Magazine Review - Handmade: Craft, Decorating, Sewing. Vol 32 No. 2

This magazine boasts over 30 patterns to make. These include an introduction to Japanese sashiko stitching, a filigree rabbit, a patchwork tote bag, a patchwork rug and a cross-stitch picture depicting the Eleanor Roosevelt quote "A woman is like a teabag. You don't know how strong she is 'til you put her in hot water." Lovely to browse through, or indeed to actually get a project up and running.
Wendy

Book Review - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

This is a re-release of the acclaimed debut novel first published in 1977. It has been re-published to coincide with the film starring Harrison Ford. It is interesting to discover why he wrote the book and what he was thinking as described in an introduction by the author first published in 1991. The story is of gifted children drafted to BattleSchool for training and assessment in a desperate search for a supreme battle commander . The commander is needed to lead the Earth's forces in an interstellar war against 'the buggers', the insectoid race that came out of the stars in the first interstellar war. This story is deservedly a classic. It focuses on Ender Wiggin, a hugely intelligent 6 year old who is sent to Battle School after his brother Peter, fails as he is too nasty and his sister, Valentine, fails because she is too nice. Because of their genetic potential, their parents were given permission to breed a Third, in a world where 2 children is the maximum allowed. The result is Ender, who combines his siblings' traits. His growing up is a combination of developing knowledge & skills and of understanding the duality of his own personality. When he is first sent into space, "There were 19 other boys in his launch. They filed out of the bus and into the elevator. They talked and joked and bragged and laughed. Ender kept his silence. He noticed how Graff and the other officers were watching them. Analyzing. Everything we do means something, Ender realized. Them laughing. Me not laughing. He toyed with the idea of trying to be like the other boys. But he couldn't think of any jokes, and none of theirs seemed funny. Wherever their laughter came from, Ender couldn't find such a place in himself. He was afraid, and fear made him serious."  The children at BattleSchool face tough challenges to make sure they can do the job but is the price they pay too high? As with the best scifi, the underlying political realities are deftly inserted into the action so that no-one is in any doubt that the black and white areas in life are well and truly greyed out! The space tech is handled well and you can simply read this as a coming-of-age story with fight training. I really enjoyed this book.

Wendy

Book Review - The Highway by C. J. Box

I like C. J. Box and this is a cracker of a rural Montana story. A new sheriff's deputy is involved in finding evidence about a crooked cop, her partner, Cody Hoyt. But the truth is never that simple and she finds herself in a desperate race to find two missing girls with Hoyt her only support. This story had me reading into the early hours to find out how the girls get tangled up with the serial rapist and killer called The Lizard King and, more importantly, did they get away? I am still puzzled by how the different crime fighting jurisdictions in America ever function together with State, city and local forces all with their own hierarchies and political realities, after reading uncounted American crime novels. By now, I just go with the flow and follow the detectives I like!

Wendy

Film Review - Only lovers left alive by Jim Jarmusch

Vampire Adam resides in a derelict part of Detroit, producing music and mourning the state of the world under the “zombies” (humans). In Tangier, his lover, Eve, lives in a certain pleasure, indulging in literature, along with their friend Christopher Marlowe, who faked his death centuries before. They pay doctors for pure, clean blood because the supply directly from humans is too corrupted by disease and toxins to consume.

Adam’s melancholia is offset by Eve’s attempts to enthuse him, feeding his spirit as blood feeds his body. But Jarmusch draws an aesthetic from this frustrated nostalgia. The elegiacally shot locales of post-industrial Detroit and the decaying dust of Tangier accenting the shades of angst: the swirl of vinyl accompanying droning feedback; the murmurs of life echoed through narrow alleys.

This hymn to despair is at the heart of Only lovers left alive, its cloistered harmonies reverberating in the hollow of anguish.

Andreas.  

Book Review - Knife Edge by Fergus Mc Neill

This is the sequel to a debut novel, which I reviewed favourably. This is creepy and chilling but is not as much as a page-turner as the first one. It continues the story of the serial killer who successfully eluded police in "Eye Contact", Robert Naysmith. He has fallen in love and thinks it is time to share his secrets with his new love. But is she ready to embrace his history? And is it going to remain history? DI Harland is a competently drawn policeman with not quite enough to do in this book.  It is a good book to explore the "what would I do?" scenario – I think I would be different to his girlfriend in this book but then there wouldn't be so much to write about!

Wendy