Since Twitter is blooming as a hellscape, I’ve decided to shift at least a little bit to Mastodon. I’m on the neurodifferent.me server for neurodivergent people. My handle is BetterDragons over there. I don’t know how useful it’ll be but there’s no harm in giving it a go.
Also, I’m writing this at 3.35am because Ezzie is poorly and I can’t sleep from worrying about her. She’s at the vets in less than twelve hours, but I’m still anxious. She’s currently resting against my leg and far too cold. She’s barely eaten for two weeks, has lost weight, and is struggling to walk. Her dodgy hips have been playing her up recently but something has changed because she’s struggling to walk, and she’s just finished a season, which is why she hasn’t eaten much for two weeks. Her seasons are sometimes upsetting for her, but it’s never been this bad before, and the combination of her hips and the season, and cold weather, seem to have really knocked her out.
Crochet yourself into the Christmas spirit with these 30 gorgeous patterns for decorations, festive outerwear and personal gifts.
Deck the halls with boughs made of yarn! Just grab your hook and get cracking, and you’ll have Christmas decorations and gifts sorted for many years to come. Patterns include:
• A super chunky wreath • Tasselled baubles • Boho stocking • Reusable crackers • Festive amigurumi • FA LA LA bunting
And many, many more…
My Review
If you order from Lottie & Albert, Lindsey Newns signs the books, but they’re sold out at the moment. If you order from Amazon it’s a couple of quid cheaper. I think my sister got my copy from Amazon.
I got this book for Christmas and sat and read it in an hour or so. There are a couple of projects I recognise. The reindeer amigurumi was November’s Curate Crochet Box. He’s hanging on my Christmas tree right now. Having made one of the projects, I can say that the instructions are easy to follow, with the stitches explained in a clear glossary.
The photography of the finished projects is lovely. It’s a lovely little pattern book and I recommend it for crocheters, even if you’re relatively new to the craft.
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co ISBN: 9781399608688
From the cat-fanatical literary phenomenon Sir Terry Pratchett, via the unquestionable wisdom of his fictional feline creation Maurice, herein is contained everything you’ll ever need to know to identify the real, unadulterated cat! Rediscover Sir Terry’s 1989 guide to separating Real Cats from the riff raff – now featuring artwork from the creative minds behind the Amazing Maurice film and a new intro by Rhianna Pratchett!
As more and more of us settle for those boring mass-produced cats the Ad Men and influencers sell us – the filtered felines that purr into their gold-plated food bowls with unruffled fur and without a ‘blep’ in sight – the Campaign for Real Cats sets out to help us to recognise a true, unadulterated cat when we see one!
For example: real cats have ears that look like they’ve been trimmed with pinking shears; real cats never wear flea collars…or appear on Christmas cards… or chase anything with a bell in it; real cats do eat quiche. And giblets. And butter. And anything else left on the table, if they think they can get away with it. Real cats can hear a fridge door opening two rooms away…
Featuring fifty illustrations and artwork from the creative minds behind the Amazing Maurice film, plus introduction by Rhianna Pratchett rediscover Sir Terry’s wit and wisdom from the original edition and re-educate yourself on how to separate Real Cats from the riff raff!
This is not a Discworld book. Terry Pratchett was a cat collector, or he was collected by a lot of cats. He clearly had strong opinions on what made a ‘real cat’ and he’s bloody hilarious doing it. There are anecdotes about Houdini cats who get into and out of locked bungalows, where cats can come from, and the Schrodinger travelling cat hypothesis. That last one does make sense. Where do all the random cats come from?
This edition has illustrations from the new Amazing Maurice animated film, rather than the original illustrations. They’re not bad. I haven’t seen the film or the original illustrations so I can’t make comparisons. I loved Rhianna Pratchett’s introduction, it is full of love for her father and their clowder of cats over the years. Some of the names they had are hilarious.
If you love STPs work, then you might want to pick up this book.
Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themselves far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be.
Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story—beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel—bears more than one face.
The Singing Hills Cycle
The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands
The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entry point.
