Two thirds through this audio #chunkster which I‘m thoroughly enjoying and 100% through the chocolate berry waffle that my daughter bought me for lunch 😂😂 As good as it looked!

This was a great fantasy romp, with a lot of drama to propel the plot along. The set up is enticing with an unusual almost orphaned girl, the ward of a rich man in a house full of artefacts who discovers a special power. A great one day read but I really felt this could have been a 5 star book but missed the mark. In comparing it to Addie LaRue I think, for me, it‘s a lack of complexity in the characters. ⬇️

This little book is really for the super fans of ED (as I am!) It takes a handful of themes and then gives you sections of EDs letters that relate to the theme. The difficulty is there is very little biographical information in here so you don‘t really understand who she is writing to or what her relationship is with that person. It was nice to get a feel for the domestic details of her life - but I think this is best read alongside a biography.

My first Elizabeth Taylor and it was marvellous. And it fits with my unexpected theme this year of reading about women in retirement! I worried that I might have read too many takes on this theme but Mrs Palfrey was quite different. I won‘t say much because it is quite little and I don‘t want to spoil it, but it really touched my heart. 5 stars 😍

I really liked Batuman‘s writing and many of the protagonist Selin‘s reflections on the world, and the way she articulated her awkwardness or lack of fit with it. I also liked the absurdist feel to much of this (and isn‘t life truly absurd?!) However the amount of time spent on the obsession element of the novel just made me feel tired! It felt repetitive and maybe that was the intention. A so-so but I‘m still interested in this author

Well this was everything I needed - an adrenaline filled, diverse, good guys versus bad guys space adventure. Imagine Firefly but most of the crew are aliens. Or Becky Chambers Wayfarer series with the adrenaline amped up. Or Murderbot with more aliens and no cyborgs. And the crew are currently running a gourmet restaurant. What more enticement do you need?

Awww! Look what came in the mail 😍 Thank you so much Carolyn @CarolynM The book looks lovely and it‘s exciting that it‘s the inaugural winner of the Novel Prize. Your card is beautiful and the chocolate looks so good. It‘s named for the Mornington Peninsula and I have been there when my sister used to live in Mount Eliza. What a lovely surprise and today I went for a belated birthday lunch with a few friends so it felt like a second birthday 😘

This was sarcastic, quirky and adorable in equal measure. Such a change for me to read a book set so definitively in my own city - it places action on specific streets, references NZ brands, uses Kiwi slang & a little Maori.
Greta and Valdin are a mid twenties, angsty, brother and sister living in central Auckland. They‘re both queer, part Maori, part Russian, and part of a chaotic and complex family.⬇️

I don‘t usually read the acknowledgements but these are brilliant. 😂😂
“Thank you to the surprisingly high number of people who have approached me to enthuse about my illustrious poetry career. I don‘t know who you have confused me for but I am happy for them, their publications and the great performance at the gallery”

This is a difficult book to describe so here is the start of the New Yorker review for it back in 2005 to help me out!

There is something about John Bergers writing that is contemplative, perceptive but kind. The way he connects with the world and shares it has a kind of grace. Here he is an elderly man and using the contrivance of meeting and conversing with different ghosts to work out some philosophy or life lessons. ⬇️

Well this was a lot of fun as my friends @batsy and @CarolynM had said it would be! A mystery romance starts in a bookstore (what could be better!) with a post WW1 London setting.
I love KJ Charles but my favourite is still The Magpie Lord - I do love a bit of magic with my historical romances! If you haven‘t tried KJ Charles and don‘t mind the 🔥🔥you should try one of these #romantsy

Me trying to do an arty shot of my #bookhaul from Unity Books. 😂(No plants were harmed in the making of this photo) The tagged book has so many beautiful illustrations and Aroha has some really thought provoking Maori proverbs for me to learn about.

