Final Books of 2013 #35 - #53

Click on the 'Book Review' label in the left menu for the other reviews. My others this year have been January, April and July so not exactly very frequent, but I have been reading the whole time so get ready for a motherload. Pictures are linked to am amazon affiliates account, but I just want them for illustrations so don't worry about the clicking through to buy thing.

#35 One Block Wonders Encore

An interesting way of making hexagonally tessellated quilts using triangles cut in strips based on the repeat of the fabric. You need a multiple of 6 repeats so depending on the length of the repeat and the size of your triangle this could eat up a lot of fabric. This is the technique used on one of my favourite quilts from this year's Festival. A la this one:

The technique being basically what I just said, this book adds a few curve balls with ways to create 3-d effects and then fills up the rest with patterns. Good read but not really needed if you're just looking for instructions. 

#36 Bruno, Chief of Police

by Martin Walker

#37 Dark Vineyard

#38 Black Diamond

#39 The Crowded Grave

#40 Bruno and the Pere Noel (A Kindle freebie short story)

A series recommended by Liz and something I am very glad I followed up on. Plus only £1.20 ish on Amazon as a kindle download. Bruno is the town policeman in a small french town with a history of wine, truffles and resistance fighting. This first book in the series introduces all the people you get to know during the series and the various relationships, good and bad, between them. It all reminds me of where my cousin lives in France and the stories she has told me about local politics and goings on. I really enjoy the books, as you can see from my having gobbled four of them in six months. The seasonal short story isn't great but is a nice gift to people who are already keen on the series. 

#41 The Moor 

by Laurie King

This is the latest in the series focusing on Sherlock Holmes' wife (hmph) with this one harking back to the hound of the baskervilles and the way the same house and area has developed some 20 (?) years later. I do find these books rather compelling, despite the whole nonsense of this woman being Holmes' wife. Mind you some aspects of their relationship do remind me of Pooch and I which makes me think the author has a rather trying partner in a background. Despite all this they are well written and if you are a Sherlock aficionado and know all the real stories backwards they do pick up on details within them rather cleverly. 

#42 Japanese Fairy Tales

by Yei Theodora Ozaki

My copy was a kindle freebie and had no illustrations but it looks like for 61p you now get a proper cover and drawings so that seems like a bargain. I downloaded this when the move to japan was first mooted and read it on the DLR over about 2 months. Each story is a few pages long and they vary from the "and then he died which was a good thing" type ending to "and they lived happily ever after". There were many serpents, dragons and centipedes. There was also a king who lived under the sea who came up quite a lot. A lot of people wanted children but couldn't have any and many others worked very hard and were kind to their neighbours even though they were mingers. Overall it gave a lovely insight into the traditional values of the japanese and was well worth a read if you are interested in their culture. 

#43 Death in Hyde Park

by Robin Paige 

Another in this never ending series of cosy mysteries. This one brings in anarchists and a bit of women's lib all against the background of the king's coronation. Naughty policeman and vanishing editors abound. These are really nice to read. Relaxing and enjoyable. 

#44 Cocaine Blues

by Kerry Greenwood

Although I am a big fan of the australian tv series (you get used to the accents) which is now at the end of the second series, I had not experienced any of the books until this one. This, the first in the series, was an unabridged audiobook and I listened very intently as it really was rather good. This isn't high art and probably falls quite nicely into the same category as the Paige series at #43 - these are books that aren't going to shock you despite the fact they have moderate sex and, in this case, drugs in. They hold your interest but you won;t be compelled to stay up all night to see what happens next. I'll definitely be putting the rest on my wishlist for the future. 

#45 Raising Steam

by Terry Pratchett

The fortieth Discworld book and as everyone says, surely one of the last to appear considering wonderful Sir Terry has Altzheimers. As I read the first few pages I almost groaned as this was not the quality I had grown to love in the previous 39 books. However, it quickly picked up and then it was like being on a rollercoaster as we sped through the story which brought in lots of favourite characters doing little cameos as well as lots of the Patrician and Moist Von Lipwig who, although he usually annoys me, was actually rather good in this. Clearly the railway has come to Ankh Morpork and it coincides with a dwarf civil war. Train spotters abound and it all comes down to an impressive chase and battle at the end. Like all the best books, I was saddened that it ended, but happy that I'd read it. 

#46 Beware of the Trains

by Edmund Crispin

#47 Fen Country

Two classics from the golden age of crime fiction. Short stories which can be read as diy puzzles or just as simple stories, which is the way I like to approach them. Gervase Fin appears throughout helping the police and being all intelligent and so on. Great stuff. 

