characters are introduced at almost dizzying speed, while conversely there are several passages simply laying out facts, whether about the diamond industry or the legal process. This is an odd combination, but somehow it just works, balancing out as a quick read with a very detailed setting.

One minor niggle is that the chapter headings read like the kind of notes an author might make to describe the contents to himself; as such, there were spoilers there that I would have preferred not to read. I tried to skip over them towards the end, but that's tricky to accomplish! However it didn't stop me from enjoying the book, and I definitely want to see more from this author.

Be Careful What You Wish For by Sibel Hodge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is another cute, silly mystery in the Amber Fox series. If you enjoyed The Fashion Police then I suspect you'll be as happy as I was to spend a little more time with Amber and her friends, as they investigate a boxing mystery this time.

Sylvianna by Keryl Raist

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I put off starting this book; it's really long, and long in fantasy novels is seldom a sign of an easy read. But once I got going, I was immediately sucked in by the mystery of the characters' pasts and the intriguing situation at Sylvianna, and I finished it in two days. If anything, the ending is a bit too quick, and the final couple of pages left me wishing the next one was already available. I really enjoyed the mix of magic, theology, and adventure.



I should probably also mention the sex. I didn't notice until after I read it that the book is categorised as erotica as well as fantasy adventure... but you certainly couldn't miss the sex scenes. I'm not used to reading such graphic description, and I certainly felt strange about reading it on the train, but it did suit the storyline and the characters.

Agents of Treachery by Otto (ed) Penzler

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I picked this book up in the Kindle sale, and I think I'm glad I didn't pay full price. There were a couple of really good stories, and the collection as a whole was mildly diverting, but it was a real mix of quality and I was disappointed too many times. However it was an interesting taster of a genre I don't really read, and I may look for longer works by the writers of my favourite pieces.

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this more than the first in the series, and found that everything was starting to come together by the end. I've started reading the next one straight away as I didn't want to leave it hanging open.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was my favourite in the trilogy, and brought together everything which had been set up in the previous two novels. It's hard to go into detail without spoilers, but suffice it to say that I enjoyed the way the story unfolded and I felt the ending tied up most of the loose ends in a satisfying way.

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Apple & Raisin Cookies

We've made nearly thirty litres of apple juice this year, from our favourite apple tree. But we also have a tree full of cooking apples to use. I can't quite imagine we'll get through them all, even if I make more mincemeat. However, this was a very tasty start...

You could use dried apple pieces if you prefer, but the texture will be very different to fresh apple.

Apple & Raisin Cookies
Makes 10-12

1½ cup plain flour
¾ cup soft brown sugar
½tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
125g butter (US: 1 stick)
1 egg
½tsp vanilla essence
½ cup apple pieces (one medium cooking apple, chopped finely)
½ cup raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
2. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly, breaking up any lumps.
3. Melt the butter.
4. Break the egg into the butter, along with the vanilla essence, and mix with a fork until even.
5. Add the liquids, apple, and raisins to the dry ingredients.
6. Knead until you reach a dough of even consistency.
7. Divide into balls and press lightly onto a baking tray - allow space for the cookies to spread during baking.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.
9. Cool on a wire rack.

Something In The Woodshed

Since we finally got our woodburning stove installed last month, we've been half wishing for winter to hurry up so we can have more fires. It's such a cozy way to spend an evening.

Meanwhile my husband has been working hard, using the late summer days to build a fabulous woodshed, and chopping wood to fill it up.

Actually, it's not yet anywhere near full. Andy estimates that each of the three sections takes about a cord of wood, and we haven't quite filled up one section yet. But we're getting there. I think the shed looks great, and it'll look even better when it's fully loaded.

Airlie Center, Virginia

After my short stay in New York, it was time to head to Virginia for a workshop at the Airlie Center. It would be hard to imagine anywhere more different from the bright lights of the big city, with 1200 acres of beautiful countryside. Everything was trees and lakes. We saw plenty of deer and geese, and the staff assured us that there were bears, skunks and coyotes in the vicinity. I'm only sorry that my head was so full of tough research questions (and jetlag) that I didn't have that much chance to explore the area.

I did, however, make sure I had plenty of time to explore the food. Airlie grows a lot of its own vegetables, and you could really tell from how beautifully fresh it all was. The buffet format made it possible to try a little of everything at every meal, and there were at least a couple of veggie and vegan options each time.

As well as growing their own food, the Airlie Center uses environmentally friendly and recycled products, and has recycling bins all over the place. Although I didn't actually see any there, the beautiful butterfly garden is specially planted with butterfly-friendly plants.

I didn't even get around to going for a swim, although we did have a discussion meeting at the poolside one day. While the ten minute walk from my room to the main buildings was a nice stroll, it felt a bit far to walk back while dripping and in need of a shower!

The bar was a nice environment to continue chatting into the evening, with very generous measures of gin in their G&Ts, and loads of free snacks.

And can anyone shed any light on why you might want two double beds in your room? (At a conference centre...?)

