Someone Else's Kids by Torey Hayden

Another of the books by teacher Torey Hayden based on her experiences as a special needs teacher. Torey is very honest about her own perceived shortcomings and about the terrible behaviour some of these children can come up with, but she is an inspiring writer who obviously cares about her pupils.

Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz

A good idea and an unexpected ending, but I wasn't so keen on some of the use of language. Dean Koontz seems to use unusual words sometimes just for the sake of it which distracts from the story rather than enhancing it. Also watch out if you are not a dog-lover.

500 Bracelets

Another in the jewellery series, consisting chiefly of images and not too much talk about meaning ... This is studio jewellery so it may be designed to provoke comment rather than to wear, but there were some beautiful pieces nevertheless. The 500 series is an excellent one for aspiring artists.

Day 281; Book 270

Colquhoun and MacBryde by John Byrne

This is another play by John Byrne but it wasn't nearly as much to my taste as The Slab Boys or Tutti Frutti. It's much darker and the humour of the characters more cruel. I missed the banter from the Slab Boys (although both that play and Tutti Frutti had their own dark sides).

Next I read 500 Pendants & Lockets: Contemporary Interpretations of Classic Adornments which La Rock Chick had made the mistake of having sent to the house. Mwahahaha! Of course I read it (actually she said I could). Looking at 500 pictures of jewellery takes a surprisingly long time as you study the ones you like and recoil from some of the creepy ones. Much of this is art rather than wearable but some are both. Not too much pretentious twaddle either.

Day 280; Book 269

Silver jewellery

Click here for your chance to win a piece of handcrafted jewellery by the Rock Chick aka Holly Wilcox who is a jewellery-design student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art:

http://hollywilcox.blogspot.com/2009/07/win-piece-of-handcrafted-jewellery.html

I know I'm biased but I think it is an original and beautiful piece of work!


*Oops, I couldn't make it a hyperlink so please copy and paste into your browser address bar or even easier scroll down my reading list and you can click directly onto Holly's blog.

In Praise of Heat Magazine

I love Heat! Not so much because of the celebrity news but because of their clever humour. Here's their succinct description of the Pre-Raphaelites:

"the 19th-century art-fops who really dug nature, medieval myths and hot ginger chicks".

The Pre-Raphs in a nutshell really!

And here's their take on Dante Gabriel Rossetti:

"Painter, poet and dirty stop-out".

This is all in relation to a new tv drama starting next Tuesday on BBC2, and cleverly called Desperate Romantics (see what they did there, as Heat used to say).

Photography books

I read two photography books last night which are part of the Phaidon 55 series. I have to confess never having heard of Willy Ronis or Lisette Model but some of their images did seem familiar. I enjoyed looking at the photographs but some of the commentary, not so much. Either I am too dim to understand it or it was pretentious twaddle (or possibly both).

Day 279; Book 267