Extra special bookcase porn - secret passages

I don't know what it is about even the idea of a secret passage... There's something magical, alluring, and mysterious that I find quite irresistible. I'm sure that one of the things that got me hooked on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was that the children got into Narnia through the wardrobe! I remember going to an open inspection just before a house was auctioned, years ago in Adelaide. The house was one of the old ones in a southern suburb - complete with a creek halfway down the huge back yard, that you crossed via a little wooden bridge to get to the orchard at the very back (an orchard...). The whole house was a bit of a fantasy really, but the thing that made me never forget it was the upstairs. There were three bedrooms up in the roof - not little pokey attics, either. They were large airy rooms with big dormer windows (with window seats...) and delightfully mad random sloping ceilings. The best thing was that you wound around narrow passageways in the roof to get to them. The passageways were too narrow and convoluted - especially to the room I'd have claimed as mine if I could have had the house - to be called corridors or hallways. They had an air of secretiveness about them, and that room in particular was tucked away and very private.

I was sent this link on Facebook this morning and just had to share it with you. When I went to Google images for the pic, I found many, many more... If you love a hideaway to read in peace, you'll enjoy these, I think!

http://bookriot.com/2012/11/02/10-kick-ass-secret-passage-bookshelves/

Bookish birthday cakes

My birthday was earlier this month, so I've had a huge missed opportunity. HOWEVER - laying down the gauntlet... - this means that if there's anyone out there who feels they're up for the challenge, I'll happily accept one of these cakes in early September 2015! Seriously, how cool are they?! I suspect that Peter over at Kyusireader may well be issuing a similar challenge, there's one cake in this line up that has his name written all over it!

http://bookriot.com/2012/11/19/eat-this-book-cakes/

In other matters, apologies to regular readers - and I see there have been a lot of you in the last month or so. I've not been well, hence the lack of posts. I have been reading though, and will endeavour to do some catch up posts soon. Thanks for staying with me.

Tiny Books 4 - The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam

This is another of my mother's treasures - this particular edition. Somewhere, I have another edition of the Rubaiyat that I picked up in a second hand bookshop years ago, but I do love this leather bound copy with its beautiful engravings.

Mum used to quote odd verses of the Rubaiyat at seemingly random times - to the point that it all seemed quite normal. Mind, she quoted odd bits of other poetry too, so maybe my perception of 'normal' in that regard was a tad off the conventional track! I didn't come to the Rubaiyat as a complete work until I was in my twenties. By then, the custom of sitting at the dinner table after the meal, discussing poetry and reading favourites with my children was beginning to become a favourite pastime.

I don't go back to this book very often these days. It surfaced a few weeks ago while I was sorting through some messy piles of books in the bookcases, and I dropped it onto my desk where it got lost under another messy pile... Now, with a morning that just changed direction, I have time to get it up here, and then it can go back to the now tidy bookcase!

Beatrix Potter

Today - 28 July - is Beatrix Potter's birthday - thank you Facebook for this random bit of information! I spotted a Penguin Books post this morning when I was doing my morning trawl, and it's been sitting at the back of my head ever since. I think, in the world of children's books, there would be very few of us in the English speaking world who'd not had contact with Peter Rabbit and all of Beatrix Potter's delightful characters one way or another.

 Mine started with my baby crockery - which I still have, tucked away carefully. I have my mug, and cereal dish, both of which were carefully used for my own children, and may get handed down if the boys provide me with grandchildren one day!

I have a few of the books, still, from my childhood, along with some I collected for the boys - all in storage. My favourite characters were always Jeremy Fisher and Jemima Puddleduck.

I particularly loved the portrayal of Jeremy Fisher in the Royal Ballet production of Beatrix Potter stories. There was something - to my eyes as a child - so unutterably splendid about the sheer physicality of the dancer's leaps and bounds across the lily pads!

And then, there's the lovely film that was made more recently, Miss Potter, with Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter. I missed it in the cinema, but eventually got around to seeing it on DVD - just lovely.

I don't think the books have ever gone out of print. DB and I have bought some for Small Niece, and hopefully they, like mine, will go on to be handed down, because I don't think these little books will ever date.

Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

Once again, apologies to my regular readers for my lack of regular posts... Life has been rather getting in the way. However, a bit of added inspiration, via a free pre-publication edition of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies in return for a review has got me back on the straight and narrow - I hope...

There were particular outlines required for the review, so you will find this post shorter, and minus plot details (no spoilers!). However, I do hope it will tantalise you as much as the book itself tantalised me in the reading!

The last time I read a book that had me both feverishly turning pages to see what happens next while simultaneously trying to slow down so it didn't finish too fast, was Romy Ash's Floundering. Big Little Lies stirred up the same steadily increasing tension the further I read - part of my mind attempting to second guess what was going to happen, the rest trying to concentrate so I didn't miss any little detail. It was quite a mad experience.

