Eat Istanbul: A Journey to the Heart of Turkish Cuisine

Istanbul is a melting pot of cultures and Ottoman cuisine is likewise a mix of Turkish, Greek, Albanian, Mongolian and Bulgarian, to name just a few.  This is an enjoyable big glossy book full of pictures both of the recipes and of the markets of the city.

We are given a brief introduction to the areas and markets of Istanbul with delicious descriptions and pictures of the enjoyment and delight with which the people of Istanbul devour their food, from street vendors to restaurants.  Then there are then six recipe sections: Breakfast; Streetfood and snacks; Vegetables and pulses; Meat and poultry; Fish and seafood; and Desserts.  The last section is a glossary of ingredients, some of them are distinctly Ottoman and a picture and description gives enough information to understand the flavour each brings to a dish if they cannot be sourced.

As someone who is gluten intolerant I found this book really useful because it gives me access to favourite foods such as kofta kebabs and wraps that previously I would have been unable to consume and can now substitute, gluten free breads and wraps, quinoa for bulghar wheat, etc.

The Natural Cook: Eating the Seasons from Root to Fruit by Tom Hunt

An interesting book in which Hunt invites us to cook vegetables and fruit in season, divided into Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  Each vegetable or fruit is introduced with notes on preparation, taste and season and instructions given for cooking it three ways, for instance, for asparagus instructions are given for preparing it raw, char-grilling it and blanching it.  Below each method comes further ideas for using the ingredient, it is then followed by an extant recipe, for instance, the blanched asparagus is used for a variation on Italian Risi e Bisi (rice and peas).  It's an approach that teaches you the possibilities of each vegetable and fru

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Dummies

I must admit, I was sceptical at first, how could something as complex as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) be simplified, but this book does it elegantly.  It begins with a brief 'Contents at a Glance' page and then much more detailed 'Table of Contents' including all the icons used in the book which make it easy to navigate: tips; things to note down and to try, warnings, jargon explanations and tracks to play from the online spoken guided meditation tracks.

The book begins with an introductory part I: a clear explanation of what MBCT is, it's origins and benefits, the problems MBCT can address and what the challenge of taking on the full 8 week course entails

Part II is the 8 week course itself, each chapter covering a single week and each building on the one before to develop becoming mindful of your body and mind and how to deal with setbacks and difficult emotions to enable you to come to a point where you are fully in control of your own physical and mental wellbeing and able to live a life far more connected to your own life.

Part III is on using MBCT for specific afflictions: depression, addiction, anxiety, pain, ageing and the work-life balance.

Part IV enables you to go beyond the book, giving list of 10 ways to expand your mindfulness practice, 10 inspirational people and 10 inspirational places to visit.

All in all a welcome addition to the mindfulness bookshelf, straightforward but not shallow.

The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon

Imagine a virus that affects our ability to speak and write, to communicate.  Anana's father has disappeared from his work as editor of the North American Dictionary of the English leaving only a cryptic message 'diachronic' and his speed dial display reads 'Hotline to Alice'.  The moment she sees this Anana knows something is very wrong, Alice is both a reference to Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland and a kind of literary code name he had for Anana.  Down the rabbit hole the story goes, she finds a small army of sweat shop workers in the basement destroying dictionaries, tries to get help from Bartleby who worked with her father, tries to deal with the aftermath of her breakup with ex Max and the onslaught of the word virus that steals language.  A really good read.

Fresh Prints: 25 Easy and Enticing Printing Projects to Make at Home by Christine Leech

A nice collection of beginners projects for block printing, both with easy to use readily available foam and with found objects.  The book begins with an introduction to materials, to inks, rollers, safeprint lino foam, and inking plates.  Then there are three sections, the first on printing with found objects such as leaves and haberdashery, the second on printing using safeprint foam sheets which are inexpensive and readily available.  The third section is on other printing techniques, such as using bleach and templates.  It's a good starter packed with small easily realisable projects that introduce the very beginner to printing.

Knitting Smitten by Jessica Biscoe

This is a funky cute introduction to the gently addictive art of knitting, for the most part ideal as a book for a complete novice.

The book is divided into four section.  The first is an introduction to knitting basics looking at the stuff you will need, how to choose yarns, how to read knitting patterns and charts, measuring tension, tips, and the basic techniques of casting on, purling stitches, knitting stitches, increasing and decreasing stitches.  I like that instructions are written and illustrated with good photographs, and that two sets of instructions are given: one for the British / American knitting style and one for the European.

Then come the projects which each introduce the knitter to a new technique and a newbie could do worse than just work through the book, they would come away with a funky wardrobe and be a proficient knitter.  Projects include hats, slippers, mittens, leg warmers, a cape and snood, bracelets, necklaces, headbands, brooches, cushions, throws, cloths, a paperweight, a bow tie and the cutest egg cosies.

