Dougie's War by Rodge Glass


Dougie Campbell has just returned from the war in Afghanistan. At first he does everything he has dreamed of, climbs a munro, goes to see Scotland play football at Hampden Park, and gets bought rounds and rounds of drinks by strangers and friends all of whom hail him as a hero. But as he is forgotten by the people around him and moves into a flat and life of his own the trauma he suffered as the sole survivor of an explosion that tore apart his jeep and the bodies of his friends emerges and takes over. A really good primer on the true cost of modern soldiering, on PTSD and the lack of support for returning soldiers, and with an in depth section on PTSD, the war in Afghanistan, the World War I comic strip Charley's War that first spoke about the reality of life for soldiers on the western front. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that I feel it lack the subtlety and quality of drawing of Charley's War, but it is much shorter.

Jar of Fools: A Picture Story by Jason Lutes


The Amazing Ernesto, prestidigiator, is on his uppers, haunted by the death of his escapologist brother who drowned in a failed stunt which took him to the bottom of the river, and by the loss of his girlfriend Esther. His previous mentor Al, once Flosso the Magnificent, turns up having escaped yet again from his nursing home. One trying to forget the past that haunts him, the other with genuine memory loss, go on the run with con artist Lender and his daughter Claire, running from child services and the law. Homeless and destitiute Ernie and Al teach Claire card tricks and a tender friendship springs up between the failed magicians and the father and daughter. It can never end well, but resolutions do come, and love, and good choices made for the right reasons. A compelling, quiet and sensitive graphic novel with starkly charming black and white graphics.

Faery Tale by Signe Pike

I really enjoyed this book but did have to constantly struggle against my inner sceptic saying 'yes but' and being rational all the time.  Signe Pike, disillusioned by city life in America, goes in search of fairies, first in Mexico and then to the great Celtic heartlands of fairy lore in England, the Isle of Man, Ireland and Scotland.  But it's less simple than a deluded new age hippie searching for magical beings.  Pike is desperately trying to come to terms with the death of her beloved, brilliant but difficult father and searching for the sense of wonder she had as a child.  I may not believe the same way as her, but the inward journey and a belief that the world is more than we can see with our terribly limited faculties makes sense to me, and her quest to recapture the childlike wonder that can heal any hurt is bewitching.  A little kooky in places, but a great lesson.

The Highly Sensitive Child by Elaine N Aron

When I began reading this book I was sceptical.  I did not want to label my 7 year old.  I knew that t the discipline style my partner and I were using was not working, but was wary of pigeonholing her.  But as I read more of Aron's book I found a wealth of compassionate guidance which has allowed me to help a child who is deeply affected by the world around her and is easily overwhelmed.

Aron begins with an questionnaire and overview of what a sensitive child is, what their particular needs are and the intricacies of parenting such a child if you are and if you are not highly sensitive yourself.  It really helped me reflect on how my own childhood negative experiences of sensitivity have an impact on my parenting and to focus on my child's needs instead of my own fears for her.

The second section moves on to parenting such a child from infancy through to young adulthood. The book ends with tips for teachers and resources.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Rabbit at Rest by John UpdikeAn ironic title for the last Updike's Rabbit quadrology.  The last days of 1988, Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom is retired, morbidly obese and waiting at the Southwest Florida Regional airport for his son Nelson to arrive with wife Theresa, known as Pru, and his grandchildren Judy and Roy.  Pan Am 103 has just exploded over Lockerbie.  Rabbit and his wife Janice now retreat to Florida during winters, returning to their home in Brewer, Pennsylvania for summers.   Rabbit spends his days on the golf course, Nelson is managing the family business, the Toyota dealership and used car lot back home in Brewer, Pennsylvania.  But no one is at rest.  As in Rabbit Redux drugs enter Rabbit's life again, but they signify only death and ruin, crack cocaine, early antivirals used to fight AIDS, and the nitroglycerine Rabbit has to take to his failing heart.  This is an aching paen to the life of one man, never particularly admirable and often morally repulsive, but an incredible creation.

