The Cat Psychologist

Finished August 13
The Cat Psychologist: Understanding Your Cat by Mardie MacDonald

I read this book, looking to see if it dealt with some of the behaviour exhibited by my cats. The author has had a lot of experience looking after cats, first her own, then other peoples when she ran a cat sitting business. After ceasing that business and taking a break, she announced herself as a cat psychologist, able to help people figure out why their cats were misbehaving, exhibiting signs of unhappiness, and other issues. She makes it clear that she is not training in veterinary science and tries to ensure people have consulted with their vet where appropriate.
Her examples in the book are relatively straightforward for anyone who has owned a few cats and cares about them. She is very much against commercial pet food, preferring to make her own food from basic ingredients.
Some of the behaviours that I have seen in my current cats and previous ones I've had did not appear in the examples that she gives, although I believe they are not uncommon. So I was a bit disappointed on that end of things. It was a quick read, and does provide some useful advice for cat owners. I should note that it is also about thirty years old, so the knowledge of cat behaviour in general and for those specialized in it have grown during that time.

Close Call

Finished August 12
Close Call by Stella Rimington

This novel is the eighth book in a series featuring MI5 agent Liz Carlyle. I've also read the first one, At Risk. Here she works with MI6, the CIA, and the French intelligence authorities. Liz is in a relationship that is starting to get serious with Martin Seurat, one of her French counterparts at the DGSE. He has started talking about retiring and going into private security.
The story here starts in the Syria, where an American agent has a close call while infiltrating rebel groups. He is transferred to Yemen to try and move a rumour forward to discover whether it has merit in intelligence with a government minister.
Liz is just back from vacation with Martin when she is brought up to date by her deputy Peggy Kinsolving. This includes a "watching brief" on a possible smuggled arms shipment. This involves MI6 as well as the CIA. The first thing to come up on this brief is news of a meeting in Paris. The French are running the show there of course, with other countries involved, but a young agent makes a move that unnerves those meeting and they lose contact with the men. Photos of them however bring an unexpected surprise. One of the men is a former French agent, who got in trouble and has now moved to the side of the bad guys, including running arms. They are surprised he risked his home ground of Europe, but it does make it more likely that they can nab him and try to learn more.
Liz soon finds that the drop of arms is expected to be in England, in Cheshire. When she reaches out to Special Branch to find out more about the man they suspect of being involved she learns that a man from her past is also now in Cheshire. They didn't part on good terms, and Liz isn't sure that he can be trusted based on her past experience, so she explores different routes of gathering intelligence and mounting surveillance. The man in Cheshire has been suspected of human trafficking as part of a club and prostitution service he runs, but arms would be a new venture for him.
I enjoyed the action here and also like when I learn more about the personal lives of the main characters, to humanize them more. There are several things going on here, but they all relate to each other, and offer a fast-moving plot.
The author used to head up MI5 and so writes from experience and knowledge of the real world espionage services.

Material Visions

Finished August 10
Material Visions: A Gallery of Miniature Art Quilts by Stampington & Company

This is a glorious collection of art quilts, featuring over ninety quilts from forty artists. Most of the artists are American, but there are a couple from Australia too. The materials used include traditional quilting materials as well as other fibres, found objects, paper, and natural materials.
A few of the artists have multi-page coverage, where they discuss their inspirations and how they work to create their works.
Others have short descriptions of the quilt, the materials and methods involved. Each quilt includes at least one photography and sometimes closeup images as well.
I found myself inspired by these pieces and I kept thinking "Oh, I can do something like that, but with this instead..." as I read my way through it.
An absolute delight to see how many different ways artists can make their visions happen.

Simply Stitched

Finished August 9
Simply Stitched: Beautiful Embroidery Motifs and Projects with Wool and Cotton by Yumiko Higuchi, translated by Kyoko Matthews

This lovely book was originally published in Japanese and was inspired by the author's love of combining stitching with wool and cotton on linen. She liked the way it added texture and dimension to her work.
This book has eighteen motif and fourteen projects, described in detail, and sections on materials, tools, and techniques are included. She also includes a stitch guide for the stitches she used.
The projects are all for practical items that one can use.
Projects included:
* Floral Motif (used in a fabric belt)
* Thistle Motif (used in a needlecase)
* Ivy Motif (used in a clutch)
* Anemone Motif (design alone)
* Rooster Motif (design alone) (center cover image)
* Holy Night Motif (used in Christmas stockings)
* Little Flowers (used in winter hats)
* Marguerite Motif (used in a zip bag)
* Garden Motif (used in a pillow) (upper left and lower left cover images)
* Poppy Motif (used in a tote bag) (middle left cover image)
* Candy Motif (used on cardigan sweaters)
* Tree Motif (used on a teapot cozy) (lower right cover image)
* Dahlias and Daisies (used in sachets) (middle right cover image)
* Pigeon Motif (used in greeting cards)
* Leaf Motif (design alone)
* Tulip Motif (design alone)
* Spring Flower Motif (used in a mini tote)
* Bee Motif (used in bunting)
They are simple, yet charming. A lovely way to approach stitching in a new way.

