The Lady's Slipper by Deborah Swift

There's nothing like an aversion to reading connected books out of order and an impending blog tour date for the second book to get you reading a book that you have had sitting on your shelf for a couple of years! Sometimes that may be a bit detrimental if you have the pressure of getting something read, and you aren't really enjoying the book, but in this case, I was pretty happy to get lost in this unusual book from Deborah Swift.

There are several reasons why this book is unusual. The first is the setting in Restoration England. This is one of the few books I can remember reading that is set in that time frame where the antics of King Charles II and his Merry old court are not front and centre in the narrative. Instead we have a young woman with an affinity for plants, a Quaker and small town prejudices and intrigues - the first two of which are quite different as well.

The story opens with Alice Ibbetson creeping out of her home in her silk slippers, past the sleeping form of her husband, and into the fields belonging to her neighbour Richard Wheeler. This is no secret assignation, but rather Alice has a single minded purpose to her night time wanderings. Recently, the extremely rare Lady Slipper Orchid has been found flowering in the field and she is determined to steal the flower to try and breed it, and also to paint it. Alice finds solace in her garden and in the act of painting flowers and plants - something she is very talented at. This solace is something that Alice is desperately in need of as she is in mourning following the death of her younger sister whilst she was in Alice's care as a result of the early demise of both of their parents.

When Richard Wheeler finds that the rare bloom has been stolen, he does have a fair idea of where the blame lies, but it isn't gentlemanly to outright accuse a lady of lying when Alice denies it. He is, however, determined to find the culprit and bring them to justice. Richard was a gentleman of some means and influence before he sold everything and became a Quaker in direct reaction to the things that he saw, and did, during the Civil War.

Ladyslipper image from Wikipedia

Another party who is interested in the flower is Sir Geoffrey Fisk who is Alice's patron and the local gentry. He is also sworn enemy to Richard Wheeler, despite his new found Quaker faith and the fact that they used to be friends as children. Sir Geoffrey covets the orchid because he believes that it has medicinal properties that can help with the painful skin condition that has plagued him from childhood.

The final key players in the plot are Ella Appleby, somewhat slatternly maid to Alice, a young girl who has ambitions for a life of luxury, no matter who gets in her way, or what the consequences of her actions are and Margaret Poulter, local wise woman.

When Alice steals the flower, there is no way known that she could have predicted the impact that decision has on her life. She is bought into the centre of a web of deceit that culminates in murder, and leads to her own life being ruined but also preserved and blossoming into a very different life than she expected.

There were lots of things to enjoy about this book. The author was adept in showing how the old divisions in society between those who fought on the Parliamentarian side and those who fought on the Royalists side still impacted on everyday life in the years immediately after Charles II returned to the throne. The details about the flower were interesting, especially when you consider how the author was inspired to write the novel after coming across one of the orchids while on a walk near her home.

Really though, the most interesting aspect of the book for me related to the Quaker aspects including why a man like Richard Wheeler would choose such a path, the persecution that people who chose that faith experienced, the incarcerations, and yet their faith stayed strong. The author chose to base many aspects of the story on the real central hub of Quaker England and it is fascinating stuff.

If there were any criticisms, it really would be on the development of the relationship between Richard and Alice which took an unexpected turn later in the book, and that some of the 'bad' characters were a bit two dimensional, especially Ella. I am, however, not sure that I have not been a bit influenced by the fact that I jumped straight from this book into Swift's next book, which features both Ella and her younger sister Sadie.

Overall this was a really good debut. Having now read her follow up book, Deborah Swift is an author that I will be looking out for in future!

Rating 4/5

I read this book for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

1660. King Charles II has returned from exile, but memories of the English Civil War still rankle. There are old scores to settle, and religious differences threaten to overturn a fragile peace.

When Alice Ibbetson discovers a rare orchid, the Lady’s Slipper, growing in a wood belonging to Richard Wheeler, she is captivated by its beauty— though Wheeler, a Quaker, is determined to keep the flower where God intended it to grow. Knowing that the orchid is the last of its kind, she steals the flower, little dreaming that her seemingly simple act will set off a chain of events that will lead to murder and exile, and change her life forever…

Sunday Salon: Q and A with Jaclyn Moriarty

I am very excited to welcome Aussie author Jaclyn Moriarty to my blog today! Her latest book, A Corner of White, is due to be released here on 1 October! Later in the week I will be posting my discussion about the book with Shelleyrae from Book'd Out.

Welcome Jaclyn!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you tell us a little bit about how the Colours of Madeleine trilogy, and how the world that you have built in the Kingdom of Cello came into being?

The trilogy is about a girl named Madeleine who lives in Cambridge, England, and a boy called Elliot who lives in the Kingdom of Cello. They begin writing letters to each other through a crack between worlds that appears in a parking meter.

The Kingdom of Cello came to me when I was living in Montreal, Canada. One snowy winter day, I went to a café to work. A friend had just given me a notebook bound in soft red suede, and I took it along to write notes. But when I opened it, I found a row of small coloured pencils, each in its own separate pocket. Instead of working on the plot I was supposed to be planning, I started drawing pictures of a Kingdom. I called it Cello (just because I like the word). I think I was inspired by the strange beauty of a northern winter in combination with a new and surprising notebook.

