Sunday 6 October 2013

Library Love...Maddaddam, Simply Jiggy, 500 Toys, My Cool Allotment...


This month I've been reading...

Maddaddam - Margaret Atwood
This is the last book in a trilogy (the first two books, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, were helpfully summarised in the first few pages for those of us who have bad memories, the first book was written in 2003 so it's been a while!).  Margaret Atwood is one of my favourite authors and this didn't disappoint.  This is perfect post-apocalypse, survival, growing your own, new society type reading.  Loved it!

Simply Jiggy - Jiggy Majhu
One word...pakora bread! That's right, this book contains the recipe for pakora bread, bread dipped in pakora batter then deep fried, which one imagines to be the Indian equivalent of fried bread.  Sounds amazing!  Although this isn't a vegetarian/vegan cook book, there is a chapter on vegetable dishes and plenty of the starters and side dishes are veggie anyway.

500 Toys to Knit, Crochet, Felt and Sew - Nguyen Le
This book is so cute, it has loads of projects in it.  Variations for each pattern in the book are provided too, for example, you can use the sewn ballerina pattern as a base to make a princess, girl scout, ballerina cat, felt paper style dress up doll and a puppet.  Lots of inspiration! I especially like the crochet octopus and the ukulele cushion.

My Cool Allotment - Lia Leendertz
This book makes me dream of having an allotment of my own.  The chapters are split up into things like 'edible jungle', 'food from home' and 'a feast of flowers', and each chapter features 5 or 6 examples of cool allotments along those themes.  Lots of lovely pictures and inspiration, and the interesting stories of the people who created the allotments.

Have you read anything interesting recently?

('scuse terrible lighting on these pictures - where has the sun gone!)

6 comments:

  1. Unfortunately reading a book is the last thing I do at the end of my day... too much time spent in front of a screen for work! But recently I read a gorgeous book (in Italian) about sustainable cooking and eating, even if it was for children – you can find it on my Anobii shelf on my blog.
    What I love of the book you read is the beautiful graphics! I'll search for some of those wonderful books you suggested whenever I'll came in England to meet my sister... ;)

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    1. That cooking book sounds good, I like reading books meant for children too, they're better than adults books sometimes!

      Because I'm surrounded by books all day (hurrah!) at the library, I tend to only choose ones with eye-catching covers that stand out from the rest, I know they say not to judge a book by it's cover, but I usually do!

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  2. I like the look of the Allotment book! I have a propagating one back out at the moment trying to figure out a few things! Apart from that I have my Colette Patterns book which I keep reading but am working myself up to actually use.

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    1. The allotment book is great, I still haven't finished going through it! Is it the Colette sewing book? I've heard good things about that, I must check it out sometime.

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  3. I wanted MaddAddam to keep going! To explain more! Such is always the way. I think I need to go back and re-read Oryx & Crake. It has been a long time since that one came out, and I think that was the best of the three. Oh how I love Margaret Atwood.

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    1. I would like there to be a fourth book in the trilogy (if such a thing is allowed), I wanted to carry on reading too! But I think I will go back and read the first two again, maybe that will appease me for now. I love Margaret Atwood too, she is a clever, clever lady.

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