Each project starts with a good illustration and a supplies page covering what size the project will be, what yarn you will need, needles, tension, any new techniques you will be learning and any haberdashery needed.  This is one of my small niggles: although there is a good page in the back showing you what weight each yarn is this isn't given on the supplies page.  My second is that when the crochet chain cast on is introduced there are no instructions on how to crochet.  However, the instructions that are given with each project are well written and well illustrated with photographs.

But the missing things are technqiues that that the unsure can find videoes of online and in general I do love the layout - learning step by step through the projects - and the size of the projects, nothing is too big or daunting but each introduces the techniques in a fun a friendly way.

This is kind of halfway inbetween a coffee table book and a travel book.  It's a hardback book of a less than A4 size filled with some of our world's greatest wonders split into two sections: natural and man made.  The man made are roughly in chronological order and go from caves painted by ice age people to the Burj Khalifa.  Each wonder begins with a tantalising introduction what it is like to encounter the wonder, a full page photograph, and 'how to get there' and what to do 'while you're there' sections.  Then follows a section on the construction and history of the wonder with 'did you know' boxes and great little diagrams.  It's informative and good to look at.

So why only three stars, well, because this book is neither one thing nor another.  The 'what to do while you're there' sections suggest a travel book, but this is really too heavy to be carried unless you are travelling by car.  The construction sections are good but so brief, too brief for me, it is not really big or detailed enough to be the kind of book you could devour at your leisure at home either.

Whispers by Dean Kootz

A 4.8 scale tremor gently rocks Los Angeles.  A nameless man sleeps in his van, plagued by nightmares, comforted by waking alongside his knives and dreaming of killing the woman he is searching for.  Hilary Thomas, up and coming screen writer, struggles with feelings of inferiority and self doubt as she waits to see if her newest creation has been accepted.  Drinking in her success she begins to relax, to begin to believe that the world is not the bleak brutal one she had to learn to be tough to survive.  Then she returns home and the man is waiting for her and he wants her dead.

Koontz always has had fascinating ideas, examining up close the worst that humans are capable of and asking the question what if, what if a child is raised in a certain way, what does brutality do to the psyche of a child and the adult they become.  Whispers is fascinating for these ideas, but this is one of Kootz's early works and in places his writing doesn't quite work, in particular in the sex scenes which can be a little cringeworthy.  However, the power of the ideas  and the imagination that would go on to make Koontz such a prolific and successful writer are very much in evidence.

The Face of Fear by Dean Koontz

The women of New York City are being hunted by a murder called the Butcher, a modern day Jack the Ripper.

Graham Harris is a clairvoyant, an unwitting witness to murder who has been plagued by visions since a climbing accident five years earlier shattered his confidence and his body and bequeathed to him an unwelcome psychic talent. Harris receives visions of killers when he touches things at murder scenes and has used this ability to help the authorities catch the perpetrator.

Connie Davis is Harris' partner, trying to nurse his traumatised spirit back to strength.

Anthony Prine is a late night talk show host with an unhealthy connection to the Butcher. He is interviewing Harris when Harris receives a vision of the Butcher's vicious slaughter of a pretty green eyed girl called Edna. But now the Butcher is aware of Harris.

Harris has a deadline for his climbing magazine so Davis joins him on the fortieth floor of the forty two storey Bowerton Building on Lexington Avenue for what looks to be an all-nighter. This is where the Butcher traps them, and the book is a nerve shaking game of cat and mouse as Davis and Harris try to evade the killer.

This is one of Koontz's earlier works and it is good, better than most other writers, but not yet completely up to his brilliant best. Most other writers would receive a higher rating for this kind of work but Koontz does a lot better, in places the book is not as well written as his later works.

Who Framed Klaris Cliff? by Nikki Sheehan

An intriguing book perfect for 8-12 year olds.  Joseph lives in a world where there has been a terrible incident and imaginary friends are considered a potential lethal threat rather than a harmless childhood phase.   He lives with his dad, his mum disappeared two years earlier after sending a postcard from Spain saying she would be back in the summer.

Joseph's neighbours are the sprawling Cliff family, best friend Rocky, older sister Pooh, the odd and vaguely wicked twins Egg and Willis and Flea.  Flea has an imaginary friend Klaris but she has begun speaking to Joseph and Flea's parents call the authorities convinced that Klaris is potentially dangerous.  Flea's dad has drawn up a list of the things he believes Klaris has done, including getting the family labradors drunk, killing the pet rabbit, writing on door and turning lights on.  The way that imaginary friends are dispatched is by isolating and destroying the imagination centres of the brain, and Joseph is quick to realise that this will mean he will lose all his memories of his mother.  It is now a race against time to prove that Klaris is not guilty of Flea's father's list of misdemeanors.

This was a good sweet story and I loved the ending.

