Daily Archives: March 3, 2017

Second in series of mysteries set in academia

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Iiiireader

The Art of Vanishing (A Lila Maclean Academic Mystery) (Volume 2)

By: Cynthia Kuhn

Rating: 4 of 5

This is the second book in the Lila Maclean Academic Mystery series. What is unusual is that this is not a murder mystery but rather one of finding out why unusual events are happening.

The story is set in Stonedale University which is located in Colorado. Lila Maclean, a literary professor who is in her first year of teaching at the university (and who is concerned about her tenure track), becomes involved in solving the crimes which are occurring. They all revolve around Damon Von Tussel who, as it turns out, has a personal connection to Lila that brings her front and center as the person to keep Von Tussel safe and sound.

(more…)

Posted in Mystery/Suspense/Thriller | Leave a comment

48 Pages of Charming and Delightful coloring designs printed one side of the page

Posted on March 3, 2017 by iiiireaderadmin

Magical Delights Colouring Book : Published in Czech as Carovne Lahodnosti Hardcover

By: Klara Markova

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a lovely coloring book by artist Klara Markova. When I used a translator to find out what the title meant in English, it came back as Charming Deliciousness. That is a very apropos title as the designs are quite charming and fun to color. It has a great hard cover and a lay-flat style binding. Along with the book, I received a cute matching bookmark which I can color as well.

The designs are detailed and, in some cases, have intricate and small areas to color. While it is not a grayscale coloring book, there is a prominent use of shading in many of the designs. The designs include flowers, fruit, imaginative machines and houses, fairies, and forest type creatures.
While most of the designs are printed on one side of the page (with the same cute sketch printed on the back of each page), there is one design which spans across two pages. The artist made sure to have the backside of each of these pages contain the standard sketch, so using a bleed through medium will not ruin another design. The items which cross over the binding are minimal and, in my copy, the pages line up excellently.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
48 design pages of original hand-drawn artwork (includes title page and extra page of cut out elements)
Printed on one side of the page with a small, repeated design on the back of the page
Paper is heavy weight, ivory, smooth, and non-perforated
Sewn, lay-flat binding with a hard cover
Some designs do merge into the binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. If you use this medium, I suggest using a blotter page to keep ink from seeping through. I use card stock but a couple of pages of paper should work as well.
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through the page. Some do leave light, colorful shadows on the back of the page.
Colored pencils worked well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. While the paper is smooth to the touch, it still had enough tooth to get good pigment. I could layer the same color for deeper color, layer multiple colors and blend using a blending stick.