I Love the Library

It never ceases to amaze me that as a tax-paying member of the public, I can walk into my local library and they let me take stuff home. Cool stuff. Not just books either! How trusting!

Lately, due to lack of funds, I've stopped buying myself my usual treat of magazines. I am also, as you may know, partial to the occasional cookbook. And guess what? I've recently realised I can get both these things from the library!

I know, duh. Should have known this already, and I guess I kind of vaguely did, but I was always so busy fluttering around looking at books, I never really thought about the other great items libraries will lend you.

I now get mags, cookbooks, CDs AND books and enjoy them for a whole MONTH. At my leisure. For free.

And what is great to see, every time I'm at my local library, there are heaps of people there. It is not a quiet place where the librarian shushs you when you talk.

Nope, it's a loud place. The chatter of families as they choose their young ones books together. Teenagers lounge about discussing manga and the latest John Green book. The click of keyboards never stops as people browse the catalogue, or the internet.

I just love it.

Do you go to the library? Do you get the maximum amount of items?

Surely Sarah's Christmas Blog Round-up

As I haven't blogged much about Christmas this year, I thought I'd put together a post bringing together all the lovely blogs I've been reading recently that cover the subject nicely. I hope you find them as entertaining, helpful and interesting as I did.

• First, some lovely dessert. Drool over this lovely easy chocolate and cream cake at abeachcottage.com.

• Redcliffe Style broaches a subject close to my heart all summer long - how to stay fresh on Christmas Day.

• Tamsin talks about differing Christmas traditions over at Kiki & Tea. Her Danish Christmas sounds very much like my family's German one.

• I've been loving Jack Monroe's "Have yourself a cheaper little Christmas" series over on her blog. Check out this frugal recipe for ham and veges.

• The Hemborg Wife shows how upcycling is done, wrapping her gifts with things she had around the house.

• A Beautiful Mess has done a mega-round-up of their DIY posts as suggested gift ideas. Some ones in here I wouldn't attempt, but some really cool easy ones too!

• If you're a sucker for a White Christmas like me, have a gander at beautiful Old Quebec in December here and also here at night. It's like a goddamn fairytale.

• And lastly, a great reading list from 26 Years and Counting (in which she mentions me, yay!) - The Hide In Your Room At The In Laws Over The Holidays Best Of Blogs Reading List 2013

Happy reading! And if I don't get to blog between now and then - have a Happy, Simple and Relaxing Christmas!

Sunday Summary - 1st December

This week I have been...

Reading - All Good Things by Sarah Turnbull. A memoir of the author's life when she moved to Tahiti. It's pretty cool.

Tidying - my patio and yard. A huge job, but one that is very satifying.

Loving - those moments when you stop and just breathe. Like when I saw this beautiful Moreton Bay Fig at the markets today. What a glorious elder of its kind.

Watching - a mish-mask of television including The Walking Dead, NCIS and Sleepy Hollow. I like to pretend that Ichabod from Sleepy Hollow is James Norrington from The Pirates of the Caribbean's long-lost brother. (Don't blame me, it was on tumblr).

Dreaming - of landscaping my pool area with terracotta pots and minimalist spiky plants.

Thinking - a lot about Christmas. I wrote a guide to a Happy Homemade Christmas last year, would like to do something similar this year, but I'm not going to be doing much homemade stuff! So I might just curate some great other blogs that are doing it.

Baking - my own pizza dough! For the first time, I was insanely pleased with it. I also made a banana loaf today, finally used up all those over-ripe bananas in my freezer.

Hanging - out at the farm. Went and saw mum and dad last weekend, did some deep-breathing and chilling out. Going up to the farm recharges my batteries. I took some photos, which I have the intention of blogging but are still on my camera...

Looking forward to - work winding down after we complete end-of-month accounts this week. More scrapbooking in two weeks. And then some time off!

How's your week been?

Sunday Summary

This week I've been...

Loving - the warmer weather! It's spring, this makes my heart so happy.