Gingerbread by Robert Dinsdale

A boy is brought to the house of his grandfather, a bleak tenament flat in a Belarussian town.  His mother is dying of cancer and has brought her son to live with her father.  Slowly, reluctantly, Grandfather, or Papa, begins to tell the boy and mother the stories he told to her as a child.  Of Baba Yaga, the deep forests, and of the mighty Winter King and the King in the West who fought a terrible war over Belarus when it was Poland.

The mother's dying wish is for her ashes to be scattered with those of her mother in the great ancient forest beyond the town.  Grandfather, or Papa, is deeply reluctant but on a day when the roads are deep in ice he relents and takes the boy and his mother's remains out to a near ruined house.  It becomes clear that Papa is not afraid of the forest, he is afraid of not wanting to leave it.  Daily Papa remains in the house only venturing to collect the boy from school, then one day he does not come and the boy goes in search of him.

It is the beginning of a stunning magical cartwheeling story where boy and grandfather leave the urban for the wild and enter a world of stories, of partisan fighters who retreated to safety among the trees, of women and children massacred and the trees that drank too deeply of their blood and have become wicked, of survival, and love.

Dinsdale weaves the two parts of his story - narrative and folklore, together in such a skillful way that both drive each other.  Crises come, injury, new people in the forest, decisions to be made over loyalty, faithfulness and friendship, but always the ancient forest full of wildlife is a world beyond narrative where the past and present are bound together.

Iron Council by China Mieville

Mieville's conclusion to the Perdido Street Station trilogy is dense, magical, bewildering and brilliant.  Out in the wastes beyond New Crobuzon a rag tag band  searches for the legendary Iron Council, a train taken by rebels into the wilderness when the City refused to pay their wages.  In New Crobuzon unrest is rife and the people are in covert revolt against their authoritarian rulers, themselves at war against the mysterious Tesh, and the two strands come into painful contact

Mieville introduces us to an incredible cast:  Remade, people punished by the authorities by being surgically altered to be part machine; their rebel counterparts the fReemade; magicians; golems; all manner of creatures part bird, bat and insect; stomach churning spells, the visceral urban grit of New Crobuzon and the bewildering landscape outside where smoke turns to stone petrifying its victims and nothing is fixed.  And all this in an opaque bewitching language that often had me reaching for the dictionary.  Worth the work though.

Archi-doodle: An Architect's Activity Book by Steve Bowkett

Despite the intimidating title this isn't a book just for architects, it's for anyone who is interested in buildings.  Our copy has been slowly and deliciously devoured by both me and my 10-year old daughter, and I've recommended it to anyone who will listen.

Archi-doodle is a landscape A4 sized 160 page book and on every page is a task with inspiration, for instance, sketches of the world's tallest buildings with space for your own, famous buildings cut in half vertically for you to complete, sneakily learning about the buildings (Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower) as you go, bridges to complete over a canyon, road and estuary and on and on.  This is simply an enchanting book, introducing thorough creative fun all the major figures and movements in world architecture, from Gaudi to Bauhaus, windows, roofs and islands to underwater cities.

A Short Book About Drawing by Andrew Marr

Andrew Marr is of course one of the BBCs best known news correspondents, reporting and commanding interviews with insight, making difficult and complex situations digestible to the viewer.  And he is famously fighting his way back from a life changing stroke.  But all his life he has sketched and in this book he reflects on what drives him and millions like him, not necessarily (but sometimes) world famous artists, often ordinary people, to draw.  He speaks of what drawing asks of in the viewer and what it does for the creator.  It is generously illustrated with his own sketches and paintings, some paper and canvas, many created on his iPad.  Inspiring and insightful.

Graffiti School: A Student Guide by Chris Ganter

Step by step this good sized guide takes you through how to create street art.

The book begins with a history of graffiti from ancient Rome to the Hip Hop movement of the 70s to the present day with an extensive piece on legality.  A second chapter covers terminology (tags, throwups, silverpieces, wildstyle) before moving on to designing your own graffiti.

The book is well structured, taking the user from simple to complex, from how to create linear tags right through to a full scale burner.  There are plenty of exercises at each stage to help any one understanding the different styles within graffiti and to develop their own.

Guidance is given on the use of tools with an extensive section on the safe use of spray cans and how to control them to create various effects, there are pages of design samples and idea for backgrounds and fill-ins.

At the end is a manual for teachers giving guidance and lesson plans

All in all a very impressive book both for use by any one on their own wanting to learn about graffti and how to create it, and for teachers and students.

Happy Graffiti: Street Art with Heart by Jenny Foulds

A wonderful little book for anyone who enjoys street art or gentle anarchy.  Happy Graffiti is pictures of graffiti from around the world that reclaim unwanted spaces with pictures and phrases that make you smile and are a sweet world away from the corporate machinations of advertising that use mawkish sentiment to manipulate in the name of profit.  These are anonymous reminders to smile, be kind to each other, to love life in the greyest places, and this book is a celebration of the joy of life colouring outside the lines.