Bookish - Hedgehog Howdedo

Heya Lovelies,

If you have a little person to buy a gift for this year please do consider a book. As any parent of small people can attest they will get read at least a million times! (Plus so much better than a present that makes loud noises when you trip over it at 3am.)

Lynley Dodd has weaved her magic again with Hedgehog Howdedo.

This delightful board book is so cute and the rhyme scheme so perfect and the language so pared back I was halfway through before I even realised it was a counting book. Some counting books are about counting and not much more but this one has so much charm. I could feel myself smiling as I read it and it feels like an absolute treasure of a book.

I have a little person in my life (niece) fairly newly arrived and I'm sure her big brother would read her this book - question is can I part with my copy? I might have to go and buy another.

Dodd at her wonderful best.
(The link has an author photo - Dodd is very different than I imagined, in my head she was a 'soft/ squishy' grandmotherly look with a million animals and a patchwork coat!)

Details - Penguin Random House, December 2018 RRP $15.99 BB

love you more than some 'bold as brass' hedgehogs owning the woodpile xxx

Bookish - Bright Young Dead

Kia ora Koutou,

I must confess I rather like a good murder mystery. I have been a watcher of Miss Marple and Midsomer Murders for some time. (I feel like such a grandma typing that sentence!) However, I haven't read murder mysteries before. I have picked up a couple of Agatha Christies at op-shops so there is hope.

This meant I came to Jessica Fellowes Bright Young Dead with a very open mind.

The book is set in the 1920s and focusses around the 'bright young things' as they emerge into and claim ownership of the glamorous new ways of their time. The upstairs/ downstairs roles are highlighted and Louisa Cannon the maid and often-chaperone finds these worlds are both colliding and pulling her to make a choice between dutiful maid and a woman who cannot accept the murderer is really guilty.

Alongside the drama that unfolds with the murder of a dinner party guest is the infamous Alice Diamond and her forty thieves - all women and the police's attempts to trap the queen of the ring. Dancing, jazz music, secrets, lies and threats all lie in the way of unravelling the mystery.

A real whodunnit and not an obvious answer - surprises right to the end. I also enjoyed the insights into the lives of women in this era. Longing for independence and emancipation but very much reliant on others giving them the benefit of the doubt and opportunity to prove themselves.

Nice to curl up and read with chocolate and a cup of tea and some jazz playing somewhere in the background.

Details - Hachette NZ, October 2018 RRP $34.99

love you more than a bolt of cloth hidden under a bustle xxx