Grown Your Food For Free (Well Almost) by Dave Hamilton

Dave Hamilton, co author of The Self-sufficientish Bible, has written a good introduction to gardening in both a money and environmentally efficient way, covering not just the propagation of fruit and vegetables but also peripheral subjects such as foraging, manufacture and sourcing of materials of garden buildings and hard landscaping, wildlife and tools.  This is a friendly book: Hamilton assumes you know nothing and takes the reader gently through beginning with a section on getting started and then moving through a season by season guide to planting, harvesting, seed collection and construction.  Each section is very well presented with plenty of headings, diagrams and step by step instructions.  A great book from which both complete beginners and indeed any gardener can learn.

Kaspar: Prince of Cats by Michael Morpugo, illustrated by Michael Foreman

This is just a captivating book in which Foreman's beautiful watercolours illustrate a text by Morpugo which is never sentimental or forced, simply a really good story that informs by entertaining and is a lovely size in the hand.  As with many of Morpugo's stories, he speaks a story that contains terror and horror but deftly pitches it to a child's understanding.

Johnny Trott is a 13 year old bellboy at the Savoy Hotel in London, an orphan who is in his own words the lowest of the low  of the staff at one of the most elegant and opulent hotels in London, fetching and carrying for guests and staff alike.  One day he is there to ferry in the luggage of the stunningly elegant Countess Kandinsky, Russian opera singer, and in a basket is Price Kaspar Kandinsky, an equally aristocratic black cat yowling loudly.  So begins an extraordinary friendship between boy and cat that takes them across the ocean on the doomed Titanic

Wild Colour: How to Grow, Prepare and Use Natural Plant Dyes by Jenny Dean

This is definately the book I will buy when I finally get to doing my own dyeing, as a fairly environmentally aware gardener and knitter, patchworker and embroiderer the idea of growing and using my own dyes is very appealing and Dean's book is clear and concise.

Dean's book begins with a fascinating introduction on the history of using dyes right back from prehistoric times through the manufacture of synthetic dyes during the industrial revolution to present day forms of dyeing and cloth manufacture.

Then she goes through dyeing techniques, making the bewildering world of equipment, terminology and techniques clear with concise easy to follow text, step by step instructions, illustrations and tables, covering preparations of dye stuffs, types of fibres and preparation for dyeing, mordants, modifiers, and creating a record of your experiments.  Dean emphasises safety and environmental responsibility clearly and concisely.

Thirdly there is an index of dye plants giving the various colours that can be achieved, their source (roots, flowers, barks etc), cultivation and harvest, range, availability, planting and harvesting times, growing habit and processing and dyeing instructions.

Complete Book of Sewing Techniques by Dorothy Wood

This is an amazing little book that covers most aspects of sewing, patchwork and embroidery with clear well written text, step by step colour photographs and some simple projects.

The book is in three sections starting with Sewing which gives an excellent grounding in the sometimes baffling world of the huge range of options available.  It introduces the reader to the basics of equipment (both hand and machine), fabrics and dressmaking techniques.

Then it moves on to the more specialised areas of patchwork and embroidery.

Patchwork covers specialist equipment, terminology, templates, hand and machine piecing, a variety of blocks and the various forms of applique, quilt assembly and the various forms of quilting and has projects with templates included at the end of the book.

Embroidery covers specialist equipment, preparing fabric, a wide variety of stitches for various uses (illustrated with clear photographs, excellent stitching diagrams and easy to follow text giving a bit of information about each stitch and tips), shisha, ribbon embroidery, counted thread work, assisi, blackwork, drawn-thread work, needlelace, goldwork, beadwork abnd machine embroidery.

Given that most techniques are covered with a two page spread the book is in many ways just an introduction but the information is clear and excellent.

