More of wot I have read…

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

This was one of the books I got for my birthday and I absolutely devoured to so engaging was the story. I fell in love with this book from the first page and was fascinated with the dystopian world conjured up by the author and found the characters believable and human. The narrative was nicely paced and the drama built good tension throughout the book. The twists and turns were well hidden and the conclusion was very satisfying. I liked the bio-punk sci-fi style of the setting and the environmental / political stance of the author was interesting. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it is worth a read if only for the quality of the writing alone.

‘Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s calorie representative in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, he combs Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs long thought to be extinct. There he meets the Windup Girl – the beautiful and enigmatic Emiko – now abandoned to the slums. She is one of the New People, bred to suit the whims of the rich. Engineered as slaves, soldiers and toys, they are the new underclass in a chilling near future where oil has run out, calorie companies dominate nations and bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.

And as Lake becomes increasingly obsessed with Emiko, conspiracies breed in the heat and political tensions threaten to spiral out of control. Businessmen and military officials, wealthy foreigners and landless refugees all have their own agendas. But no one anticipates the devastating influence of the Windup Girl.’

The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams

This book was given to me by Jamie and it had sat on my shelf for a while as I was not enthusiastic about the teaser on the back (see below), but I was short of something to read so I gave it a go. It took a while to get going and I struggled to accept the concept of the book, but slowly it grew on me and at the end I was quite enjoying it and could appreciate the details that the author had sprinkled through the narrative. It is light and fluffy and naturally fantastical but fans of magical mythology might well enjoy this book.

‘In the great city, in the dimly office of a mighty tower, two deadly creatures meet. A dark bargain is struck, and the master of the House of Hellebore gives on order: “War is coming. The child must die.”

In our own world, a young man discovers a manuscript written by his great uncle. It seems to be a novel – a strange fairy tale of fantastic creatures and a journey to a magical realm. But it is written as a diary…as if the events were real…as if his uncle had sought and found another world.

Or as if another world had found him…’

Master Chef…

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to help out more in the kitchen. Not that Sue complains as she is a natural cook, but I could do more and I should learn how. I thought I might start out with one day a month (didn’t want to rush things), but I have almost managed one day a week so far and have I even have a signature dish - Lamb Rogan Josh. I cook like an engineer by following a recipe to the letter, measuring everything and keeping an eye on the timing – this is because I do not have a feel for cooking like Sue does (who can open the fridge or cupboard door and have a fine spread on the table in minutes). Luckily Sue has helped by choosing recipes that are quite flexible and do not need precise timing to work, such as curries and stews.

The Greenhouse Effect…

Is the definition of optimism building a greenhouse in the snow?

My folks gave us some money to put towards a greenhouse that we could use to start off our seedlings in and to protect some of our more fragile summer crops. Since we have a small garden and we did not want to put anything on the allotment we opted for a lean-to greenhouse that will fix to the kitchen wall at the back of the house. Naturally we went for an expensive model in green aluminium finish and an attractive arched shape. It was delivered unassembled in several packages with a set of instructions that made me weep. I only have a basic set of tools as I am not the most accomplished DIYer and so everything took ten times as long as it should have. It took me one day just to get the base fitted level and the whole of the next to put together the frame (I am dreading the glazing that is yet to be done).

It probably wasn’t the ideal weather to be working outside but as there was a high over the country there was no wind to make the freezing temperature feel any colder and apart from the occasional snowflake hitting the back of my neck I was quite warm in my thermals and layers of clothing, though my fingers were quite blue at the end.

The instructions were though the major frustration in particular how they referred to parts only by their six digit part number and used deceptive hand drawing sketches to try and add detail to complicated procedures. But the worst part is where you are required to undo some of the previous assembly to add components to complete later ones.

Nevertheless it is looking good and as long as I can get the glass in without breaking it then we will be ready for the spring when it does come.

We have also had a stroke of good news regarding the garden when the guy who is cultivating the section behind our house knocked on our door and invited us to share some of the land for our crops. This is a dream come true and while I was busy with my Meccano set Sue and her sister cleared out the beds and staked our claim.

We are starting to make plans for the kitchen garden and I have bought seed potatoes and onion sets which we will still plant on the allotment as they don’t need as much attention and take up space while we use the new plot for salads and other faster growing crops.

Wot I have read…

Earth, Air, Fire and Custard by Tom Holt

This is more of the same from Tom Holt based as it in his familiar and much explored world of modern magic at the shadowy company of J W Wells. I found this similar in nature to the other stories where ‘odd’ and ‘amusing’ incidents befall our hapless hero until the overly complex plot is revealed and the complex web of loose ends are all tied up.

‘J.W. Wells seems to be a respectable establishment, but the company paying Paul Carpenter’s salary is in fact a deeply sinister organisation with a mighty peculiar management team.

Paul thought he was getting the hang of it (particularly when he fell head over heels for his strangely alluring colleague Sophie), but death is never far away when you work at J. W. Wells. Unlike the stapler – that’s always going AWOL. Our love struck hero is about to discover that custard is definitely in the eye of the beholder. And that it really stings.’

Snow Fun…

We have had a cold snap in the last few weeks with snow sweeping across most of the country and temperatures dropping to around freezing for days at a time. We have been quite lucky where we are to miss the worst of it which seems to have landed on the west and north. In the UK we are relatively fortunate when it comes to cold weather due to the warming Gulf Stream and so we generally miss out on the level of snow and extremes of temperature that countries of similar latitude in North America or on the Continent get during winter. However as a result we are not as prepared for what snow we do get; airports and railways do not have the same investment in snow clearing machines and not many cars have snow tires or snow chains.

I took advantage of the ability to work from home to avoid having to struggle on the roads. Having a rear wheel drive automatic is a disadvantage in snow and ice and so my car remained where it was for several days until it warmed up and melted enough for me to get off the untreated local roads and out onto the clear main road.

Sue took to Shank’s Pony and walked into the town where she caught the train to work.

We ventured out during the weekend to explore the winter wonderland and saw many more people than usual out and about enjoying the snow. We took several long walks which all ended up at a pub for a warm up and fortifying tipple.