Listening - to new singles from a range of artists: Daft Punk, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry. I like it all.



Reading - a Young Adult novel The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. I really liked this, and am happy to discover it's a series. It's set in modern London with a Jack the Ripper copycat on the loose. Next up is Shadows of the Nile by Kate Furnivall. It's a 30s-set mystery where the heroine searches for her lost brother in Egypt. And you probably know I'm a sucker for anything from that period.

Watching - Ripper Street. This show, like the book I've been reading, also has a Jack the Ripper theme, leading me to have a bit of an obsession with it lately. I love this show because a) Victorian London b) Matthew McFadyn's dialogue c) it's got Bron from Game of Thrones.

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Anticipating - the return of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries this Friday.  So happy this show got a second season. And Kerry Greenwood has a new Miss Phryne novel out later this year, joy!

Diverted by - the election. I'll be very interested in the polls on election night. I have been much more interested in our policital process this time around, and have actually taken notice of policies and personalities. This is in sharp contrast to previous elections where I have mostly tried to ignore all the hoopla. I wonder if this is a symptom of getting older?

Worrying - about putting up our big shed next weekend. I keep thinking something disastrous will happen.

Doing - housework, all day. consistency is the key to keeping up with it, as any person will tell you, and I've let it slip lately.

How was your week? Read any good books lately? Or recommend me something to watch? Ever built a shed?

Sunday Summary

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Happy Sunday everybody!

Doing - some blog reading for the first time in a long time. Doing my best to leave comments but sometimes I really just don't have anything to say and I struggle. Sigh.

Reading - just finished Dan Brown's Inferno. I liked it - but then I've liked his books since Angels and Demons. Yes, the plotline is sometimes very conveient and our bumbling hero is more lucky than smart - but the pace never slacks and you get to learn stuff along the way. This time, I learnt a heck of a lot about Dante and Renaissance art! The visual guide for this book would be very handy too. Who knew? Next, I'm going to start a book I've been wanting to read for AGES, a YA novel called The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson.

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Watching - I've been trying to get through the first season of Hannibal but finding I can't watch more than one or two episodes at a time or I get terrible nightmares. If you've seen it you'll know what I mean. I thought that shows like SVU and Criminal Minds had numbed me to the horrors of the human psyche but this is a whole new level or horrifying for me. Now wanting to see Silence of the Lambs (nope, never seen it) and read Thomas Harris' novels.

Making - cards! I know, how quaint. But I had two birthdays coming up so I got out my brand spanking new Close to My Heart scrapping stuff and stamped my way to glory. Ended up with ink EVERYWHERE (how do they stay so clean in the Youtube tutorials?) but the cards turned out great. Can't show you because a) gave one away today and forgot to take a photo; and b) the second one is for a reader of this blog and want to surprise her! Did I tell you I'm officially a Close to My Heart consultant? Ha ha not seriously but I did buy the consultant's kit because it was no obligation and had so much cool stuff in it.

Wishing - that we could afford to shop anywhere other than Aldi again. Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE Aldi fan, but sometimes I get sick of their same same stuff and crave some Kraft Peanut Butter.

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Planning - possibly I have been watching too much River Cottage Australia, but I'm bursting to start a vege garden. Other half keeps says "when the shed is finished". May have to take matters into my own hands and start some pots.


So... whatcha doin'?

Nose in a book

I have an apology to make, internet. And to you too, TV. You only have half my attention at the moment. While both of you would normally take up 100% of my leisure time, I have something else distracting me right now: a book.

Yes, I've once again grown completely obsessed with a book series. There's not enough spare time in the day to be reading it! I haven't been this "into" a book for a very long time.

The irony is, it's a series I've read before, and was one of my teenage favourites. The book in question is "Daughter of the Empire", the first in the "Empire" series by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. If you'd ever read Feist's Midkemia novels ("Magician" may even be considered a fantasy classic) this series fits in nicely as it is set in a sister-world, and pleasingly, they make a young girl the protagonist.

