Rosy's scrawled book recommendation: The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

The Spellman Files
Lisa Lutz

Blurb
Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors -- but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman.
Part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who's become addicted to "recreational surveillance"); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed "Lost Weekends"). But when Izzy's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy's new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there's a hitch: she must take one last job before they'll let her go -- a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.

Publisher
Simon & Schuster

ISBN
9781416532408

Rosy's Scrawlings on The Spellman Files
This book is a breath of fresh air within the detective genre. It isn't entirely one to stand separate from all the other books but it does join a very select group against the masses on murderers, serial killers, child molesters, kidnappers, human traffickers, vicious thieves who know no mercy when crossed, mobsters, gangsters and so on and so forth. Instead, the focus is on the smaller issues of life. Well, smaller if you're looking at the dramatic events that impact society but not smaller for those living in such situations. As everyone knows, family can be everything. And when those within a family start acting up and playing games there can be much that needs working through before any degree of enlightenment is found. That's mostly what this book is about. Using detective skills to survive family turmoil and continue the agency.
While I know this book is not going to be every one's cup of tea as even the word family can have people shrinking away as they immediately become stressed, I would say that there are a great many who anyone would enjoy this. The touch is light and the turmoil is at about the same level as the Simpson's episode when Lisa declares herself a vegetarian. Most of the events in this book will make you either laugh or shake your head in exasperation.
I also loved that the heroine isn't exactly the most stable of characters. She's a little self-involved but not offensively so and she cares greatly for her family. She's a little hopeless yet good at her job and her extra spying activities. She's paranoid but mostly due to the environmental pressures of her family members and rivals in business rather than by nature. And she definitely leaps before she looks and draws wild conclusions quickly.
The text is divided into small sections, written in diary, notebook, email etc formats so there is an air of tracking events and noting the important details. The sections do make the story seem to pass faster but oddly enough the pace is fairly moderate. As all the details seem so light that it does take a little to realise you should be trying to figure out what's going on. So in essence I found this story highly entertaining and playful as well as less stressful than most detective stories.

I'd suggest this book to: Anyone who wants a break from their detective stories always revolving around murders. This book will appeal to women more than men but I believe it would be a fun read for anyone needing a light dose of detection along with some unusual semi-dysfunctional family squabbling that includes many a manipulative trick.  This book is great for a lazy weekend read and for reading in short bursts on a train (or the like).

Allergy free apricot and sultana scones recipe

Ingredients

• 2¼ cups Orgran self-raising flour
• ⅓ cup Orgran gluten free gluten
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbs sugar (optional)
• 20g Nuttlex
• ¼ cup dried apricot, chopped fine
• ¼ cup sultanas
• 1 tsp Orgran No Egg whisked with 40mls water until thick
• ¾ cup goat’s milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• Extra goat’s milk for glazing

Method

• Preheat oven to 220°C
• Lightly grease baking tray.
• Sift Orgran flour, Orgran gluten free gluten, salt and sugar into a large bowl.
• Rub in the Nuttlex, using fingertips until the mixture is fine and crumbly.
• Stir through the chopped apricot and sultanas.
• Make a well in the centre of the mixture and pour the Orgran No Egg mixture, vanilla essence and goat’s milk into the well.
• Mix lightly with spoon or spatula to form soft dough.
• Slowly add a small quantity of flour to prevent sticking, if needed.
• Gather the dough together, (do not knead the dough) and merely turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
• Lightly press out the dough until it is 2.5 cm thick.
• Cut out rounds with a floured 5 cm cutter.
• Heat a baking tray in the oven for 5 minutes
• Place with the extra milk.
• Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown on the top.
• If you are serving the scones warm, wrap them in a clean tea towel while still hot.

Allergy free dark chocolate coated wafer biscuit bites recipe

While these aren't yet Kitkat kitkats as intended they are an awesome replacement that falls somewhere between Kitkats and Chocolate Montes. It turned out better than I was expecting. From here on I can experiment to make them closer to Kitkats or Chocolate Montes but given that I haven't had either of those in, ooooh, over 5 years my memory of them is a little faded.

Ingredients
Wafers

• 200g Orgran all purpose flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 120g Nuttlex
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 large tsp Orgran No Egg whisked with 60mls water until thick
• 4 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp goat’s milk

Chocolate glue

• 20g Lindt 70% dark chocolate, melted
• ½ tsp Nuttlex, melted

Chocolate coating

• 200g Lindt 70% dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp Nuttlex
  
  

Method

• Position 1 oven rack in the top third of the oven and another in the bottom third. Heat the oven to 180C.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
• Cream the Nuttlex and vanilla sugar in a separate large bowl.
• Add the No Egg mixture and beat to combine evenly.
• Add the vanilla extract and goat’s milk and blend until combined.
• Add the flour mixture and fold in until just combined.
• Chill the batter in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes before scooping.
• Scoop the batter in half to three-quarter teaspoon sized balls and arrange them on 2 foil lined pans.
• Use your fingers to flatten and shape each ball.
• Bake, 2 pans at a time, rotating the pans halfway through the baking, until golden brown
• Bake for about 15-20 minutes. You want these to be like crisp, small cookies.
• Remove the pans to a cooling rack to cool completely before removing the wafers from the pan.

