Book Review: PAINTING STONES: HOW TO TURN ROCKS AND PEBBLES INTO MINI WORKS OF ART

Title: Painting Stones: How to Turn Rocks and Pebbles into Mini Works of Art

Author: Marion Kaiser

Publisher: Search Press

Pages: 96

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

It was the cover that first drew my attention to this little book; the penguin was my favourite. My daughter had taken to painting pebbles during the pandemic, so I downloaded this book for her. This review contains her opinions, as well as mine.

The book is divided into two sections. Basics tells us where to buy stones from, the right paints and brushes needed, the painting techniques used and also how to care for the brushes.

The larger section, Projects, provides instructions and photographs of projects that the author has completed. The cover of this section shows us a stone with a chalky leaf painted on it.

Each project begins with information about the materials and colours required, followed by a bit of trivia. Each of the projects is linked to a certain quality. The link is stretched further through a bit of trivia, or a wish, or an expression for gratitude. This was sometimes done effectively. Mostly it appeared forced, an unnecessary attempt to inject philosophy.

Here’s a breakdown of what we thought about each of these:

Ladybug (Luck): The Luck came of finding stones of the right shape. The ladybug painted was rather cute.

Clownfish (Transformation): The project with the clownfish had an interesting bit of trivia, about how after the death of the only female, the largest male changes sex and takes over the role of the female.

Lizard (Relaxation): My daughter was impressed with the mixing of the black and white to get grey and the other colours painted in later to get the metallic effect on the lizard. She wished the author had given details about how to paint the lizard’s shadow as suggested in point 4. All she says is, Paint the shadow that the lizard casts on the stone using lots of water and a little black paint. My daughter said that more details would have helped, as painting shadows is difficult. 

Goldfish (Courage): Again, more details about how to paint droplets would have helped. Also, Goldfish should have been linked with Calmness.

Bee (Devotion): This one was beautiful. The end result looked embroidered. My little girl described it as Christmassy, chiefly because of the knit clothing that the bee is wearing. This link was one of the few that made sense. The author says, "Treat yourself with kindness: feed your inner bee with honey."

Cottage (Safety): This one was really pretty. It looked like an illustration from a children’s book.

Guardian Angel (Protection): The guardian angel had a rather creepy expression.

Panda (Conservation): The shading on the fur was superb. The musing on the panda’s link to the theme was vague.

Penguin (Patience): The author says, Raising a chick in the cold of Antarctica requires a lot of stamina and devotion. This makes no sense, given that Antarctica is the penguin’s natural habitat.

Mouse (Openness): The mouse hides in dark places. The theme of Openness doesn’t fit.

The others projects and themes were Feather (Serenity), Swan (Love), Yellow Mandala (Peace), Dragonfly (Calmness), Elephant (Wisdom), Blue Mandala (Joy), Dandelion (Letting Go), Cat (Healing), Dragon (Freedom) and Turtle (Confidence).

There are plenty of instructions to explain the simple drawings, but only a sentence to cover the tricky bits like shadows or droplets or other 3D effects. Sometimes the author says, use white, but whether she means pencil or paint is left to use to guess. Where the author mentions colours, she doesn’t indicate the shade. There’s a great difference between leaf green and bottle green. The author advises use of “your thickest” or “finest brush”. My daughter said, the author should have told us about the size of her stone and the size of brush she used.

It’s obvious that the author has gone to great lengths to find the right stones that will heighten the aesthetic effect.

What enlivened this book for us was the inclusion of the photographs. They are all beautiful shots. The author has taken great pains to frame the images well.

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.) 

Book Review: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN 20 PIES

Title: How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies

Author: Amy Wallen

Illustrator: Emil Wilson

Publisher: Andrew McMeel Publishing

Pages: 240

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The whole point of this part writing craft, part cookbook, and part memoir is to draw parallels between the process of writing a novel and that of baking a pie from scratch. On the surface, the concept of the book is so simple. You might think it won’t fit on the shelf of writing craft books. But its strength lies in its simplicity, in the warm and friendly vibe it gives out. The author’s style, so approachable, reassures us that novel writing is possible and, if we persevere, we could do it too.

I found this book adorable; even the dedications hark back to the theme. At regular intervals, the pages are peppered with helpful icons that tell us, Eat Pie Here.

The chapters have creative names such as Pie as Saving Grace, Pie Butt in Chair etc. Easy As Pie and Other Lies reminds us of the misconceptions that writing is easy.

None of the information that the author shares is new. She tells us we have to write a lot and often, that we must be loose with our ideas and not hang on to anything too tightly, that we must read like writers. She shares one important thing that other writing books don’t reinforce often enough, that we should save the bits we cut in a Trash file, in case we think we need them later. It is sound advice, but it feels diluted because of all the other fun stuff.

Along the way, she hands out writing advice particularly relating to the long, slow road to publishing, and offers recommendations on which books to read to know more about the craft. She also takes us along on her own journey towards publishing MoonPies and Movie Stars, her first book, and relates her experience of teaching the craft of writing to students. Above all, she reiterates that she learned how to write a novel by writing a novel.

 

The 20 recipes in the book include Basic Pie Crust, Chicken Pot Pie, Lemon Meringue Pie, Mushroom Hand Pies, No Guarantee Peach Pie etc, including a recipe for making Humble Pie, the only recipe for which I have all the ingredients. The author shares her pie making journey too, the successes and failures in the early days, and how she practised and got better.

The illustrations, mostly with a red colour palette, were delightful and inviting, and complemented the book well. Emil Wilson has done a great job. The characters drawn by him look like Teletubbies but wear black glares and pretend they are into cloak-and-dagger stuff. There are sweet drawings of a book and a pie dancing together, and of a pie offering therapy to a book writer.

There is a fun boardgame for the writing process and interesting illustrations about famous authors and the imagined ingredients of their pies. For instance, Hemingway’s pie is made of booze, fish, game, cigar and more booze. Agatha Christie’s pie – Who knows?

 

The author has even included a comic strip about this book and why the publisher might have agreed to publish it, hoping to get pie, of course. On an amusing side note, the publisher is called McMeel. 

If you’re looking for hard core writing advice, this book isn’t it. But as a pie cookbook-cum-writing craft book, it is a sweet, savoury and fun read. 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)