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Thus, I am chest-deep in a world that unlike the Midkemia novels, which have a Medieval European feel, is distinctly Feudal Japan in flavour. Kelewan is a world where the great families strive for the honour of their House, in a great Machievellian web of intrigue known as the Game of the Council.

Sound familiar? It reminds me of Game of Thrones! There's different Houses with their own colours and crests, and when you play the Game, you win or you die...

Re-discovering these books has been an absolute joy. I bought all three from the most recent Bookfest and I am overjoyed that when I finish the first one, I don't have to hunt around for the second one. That's one of my biggest annoyances about fantasy series! You can always find three copies of books two and four, but never book one and three...

So, that's what I've been doing - in between working and watching MKR, I've been escaping to a fantasy realm of warriors, Ladies, servants and Warlords.

What are you reading right now?

Bargain Hunting at Bookfest

Dear reader, I hope you know about Bookfest. It is run by Lifeline and for many years has brought Queenslanders much joy. I don't know if they do it in other states, but if they don't, they should!

Yesterday I convinced my darling hubby to take me along to the latest one at the Brisbane Convention Centre. It runs for 10 whole days! Imagine how many books they sell. They put new ones out each night, so that treasure-seekers have a fresh batch to trawl through every day.

I picked up six novels, all from the "quality" section. That means that they are near-new, still in pretty good nick and you pay a bit more. There's also the "unpriced" section (where the biggest bargains are to be found!) and the "priced" section (where you can get good quality books for a few bucks).

The best part is it's not just fiction books - there's everything from textbooks to travel, cookbooks to gardening and everything in between. My favourite is the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category because I'm always on the lookout for second-hand Terry Pratchetts. You never see them, of course, because people who buy Pratchett books never give them away! But yesterday I was in awe of the variety and quality of books I saw there. Any serious fantasy book lover knows the real pain of trying to find every book in a series. Here, you could quite easily complete Eddings' Belgariad  without breaking a sweat (as indeed I did last year).

And the best part was the savings. I bought six books for $5 each. That's $30. To buy them retail, it would have cost me $107.50! (calculated using Booktopia).

The only thing that I do not like about buying books second-hand is that the author gets nothing. This is why when I do have they budget, I do try to buy books new, so at least they get to see some of the profit.

Do you buy secondhand books? What has been your best bargain?

Book review - The Alphabet Sisters

Buy 'The Alphabet Sisters'  from The Book Depository

I have had this book sitting in my to-read pile for quite a few months now. I picked it up at a Lifeline Bookfest but had never actually gotten around to reading it. I have read a few others of Monica McInerney's novels and quite enjoyed them, particularly Spin the Bottle and Upside Down, Inside Out.


The Alphabet Sisters is all about family - the fights, the fury, the loneliness and the love between its members.  The beautiful Clare Valley of South Australia is the main setting, and the story that plays out against the backdrop of the family motel is one that I quite enjoyed.

The three sisters grew up singing as a trio - pushed into performing by their loving grandmother, Lola. But as they grow up, the group falls apart and the sisters become estranged after a shattering betrayal - Carrie has stolen Bett's fiancée.  The third sister Anna is pulled into the fight and everyone says something they later regret.

The story is set years after the fight, and follows the lives of all three girls as well as the mischievous and irrepressible Lola as she calls them all back to the Clare Valley for her birthday party. Forced into speaking again, can the girls put the past behind them and learn to get along once more?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and found myself increasingly drawn into the dramas of the family. Recommended for fans of contemporary fiction.

*****

Did you know that The Book Depository is offering an extra 10% off everything until 14th May? Just enter the code APMA12 at the checkout. Disclosure: This is an affiliate link

Winter is Coming

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Yesterday I finished reading A Feast for Crows, a later book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. It was ace. I may have mentioned this series before, and Twitter followers will be aware of my recent obsession with these novels.

