Just finished reading #26

Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest - Stieg Larsson

Shame that lovely Stieg died. He is a hot writer. I so enjoyed this the last of his trilogy. It totally lived up to expectations and I can't tell you anything about it as you need to read the other ones first and I know you will want to read this and become an addict like everyone else who has read these books.

So to recap we have

• The Girl with the dragon tattoo
• The Girl who played with fire
• The Girl who kicked the hornet's nest

And if you need a reminder, the books are set in Sweden...in itself really interesting, the main characters are a couple of journalists, a maths genius, some cops, criminals and a pile of others.

I read the library copy as the bookgroup one is in hot demand. Bookgroup dinner last week at The Crumpet Club was superb. Food delicious. Go there and enjoy the tapas and the puddings. They make the best desserts in town. Complex, refined and perfect.

Book group

Hosting book group is always a busy event...getting the books, making the nibbles, getting the wine, making the cake and tidying the house. Ask anyone, especially working women, and they will say book group requires a bit of effort. However, once the lovelies arrive, the wine flows and the laughter starts it is worth the little intense bit of work that is required. It was such a fun night and I can't even repeat some of the conversations we had. Nic is always astounded by the noise, he can't understand that a 'book' gathering could be totally devoid of quiet reading.

After a wine induced visit to the bookshop I bought....

...and I made a new cupcake recipe....will share later.

Just finished reading #17

The other hand - Chris Cleave

Wow, this was a page turner. Loved it and recommend it. Interestingly, the blurb refuses to tell you anything lest the story be ruined for you. I think this is just a marketing ploy to make you read it, luckily the book lives up to the hype. Interestingly the Christchurch City Library catalogue entry for the book gives you the whole story in one hit. I intend not to but a brief flick through the plot wont ruin the story for you. It is about Little Bee a Nigerian refugee and her connection to a middle class English woman called Sarah. I loved Little Bee's narrative and her gentle admonishing of what is upsetting for those with everything compared with those who have nothing. It is horrific in places, funny as anything in others and utterly compelling as the stories unfold. I read it in four days flat and that is fast for me. Put it on your list. I think I would read it again, which is unheard of for me.

Watching, Reading, Listening, Doing, Eating

It's been a busy time lately doing a lot of nothing much. I think I am almost over my SAD phase and getting the hang of the cold winter weather, although it is not officially winter yet.

This weekend I found my self Watching my darling boy through the sunroom window as he peddled his wares at the gate on Saturday morning. We had made some dukka and he wanted to set up a tasting stall at the end of the drive with some (expensive) olive oil, the dukka and little bits of bread. He has been keen to do this for some time and I thought it would be crushingly disappointing if no one partook of his fare so have been saying no. However, he had it all set up before I could say no so I observed from afar as he tried to entice passersby to try his stuff. Most were kind and sweet when they declined, one was rude and one darling woman who was biking past stopped and sampled. It was a shining moment and it actually brought tears to my eyes. I love that boy for his enthusiasm and guts. Good lesson for me, he loved it and got to eat all the food. I finished a book the other day called 'White Tiger' and really could not be bothered writing a 'Just finished reading' post about it. Go and check it out if you want to but I wouldn't rush anywhere over hot coals or anything to read it

On these cold winter mornings my MP3 player is my best friend. It allows me to listen to loud music, often sing out loud and forget about how bloody freezing it is on my bike. My latest craze is still the Mama Mia sound track which is just a sad indication of my love of pop. Katie Malua is stunning too but she just isn't energetic enough to get me pumping those pedals.

Jonty and I got a rare opportunity to go out on our own in the weekend. While the sun was shining and it was unseasonably warm we gifted ourselves a trip to the movies. Oh yes, nothing like spending a warm Autumn day lolling in a picture theatre stuffing Maltesers in your mouth. We saw 'Angels and Demons'. Fell asleep in the first 10 minutes ---dull dull dull. Did nod myself awake to take in the show but would not recommend it. It was Jonty's choice as he had read the book and thought the film might be good. I felt mean not loving it but I just couldn't.

And finally, Eating....A LOT. Good and bad. Just got my new Dish magazine so I am going to trawl through that later and see what tasty treats await within and hopefully get myself back on track cooking delicious inspired food, not boring tummy filler fare.