This is a wonderfully strange little novel. A stranger wakes up in a small church in a small community and the congregation take turns figuring out who this person is and how they can help. In short chapters we end up with sharp insights into each person. A story with no plot but many glimpses of human failings, disconnection, weakness, violence and religiosity. A thought provoking book full of unease. 5 stars for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#rememberingjenny

Nothing better than Jenny‘s own review of this book above.

Well you inspired me to read something completely out of my wheelhouse again. It‘s DARK, drug addled and apocalyptic. It‘s also brilliant. Michelle Tea describes this world in the most unique and visceral ways. I loved it and hated it, was constantly surprised and engaged - and I‘ll be thinking about it forever. (TW: end of the world climate disaster!!)

#rememberingjenny
I discovered that my Litsy friend (& friend to many others) Jenny Colvin of Reading Envy recently passed away at the very young age of 43.
I would like to do something to honour her on Litsy because she was such a great contributor here - and one of the smartest, kindest & most inspirational people I‘ve met (albeit only online & by zoom)
Please join me in reading a book she recommended. There are so many on her Litsy page or 🔽

Had a night away in a lodge with my husband as a birthday treat and finished this wonderful book.
This is the best book I‘ve read this year 🙌😍 It was one of those experiences where I‘m aware of loving the way Laurence writes even while I‘m reading it. Astonishing too to feel I was the protagonist Hagar, I shared her regrets and weaknesses, when we‘re truly so different. Laurence almost performs magic to put you inside Hagar‘s head. 🔽

This came with great reccs. @Cinfhen again! It‘s the story of a quirky kid in an unconventional family dealing with the death of a parent in an unconventional way. Elvis is 10, obsessed with facts about animals, counting down the days on her grief calendar the counsellor gave her & investigating her mothers death. I love a kid that‘s clever & a little weird. This has some dark humour and won‘t be for everyone but I loved it.

This is a book I needed to read, so thank you @Cinfhen for the recommendation 💕
Some of the plot is predictable and it almost felt too sweet in parts, but Lyons brings it back from the edge with her realistic portrayal of the vulnerabilities of ageing and her willingness to look at death and how society avoids addressing it. Eudora is fantastic; blunt, steadfast and with a heart of gold. It made me think and I certainly won‘t forget Eudora!

Dun dah dah! I finished! 🎺🎶🎶
This was a 4 star, 1319 page read. If you‘ve read Murakami you‘ll know his straight forward writing style makes the pages go fast & you‘ll be prepared for fantastical elements popping out of an otherwise realistically drawn setting. You might be prepared for a bonkers plot, which this truly is and some very odd sex scenes. But what this story also has is characters so good you‘d quite happily sit with them 🔽

#bookhaul
Second hand book sale at the church down the road. I hadn‘t planned to go and may have been quoted as saying “it‘ll be filled with popular books I won‘t want”

Feeling sheepish now 😜

Kavalier and Clay is to replace my copy that a friend borrowed and lost. 🙌

Didn‘t know my library was in the Litsy database. Well there you go! It‘s all very autumn at the library today….

Slowly making progress. I‘m enjoying this but Mr Murakami you have some weird 🤪 going on in your brain!

Look what I‘m listening to @Cinfhen ! I wasn‘t sure at first (I‘m very easily put off when narrators do different voices) but I‘m hooked now at 20%. At the moment im loving reading books about elderly people and finding purpose in your later years - I wonder why!

Image is a new sculpture that has popped up beside a small marina I like to walk around.

This was a case of right book at the right time. Sometimes reading about unlikeable or very flawed characters who don‘t “give a toss” about what anyone else thinks is refreshing. After setting up Frances and Malcolm as a self absorbed and spoilt mother and son, deWitt does go on to reveal their humanity and painful background so there is depth to this book - but I was glad for that dose of devil may care attitude 🙌

Today I bought three copies of this gorgeous book as gifts. It is a picture book with the most beautiful simple words about how unique you are, how much you matter and how there is so much to discover all around you. An incredibly uplifting wee gem with gorgeous illustrations.

