Learning to Paint and Draw by Hazel Harrison

As a newbie kind of lost in the world of materials and techniques but desperate to express myself this is a brilliant book, covering briefly many aspects of drawing and painting, using watercolours, pastels, graphite and coloured pencils, oils and acrylics, and pastels.  A really good starting point.

Seriously Good!  Gluten-Free Baking by Phil Vickery

I have just had two massive slices of Vickery's Apple Pudding Cake with Cider Topping from page 86 of this wonderful book.  Being gluten intolerant can be a chore but finally I have recipes for much missed beloved goodies such as flatbread, yorkshire pudding and the five recipes I've tried so far really do work and are wonderful.

I only have two issues.  Firstly, Vickery uses a food processor a lot, which is fine for those who can afford it but for those with only at most an electric mixer had mixing alternatives would help.

Secondly I had real problems making the wonderful tasting Bonfire Parkin with Ginger Icing because I, like many that I know of, am intolerant to the gluten in oats, for me it is my most pernicious ingredient.  I tried using quinoa to replace the oatmeal but it didn't really work, I may try polenta next time.  The book is called 'gluten free' so it should contain only gluten free ingredients.

But in general, this book is great, a little effort and you don't need to rely on the supermarket and health food shop gluten free aisles. 

The Passage by Justin Cronin

6 year old Amy is abandoned by her desperate mother with a group of nuns after killing a trick who was taking her to a fraternity house.  Deep in the mountains of Colorado army scientists are trialling use of a virus found in the jungles of Columbia to create supersoldiers of immense strength, bloodthirstiness and longevity, vampires in all but name.  After 12 subjects the scientists want a new subject, they want Amy, and after treatment she becomes something new.  Inevitably the worst happens, the 12 get loose and turn everyone they bite into one of them, 'smokes', 'virals' or 'dracs'.  The United States turns apocalyptic.

Move forward a century, Peter lives in a fortified community, he has never seen the stars because at night floodlights are switched on all round the perimiter to keep the smokes at bay.  He is one of the Watch and is waiting for the return of his brother, taken up by the smokes on a visit to the generators.  For some reason, the smokes always come home.

This could have been a brilliant dystopia, it has elements of Shymalan's 'The Village' and good post apocalyptic novels but the characters aren't well deliniated, apart from Amy and ex-nun Lacey they all blended together for me.  There are too many cliches, vampires rule the world and humans become just meat, mad scientists ruin the world, etc etc.  Disappointing ultimately