Just finished reading #13

Bernhard Schlink - Homecoming

Mmmm, not sure what I think of this book. I read 'The Reader' a few years ago and loved it but this was less lovable. However, I was intrigued by the context. It is based around the genre of 'homecoming' novels produced in Germany at the end of WWII whereby the soldiers of the German army who were just abandoned wherever they were at the fall of the war made their way home to find a range of scenarios faced them. This in itself is really interesting. We don't get a lot of stories about what the Germans faced at the end of the war.

The theme of homecoming pops up all over the place and the lead character Peter, has one or two of his own to deal with. He is basically in search of his long lost father who was a Nazi and basically abandoned him and his mother at some point shortly after the war. Peter heads to New York to find him and get to know him hoping to discover some truth and perhaps put some of his own demons to rest. This is not a spoiler, the blurb does all that. Anyway, I didn't love this book but I did find it interesting. Schlink is a good writer so that is a bonus for sure.

Just finished reading #12

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann ShafferThis novel is set in 1946 and written as an exchange of letters. They initially concern the perils of being a writer and the trouble success brings, but move on to Guernsey's occupation during the Second World War. The characters are interesting and well defined and Juliet the main writer and pivotal character is very charming in a slight unconventional way for the time I suspect. When Juliet decides to visit Guernsey and the characters finally become real for her, the impact on her own life is greater than she could have imagined. I loved the way, through the letters which seemed just friendly chats, the harsh reality of the German occupation were revealed. Being letters written by a wide variety of people you go great angles on everything and the picture or stories were rounded out this way. I like letter style books, I think they are clever.

I consumed this book in a few days and I just wanted to hangout on Guernsey and find out what happened.

Just finished reading #8,9,10 - Three New Zealand Books

Purely by coincidence I read three NZ books on the trot.

Firstly I read the All that glitters by Denise L'estrange-Corbett. Denise and her partner Francis are the brains and beauty behind the fantastic WORLD fashion brand. I have never owned a WORLD garment as I imagine they wouldn't fit and would cost a fortune, however I have always loved the clothes. The story is about Denise's life and includes chapters on her up bringing in London as well as her battle with depression. I enjoyed reading the book not because it was stunningly written but because you felt you just wanted to sit down with the author and listen to all those stories over a glass of wine. I thought for such a successful designer she was humble and very genuine. So, not the read of the century but very interesting for kiwi girls interested in fashion and a fellow kiwis experience of making a difference and having A LOT of fun.While we were staying at the bach this summer our neighbours invited us over for a lovely roast beef dinner on the deck. One of the other guests was Laurence Fearnley who is the cousin of our neighbour and happens to be a New Zealand novelist. Her real name is not Laurence but she goes under the name of Jura at the moment and might even change her name several more times in her life. Such is the life of a writer I am guessing. Anyway, she was very quiet and contemplative so I didn't get the chance to ask too many questions or get to know her very well but when I asked which of her novels I should read as a first, she suggested the Butler's Ringlet. So this is the novel I took on holiday with me. Judging by the cover this was not going to be the usual casual lying on the beach kind of read.

Butler's Ringlet is a very kiwi novel and is set deep in the farming land of Southland. It really is about friendship but breaches the seldom worn territory of male friendships/relationships in the super stoic world of farming. I really enjoyed it and kept sneaking back to the tent for a quick read. The language was lovely, could have been a bit self conscious as people are sometimes when being clever writers, but was not. The landscape, as is often the case in NZ literature, was a character in its own right. The female characters were peripheral in some ways but vital in others. I would say, ignore the cover and give it a go. Nothing like a dark dreary cover to turn off potential readers, unless of course most people love that look. Not me. I am drawn to reading some more of her work and I remember there is on of her titles in our book group box so I will search it out on Monday at our first gathering for the year.
Thirdly I flipped through a lovely slim book called 'How to look at a painting' by Justin Paton. It is part of a series of books written a few years ago on 'how to ... read a book' etc. At the time of writing Justin worked at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, but now he works for the Christchurch Art Gallery and is consequently a colleague from the same 'group' that we operate under in the council. I had the privilege of hearing him talk one day and was totally hooked. He is a fantastic speaker, personality and art dude. Loved the book and hope to get my book group enthused about it on Monday as I bought it but no one has read it yet. However, it is only a book for people who like art, I think. Others might find it intolerably pretentious but it really isn't, it is a passionate opinionated (in a good way) thought provoking and interesting chat about paintings. Again, I loved and will be popping into the gallery today probably.