My Review
I’ve been waiting for this book to come out. It’s Chih’s next adventure and I wanted to know what they would get up to. I adore Almost Brilliant, they’re funny and sharp. In this novella, Chih and Almost Brilliant fall in with a couple of young women on the road and a middle aged couple. They are legends and legends in the making, and it is Chih’s job to write down their stories.
Vo’s novellas are always a joy to read, as we explore the world they’ve built around Chih and their adventures, through multiple eyes with the mediation of Chih and Almost Brilliant. This book is short but immersive. It takes you into a world of magic, legends and mammoths, based on a version of Chinese history, into a world where heroes from the stories live and breathe, fight and love.
Genetically-modified teens try to bring down the organisation that made them.
Fun, fast-paced, high-octane action adventure, 21% Monster is a perfect page-turning new series for fans of Alex Rider, Percy Jackson and the MCU generation. When Darren Devlin is arrested for destroying his school with his bare hands, it’s not just the police who are after him. Enter Marek Masters, 14 years old, 19% alien, and the most intelligent, most wanted “almost human” alive. Marek is here to tell Darren the truth – he is 21% monster, and together they must take down the secret organisation that created them. Darren and Marek are wanted, powerful and dangerous. And now it’s payback time.
I will have a round up of all the books I really enjoyed from 2022 in January, but as a Midwinter treat, here’s my favourite SFF that I’ve read and/or listened to this year. I do like to mix media with books.
The unmissable follow-up to the highly acclaimed Children of Time and Children of Ruin.
When Earth failed, it sent out arkships to establish new outposts. So the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive on Imir, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost.
Then strangers appear, on a world where everyone knows their neighbour. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling new technology – for they have come from the stars, to help humanity’s lost colonies. But not all is as it seems on Imir.
As the visitors lose track of time and memories, they discover the colonists fear unknown enemies and Imir’s own murky history. Neighbour turns against neighbour, as society fractures in the face of this terrifying foe. Perhaps some other intelligence is at work, toying with colonists and space-faring scientists alike? But not all questions are so easily answered – and the price may be the colony itself.
Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.
Format: 16 pages, Audible Audio
Published: November 24, 2022 by Tor
Language: English
My Review
I have copies of all of the books in this series and have listened to them all as audiobooks.
I found this one really confusing. On the surface it’s simple, a team of Humans, portids, uplifted octopuses, the aggregate lifeform from Nod, and a pair of corvids, visit a new planet, called Imir. Something strange is going on there though. The people are afraid of something outside of their small colony and they don’t know what it is. Things keep going strangely wrong. They keep happening over and over again, in slightly different ways. Miranda, the person who embodies the aggregate lifeform from Nod, is deeply invested in the events and can’t escape from Imir.
The simulation hypothesis is explored in this novel; are we living in a simulation? What is sentience? The ideas are explored through the characters of Gethi and Gothi, a pair of Corvids who need to be together to explore and draw conclusions.
I really liked Gethi and Gothi, they’re funny and drive the plot forward. I love the way they talk back to Avrana Kern and their discussions about sentience, and their conclusion that they aren’t sentient, and also that either everyone is or no one is.
If you enjoyed the first two books in the series I highly recommend this third book. I think this is the final book in the series, which would be a shame, as I want to know where else the sentient species go and who they meet.
Publisher : Clink Street Publishing (28 July 2022)
Language : English
Paperback : 136 pages
ISBN-10 : 1915229553
ISBN-13 : 978-1915229557
Feel, listen and give yourself permission. Learning how to be guided by your intuition when it comes to eating allows you to fully enjoy food once again.
No more diets and no more guilt. Learn how your taught behaviors have a profound effect on how you eat and feel about your body, and learn how to reprogram these behaviors to healthy and empowering ones.
With over 40 plant-based recipes inside, this book also includes useful daily meditation exercises, mindful prayers and stunning affirmations.
“The reason why I decided to go down the path of Intuitive Eating was because I wanted to change my whole relationship with food. Food, for me anyway, is one of the most enjoyable and natural pleasures on this planet and didn’t want to spend the rest of my life having a bad relationship with such a natural and essential part of life. I wanted to be able to eat foods that I love and enjoy every moment of it, without feeling bad about it afterwards.”
