Malasz

Nonfiction Built with love from garbage cans TEN HUTS By Jill Sigman 212 pp. Wesleyan Reviewed by Marty Carlock I liked this book. But I have to say right off, it’s not for everyone. For one thing, there’s no plot. Jill Sigman is a dancer, artist and a PhD in philosophy. The book contains essays and photographs about her Hut Project from her and from experts in anthropology, art history, performance studies, philosophy and dance. I wish I had seen one of the Huts. Sigman builds them of found materials, whatever she finds lying around the margins of whatever space she has been allotted. “The huts are a labor of love, perhaps a seemingly hopeless one…the search for materials – in dumpsters, garbage cans on street corners, under overpasses, at waste transfer stations…The many hours of piling, wrapping, tying, weaving and balancing of objects…” Then “undoing knots, sorting materials and giving away objects at the end of each hut… All of these actions conspire to create a space where there ...

When Rosie Featherstone finds herself unexpectedly jobless, the offer to help her beloved Italian grandmother out at the Lemon Tree Café a little slice of Italy nestled in the rolling hills of Derbyshire – feels like the perfect way to keep busy. Surrounded by the rich scent of espresso, delicious biscotti and juicy village gossip, Rosie soon finds herself falling for her new way of life. But she is haunted by a terrible secret, one that even the appearance of a handsome new face can't quite help her move on from. Then disaster looms and the café fortunes are threatened . . . and Rosie discovers that her nonna has been hiding a dark past of her own. With surprises, betrayal and more than one secret brewing, can she find a way to save the Lemon Tree Café and help both herself and Nonna achieve the happy endings they deserve? When it came to spending my Christmas book vouchers the first book that jumped out at me was The lemon Tree Café by Cathy Bramley, although I hadn’t heard mu...

Nonfiction Lucky doc RACING BACK TO VIETNAM   By John Pendergrass 256 pp. Hatherleigh Press Reviewed By William C. Crawford This is a readable memoir brought forth on the 50th anniversary of the US withdrawal. There has been a plethora of recent writing in many genres focusing on the ever-controversial conflict. Due to the recent release of the acclaimed Ken Burns documentary, the nation’s attention has been painfully refocused to ponder the conundrums of this ill-fated example of American exceptionalism. The author’s wartime experience is unique in that he served as both a flight surgeon and a volunteer rear seat rider for 54 combat missions with an F-4 fighter squadron based in Da Nang. He had a cushy rear-echelon job that he left intermittently to bomb the Ho Chi Minh Trail in nearby Laos and North Vietnam. Pendergrass offers a straightforward account of both his medical life and his air-combat interludes, as well as the tightly knit camaraderie of a wartime fighter squadron. Th...

Lucy may have suffered her fair share of bad men, but now she has Pete. Finally, a man worth sharing her favourite place with, Lake Como. That's if she can put mysterious phone calls and glamorous ex-girlfriends out of her mind. Taggie is rushed off her feet, but distraction is exactly what she needs to forget why she fled England and the sadness she left behind. She certainly doesn't have time for infuriating stranger Marco. A man is the last thing she needs right now. Lucy and Taggie might not know it, but their lives are about to collide. The New Year might begin with fireworks - but how will it end? I was given a copy of The Place We Met by Isabelle Broom by my Husband for Christmas this year and he couldn't have picked a better book for me. I have adored each of this authors previous books even if they have resulted in a pure determination for me to visit each location that her books have been set in and now having finished this book I have Lake Como to add to my list ...

WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon. Population 2,000. Mostly tourists. Some criminals. Jazz Bashara is a criminal. She lives in a poor area of Artemis and subsidises her work as a porter with smuggling contraband onto the moon. But it’s not enough. So when she’s offered the chance to make a lot of money she jumps at it. But though planning a crime in 1/6th gravity may be more fun, it’s a lot more dangerous… I was blown away by The Martian so I have been eagerly awaiting the next release by Andy Weir. Artemis is his latest release and having just finished reading this book I am going to start this review with a warning do not buy this book ready to compare to The Martian as you will be disappointed if you are expecting to experience the same adventure that book took you on having said that I was so captivated by Artemis but in a completely different way than I was with The Martian. Artemis is the first city on the moon and even with a small population there is those who are ...

Fiction
 Crime is how this city works BY GASLIGHT 
By Steven Price 
731 pp. Picador
 Reviewed by Sue Ellis By Gaslight is a masterpiece of fiction that imagines an event in the life of American detective Allen Pinkerton. When his father (the famous William Pinkerton) dies, Allen feels duty-bound to hunt down a man his father had been unsuccessful in finding. Young Edward Shade had been taken under the wing of the elder Pinkerton during the Civil War and trained as an operative under his command. Shade disappeared while on assignment. Using his father’s file on the subject, Allen leaves Chicago bound for London to contact agents employed by his abolitionist father some twenty years earlier, a former slave couple he’d helped to freedom. Their assignment: follow a London lead to Edward Shade. The setting is beautifully surreal, 1800’s London at her sooty and melancholy best. The story is partly told from Allen Pinkerton’s straightforward account, run-on sentences as impatient as his...

Emma is the proud owner of The Chocolate Shop by the Sea, nestled in the heart of the cosy seaside village that’s become her home. With Christmas right around the corner, she and her assistant Holly are busy cooking up the locals’ festive favourites. From cinnamon hot chocolates to reindeer lollipops, Christmas wouldn’t taste the same without a little cocoa magic. And for Emma it’s the perfect distraction from her romantic pains of the past. So when the shop’s miserly landlord threatens to hike up the rent, Emma’s Christmas and New Year suddenly look a lot less cheerful. With the whole village rallying behind her – and loyal spaniel Alfie by her side – Emma’s determined to hold onto her chocolate-box dream. The chocolate calendar countdown is on. Can Emma rescue her business and her broken heart? I was looking for a light festive read and with a title that not only involves Christmas but also chocolate too, The Cosy Christmas Chocolate Shop by Caroline Roberts caught my eye. Our main c...