Justin is very pleasant to look at so I thought I would pop this picture in for the hell of it.

AFFIRM

Me and Aurelia setting up the stall. She is a great gal, another privilege to work withA few Saturdays ago I had the pleasure of attending the AFFIRM festival in Aranui representing our library. Every year I go to this event and always get a huge blast out of it. Aranui is the suburb in Christchurch that has the highest deprivation levels in the South Island. The people live hard lives and you feel you are not in Christchurch at all. This year we gave away boxes and boxes of books to families. One per person and they loved them. One 9 year old boy pointed to a book and said 'mum, they have this at the school library', I said, 'would you like to have and keep it?' He nodded and smiled quietly, absolutely overwhelmed and happy to own such a gorgeous book. I almost cried and felt privileged to be able to do this for a living.
This was a great performance by Wainoni school. The dances had a Maori and Samoan flavour and the kids had such fun, and so proud.

All our visitors were friendly and fun to talk to and this community is fantastic. We so want to build a library here and we know it would be a great asset to the community. Once you have spent a day with a community such as this you lose all judgement. You have to be able to walk in other peoples shoes to even half way understand the hardships some people face.
This little guy couldn't wait to start reading

Just finished reading #1

Six Suspects - Vikas Swarup

One of the most lingering and enjoyable books I have ever read was the last book written by this author, called 'Q and A'. It is the only novel I have seen Jonathan read and he loved it. Everyone in our book group loved it. I loved it! Mind you being a real fan of Indian fiction I was a push over.

This latest book is much longer and follows the successful formula of weaving a complex tale of six different characters and the reason they were at the party at which the host is murdered - shot. The six people in the room with a gun are the suspects. From early in the novel we know this and through various methods we discover, over 400 pages, how each of the diverse characters end up at the party and ultimately the holding cells at the police station.

Although not as fantastic as 'Q & A', I really enjoyed Six Suspects as Vikas is a great writer, but I didn't LOVE it. Still worth the many weeks it takes me to read a book. Now I am on to something amazing but will have to tell you about it in the next instalment of 'Just finished reading...'

Book group

I hosted bookgroup this month. The way it goes is that the host buys about $110 worth of books, makes some yummy nibble, gets the wine in and makes a cake type thing for coffee at the end of the night. It is great fun and a monthly social event that I really look forward to. We had a full turn out at our place and it was a bit of a tight squeeze in our little house. Nic couldn't work out why there was so much noise - how could 10 women be reading books together so loudly? Of course there is no reading but lots of talking and laughing...yay.

However, we do talk about books a lot and here are the ones I bought for the group this month.

How to look at a painting - Justin Paton

The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society -Mary Ann Shaffer

The Art of racing in the rain - Garth Stein

The other hand - Chris Cleave



I didn't pick any of these to read and now I have to rush off to work so will chat more about the books later in the day.

Breath

I haven't done a post recently as I haven't really had anything of interest to talk about. It is really cold but the sun is shining. Good to have some rain in the region every now and then as well. Not so great for the biking but no biggy. Nic goes to school, Jonty and I go to work. See, nothing of great interest. But we did have a lovely lunch out with old friends on Saturday at Rossendale Winery which was nice and really long. No booze for me though so not as sleepy as you might think.

We did get a cool piano off Trademe for Nic. He loves it. He and Olivia were funny giving recitals every few minutes. O loves to dance and N loves to 'play' the piano so it is a great combo.

And I finished Tim Winton's latest 'Breath'. Loved it. A lot!Oh yes, and I made some lime and passionfruit cupcakes with orange icing for the lunch boxes...all gone already. Happy to share the recipe.

Extremely loud & incredibly close

...would be a very accurate description of Nicholas getting in to bed in the morning. Alternatively it could be the title of a fantastic book. I have just finished reading it. I loved it so much and as you can see in the photo I just had to finish it upright and in the presence of everyone and a loud talking book. Jonathan Safran Foer is a genius writer and I am in love with Oskar Schell. If you gave this book to a friend for a present, it would be a treasured gift. Beautiful!