The Ignorance of Blood

Finished August 8
The Ignorance of Blood by Robert Wilson

This is the last book in a series of four books featuring Javier Falcon of Seville, Spain. Javier is a busy man, involved in many things. He is an inspector with the local police, but also has ties to the intelligence community and is running a spy for them, a man he has become close friends with.
As the book opens a Russian mobster is switching from one mob to another, taking money and information with him, when he is killed in a freak accident. Falcon gets called to the scene and overseas the transfer of the information and cash to a secure location.
He has been working on a case involving a local judge who is in jail for killing his wife, who also happens to be Falcon's ex-wife. This is also tied to a construction case, where a bomb was set at a site. Falcon isn't sure of the judge's guilt, and is looking at a woman that he was having an affair with, a woman who definitely is hiding something. As he tries to trace back the woman and who she has had contact with, and put some pressure on her, things get ugly, and there seems to be government connections involved.
Meanwhile the man he is running as a spy is having a crisis that he goes to Falcon for assistance on, and Falcon wants to help but feels out of his depth.
And then the youngest son of the woman Falcon has fallen in love with is kidnapped, and he is sure that it is to put pressure on him.
So many storylines, and so much happening emotionally for Falcon as well. He is an upright and honest guy, at least mostly. And when he steps over a line, he doesn't try to blame anyone else for it. He has a good team of officers, ones that work together and are really committed to their work. But for him, when the situation became personal, he changed his feelings about things.
I really liked Falcon, and the strong woman he is in a relationship with. I will look at the earlier books in this series to get more on these characters.

The Sweetest Fruits

Finished August 6
The Sweetest Fruits by Monique Truong

This book goes deep into the life of Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn's life through four women that were important in his life. Hearn was a writer I wasn't aware of before reading this book, and he doesn't come across in a very positive way here. I was definitely interested in all four of the women who tell the story though.
The first woman to appear is Elizabeth Bisland. Bisland was a journalist and traveller who wrote a biography of Hearn that her portions draw from. The two met when they both lived in New Orleans in the early 1880s. Interestingly, I had recently been made aware of Hearn and her travels through a book that showed her and Nellie Bly circumnavigating the world in opposite directions, Liz and Nellie. I love it when these serendipitous connections happen! Sections of her biography are interspersed between the accounts of the other three women.
The second woman is the first one in Lafcadio's life, his mother, Rosa Antonia Cassimati. Her life was a difficult one. She was born and lived on Cythera, Her mother died when she was young, she was uneducated despite being from a well-off family, and once she hit puberty her father severely restricted her life, not wanting to pay a dowry for her. She was being groomed for the life of a nun when she was able to use her unsupervised visits to a local church to make a connection with an Irish officer from the fort nearby. Once she became pregnant and her father turned her out, she moved with Hearn when he was transferred to Lefkada, and they married there after the birth of their first son. Lafcadio (Patrick) was the second son, Rosa and the young boy moved to Ireland when he was still a toddler. After a cold welcome, she moved in with Hearn's aunt Sarah, but never settled and moved back to Greece, leaving Lafcadio with Sarah. She gave birth to their third son, James, on the trip back. This was the last she saw of her son.
The third woman was Alethea (Mattie) Foley, a young African American woman that Hearn met when he lived in Cincinnati. Their marriage was against the law in Ohio, and the two had issues before eventually parting. This was an interesting section to the book, giving a glimpse into the life of a young black woman in Cincinnati during this time and a sense of her independence and fortitude. I really liked her. She was a good woman with a sense of her own worth.
The last woman was Koizuni Setsu, a Japanese woman of a samurai family. Setsu married Hearn and he eventually took a Japanese name and was adopted into her family to stay in Japan, which he would not have been able to do as a foreigner. Setsu was educated and a skilled seamstress and weaver, with her family in the textile business. Under the Japanese regime that began just after her birth, the samurai families lost their status, and the family struggled throughout her life. The couple had four children, and most of Hearn's time was spent teaching English or writing about Japanese myth and culture. Hearn died in Japan in 1904 of a heart attack at the age of 54. Setsu eventually wrote her own book about her husband.
I learned a lot about Hearn, but really enjoyed learning about these women and liked how the characters of his mother and wives were brought to life here.

How To Do It Now Because It's Not Going Away

Finished August 3
How To Do It Now Because It's Not Going Away: An Expert Guide to Getting Stuff Done by Leslie Josel

This book is written for high school and college students to help them with their schoolwork. As the cover indicates, it deals with issues like procrastination, time management and other skills relating to studying and homework. The introduction really lays out the purpose of the book and how to use it. Students can read through it in order, but the author really encourages them to focus on the chapters that deal with the things they struggle with most, and not to try to make too many changes at one time, which can be real issues. I liked the approachability of the language here, how it was directed to the students and the case studies that she used to illustrate particular issues. She notes that every individual is different and the student should think about what works and doesn't work with them to pick new habits that will work most successfully.
The chapter titles are phrases that students often use that relate to each topic.
* I Have Time
* It's Not Due Till Friday
* I Read Over My Notes
* I Don't Need to Write It Down
* I'll Remember
* I Know Where Everything Is
* Five More Minutes
* I'm Not in the Mood
Various options are given to address each circumstance and topic and there are lots of great ideas. Wish something like this existed back when I was a student!