I first heard of these books through the HBO series, and watched it well before I started reading the novels. I seemed to hear about them everywhere – on twitter, on Facebook, celebrities – everyone seemed to be either reading them or recommending them. Finally it was a post from gnomeangel that encouraged me to finally buy the first book, A Game of Thrones. Her assertion that she wasn’t a normal fantasy-genre lover but had loved the series just sold me.

I am a fantasy reader from way back, as I have blogged about before, but I stopped after I finished university. I am familiar with Eddings, Feist, Williams, Anthony, McCaffrey, Lawhead, Pratchett, Douglass and the rest. But up until last year, somehow I had managed never to hear of George R R Martin, a fact which still amazes me.

This man is a genius. A bloody genius. And skilled in writing in ways I couldn’t have imagined. In addition, the epic scale of the world he has created in these books is just staggering. Sure, fantasy writers have been drawing maps and making up people and cultures to populate them with since Tolkien (and probably before) but it is not since J.R.R. that I have encountered such attention to detail in a world that has such scope.

Every continent has its people and each have towns, leaders, their own culture and customs. In Westeros, each noble house has a name, a seat, a house sigil. Each family has fathers, sisters, uncles, aunts, sons, daughters and wards. How George keeps track of them all is beyond me.

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But what I really adore about this series is that it’s solidly for grown-ups. It’s brutal, violent, full of swearing and death and violence. Characters commit the most heinous of crimes and others are noble and honorable. There’s incest and beheading and torture and betrayal. And deceit, plotting, machinations and intrigue of Machiavellian proportions. Love it!

One of the things I did not expect was how the author somehow manages to make me both love and then hate certain characters, and vice versa. As the story progresses, opinions you had formed in the first book are changed, and for some reason you start to feel sympathy for the plight of the person whom you first would have named as your most hated (for me, this was the case with Jamie, Cersei and Sansa). Uncanny.

My only problem now is the latest book in the series, A Dance With Dragons, is the last for now. And when I finish it, I’ll be waiting on tenterhooks for the next one, just like the rest of the fandom!

Season 2 of Game of Thrones will be shown in the US on April 1. Here’s hoping it won’t take long to reach Australia afterwards.

Weekend reading

Regular readers and my twitter family will know that recently I made the joyous discovery of the work of George R. R. Martin. It was a happy day for me (seriously, where has he been all my reading life?). I am however stalled in my reading of the Song of Ice and Fire books, being unable to obtain a copy of the next one, due to a combination of funds, and lack of library copies.

Thus, I turned to my to-read pile. Alas, it was empty! I know, I was shocked too. In desperation, I looked to my bookcase. Here, I keep all the books I cannot bear to part with or know I will read again. I picked out a Terry Pratchett that I hadn't looked at in years but the next day something else caught my eye.

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It was Bill Bryson's 'At Home'. I had bought it on a whim one day at Toombul, it was $10 and I had seen it some weeks before selling for $40 so I figured it was a bargain. I had lent it to mum first, and she had handed it back saying it was suprisingly good. I had put it on my bookshelf, forgetting that I hadn't read it yet.

I have only ever read Bryson's travel journals before, but found them highly entertaining. I read the Australian one whilst on holiday in Europe just because I liked the irony of the thing.

For some unknown reason, I abandoned Pratchett (sorry, Pterry) and picked up Bryson. And was delighted. This book is highly entertaining, for all the subject matter sounds dreary and dull. He manages to make the evolution of domestic life something utterly fascinating, and the stories he has unearthed while writing it are simply amazing. At the beginning there was a lot of stuff I had forgotten being taught from my Archaeology subjects at uni (the Olduwan, the Levant, Catal Huyuk!) but there were still a lot of surprises. For instance, did you know that noboby knows how people genetically modified corn? No wild plant even remotely resembles it; it must have taken centuries for folk to breed a corn plant that produced the cobs we know today from available fauna. Amazing stuff.

So I'm thoroughly enjoying this tome, for a tome it is - quite hefty to lug around in my bag but well worth the effort. I'm learning such fascinating things about electricity, furniture and rooms.

What are you reading at present? Would you recommend it?