#48 The Viaduct Murder

by Ronald Knox

This was an experiment for me since I don't know this series but thought I'd give it a whirl. Four friends find a member of the golf club dead on the course. The police call it an accident but they are sure it can't be. It was quite funny in places as they all try out their detective skills. 

#49 Operation Pax 

by Michael Innes

This was a very odd and unsettling book. A small time crook gets desperate and seems to try and rape a girl in the middle of the countryside. To his surprise she beats him up and when he seeks help from a local house he ends up really in the poo. You have absolutely zero empathy for this guy, but meanwhile we're introduced to war refugees, kidnapping, biological warfare, animal cruelty, human experimentation, star-crossed lovers, helicopters, fast cars and more. It was all together unlike any previous Inspector Appleby stories. Not one to start with if you want to try this series. 

#50 Lestrade and the Sawdust Ring

by M J Trow

These books are really quite bizarre. It is Lestrade from the Sherlock Holmes stories but as a real man, not the idiot he is portrayed as in those stories. In all these books he picks up a large number of fairly serious and painful injuries in the course of his duty. Here he goes undercover with a circus for reasons I can't remember now but it is all highly unorthodox. I do love this series - another one Liz introduced me to - and look forward to the next. 

#51 Lonesome Road

by Patricia Wentworth

Good old Miss Silver. This is what Miss Marple would have been like had she had to work as a Governess for 30 years or so. Adorable stories - their only downside tending to be how the women want nothing more than to be crushed in a strong man's arms until it bruises them. Great cosy mysteries. In this one Miss Silver must prevent the murder of her hostess who, although lovely, is disliked by most of her relatives. 

#52 Bertie and the Tin Man

by Peter Lovesey

The premise of this series is very silly. King Edward is a secret detective, as well as a real legover merchant, and goes about solving crimes. In this one he is convinced a jockey friend was murdered although the police are happy that it is a natural death. To solve the crime he has to have sex with a number of women and put on various lowly outfits to disguise himself as a commoner. Silly but harmless. 

#53 Bryant and May and the Invisible Code

by Christopher Fowler

The tenth in the series and I swear they keep getting better. The plot turns in this one are fiendish. Bryant and May are two elderly detectives who head the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London which answers to the home office. In this story they get an SOS from their former arch nemesis, Oscar Cassavian, who is worried about his wife. There follows all sorts of ups and downs and wrong turns before the secret is finally revealed. As I have said before, I love the London settings of these books as well as the peculiar flights of fancy that end up bringing in witchcraft and clairvoyance. Brilliant, modern detective series. 

It seems sad to end the year on an odd number so I shall endeavor to finish my current read (another of the Robin Paige books) before the end of the year. For more intelligent book reviews do head over to Liz's blog as she reads a much wider selection of things than me, as well as being a demon knitter!

Merry Christmas!

Being 9 hours ahead means we have already had our frenzy of opening presents here in Tokyo. This is my main present from Pooch:

The Japanese seem big on their ornamental cabbages and I'd much rather admire them than eat them so am all for it. These will be the start of my balcony garden once the weather warms up.

Pooch is very happy about Christmas. He loves his food and so the opportunity to cook huge meals makes him all smiley. Look at him smiling as he gets all the food to take home.

We got one particularly nice present from Noriko a few days early. Here I am as it is patina'd.

The flame underneath is rather beautiful.

This is a traditional way of cooking and you prepare the vessel for the first time by making a sort of rice porridge and then leaving it for 6 hours to plug the pores in the ceramic. This we duly did and the meal we had the following day was delicious! We also had xmas themed chopsticks.

For the rest of the day I shall be making like a Calico Cat Cafe cat and finding somewhere comfortable to sit about and lounge.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Suburban Tokyo

When I posted a picture on facebook of a grey and rainy day, one friend commented on how crowded the buildings were. Here's the picture:

It hadn't really occured to me how close together the buildings were since actually in this shot there's quite a lot of space compared to the rest of Tokyo. I did think about it though when we recently moved into our new flat. There are three patio door type windows - two in the main room and one in the bedroom, all of which lead out onto a balcony. One of the main room ones looks out onto a wall which is perhaps 2m away from the edge of the balcony. The other main room balcony has this view:

And the bedroom has this view:

So you can see how close the other houses and flats are in this area. There is basically no empty space at all. It makes me smile a bit because in the UK the planning regs insist you can't overlook other people's properties and people are entitled to privacy and so on. That is clearly not part of the planning laws here!