A tall long-faced tale

Another busy week at work has sapped my brain for writing in the old blog and I have no lovely images to share of my week either. But by the end of writing this I am sure I will be inspired to search out some.However, a tired Saturday morning entry might get me energised for a more interesting post later in the day. Continuing my theme of New Zealanders of note tucked away in weird places on TVNZ on Saturday nights, I watched Margaret Mahy last week. One of the "NZ Festival' cluster. A Tall Long-Faced Tale - Margaret Mahy, by director Yvonne McKay. Into the live action world of Margaret Mahy, one of New Zealand's most celebrated writers, enter 3D animated characters from her books, to interview her on her innermost private feelings and views, alongside writer Elizabeth Knox.

What a fantastic woman!! Although probably considerably odd for her time, she is the most eloquent storyteller. Whether talking about her life or the those of her characters she just somehow seems to have a unique way of using the English language. I guess that is the essence of any good or great writer so I am obviously not expressing myself that well....the sign of a not good writer. Anyhooo, the woman was a joy to listen to and watch...serenity, passion, mana.
I especially loved the creative way the programme used her characters to interact with the writer. Elizabeth Knox a particularly strange woman, was not the best interviewer and could be described as wooden, however, I saw the attempt at the intimacy of one writer interviewing the other as a considered idea.

Having read most of MM's teen novels, I can highly recommend them to anyone wanting a good read. I like the mystical aspect of them and rest assured we are not talking mystical in the unicorn sense. I am about to embark on '24 hours' after I have finished 'Run' by Ann Patchett, who wrote 'Bel Canto' - another fantastic book.

Bunch of random things

There is so much random stuff roaming around in my head at the moment and a few days ago I composed a really good blog entry in my head as I was biking to work but now it has all disappeared. Such is the nature of my overburdened brain. Anyway, I am going to punctuate my ramblings with some random photos just to make this entry a tiny bit more interesting and to break up the text.

I have been playing around with some of the features available on Blogspot and have managed to add some links to the right of where you are looking. These are some of my favourite places to visit. Mostly Blogs of interest and inspiration and some other work related places that you might find interesting too.

Christmas is looming and presents are starting to arrive from the UK which is fun. We have sent one load off but were not quite finished so others will arrive late. I am finding it really hard to get myself organised for present buying. It is a bit about time but also capacity. However, it might pay to make a last minute dash to the present line because there are more sales appearing before Christmas and you can get great stuff if you are prepared. Nic and granny Rosemary headed to Ballantynes Christmas shop this week to seek out a special decoration for our tree. Nic selected a Santa in a helium balloon...very 'new' Christmas.

I was wandering through Whitcoulls the other day when they announced 'buy one book and get another half price'. Having planned to buy a book for someone anyway, I took the opportunity to get myself Jamie Oliver's 'At home' for $25...a bargain. I have already cooked one of the recipes and unsurprisingly, it was delicious!

If you want to read a really funny, irreverent and smart blog, check out Moata's blog. Cleverly, Moata won NZ Blog Idol on Stuff and every few days posts a very much anticipated entry. I read them and then we chat about them at lunch when our paths cross. That is the really weird thing about 'social networking' on the Internet...reading peoples stuff and then ringing them up or catching them at their desk to talk about their entries. Like texting someone in the room with you.

We are getting another new sofa. Last year we spent a kings ransom on a gorgeous dark coffee colour leather sofa the size of a small African nation. The other day as I was lying on it watching Outrageous Fortune, I noticed some damage to the leather that was natural and not the work of a small boy. We took the cushion back to Hunter Furniture and they are REPLACING THE WHOLE SOFA and the other one to match!!! So shocked am I that I am thinking of writing to FairGo and trumpeting the service. You might think that it should have been perfect to start with...agreed. However, leather is a natural product and is there is always a degree of error in perform ace to be expected. I thought a new cushion would do the trick but no, a new sofa. This could be great, but it might not be because I love the ones we have now and a new one will not be the same.

Later in the day....

Back from Christmas shopping. Did not buy one thing but it was nice to be out and about in a very quiet Christchurch. I guess most people with children were cowering at home waiting to head to the city for the Santa Parade. Alas, our poor son knows nothing of the parade as we didn't tell him about it.

My workmate Simon won 'Best Porn Star Mo' at the Christchurch Movember event the other day. Mild mannered business analyst and accountant by day....

I hate it when I lose people in my life for whatever reason - usually carelessness. Fortunately most of the people I have lost have not disappeared all together, just momentarily out of range. One such person, through no effort on my part, popped up in my life again the other day. I was very excited and continue to be so. Let's hope it is a trend that will continue.

Thought you might like to see the new look bach colour scheme...very Mediterranean