"

Thank You Sara, Thank You Faraday

This is a co-written post, crossposted here and at my dear friend Brooke's blog, infinite.. and... unforseen...




Imagination decides everything. Blaise Pascal

Sara Douglass 1957 - 2011 - Australian Fantasy Author [Image Source]

B:

Reflexive memory is a funny thing.  All the strange, half remembered, half-ridiculous little pieces that flutter into your mind and then disappear again, just as quickly. Reflexive memory is also a source of frustration. I seem, never to be able, to remember the littlest, most important part of the memory.

Where has this morose little morsel developed from you might wonder. To answer, I can only give a name. Sara Douglass.

I think I was about 20 or 21 when an uncle introduced me to her first book BattleAxe. I was hooked from the first sentence and by the end of the book I could think of nothing but getting a copy of the second book, which, luckily, he owned.

This was another world full of magical beings that I could identify with, even though they were so very different from me. I wanted nothing more than to be an Icarii. This series of books was also the first in which I strongly wished for the death of one of the main characters. Faraday. How that woman annoyed me. Perfect at everything. No flaws. Irritating beyond measure. It was with relief I read one day, that Sara also hated her. Image.

Shortly after I began reading the series, I met one of my best friends, co-blogger and co-author of this post. SurelySarah.  She sat next to me in an anthropology tutorial and I saw she was reading BattleAxe and before I new it, I was asking her if she hated Faraday yet. Like most of the other memories around this, I cannot entirely remember what her answer was. I think she said not yet, and that I said, you will. It was an odd way to start a friendship but over a decade later it seems to have worked.

S:

“Don’t you just HATE Faraday?”

I looked up from my copy of BattleAxe – it was a girl addressing me. I probably looked at her in complete incomprehension. I tend to get completely lost in any book I’m reading.  But then I realized she was talking about the main character in the Sara Douglass novel I held in my hand. I was a first year uni student and I was early for my first tutorial for Introduction to Anthropology. I knew no-one at all and had been avoiding talking to people by burying my nose in Douglass’ tome.

The girl promptly sat down next to me and we started to talk about the series. Her name was Brooke, and she had already read all the series and probably the next one. Being only halfway through the first book I had no real fixed opinion about Faraday either way, but Brooke was adamant that she was an insipid half-wit who was possibly the most annoying character in literary history.  As it turned out, she was right – even the author later famously wrote that she would like to drop a spiked pumpkin on Faraday’s head.

The most important point was that I had made a friend, and it was all because of Sara Douglass, her insipid Faraday and the Axis trilogy.  I went on to read the rest of that series and the next. Brooke continued to read everything Sara Douglass ever wrote and we always shared a love of reading.

I was deeply saddened last week to hear of Douglass’ passing as a result of ovarian cancer. Always close with her fans, she will be dearly missed not only for her wonderful writing, but her sense of humour and the encouragement she always offered to those who were budding authors. I recall in the early days of the internet, she was very involved in her website and I found it a wonderful resource not only for interacting with other fans, but for writing tips as well.

The writing world has lost a great author and friend - but her legacy lives on through all of those who share a love of her work.

B:
I don’t really know what to say about Sara. I never met her. I never spoke to her. I only knew about her from her website and blog. And I realise I am writing about her in the past tense. Sara Douglass left this life on 26 September 2011. I find that with the number of deaths surrounding me this year I cannot bring myself to write more.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/arts/10361292/a-life-cut-short/

Book review - The Belgariad

Firstly, an explanation as to why my blog has been so quiet lately - I've been unwell. Add to that a sick partner and that translates into not much time online. Which has probably been good for me.

Today is my second day off work and I must admit, despite feeling the worst I have in a long time last night, I am feeling a heck of a lot better now, so I'm propping myself up on the PC to share with you what I've been reading lately.