The big windows and balconies are going to be lovely in the other three seasons but aren't so handy in the winter. All are single glazed and drafty. This is clearly not a problem only I have noticed as I was able to buy this draft excluder tape in an attractive pattern which I've now used to make the bedroom considerably less windswept at night.

I'm not quite there with going around corners yet but it's not too bad.

While I've been typing we've just had another earthquake - my third since we arrived. This was just a magnitude 5.2 so the christmas tree and the rest of the flat just wobbled a bit but we had a 5.3 during the night which was a little bit stronger and I guess more noticeable when lying down.

This was my first daytime one though and the app on my phone gave me 13 seconds warning which was quite strange! Pooch tells me two close together is often a sign of building up to something bigger so I must get our emergency kit together. It largely consists of being able to use a bucket as a toilet from what I've read, in case the water mains are damaged. Having lived with Pooch for 9 years now that is a scenario I often worry about, so if that's the worst of it I'm sure we'll be fine.

I'll be taking more pictures of the neighbourhood and the flat in the next few days as it has stopped raining and is all sunny again. I hope everyone's christmas preparations are going well!

Shrinking

I am fairly sure my English vocabulary is shrinking day by day. I rocked my world two days ago by using the word "malignant" in conversation with Noriko who then asked me to define it. Erm. Somehow "like an ominous drain" didn't clarify anything for her.

To date my only Japanese vocabulary is thank you, thank you very much, one, two (although these are often wrong - how you count things depends on what they are so the numbers for people are different to, say, vegetables), good morning, please excuse me, hot chocolate, hot cocoa (important difference) and cat. I've really got to improve on that but I have been honestly kept busy sorting out the flat. Pooch leaves before 8am and gets back about 7pm so it's been just me shopping and, recently, assembling flat pack furniture. This has included the very same dining table and chairs set we had in the first flat we shared in Stratford. "Ikea" is clearly another Japanese word that I've managed to learn. I've also made more curtains than is sensible and am about to commence cushion and pillow covers.

The build up for Christmas continues, kind of. As far as I can tell it is just about decorating for most Tokyoans. I don't think presents come into it although I have made it clear to Pooch that if he wants turkey with the trimmings that also includes stockings (the patchwork ones I made in the autumn have come with us) bulging with the chocolate equivalent of oranges and teddy bears. I have decorated our tree using 100 yen shop ornaments plus one that came free with a bottle of coke. Pooch has tracked down the only shop in Tokyo that sells fresh turkey and is heading there at the weekend. I am just hoping he doesn't manage to find any spouts. Nasty little things.

I think that makes my feelings clear. 

From Our Own Correspondent

A few of my most recent observations from the most distant outpost of the SkipNorth community.

First up, the japanese like to nap in places that might seem odd to your average england-dweller.

Pooch tells me there is a Tumblr dedicated to people asleep on the Tokyo Metro and I can believe it. You can also see people napping on the benches in the stations, in cafes and on the waiting benches in department stores. I can only guess it is down to long working hours. Or it could possibly be altitude sickness, caused by no one ever finding themselves on the ground floor.

In all of Japanese society, there is no such thing as the ground floor or floor zero. The ground floor is the first floor. God knows they don't need to pretend their buildings are taller than they really are - Pooch's office has 12 floors - but there you go. Our new flat is on the third floor, except it's really the second. I try not to worry about it though. 

Next observation concerns language. I believe I have previously mentioned that anything French is considered extremely chic and cool. As well as smattering french throughout their shop names, there is extensive use of english. 

Although not always in a strictly correct way. 

I don't get this. The japanese have three alphabets, none of which is the english one, and so it makes no sense to use a fourth in their lives. In england you don't get adverts punctuated with bits of arabic in order to seem trendy, but there you are. I am not complaining as it is often the only way I know whether I've chosen a hot chocolate or a deep fried trotter. 

My penultimate observation concerns gambling - from the mild to the severe. On the mild side, you get whole floors full of these machines:

We used to have them in the Herne Bay arcades when I was growing up and we weren't supposed to "waste our money" on them because they'd pick something up and then as the claw got to the top it would open slightly and drop it again. Goddamnit. However, here there are legions of them. Perhaps not strictly gambling but then you have the Pachinko Parlours which are brightly lit cacophanies with line after line of garish machines with little silver balls falling through them. I have yet to go into a proper one because I am frankly scared I'll never come out - they are portrayed by Pooch as addictive as crystal meth - and he's watched the whole of Breaking Bad. Here is some other brave soul's picture:

It seems weird to me that such a controlled society would take such risks but then I suppose these are safe risks, except for the whole losing all your money thing. The area where the japanese least like to take risks, which happens to be my final observation for this post as well as the thing i find MOST annoying about Tokyo, is crossing the road. 