If you haven‘t seen this Netflix series yet, it is so sweet and full of FEELS. Although I‘ve read a lot of LGBTQIA+ books, there‘s something extra I get from a great movie or tv series that makes the difficulties of being a teen dealing with love/sexuality/discrimination so visceral. Excellent casting - I‘m positively smitten with these two. 💕

When your library request for a 1959 book comes with old stamps and card pockets …. Ye olde library issuing system 😍😍

Thank you James Patterson for this series that got my 11yo reading again. Nine books in 10 weeks!

(This is a YA series but he is 12 in a couple of weeks and MG books were just not doing it for him) Fingers crossed I can find him some more series he likes as much.

An unforgettable book of fascinating characters and setting. Vishnu is dying on the landing of a small apartment building, where he has lived running odd jobs. Other homeless live on other landings. We experience his memories as he lies dying & the turmoils of the 4 families who live there for whom his death is primarily an inconvenience. Some beautiful writing in here, insightful and moving scenes - and a sad indictment of human pettiness ⬇️

An enjoyable fantasy - as other reviews have said the world building is wonderful but it does feel a little too slow at times. I‘m keen to read the next one - I think it might get faster paced. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator Emma Feeney did a great job. 🙌

I can‘t help myself, I‘ve fallen into another #chunkster 😂😂

@batsy I saw this at the library and picked it up as I remembered you #furrowedmiddlebrow lot are going to read it soon. And then my other books were bails so I ended up reading it early. (I‘m clearly not cut out for buddy reads 😂) So I‘ll not say a word about it but look forward to hearing you talk about it next month!

This book is unique and probably always will be…

For a history lover this was a great find. Goddard tells of 34 cases he worked on from the 1820s - 1860s and gives some insight into what it was like to be one of the earliest detectives in London. Editors notes after each case explain some of the historical oddities that might confuse a modern reader. Really enjoyed it but it‘s definitely for history buffs rather than true crime readers

Went looking for this book after the Bow Street Runners were referenced in a book I read last year. Found this on Abebooks - a 1956 printing of a memoir written in 1875. I‘ve only read the introduction so far but it‘s fascinating - who knew that the novelist Henry Fielding was the one who brought together this first group of ‘constables‘ to deal with gangs in London - and they were the beginning of England‘s first police force

This is a moving though quiet novella, a book to read for it‘s beautiful writing & subtlety. Isabella was a quiet thoughtful child now grown into a woman who mends books in a library & scours thrift shops for treasures. The short scenes feel as if her breath is held, there is a beautiful tension as she sorts through her thoughts and memories with new possibilities on the horizon. A tender and thoughtful short read 💜💛

There is not much better than a childrens book with a big old country house, a ghostly past that creeps into the present and a lonely child that likes to explore. Thank you to @batsy and @LeahBergen for putting this book on my radar a couple of years ago! It will be a comfort read to keep on my shelves and reread when I want to relive a snowy ghostly Christmas. 💕

Look @TrishB I finished the trilogy and I LOVED it. I‘ve been totally immersed in this world for over a week. In the early sections I sometimes felt so anxious for Fitz getting buffeted around by the forces of evil that I had to take a break and read some middle grade fiction to recover! So so good. I do love a really long fantasy book now and then so I can really live in it - it feels like I was there for every minute of Fitz‘ journey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not book related!
I am halfway through two books at the moment so nothing really to report but I thought I‘d show you this amazing giant slide that is also a bird sculpture. My son and his friend were super impressed despite being great big eleven year olds 😂

This is my second Anne Tyler (I think) and I really enjoyed it. Rebecca is in her mid fifties, a widow, and the cornerstone of a big, noisy, chaotic family. She‘s feeling a bit invisible and doubting some of the life choices that brought her to this point. So it‘s a middle aged navel gazing novel I guess - quiet and thoughtful with lots of domestic detail of food and family and memories. A kind hearted novel ⬇️

I really enjoyed this because I do like a grump with a good heart. It is just a diary of day to day happenings in the store, but I found it restful be to reading vaguely grumpy takes on mundane moments of ordinary bookshop life.
I worked in a bookshop for three years myself and I have fond memories of it so it was probably a bit of a nostalgia trip too.