When I was a teen, I discovered fantasy novels. I think it was my friends' parents collection that really inspired me - their entire office wall was a bookcase lined with fantasy and sci-fi. Both her mum and dad were huge Piers Anthony fans, but their reading tastes ranged far and wide across the genre. It was my friend's mum who first recommended to me authors like Tad Williams, Anne McCaffrey, Terry Pratchett (thank god, the covers scared me, and imagine what I would have missed out on!), Marion Zimmer Bradley, Stephen Lawhead, Raymond Feist,  and Ian Irvine.

Thank goodness she also recommended Eddings -ie. David & Leigh Eddings, authors of some of my favorite fantasy series.  I haven't read Eddings in years, but a few months ago I was at the Lifeline Bookfest trawling the fantasy/sci-fi table for any Pratchett. It was a hopeless search, I knew, as nobody EVER gives away Pratchett books (you can't find them in 2nd hand bookshops either, unless you're very lucky) but what caught my eye amoungst the usual mix of 80s sci-fi novels and 700 copies of "Magician" was Eddings. The books kept popping up - one from the Mallorean there, another from the Tamuli there. So I went through with a fine tooth comb and found all five of the Belgariad series, for $2 each. Resolving to read them exclusively in order, I went home pretty pleased with myself.

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I was a HUGE Eddings fan back in my Uni days - back when there were newsgroups, I used to be a regular poster on alt.fan.eddings.  We debated casting choices for future movies, argued over characters and plots, which series was best... it was great fun. And one of my first forays into the world of fandom I might add. This was before websites were actually good and Star Wars fans used to role play via mailing lists (yes, ok, I admit I did that too).

Anyway, back to my current re-read. A few months later, I'm still plunging onwards - but happy to report that I'm finally onto the fifth and last volume. I blame my stint of driving to work, but now I'm on public transport again it's much easier to allocate reading time. Disappointingly though that I am not enjoying the books as much as I remember that I used to. The writing is simplistic to the point of being juvenile, the dialogue irritating (being full of what I refer to as "Eddings wisdom") and half of the main characters just plain unlikable.  Now, unlikable characters have never stopped me before, so I have kept reading, mainly being driven on by the overarching good vs evil story line that will result in a clash of two destinies at the culmination of the series.

And I have started to question whether this series (and the ones that followed) are in fact Young Adult Fiction.  Young protagonist, put into a dangerous situation, learns he can stand on his own two feet... those of you who have read of Garion's adventures - what do you think? I always thought it was an adult fantasy series, but is iy really what we would now consider YA?

After this I'm going to start George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books - definitely no shying away from adult themes there. It's coming highly recommended by real-life AND fandom friends, so hopefully it will wash the taste of disappointment from my mouth that I get from Eddings not living up to my memories of it.

On Travel

I don't often undertake long car journeys, but today I drove over 2 hours straight to reach my parents' farm. Once out of the city, it's a pretty straight shot up the highway so my mind can dangerously wander.
What never fails to amaze me is how the brain can always be thinking of two or three things at once yet still undertake all the responsibility of driving.
When I worked in a 24hr call centre some time ago, I used to drive 20mins to and from work. Sometimes, coming off a night shift at 2 or 3am, I would commence my commute and then, seemingly almost an instant later, I would come to myself and find I was pulling in my driveway. The scary part? I recalled almost nothing of the journey! It's like I had a driving autopilot that could go through the motions whilst my brain took a short break from reality.
Luckily that hasn't happened in some time.
I always find it interesting also that I get just as tired being a car passenger, as being the driver. What is it about car travel that is so tiring? The forced inaction perhaps? I doubt I'll ever know anyway.
Since getting a job in the city I have discovered the joys of train travel. I had undertaken train journeys before - in Europe, the UK and SE Asia, but never a commuter train. I now have a 45min ride each way and it has allowed me to get a lot of reading done, but I'm yearning for something a little more productive. I could almost consider this commute 'wasted time' except for the wonderful company of Georgette Heyer, Patrick O'Brien, Jane Green, Terry Pratchett, Kerry Greenwood and so many others.
I hope to get a laptop soon. Then maybe I can blog on the way. I guess we'll see.