You see how the road between these masses of people is completely clear? Empty? Contains no cars? Yet you notice how the people all wait, patiently, for the red man to change to green? GAHHHHHHHH! It drives me mad. I have started using the waiting time to calculate how much more profitable the japanese economy would be if this time were put to other uses rather than standing idly either side of an EMPTY road waiting for the lights to change. 

Why don't I cross? What? Not conform? Stand out from the crowd? Why, you clearly have very little understanding of how we, here in japan, roll. 

More Cats

It might seem to the uninformed that Tokyo for me is just one cat cafe after another. In fact I only go to cat cafes on Fridays. Having been quite stressed by my second visit to the Ikebukero one I decided to try the Calico Cat Cafe in Shinjuku. I had initially decided against it on the basis of it being too touristy - look at me giving myself airs. Plus I was so wrong. I don't really know where to start. I guess with the entrance...

From the moment you arrive you are basically stepping over cats - a lot of whom are asleep. 

Asleep in bowls, boxes, on toys, on cushions, on climbing frames, on purpose built shelves high up, on the stairs, on the bookcase...you get the idea. These are chilled out cats. 

You come in on the 6th floor and are surrounded by cats and then there are stairs heading down to the 5th and you and the cats can quite easily move between as much as you want, avoiding the tiny trip hazards that await you on the stairs. 

This is the 5th floor. 

You can order drinks and food. But what the cats really want is for you to order a little pot of chicken (real chicken too, not just treats). This is what happens when you do. 

I felt this was cheating so I contented myself with less company but more freedom to roam. 

When I did finally flop down on a sofa, a miracle occurred. A cat came and sat on me. 

I guess I wasn't too comfy because that became this...

Which quickly became this...

So sweet! You can imagine how chuffed I was. The cat seemed pretty happy too. I had been just about to leave but the cat kept me there another half hour which made them a wodge more money - clever shop keepers those cats. 

Pooch and I get the keys to our permanent flat tomorrow which has meant a lot of shopping and repacking. It has brought back the stress of the packing to come over here so I will be extremely happy when it is all done and we are moved in. The Ikea bits are delivered on Tuesday so hopefully from next weekend we will be in a proper looking home which I will then be decorating for christmas. It will also give me a chance to do some crafting beyond just making curtains!

Cute As A Button

My 7 month old niece has taken to Skype like a duckling to water and thinks it is quite funny when Auntie Alex waves at her from the screen. I sent off her final christmas present this week which was actually finished about 2 months ago but had been waiting this long for buttons.

The design is a combination of two free fairisle patterns on Ravelry plus my handwriting and done using intarsia. The buttons were worth the wait.

There is so much cute stuff for children here - especially girls. I have bought a dress pattern on etsy and will be knocking up a few dresses for her from the most irresistible fabrics. I've almost finished a pair of socks since I arrived - or finished the second one at least. The first and a cuff I found while packing, along with rather a lot of UFOs. I did some more at my second Tokyo SnB meeting.

Isn't that tea cosy adorable? We met at the Kimono Bar and Grill which is owned by a knitter and she served us all delicious food as well as using her vintage lustreware for hot drinks. Highly appreciated! Especially as this was rather a nippy day. In case anyone is in the area I recommend the restaurant and the SnB meetings are on Meet-Up.

Pooch is out this evening being wined and dined by the international director of something important so I sat down with my babette-ish blanket in progress and a few episodes of Ellery Queen - an american series from the seventies based on the books. I was fairly amazed by this lady.

Vintage updo, dramatic expressions, all fine. Pockets on your shoulders - fair enough. Then she stood up.

Seven pockets? Including knees and, ahem, muff area? I like a good pocket as much as the next person but I think it's best to avoid central ones unless you are under 12 and wearing dungarees with a pocket on your chest flap. And even then only if it's got a rabbit embroidered on it.

Strange Shop Names

There is really no end of these so just a few of my favourites so far:

For when you urgently need a suitcase

Sadly the cafe was decorated in neutrals

For clothing that makes you feel snug and protected

Something I have yet to understand is why the Japanese associate everything french with the ultimate in refinement and chic. I can only assume it is because France is quite a way away from here and so they haven't been. The number of shops with french names - restaurants, cafes, book sellers, clothes stalls, chemists - is quite astounding. But then I asked someone if the Tokyo Tower was supposed to be a replica of the Eiffel Tower and she seemed quite confused.

More than a passing resemblance though, right?