Just added 40 books to my TBR while reading this!😳
I do love seasonal books like this filled with descriptions of autumn and winter - at least from an English countryside POV, seasonal ideas that I have long adored from a childhood of reading Blyton, Streatfield etc - and which I don‘t actually ever experience here in Auckland! I have yet to get dewy eyed about my city‘s Spring mud and Summer humidity 😂 I need to visit Europe sometime soon 💕

The premise of this book really appealed to me, 3 older women (around 70) meeting to pack up their deceased friend‘s beach house. We need a lot more books about the complex lives of older women! I enjoyed that these three women were angry and frustrated with each other, each with their own vulnerability and strength. It suited my mood to read something sharp and insightful, and I enjoyed seeing each character ⬇️

A murder mystery set in post WW1 Calcutta. I‘m glad it‘s written by Mukherjee who is Bengali, as I don‘t think I could read anything that glorifies the colonialism. It‘s a good start to a series with your war battered but moral protagonist Wyndham and his deputy Bannerjee, who I wish we got to know better. The story shakes up Wyndham (a newly arrived ex Scotland Yard police captain) from a naive idea of the British role in India while ⬇️

Here I am back in the back list with this book from 1993. It‘s said to capture the feeling of playing and understanding music better than any other book - I‘m not a musician but I can believe that.
Apart from that I‘m torn about how to rate this book. The beginning is fantastic. It‘s a Bildungsroman of a neglected child who turns out to be a musical prodigy. It‘s beautifully written and some of the characters are superb. But… ⬇️

Been listening to Bob Mortimer on walks, this shot is from a very windy twilight walk by the beach.

It‘s incredible how such a painfully shy young man became one of Britains most popular comics. Bob is both gentle and a mischief, with a sense of humour out of left field. I‘m so glad he found the friends and support he needed in life. It was just the kind of book I needed to read. Thanks for putting this on my radar @CarolynM

Ok this made me laugh so hard in places that I cried. And then in one place I just plain cried.
Basically it‘s a series of anecdotes and observations of daily life made by a junior doctor in the NHS who has a biting sense of humour. There are some hilarious patients and staff encounters. His chronicling of the overwork & bureaucracy is shocking but he also loves the job and believes in the necessity of a decent public health system. ⬇️

This has it all - urban historical steampunk gender queer fantasy 🙌 Set in early twentieth century Cairo we follow Fatma, (agent for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities) hunt down a dangerous imposter stealing magical artifacts. Egypt is a global power that kicked out the British with the help of djinn and suffrage is bringing women into traditionally male roles. The city is still not ready to accept Fatma‘s ⬇️

Its taken me 5 years to get to this Pulitzer Prize winner - I finally felt like I could go into it fresh, forgetting all the reviews. I found it both compelling and insightful. All the different places Cora encounters on the railroad speak to different aspects of racism and slavery - the engine and the fuel of an economic machine, even in the states she ran towards. I loved the twist to make the railroad physical, ⬇️

My first experience of Colm Toibin (apart from the movie Brooklyn) and wow, he can write very believable, complex characters! It‘s the 90s and Helen‘s busy family life is suddenly split open with the news that Declan, her brother, is dying of AIDS. In rushing to his side she is forced to reunite with her estranged mother and grandmother in her old home town. Old wounds come to the surface. I loved that Toibin doesn‘t have any easy answers but ⬇️

Anita Brookner manages to do solitude and even gloominess in such a way that it is DELIGHTFUL. She‘s a magician! In this novel she painstakingly dissects the quiet lives and thoughts of a very well behaved spinster who seems to have missed out on love and friendship and a curmudgeonly widow. It is also a close look at a few parent and child relationships and tensions and how others expectations may ensnare us. #spinsterlit for sure