A Rabbit Omnibus by John Updike

A collection of the first three of Updike's Rabbit novels, this is an incredible depiction of American life in the latter half of the 20th century.  Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom is a very normal middle class man, not particularly likeable, heroic or awful, living in the small Pennsylvania suburb Mt Judge, set at the foot of Mt Judge mountain close to the large coal industry town of Brewer.  He exhibits much of the same mix of good and bad actions as any of us, cowardice in the face of adversity, bigotry and closed mindedness and through these books we see him grow from early adulthood just coming down from stardom as local basketball hero through to middle aged car salesman.  We see social mores, material culture, politics, music and gender roles change through the very personal lens of the extremely local.  Updike's use of extended metaphor, his attention to period detail and the quality of his writing makes this a really rewarding long read.

In the first book Rabbit Run, we are in the late 1950s, Rabbit has a young family, wife, son and small flat.  Rabbit comes home to find his pregnant wife Janice drinking and watching television, and simply runs.  He gets as far as Virginia before turning for home, but doesn't go back to his house.  Instead he stays with local minister Eccles before taking up with Ruth, a semi-prostitute, leaving her just as he gets the news that Janice is giving birth to their daughter Becky.  But he runs again and tragedy ensues.

As the second book, Rabbit Redux, opens we have moved forward to 1969 and Rabbit is working with his father at the printing works.  Janice leaves Rabbit for car salesman Charlie Stavros leaving him to care for their son Nelson.  Rabbit takes in Jill, a young small town girl searching for herself, and politically motivated Skeeter.  Between them they introduce Rabbit to counterculture, drugs and civil right.  Tragedy strikes again leaving a schism between Rabbit and Nelson, and at the end of the book Janice returns.

Rabbit is Rich opens in 1979, Rabbit is now head salesman at Janice's father's Toyota dealership, working with Charlie Stavros but still living in Janice's mother's house.  Nelson is at college but returns without finishing his course, trailing with him first Melanie and then his pregnant girlfriend Theresa, usually known as Pru.  Nelson wants what his father got, an opening at the dealership, and father and son come into innumerable conflicts caused simply by misunderstandings and personality clashes.  Rabbit and Janice are still together and finally move into a house of their own as the book closes.

A Passion for Patchwork: Over 100 Quilted Projects for all Seasons by Lise Bergene

This is a lovely book with enough patchwork and quilting projects to keep anyone entertained for a while, but the instructions are not completely clear, I'm an experienced patchworker and I struggled to follow the instructions for making the bags.  Some projects required equipment such as special rulers I wouldn't ordinarily have.  Having said that, this is truly inspirational, the photography is great and full of ideas.

Made by Me by Jane Bull

What there is in this book is pretty good for a child beginning to sew, the illustrations are, as with all DK books, beautiful and colourful.  The instructions for each project is clear and easy to follow.  The book covers equipment, embroidery, cross stitch, tent stitch, buttons, sewing projects and knitting, all the projects are really cute.  I just would have liked a bit more, it wouldn't keep my young one enteratined for long.

The Guardian Angel's Journal by Carolyn Jess-Cooke


'When I died I became a guardian angel'.  So begin the story of Margot Delacroix, reincarnated as the angel Ruth bound to watch over her own life.  She helps the infant Margot into the world from her dying mother's womb, overdosed from heroin.  She watches as Margot suffers years of terrible abuse punctured before finding a happier home, fighting the demons who threaten the life of her and those who would care for her.  But she tries to protect Margot from making the decisions she made in her life, the unravelling of her marriage and the incarceration of her son for murder, she has difficult lessons to learn.

Jess-Cooke's vision is interesting, of a world in which every one of us has a guardian angel watching over us, that at times we can hear and be guided by if only we will listen, and of demons who guide us down the easy path to self destruction and terrible actions.  At times not as well written as it could be, but a compelling plot and interesting idea.  A good read.

The Mighty Thor by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Collecting The Mighty Thor: Journey into Mystery 83-100 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, these are great 1960s comics.

