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.