Skip to main content

A cup of tea and a bit of book chat!

Welcome to our first Cup of Tea and a Bit of Book Chat session

Surely, one of life's greatest joys is having friends who recommend you good books. With that in mind, I really want to start monthly blog book chat sessions with you all. I'll start with the best book/s I've read during the month (I'll try to limit myself to two!) and would love it if you post your latest read too. Bring your favourite vintage teacup, and I'll bring the baking. This is going to be fun!

Well.....down to it then. I've had such a great pile of books beside my bed this month, that I'm having trouble choosing!

I will go with the two books that have inspired me the most of all:

Short Fat Chick in Paris by Kerre Woodham & Gareth Brown - published by Harper Collins

If you are having trouble dragging yourself off the couch to fulfil your ambitious new year sporting resolutions, then this is the book for you. A follow-up book from Kerre Woodham's first book Short Fat Chick to Marathon Runner, this book chronicles Kerre's emotional and physical journey to get her "less than marathon" bod around the London and Paris marathons. I have found both the first and follow up books very inspiring. Is it the glamour and glitz, the unimaginable feats, or Woodham's easy writing style? A bit of them all, I reckon, and I'm putting on my running shoes as we speak. (You know, well, almost).

A Green Granny's Garden - A Year of the good life in Grey Lynn by Fionna Hill - published by Harper Collins

What a sweet little meander through a year in the garden! This wee gem is the gardening diary of an enthusiastic novice gardener, as she gets to know the ins and outs of community gardening, in a plot in Grey Lynn, Auckland. While the editor-wannabe in me would change-up quite a bit in this book, I found myself happily returning to it each evening, and enjoying the sedate pace of Hill's honest and entertaining account of her year in the garden - and yes, I have some new plants to try in my garden plot.

Don't forget to post your fav's of the month, I can't wait to hear what you've been reading!

Comments

  1. Oooooh! Okay, two (which I'm going to review on my blog soon too, maybe I will link it up here? Or something like that...

    The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Wow! Powerful and so compelling! I totally thought I was going to struggle with it, but despite the quite unlikeable characters (they're very 'real', whatever that means), I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! Set in various cities in America, and briefly Lithuania, The Corrections details the lives of two elderly parents and their three grown up children. Recommend.

    On Writing Books for Children by Jenny Wagner. I've never been one for non-fiction, and maybe it's only because I'm actually trying to write some children's books at the mo (okay, thats definitely why), but I compulsively picked up this book over the last few days. And now that I'm finished, I want to read it again. Solid GOLD if you are hoping to become a children's author...

    Okay, who's next?! Oh and I saw that Kerre Woodham one in a shop recently and was tempted to buy it after your recommendation.. Maybe I'll use the library eh?! x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi just been sent over from Stella's blog. I have been wanting to red Kerre's books but want to get the first one before I read her new one.
    Glad to hear they are worth a read :)

    I have just finished The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. have you read it?
    fab read

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am currently devouring my way through "The Passage" by Justin Cronin. Brilliance in a book I think. I love his prolific development of characters - so many that you feel you know so well and living in post apocalyptical world. I won't give anymore away. I didn't think this would be my style but it is great!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for your comments guys. I am loving book chat already. Some great suggestions. No, I haven't read The Red Tent yet, but I have seen it recommended heaps for book club, must be a good read! I'll have to add that and The Corrections and The Passage to my longgggg list (you know I'm a library girl after all - I will forever have a long list!) Do come back and visit soon. Can't wait to chat some more about books. xx Library Girl

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A cup of tea and a bit of book chat - September with The Conductor and Yoghurt Banana Muffins

Every quite often it seems a New Zealand author writes a book that I love so much that I can't stop talking about it. In the last few years there was Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs, then Mr Pip , and this time it is..... The Conductor by Sarah Quigley. The Conductor by Sarah Quigley It's cold, it's spare and it's very stark, but Sarah Quigley has created something powerfully beautiful in this book that follows the story of the composition and first performance of Shostakovich's 7th symphony amidst the seige on Leningrad by the Nazi's in 1941. Based around the story of Shostakovich’s single-minded endeavour to write his 7 th Symphony, and see it performed, the book shows the lengths that an artist will go to to express himself. While most people are fleeing the city, and others starving and dying, Shostakovich determinedly writes his piece of music, and it falls upon conductor Karl Eliasberg to rise above his own starvation and grief to bring toget...

Mystery knitter

The other day on a car ride home, I got to talking with my daughters about star signs. My eldest daughter, a cancerian, started with; "I can't see much good about being cancer, like, it's a crab , yuk, and cancer isn't a nice word either!" So, I gave her a run-down of the many talented, inspiring, wonderful people who are cancerians like her. She was placated. Then my second daughter piped up with; "That sounds like the best star sign, what about us Pisceans then mum, are we beautiful inside and out too?" I remembered quite liking being told as a teenager that as a Pisces I had a mysterious chic allure, so I put a spin on that. My eldest thought about it for a while and then said;             "yeah, well, I agree with that. I mean, when I look at you Mum, I wouldn't think you belonged to a knitting club!!!" The tone in her voice made it very clear that my cool 14 year old is not joining up with the knitting club any time soon! I g...

Charlotte in Paris

Four years ago we went to France. We travelled with my husband's mum, who, delighted to be returning to her homeland with her little entourage of wide-eyed Kiwi family, took us on a whirlwind trip to all her favourite places. One of those places was Giverny, the little town in Normandy that was once home to Monet. In preparation for our trip, I purchased two children's books for the girls, about a little American girl Charlotte who goes to live in Giverny with her parents at the time when Monet and his many disciples are painting 'en pleine aire'. The first book, Charlotte in Giverny , brings Giverny to life, and gives context to many of the famous paintings of that era. My girls loved Charlotte, and spent many hours poring over the books, with their delightful illustrations and collaged pages. The trip to Giverny was made all the richer by having a story, and a character, to link it to. In the second book, Charlotte in Paris , Charlotte's visit to Pa...