My Review
This was one of the books I promo’d or reviewed for 12 Days of Clink Street. I could have reviewed it during the 12 days, but I was being polite and generally I try not to write negative reviews, but I don’t like grifters and bandwagon jumpers spreading misinformation. Look,
I’ve read more than a few books on this subject and I actually have some basic nutrition education so I know what I’m looking at on the subject of metabolism, intuitive eating and other related areas. I follow qualified dietitians and food scientists on social media and listen to podcasts on the subject. It has been a bit of a special interest for the last couple of years. I have notes on this book. So, my criticisms are not made from a place of ignorance and I’m capable of assessing this book competently. I was actually looking forward to reading this book and trying the recipes.
I knew I was going to have problems with it when I had to dig out my sticky notes. Firstly, I looked up the author, to see if she has any qualifications in nutrition or dietetics.
She doesn’t.
She’s an Instagram influencer from what I can tell. She posts pretty pictures of a curated life. She’s read some dodgy books from food nutrition grifters, for instance How Not To Die, by Dr Michael Greger, and thinks she’s an expert. That book in particular is mentioned by name and has been criticised for cherry picked data and misrepresenting the research. She tries to use that old saw – ‘Let food be thy medicine’ – although she garbles it. As Dr Joshua Woolrich tells us food isn’t medicine! Food can be a useful adjunct to good health, but if you can’t access fresh food, or food at all, you can’t use it as medicine. She also claims that illnesses and diseases are caused by what we put in our bodies if they aren’t genetic. Sounds ablist and classist to me.
There is no introduction to intuitive eating or any background about the concept. Nowhere does the author present her qualifications to provide dietary advice. Bartoli uses the ‘anecdotal evidence – it worked for me, it’ll work for you’ approach, and hints that intuitive eating will help lose weight. Looking at her Instagram in my search for any information about the author, I discovered she’s in a socially acceptable and highly privileged body. If she has any disordered eating tendencies – and her comments in the book suggest she does (clean eating, juice cleanses, and other fad diets) but reframes it as ‘overthinking’ about food – it isn’t because she’s ever been fat, but because she’s afraid to be fat, despite her privileged body.
Other notes from my reading:
page 15 – Food chains – not how food chains work – no ‘top’ links – and we’re prey to most predators, we’re just intelligent enough to hunt them out or push them out. People still get killed by tigers, and in the middle ages pigs were regularly up before the magistrates for murder
Page 16 – Weight is largely determined by genetics and environment , and ‘self-control’ is a way to beat fat people for being fat.
Page 17 – not ‘overindulge’ – restrict and binge cycle – feeding your body what it needs.
Page 17 – If you skipped breakfast and you’re hungry and busy, you probably do need a bigger dinner. It’s not making excuses.
Page 19 – food wasn’t ‘put here by Mother Nature’; we are animals, we eat food, like everything else, and we modify the beings we eat to provide us with more nutrients and calories,
Page 20 – misunderstands calories and how the metabolism works. Doesn’t understand that humans aren’t a closed system so weight change isn’t as simple as ‘calories in – calories out’.
Page 22 – Finally makes some good points about diet culture
Page 25 – At last, some explanation!
Page 26 – Misquotes the ‘dose is the poison’ and misspells Cadbury’s. There are a few editing mistakes in the book.
Page 28 – Weight loss is not guaranteed! And the author seems to suggest it is.
Page 38 – another appeal to nature. All food is processed to make it more edible.
Page 38 – Can’t seem to find the word ‘hormone’.
Page 41 – Suggests meditation is essential to intuitive eating. It isn’t. Meditation is a useful tool that can help you become more aware of your body. However, the author assumes their experience is universal. It isn’t.
Page 46 – This is a standard ‘breathing space’ meditation
Page 60 – Oh my gods! No! Humans are not anatomically herbivorous, we’re omnivorous, as are our closest relatives the bonobos and chimpanzees. We can’t digest cellulose, and we aren’t adapted for for an all plant diet. If you want to be vegetarian or vegan, or even just ‘plant based’, go for it, but don’t tell people lies.
Page 61 – There is limited evidence for higher nutrient density in organic food. It’s expensive and out of reach for many people. It isn’t sustainable, needing much more land for the same amount of food, and still uses pesticides!