Breathtaking

I've had landscapes take my breath away before, but it's typically been plunging ravines or towering cliffs, windswept oceans or bleak desert. The only man-made scene to physically take my breath away was the Great Wall of China, and that snakes through mountains that are more than impressive enough in their own right.

Until this.

I'd seen the New York skyline before, of course. In endless panoramic film shots, which didn't really give me a sense of scale. And in the daylight, which simply didn't give me this hit of pure and overwhelming beauty.

It put me in mind of Christmas lights: quite possibly the biggest display of fairy lights on earth. Chatting to a colleague today, she said it made her think of black velvet studded with diamonds. But whatever your analogy of choice, it was certainly breathtaking.

I don't really do cities. But staring wide-eyed across the water, I could suddenly understand why someone might want to wake up to this view.



(I'm just sorry that the picture really doesn't do it justice. Sorry, but - since I've never seen an image that did really capture it - not terribly surprised.)

Walking the George Washington Bridge

There are some things so inherently pointless that, having done them, you can't quite imagine choosing to do the same again. But on the other hand, the very silliness of doing something can contribute to the experience, and make it - one time, at least - quite fun.

I think walking from Edgewater into Manhattan is one of those things.

I didn't actually realise until I gave the address to the cab driver at JFK that my hotel - the closest to Columbia University that my travel agent could find - was on the other side of the Hudson in New Jersey. But the info sheet in my room said that it was three miles up to George Washington bridge - and that's a very manageable distance that I should usually be able to walk in about 45 minutes, so I decided to go a-wandering.

It took me an hour and a half, with over twenty minutes of that on the bridge itself. I also got a little bit lost trying to find the pedestrian path, and was turned away by the police on my first attempt! I wouldn't mind the time, though, if it was even a nice route. But the road up to the bridge isn't that great to walk along, it's very busy, with lots of side-roads to cross and gaps with no pavement (sidewalk!). And once you get onto the bridge itself, the traffic is constant and the pollution overwhelming. But once I'd started walking, sheer bloody-mindedness took over, and I wasn't going to give in half-way and catch the bus.

Still, it was a fun thing to have done the once, even if I won't be doing it again in a hurry. And there was a strange sense of cameraderie with other bridge-walkers as we exchanged windswept smiles and wondered why anyone else would be so daft as to be up there...

New York

By the time you read this, I'll be on the plane from London to New York (I'm writing using the free wifi on the Heathrow Express).

I'm travelling to visit some colleagues at Columbia University, but I'm taking the opportunity to meet up with a couple of blogging friends while I'm there: Charlotte from My Pixie Blog and Alice from The Rabbit Hole Report.

Speaking of which, Charlotte asked me a while back if I'd submit a story to her 'happily ever after' series; I finally got around to writing it, and you can find possibly the strangest first date story you've ever read, here.

Play-Testing and Beta-Reading

I've been reading a few books lately that aren't published, or even complete. There's something really interesting about that glimpse into the unfinished, unpolished work that gives you more insight into the writer's thought processes than you'd ever get if you just read the final book. You have to look past errors and inconsistencies, but in exchange you get a product of raw enthusiasm that has its own kind of beauty. It's nominally a favour, but I love reading and I enjoy that sneaky look behind the scenes, so I keep volunteering.

I used to do the same for board games, especially in London where there were plenty of games designers looking for their first players. Play-testing tends to be a more interactive process than just reading a book and giving feedback. You're playing a game before it's fully developed, and often the game designer is there to make notes and clarify - or occasionally tweak - the rules.

In both cases, if you stick with the process you can get an overview of the development stages, and maybe learn some of the ways in which improvements get made. It's nice to see successive drafts get better and better - and to know, when the final product appears, that in some small way you were part of the process.

Have you ever volunteered for something like this? Anyone else find it simply fascinating?

Cheese & Onion Cookies

A couple of weeks ago I served chocolate cherry cookies at a BBQ. As we were sitting around munching the cookies, someone suggested that savoury cookies would be a good idea. What with it being a BBQ, sausage flavour was suggested. Well, I haven't made those yet, but the general idea stuck and I have made a couple of other varieties in the meantime.

My first attempt, while very tasty, came out rather brittle and pastry-like. I wanted to make something softer, more in keeping with my (admittedly British) use of the word 'cookie', so I tried again. This time, I reduced the amount of flour, and included some mashed potato in the mixture. They're very moreish, and taste sort of like a cheese-and-onion pastie in cookie form. We tried some warm, but they're also nice cold.

Cheese & Onion Cookie Recipe
Makes about 20 cookies

2 cups plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 eggs
250g butter (US: 2 sticks)
1 cup mashed potato

1. Preheat oven to 160° C.
2. Mix baking powder into flour. Combine with cheese and red onion pieces.
3. Melt the butter (1 minute in the microwave) and break up the eggs.
4. Add the egg and melted butter to the flour. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or spatula until no patches of raw flour remain.
5. Knead the mashed potato into the dough.
6. Form into balls and press down onto a lined baking sheet.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown and beginning to crisp.
8. Cool on a wire rack before serving. Store in the fridge if you're not going to eat them all at once.

