-
The Night Mayor
A long long time ago, when I was obsessed with everything Games Workshop touched, they started commissioning novels set in their not-quite-a-rip-off-of-Tolkien fantasy universe. One of the authors they recruited was Kim Newman, the massively-mutton-chopped film reviewer, who managed to smuggle into the Warhammer milieu a pastiche of Dirty Harry and the fairly terrifying Drachenfels, […]
-
Pony Scouts: At The Show
In addition to the vomit-inducing Backhoe Joe, La Serpiente has been making me read Pony Scouts: At The Show, a level 2 reading book ("High-interest stories for developing readers" according to the blurb.) While I’m allergic to horses, we can be fairly confident that the book isn’t making my daughter sick, as she made me […]
-
Backhoe Joe
Somewhat gratifyingly, La Serpiente wept bitterly last night at bedtime, wishing both her parents were there to put her to bed, rather than one of them gallivanting around a running track. When she was clingy tonight and refused to get off the toilet and into the bath for ten minutes, we assumed that was the […]
-
Construction Kitties
This evening I read Construction Kitties to La Serpiente. This is a book in which a family of cats put on hard hats and then use a variety of heavy machinery to (spoiler alert) build a play area. I think La Serpiente chose this book from the library on purpose, but what malefic and occult […]
-
Men Love Pies, Girls Like Hummus
Today I baked a cake from Men Love Pies, Girls Like Hummus, a cookery book I borrowed from the library solely on the strength of its title. I borrowed three books: one by Gordon Ramsay that had at least one example of egregious copy-and-paste, a compendium of recipes from Epicurious, and Men Love Pies, Girls […]
-
Last of the Playboys
Today I had another spinning class, and although I was slow and weak (recovering from a troublesome night with La Serpiente needing to be comforted through her coughing, and from my own cold) it was good to get some exercise. More importantly, there’s a good half hour journey on the train from the spinning studio […]
-
The Rising
Today I devoured The Rising, Ian Tregillis’ second book about Dutch automata fighting French Canadians in an alternate 1920s setting. (Yes, it is slightly strange.) I enjoyed this more than the first novel, The Mechanical, perhaps because there’s less world-building going on this time and more action. (There is a bit too much action sometimes, […]
-
Running With The Mind Of Meditation
I’ve been reading a good book about meditation, Running With The Mind Of Meditation, which I got out from the library at the weekend. People often tell me that I should meditate to relax after the stress of work, but I sometimes find this counterproductive. On Sunday, for example, I read some of the book, […]
-
Poems and cakes
I read to La Serpiente from her book of poems tonight. We read The Grateful Dragon, The Jabberwocky, and (of course) What Turkey Do? – a poem that she has now learned some of the words to. Sadly she’s yet to adopt a Jamaican patois in the rest of her speech, no matter how many […]