Next time I might squish them until they're a little thinner.

• Pair the wafer biscuits by size and shape.
• KitKats are made from 3 crunchy wafers stacked together but you can choose how many wafers to use by the size you want the chocolates to end up being.
• If you join 2 together then sticking them back to back is easiest.
• For the chocolate glue, combine the chocolate and Nuttlex in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave it to melt the chocolate completely, stirring every minute. Alternatively, melt both in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of warm-hotish water (don’t boil the water).
• Stack and glue 2 wafers together prior to coating using drops of the combined melted chocolate and Nuttlex to join them together. 
• For the chocolate dip, combine the chocolate (including any leftover from sticking the wafers together) and Nuttlex in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave it to melt the chocolate completely, stirring every minute. Alternatively, melt both in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of warm-hotish water (don’t boil the water).
• Using either two forks or spoons, dip the wafer stacks so they are completely covered, and place them on the baking tray.
• Refrigerate until the chocolate is set.

Notes

• The amount of chocolate required may vary.
• Best to eat within 24 hours or wrap in foil to maintain freshness.

Rosy's scrawled manga recommendation: Project Arms by Nanatsuki Kyoichi

Project Arms
Nanatsuki Kyoichi

Blurb
From Ryoji Minagawa and Kyoichi Nanatsuki comes a world of nano-machines, cybernetic assassins, powerful telekinetic opponents, and secret organization dedicated to bringing forth the next evolution of humankind. Containing all the best elements of sci-fi, spy fiction, and conspiracy theory stories, Project Arms is about kids whose arms transform into grotesquely deformed superweapons. 

Alternate names
アームズ, ARMS

Sites for reading online (free)
Manga Here, Manga Animea

Status
Completed

Anime
Converted

Rosy's scrawlings on Project Arms
This award winning dark action fantasy story is full of body horror, extreme weaponry, an escalation of violence and rounds of battle that all seem unending. There are also quite a few references to the horrors visited upon many of the Asian and South-East Asian countries over the 20th Century, most of which are unknown experiences to those growing up in Western countries today. There are also several references to humanity being forcibly evolved into super men through a process of selection and eradication that is very reminiscent of the NAZI eugenics programs that aimed at creating a super Aryan race.This manga is well worth reading for this alone as no matter how the memories get across to us all, they should never be forgotten. Such utter disasters visited upon the mass population should be avoided but are sadly not always. As such, when history turns on we should remember and understand just what we could all face. This is the essence of learning from history in the hopes of never repeating our mistakes and the horrors that result.
This manga certainly proves that mangas aren't all light entertainment. There are many messages on morals, humanity, determining your path in life, the flaws in government systems, the violence inherent in everyone, the psychological problems that can come from combat and trauma, accepting ones good and bad sides with the aim of becoming a better person, trusting your fellows and so on. There is much to be gleaned for someone reading such a story for the first time and it serves as a good reminder for those who've run across these ideas before.
Otherwise, this manga has several classic manga traits. In particular, is the list of rather ludicrous names given to the combatants but once you get into it the names do lend the story a certain fantasy air and subplot. Also, the weaponry and powers are as completely out there as you'd expect. You need to read between the lines in some cases to understand the above points about history but then again, some are written as plain as day.
The illustrations for this manga did throw me for the first few pages as these are very close to the first stylings common in mangas rather than the latest glitzy and sleek look. You'll understand what I mean when you begin reading. But whatever faults and flaws you think you find within the first edition all fade away pretty quickly under the power of the story and the way the illustrations not only improve but match the storyline in mood.

Most appropriate phrase in the manga:  "Great. Don't they ever run out of killers?"

I'd recommend this manga to: Anyone from 15 years and up as long as they can deal with stories containing high levels of extreme violence along with clear indications that such things can and do happen in reality. This said, this manga is likely to appeal to males more than females.

Notes on manga reader sites
The quality of manga readers can vary. The uploads are often done cheaply or as a serious hobby by a collective. Be aware that sometimes licence hasn't been given but the sites noted above, Manga Fox in particular, are extremely careful about adding and pulling mangas according to license agreements. So you shouldn't have to worry too much about the material being pirated. There are also translated works and non-translated. Amongst the translated works you will find that the quality of translation may vary according to the skills of the translators. Usually the works are perfectly readable anyway, with only a few added or dropped words or a word in the incorrect tense or with/out plurals. But sometimes the text becomes gobbledygook. In which case, either seek another version or give up and buy an official copy once a printed translation comes out. The other issue of note is you may need to expand the screen to read the text easily as sometimes the scans are minimised a little.
I find that if a page doesn't download properly or some other issue occurs (too slow or someone ordered the pages incorrectly etc.) with one reader then skipping across to another reader and picking up where I was is quite easy and rarely annoying.
Otherwise, enjoy and watch out you don't get too addicted you forget about the necessary things in life.