This week I am mostly reading

Cupcakes by Susannah Blake

This is such a pretty book. It is neatly sized so it won't get in the way while you are baking but it is packed with useful and unusual recipes. Banoffee cupcakes anyone or coconut and lime?
There are Christmas cupcakes, firework cup cakes (snazzily decorated with an indoor sparkler - such fun) and Halloween cup cakes with chocolate cobwebs (deceptively easy to do).
The photography is bold but simple, rather like the recipes themselves and the colours are gentle and pleasing with the cakes being prettily and simply decorated rather than being intimidating and time consuming works of art.
I am steadily working my way through the book. I've done the blueberry and polenta with a cream cheese and lemon topping and now there is a pleasurable dithering ahead over elevenses which one to do next. Ummm, gooey chocolate and hazelnut I think or maybe the raspberry and vanilla. Decisions decisions...

This week I am mostly reading...

Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel

The simple pleasures are the finest aren't they? And to my mind there are few finer pleasures than a vanilla latte, an apricot muffin and the company of a friend in Borders book store, unless it is all of the above and knitting too.
Curled up in the comfy brown velvet chairs, sipping hot, sweet coffee, laughing nineteen to the dozen and debating which delicious book to add to the library. And I settled on this one. I bought it ages ago, but it is impossible to review something when one is frothing with excitement about which project must be done first. So I go from that to paralysis - I can't decide therefore I do nothing- and then it all settles down a bit, I pick a yarn and away to go.
There are twenty five projects in this book and they come under the headings of: tubes, tanks and tees; shrugs, cardigans and wraps; sweaters, vests and coats; and dress up clothes.
Only the last category holds stuff that I would not want in my wardrobe, that is because I cannot see the merit in a knitted dress, but that's me. The other examples are by and large sheer gorgeousness. I have a weakness for shrugs, so ballet, so elegant and so easy to knit but there are some cute little jumpers too, fitted naturally and some have those cute little peplums that says sexy librarian to me. Its a good look if you can carry it off.
There is nothing in here for the chaps or the children by the way, this is just for the girls. I don't mind that so much as my man is deeply uninterested in hand knitted sweaters (just too man at C&A for him to hack, old eighties dude that he is) and my kids won't wear anything that's not pink and I'm allergic to pastels so that is that out.
There is nothing in this book that I would not feel equal to having a bash at even though knitting and I are still to really yet to knatch. This is because the directions are free from gobbledegook even though there are no charts and it is written in a warm but authoritative tone that is quite encouraging without being smarmy.
It is hard to know what an experienced knitter would make of this book: there are one or two challenging pieces in there (an i cord sounds no fun whatsoever to knit) and there is a smattering of lace too but largely I would say that this is a good book for a confident beginner who wants to push the boundaries somewhat and produce something beautiful without too much hassle. And that too is another one of life's little pleasures.

This Week I am Mostly Reading

A Dyer's Garden by Rita Buchanan

This is an extremely neat little book. The information is plentiful. How to plan and design a dyers garden; the plants to put in it and their growing habits; how and when to harvest them when you are ready to use them and then the info on the actual dying bit. Mordants, recipies, proportions of dydstuff to fibre etc. It goes into a fair bit of detail too, with plentiful pictures but with all this, it retains a pleasingly compact form. Not too heavy for a bit of bedtime reading.

It leans toward the American, as in the zones and altitude that are best to grow the dye plants. Not really applicable to the UK, though of course if a plant can survive in the Rockies then you could guess that it will be up to anything a Welsh mountainside could throw at it. (Except maybe the astonishing rainfall we are getting right now.) And some of the plants are usually only found in the Americas. Mostly though, the plants are familiar and there is always the good old faithful onion skins.
There is not too much by way of anecdote and it is rather firm in tone. Personally, I like a chattier attitude in a how to/ craft book. But it is a fab little thing and a pleasure to have on the bookshelf.

This Week I am Mostly Reading...

To sort of go along with the Sunday Scribblings theme, I love new books. I love the smell, the unbroken spine, the crisp pages, love it love it. However, getting me a new Kresley Cole is apparently like giving a pig a strawberry. I tore through this story in only a few hours.

This is the third in the series. I read the second No Rest for the Wicked (also very good) a few days before Christmas and ordered this one as soon as I put the book down. If you remember my review of the first book (Hunger Like No Other) I was torn between amusement and dismay that I actually liked it and I think I sneered at it rather too much considering. Anyway, this is a cool series. The heroines are sassy, the heroes are perfect, there is character development in spades and a clear plot with good pacing. The action scenes are described with a light touch which that is a good thing, as who needs to be spoon fed a fight when we are so familiar with the visuals of such a sequence thanks to the Matrix and LOTR? I love a good yarn (Pun! Arrgggh! Shoot me now!) and the fourth one is coming out in May this year. Needless to say its on my wishlist.