Lame self effacing but brilliant Dr Don Blake is fleeing from alien stone men from Saturn when he stumbles into a cave discovering the hammer of Norse god Thor.  Striking it on the ground he becomes the mighty Asgardian, son of king of the gods Odin, mighty in strength, creator of thunder and great storms, but also mighty in heart.  When he lets go of the hammer for more than 60 seconds he returns to the body of the enfeebled Dr Blake, in love with but unable to express his affections to his beautiful nurse and constant companion Jane.

This is a great collection of a beloved Silver Age superhero, but I loved it also because it is also an encapsulation of early 1960s society and mores, how men and women related and loved, expressed themselves to each other.  Thor is used mercilessly as a propaganda tool, the jingoism of Thor's use as a tool against the terrors of Red China and the unthinking defence and advance of democracy is as much a part of the comics as his epic battles against his brother Loki, god of mischief, and other foes.

The Mighty Thor by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby


Collecting The Mighty Thor: Journey into Mystery 83-100 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, these are great 1960s comics.

Lame self effacing but brilliant Dr Don Blake is fleeing from alien stone men from Saturn when he stumbles into a cave discovering the hammer of Norse god Thor.  Striking it on the ground he becomes the mighty Asgardian, son of king of the gods Odin, mighty in strength, creator of thunder and great storms, but also mighty in heart.  When he lets go of the hammer for more than 60 seconds he returns to the body of the enfeebled Dr Blake, in love with but unable to express his affections to his beautiful nurse and constant companion Jane.

This is a great collection of a beloved Silver Age superhero, but I loved it also because it is also an encapsulation of early 1960s society and mores, how men and women related and loved, expressed themselves to each other.  Thor is used mercilessly as a propaganda tool, the jingoism of Thor's use as a tool against the terrors of Red China and the unthinking defence and advance of democracy is as much a part of the comics as his epic battles against his brother Loki, god of mischief, and other foes.

Tom Strong by Alan Moore, Chris Sprouse and Alan Gordon

A wonderful collection by Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse featuring the achingly beautiful watercolour covers of Alex Ross, telling the story of home grown super man Tom Strong.  Strong's parents raised him in an isolation tank under high gravity on a remote island Attabar Teru, aided by the machine Strong's father built, the steampunk Pneuman, a proto robot powered by steam and voiced by wax recording cylinders.  After marrying the beautiful fearsome princess of the island Dhaula they split their time between Attabar Teru and the Millenium City in America, a utopian stratospheric city connected by cable cars.  They fight supervillains with their daughter Tesla and Strong's successful experiment in augmenting gorilla intelligence, King Solomon.

But Tom Strong is more than its parts, each character and each story are both brilliantly written and drawn, Moore and Sprouse blend the golden era of 1960s comic heroes without jingoism, expressing an essential humanity under the superhero exteriors.

Batgirl: The Greatest Stories Ever Told
Batgirl's greatest adventures collected together in one volume.  Barbara Gordon is a demure librarian at Gotahm City Library.  She decides to surprise her father by dressing up as a female version of Batman for the Policeman's Masquerade Ball, but on her way there she interrupts an attack by Killer Moth on the playboy Bruce Wayne and decides to take the villains on.  Wayne takes the opportunity to escape, change into his Batman alter ego and assist the overwhelmed Batgirl.  It is the beginning of a great partnership, in which Batgirl defies Batman and her father and teams up with Robin to fight crime.

11 stories, moving from Gardner Fox's debut of Batgirl in DC comics in 1967, all bright colours and slapstick punching, kicking and bad puns, think Adam West and Burt Ward, to three darker late 1990s stories.  Photo Finish features the strange angles and beautifully fluid style of Duncan Fegrado (Enigma).  The two part disturbing  Folie a Deux ('shared psychosis') written by Kelley Puckett follows the treand of the 90s in exploring the darker sides and twisted psychologies of Gotham legends and villians.

An excellent collection and introduction to one of the lesser known but most endearing comic legends.  The only addition I would have like to have seen is reference to Barbara Gordon's career as Oracle after being critically injured by the Joker and having to rebuild her life (The Killing Joke)