August Book Reviews

August was a month without any significant trips, meaning fewer travel-hours to fill with reading, so I didn't get through as many books as in June or July. In addition to the books listed here, I also read another fantasy novel written by a friend, which I haven't reviewed since it's still in draft (but it's going to be good - I'll be sure to let you know once you can all read it!).

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If A Game of Thrones was all about introducing characters and their relationships (both personal and political), this sequel is all about war. And this isn't the kind of war Sansa dreams of with her songs. Any dirty trick you can imagine, someone is going to try it to make a grab for the upper hand.

In the first book I was impressed by Martin's ability to give us so many point-of-view characters with conflicting loyalties, and manage to make me sympathise with and root for ALL of them. This time we continue to follow the same characters, but with a couple of new viewpoints. Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything that could make Theon seem sympathetic, even if he is struggling with his childhood and his family.

As with the last book, there isn't really an ending to speak of... the next book will doubtless pick up the same characters in the same places. This is, really, one very long book. I just hope the ending will eventually bring all the threads together.

The Fashion Police by Sibel Hodge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a light, fun mystery that reminded me of Gemma Halliday's 'Spying in High Heels' and Kate Johnson's 'I Spy?'
Amber is a disgraced-police-officer-turned-insurance-investigator, with a love life just as complicated as her career history, but she's also a believable, down-to-earth character with an unhealthy bakery addiction. Some of the supporting cast are less realistic: Amber's ex-fiance Brad is now her boss, and gets away with flagrant sexual harrassment, while Janice Skipper is an undisguised pantomime villain, and the 'Goon Girls' are just incompetent. But somehow it all comes together to make a very funny read with a suitably intriguing mystery.

Earth Bound by J.A. Taylor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a very unusual book, which makes it rather hard to review or even to rate. It takes place entirely from the perspective of one character, Matt, and indeed a very large portion of the book is limited to his internal monologues and deliberations after abduction. We're told a bit about Matt's past and his fall from grace as a journalist, but spending so much time insid his head it would have been nice to see more character development, and in particular I would have liked him to have more control over the final outcome. I sort of felt this content could have been condensed into a very punchy short story or novella (I don't know how long it actually is, since I read it on my Kindle). But overall this was a fun read with interesting ideas, and I'm interested to see what this author comes up with next.

The Lonely Mile by Allan Leverone

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a fast, easy read and - for once - a thriller which takes the reader inside the head of the villain without seeming gratuitous. In fact, it's obvious from early on that Martin Krall is seriously delusional, which makes it almost possible to feel sorry for him. In parallel, we also track Bill Ferguson, the hero of the piece, the dual perspective allowing the reader to follow all the action in what almost feels like real time. This is a gripping story with plenty of action, and bold characters determined not to be victims.

Fourteen Days Later by Sibel Hodge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a super-quick, lighthearted romantic comedy. I haven't read that many books in this genre but I've seen my share of rom-coms, and this was a sweet example with plenty of gentle humour. The main character, accident-prone Helen, takes on a fourteen-day challenge to change her life and (hopefully) get over her ex. Meanwhile, her best friend is getting married and she's the wedding photographer. There's certainly plenty going on, and the pages whizzed by.

Embassytown by China Miéville

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Tolkien was (like me) a philologist in his day job, and when he wrote Lord of the Rings, he used his skills to invent fully-fledged languages for his characters to speak. In Embassytown, Mieville goes one better. Never before have I seen the semiotic nature of language used as a plot point.

And the plot in question certainly isn't dry or academic, as such a concept might suggest, although it does start quite slowly. I found both the narrator, Avice, and the narrative style, a little annoying in the beginning - but I got used to the style, and Avice grew on me as I continued reading. To go into much more detail would be to spoil the beautiful unfolding of events, but suffice it to say that if you love to think about language - what it is and what it could be - I think you'll enjoy this book.

My Perfect Wedding by Sibel Hodge

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Narrator Helen is dashing off to get married and live in Cyprus with a man she's been dating for about five minutes, which would be fine (well, they've known each other since childhood) if it weren't for the fact that she's really uncertain about making the move to a rural community. Meanwhile husband-to-be Kalem is rattling on like a guidebook at every sight he shows her. Oh, and did I mention they're trying to foil a major crime without any competent assistance? Now, I can suspend disbelief as well as the next girl, but I confess I was struggling with plausibility here. Not least since Helen and Kalem were characters I already knew from the equally-daft but somehow much more plausible Fourteen Days Later. I enjoyed Sibel Hodge's flippant style as Helen, and her lush descriptions of Cypriot landscape pulled me in, but I just wasn't convinced by this storyline. I think it's mostly because I knew the characters and associated them with a very different style of story; this plot feels like it would have been a better fit for the Amber Fox series, where comedy peril is the order of the day. It's still a fun read, but just not wholly satisfying to me.

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