Page 68 – standard body scan meditation.
On to the recipe section.
The recipes scream privilege.
In general, the recipes rely on nut butters, nut milks and nutritional yeasts, and a heavy reliance on ingredients that are expensive and out of reach of many people. Chia seeds, coconut milk, almond butter, that sort of thing. Almonds are incredibly unsustainable to grow. I wouldn’t know where to get hazelnut butter, although I do know where to get chocolate hazelnut spread. I’ve heard of nutritional yeast (from a vegan friend), but again, I wouldn’t know where to get it. What is ‘coconut sugar’?
The recipes cover breakfast, dinners and desserts, sauces and pestos. They do seem a bit faffy though, and I can’t imagine most would be practical for feeding a family or if you’re busy. They are simply out of reach for the majority in terms of ingredients and preparation time.
I’m going to try the pesto recipes; I enjoy pasta in pesto with salmon and a rocket salad. Bit of spinach in there for some iron, and cherry tomatoes to help with the adsorption of plant iron. That’s a relatively balanced meal too. healthy fats from the pesto, carbs from the pasta, and protein from the salmon. Micronutrients from the salad and pesto.
The food photographer has done a marvellous job. They’re well presented and minimalist, even quite artistic. Probably the best part of this book.
Conclusion:
If you want to know about intuitive eating read Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, who first formulated the concept and is a qualified and registered dietician.
If you want faffy vegan recipes, go ahead and spend £16 for the hardback or £14 for the paperback from Amazon. There are other vegan recipe books available. I have a really good vegetarian slow cooker recipe book, for instance. The BOSH! books by Henry Firth and Ian Theasby are supposed to be good. It’s only £8 too.
The pictures and illustrations are pretty and I like the minimalist style, although they are a bit obvious – curvy, skinny, naked women with strategically placed flowers etc.
As a half-goddess possessing magic, Yaga is used to living on her own, her prior entanglements with mortals having led to heartbreak. She mostly keeps to her hut in the woods, where those in need of healing seek her out, even as they spread rumours about her supposed cruelty and wicked spells. But when her old friend Anastasia—now the wife of the tsar and suffering from a mysterious illness—arrives in her forest desperate for her protection, Yaga realizes the fate of all of Russia is tied to Anastasia’s. Yaga must step out of the shadows to protect the land she loves. As she travels to Moscow, Yaga witnesses a sixteenth century Russia on the brink of chaos. Tsar Ivan— soon to become Ivan the Terrible—grows more volatile and tyrannical by the day, and Yaga believes the tsaritsa is being poisoned by an unknown enemy. But what Yaga cannot know is that Ivan is being manipulated by powers far older and more fearsome than anyone can imagine.
Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2023 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year’s eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. To supplement all this is a variety of entertaining and informative articles, a feature for which the Yearbook of Astronomy is known. Presenting the reader with information on a wide range of topics, the articles for the 2023 edition include, among others, The Incomparable Sir Patrick Moore; Shining a Light on Jupiter’s Atmosphere; A Brief History of the End of the Universe; The Closing of Historic Observatories; The Ability to Believe: Bizarre Worlds of Astronomical Antireality; Optical SETI at Harvard; The Future of Spaceflight; and Male Family Mentors for Women in Astronomy: Caroline and William Herschel.
This iconic publication made its first appearance way back in 1962, shortly after the dawning of the Space Age. Now into its seventh decade of production, the Yearbook continues to be essential reading for anyone lured and fascinated by the magic of astronomy and who has a desire to extend their knowledge of the Universe and the wonders it plays host to. The Yearbook of Astronomy is indeed an inspiration to amateur and professional astronomers alike, and warrants a place on the bookshelf of all stargazers and watchers of the Universe.
My Review
This book is a comprehensive yearbook covering the skies of both northern and southern hemispheres, with monthly notes and a wide selection of articles. It’s a slickly produced, full-colour, yearbook that will appeal to astronomy enthusiasts.
I found it fascinating, although my knowledge of astronomy is not as extensive as I would like it to be. I think I have learnt something from reading this book.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 