Broadly speaking, the novel, set in the banal ordinariness of an insular seaside community of the local primary school children, their parents and teachers, explores how people interact in communities and in relationships. Moriarty looks at the things that are said and not said, the assumptions and misunderstandings that we're all capable of at some point. The book is full of everyday incidents in the lives of families with school age children, some of them significant, others less so. The varying dynamics between the adult protagonists are governed in part by an unwritten but powerful hierarchy among the parents, which overflows into the lives of the children with unexpected results. There are tensions that exist due to perceived social standing, wealth, status and appearance. And then there are the secrets we all have - the shadowy things that exist in the background that we'd never tell anyone for fear of being 'different' or somehow not acceptable.

The narrative is interesting; both present and future mixed but the clever use of snippets of comments from various characters after the event in the investigation that follows. Among other things, I found myself thinking within the course of the main narrative that I was possibly getting a handle on what was eventually going to happen, and then I'd hit the next page of mini statements, and realize that possibly I was wrong, again.

From the very opening of the book, we know something awful is going to happen. However, how it is all going to unfold doesn't become clear until just as it's actually happening. It's a masterful piece of construction that could so easily have been clumsy in less deft hands. What makes it all the more chilling is that the characters are all so familiar. We all know people like these. It's not the least bit fanciful. It's all too real...

The book was released on sale today, and you can get a copy from the Booktopia website, HERE.

Books about town

LOVE this initiative that's all over London, apparently.... How cool are these benches like big flipped  open books?? Maybe we could do something like this in Oz sometime - what do you think??

Follow this link to see more:

www.booksabouttown.org.uk

A Street Cat Named Bob - James Bowen

DB had a huge weekend of extra work so I'd anticipated not spending much time with him, and then he called to ask me very formally if he could take me out to lunch on the Sunday. He wanted to take me to a place we'd seen but not tried, and to cap it off, he said, there's a cool looking bookshop over the road... So, lunch was had - and very nice too - and then we wandered across the road to check out The Blues Point Bookshop. This is an absolute duck of a bookshop - tiny, but crammed with a fabulous collection of books. The shelves include handwritten precis of many of the books, and it's a wonderful mix of all the things you could possibly want in a bookstore. We spent some time there and I came out with a goodly stack of books, including this one:

Now, this is not the kind of book I'd usually pick up. However, DB has this thing about naming everything 'Bob'. It's become one of those running jokes now, and every time we see a business or sign with 'Bob' in the name, it cracks us up. I had to pick the book up off the shelf to show him, and then, of course, I read the blurb and decided it looked like a lovely read, AND something that DB himself would probably read and enjoy at some point so I added it to the pile.

'Heart-warming' is an adjective you can count on finding somewhere in the blurb or snippets of reviews on the covers of animal stories. This one is no exception. However, I have to say, it's one time that I feel it's entirely justified. London based James Bowen is a recovering drug addict in his late twenties who is living in assisted accommodation, is on a drug recovery programme, is largely isolated from his family (his parents are divorced; his father living in the south of London and his mother in Australia), with a tiny group of friends, some of whom are still using, and has only his busking in the Covent Garden precinct to keep the roof over his head and food on the table. He comes home one night to find an adolescent ginger cat parked on his doorstep. He sidesteps the cat for a few days, but when it doesn't go away, he brings it in and feeds it. Realising the cat isn't well, he takes it to a Blue Cross centre to see a vet, who prescribes medications for an infection and parasites that takes up just about the last of James' available cash.

After a couple of weeks, the cat is much better and James attempts to return him to the streets. The cat refuses to leave. James heads off to catch his bus to Covent Garden for his daily busking routine, and the cat follows. Not wanting to see him killed on the busy roads, James takes him along, riding the bus, then setting up to play, where the cat parks himself on the guitar case. The novelty of the ginger cat calmly staying put in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of busy central London attracts more people than James usually has watching and he has a very good day. He gives in far enough to call the cat Bob. Bit by bit, he comes to realise that Bob isn't going anywhere, and neither does he want Bob to leave.

When his busking is curtailed, he moves on and becomes a Big Issue seller. He is still haunted by his demons, and when faced by adversity, realises he's still making some poor decisions. Bob becomes a huge motivating factor, helping James make the big choice to come off methadone, and take the next step to being completely clean.

This is a short and easy read, and James doesn't pull his punches. In a fairly economical style, he paints a picture of his life on the streets addicted to heroin, and touching on some of the petty crime he committed to feed his habit. The realisation that having the responsibility for something other than himself is an epiphany that opens his eyes to the possibility of real change. Along the way, Bob becomes well known. Initially, while James is still busking they have their regulars who pop up and drop money in the guitar case and leave gifts for Bob. Later, selling The Big Issue, the same thing happens, even when they have to move to a different area after trouble from some of the other sellers due to what they see as James' unfair advantage, because of the attention Bob attracts. Bob becomes famous via YouTube videos, something James finds out from a group of Spanish tourists who recognise them selling magazines near the Angel Islington.

Even if you find animal stories a bit cringe-worthy, give this one a go. It's written in a refreshingly breezy style. There's no mawkish sentiment. It's just a very simple, lovely story about a man and his cat making a go of it on the streets of London.

You can see one of the short films about them here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl2nBSqpsRA