The Librarian

For months I have been driving past a secondhand bookshop on my way to visit a friend. It was a big old rundown looking place, and somehow didn't appeal. But this week I had a bit of time on my hands so decided to have  a look. It turned out to be a bookish girl's dream come true. It literally had books bursting out of it. Room after room of books from floor to ceiling, in a great big messy jumble. It was a fluke to find things, but that somehow made the find all the more satisfying. I'm determined to collect all the books I read when I was young, and I found some real keepers here. It reminded me just how important it is to take the blinkers off sometimes. Take a look around, there may be some treasures waiting for you in a wee corner shop that you've never noticed before. Three Astrid Lindgren titles: Ronia, the robber's daughter, Emil Gets into Mischief, and Mardie, as well as another Sue Barton book for my growing collection Little Grey Rabbit by Ali

A comedy of classic proportions My friend and I have been at war. She laughs in the face of danger, she claims   to dislike Jane Austen without even opening one of her books or at least watching the BBC version of P&P. While of course part of me is just miffed that she doesn't like something that I so love, the other part of me finds it hard to understand the lack of curiosity...after so much general female adoration of Mr Darcy, doesn't she at least want to see Colin Firth and that wet shirt scene? I thought maybe we would have to part ways until she gently reminded me that we liked lots of the same other sorts of things, like vintage tea cups, cute little chickens, op shopping, pretty scarves,  you know general sort of nice things, so maybe we could just overlook our differences about Jane Austen. Nothing beats a rational argument like that. Yet, though I knew she had a point, it was still abit of a niggle, so when she said one day "I don't like Jane Austen

I know that I am more than due to check in for book chat, but I couldn't let Mother's Day pass without putting up a Mother's Day display.... In an ideal world, mums everywhere will be spending mother's day being pampered. Here is a selection of books that would be just perfect to dip into while propped up in bed, after a beautiful home-cooked breakfast and present-opening ceremony,                                                              happy dreaming! My French Life by Vicki Archer Miss Dahl's voluptuous delights by Sophie Dahl Vintage Knits for Modern Babies by Hadley Fierlinger and when you're done with dreaming, and need some light and lovely fiction to sustain you until the lunch tray arrives (imagine - a whole morning in bed with books!), Sarah-Kate Lynch is New Zealand's queen of chic lit. I love her books for lighthearted, yet heartfelt, escapism. (She's got a new book out, Dolci di Love - keep an eye out for it).