There were several famous historical figures, including Isaac Newton, who were important to the characters of your book. What made you choose these particular people and what was the most interesting thing you found out about them?

In the Kingdom of Cello, colours have taken on material form. A Colour’s shade determines its form and effect: Greys can tear you to pieces, and Lemon Yellows can blind you. So I read a lot about colours when I was planning the trilogy, and I found the story of Isaac Newton buying a glass prism in a marketplace near Cambridge and using it to discover that white light is composed of colours. I read more about his life and realised that he'd studied at Trinity College, Cambridge. This was a strange coincidence because I’d already decided that Madeleine lived in Cambridge, and did lessons at Trinity College. So I decided I'd better introduce Isaac Newton into the book.

Then I started reading about other famous people who’d been at the same college, including the poet Lord Byron, and the mathematician, Charles Babbage. 

One of my favourite facts about Isaac Newton was that he once walked his horse home from the marketplace and was so lost in thought that he didn’t realise that the horse had escaped and he was carrying an empty halter. 

I liked the fact that when Byron lived in Italy he would stay up talking with friends until dawn, then sleep half the day. (I love conversations that last late into the night, and I'm very fond of sleeping in.)
Babbage filled his house with machines that were almost computers. Each time he filled up a room, he’d move on to the next and start again. I liked this fact because I like people who don’t quit, and whose houses are probably even messier than mine.

I loved the twist in the tail of this book. Without giving too much away, can you tell us a little bit about where the story is going to take Madeleine and Elliot next?

In the first book, Madeleine and Elliot are just starting to believe in each other. In the second, they are working together to solve a crisis in the Kingdom, while at the same time trying to figure out how to get through the crack between their worlds. They try science, history, imagination, poetry and all kinds of other tricks, all the time getting closer and closer to each other.

Food seemed to play a prominent part in this novel. There was lots of consuming of baked goods and more, and it all sounded delicious. What is your favourite food and has it ever found it's way into the pages of one of your books? 

Chocolate. And I think it is always there just around the corner of every page.

This was my first Jaclyn Moriarty novel (but not my last)! How do you think this book compares to your previous books? 

Thank you! All of my other books have been set in the real world, in the north-west of Sydney, and have been about letters written between two schools. This one is set partly in Cambridge, England, and partly in an imaginary Kingdom called Cello so they are very different. Maybe the only connection with my other books is the fact that the two main characters are teenagers, and that they communicate by writing letters to each other: I seem to have a strange obsession with letters. They keep turning up in all my books.

You have lived in a number of different places around the world. What were some of your favourite places and why, and how do these experiences colour your writing.

I've lived in New Haven, Connecticut, in Cambridge, England, and in Montreal, Canada, and I loved them all for different reasons. For one thing, I fell in love with northern winters—waking up to snow, skating on frozen ponds— and with the intense friendships you form when you’re away from home. I think the magic of new landscapes and the yearning for home might have coloured my writing.

In addition to your success as an author, two of your sisters are also published authors. What do you attribute this to? 

Both of our parents are enthusiastic story tellers. We are always saying to Mum, ‘Give us the short version’, and Dad is always advising, ‘Never spoil a good story with the facts’. We had shelves full of books to read when we were kids. Also, instead of giving us pocket money, Dad would commission us to write stories. So I guess we grew up thinking it was the only way to make money.


Thank you again Jaclyn for taking time to answer my questions!

Here's the synopsis for the book:

She knew this.
That philematology is the science of kissing.
That Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better
known as Mark Twain.
That, originally, gold comes from the stars.

Madeleine Tully lives in Cambridge, England, the World – a city of spires, Isaac Newton and Auntie's Tea Shop.

Elliot Baranski lives in Bonfire, the Farms, the Kingdom of Cello – where seasons roam, the Butterfly Child sleeps in a glass jar, and bells warn of attacks from dangerous Colours.

They are worlds apart – until a crack opens up between them; a corner of white – the slim seam of a letter.

Elliot begins to write to Madeleine, the Girl-in-the-World – a most dangerous thing to do for suspected cracks must be reported and closed. But Elliot's father has disappeared and Madeleine's mother is sick.

Can a stranger from another world help to unravel the mysteries in your own? Can Madeleine and Elliot find the missing pieces of themselves before it is too late?

A mesmerising story of two worlds; the cracks between them, the science that binds them and the colours that infuse them.

Weekend Cooking: Bung-in Chocolate Cake

A few months ago I posted about Kate Bracks' book The Sweet Life in a Weekend Cooking post and included a recipe for Lemon Syrup Cakes which were totally delicious! Kate Bracks won the Australian version of Masterchef and when we met her at a local book signing event she was incredibly generous with her time.

When I posted about this book I mentioned that there were quite a few different recipes that I wanted to try and one of those recipes was Bung-In Chocolate Cake. Now, to explain a colloquialism before we get too further much further on, to "bung in" means basically to throw it in, so you might bung a cake in the oven or in this case you bung in all the ingredients in a bowl together.

We have now made this cake several times, and it is just so easy, and it tastes soooo good! There is no melting of chocolate or anything complicated and it comes out with a beautiful dark chocolatey colour and flavour.

It's so easy to make that the little chef (who suddenly is much taller than I am...how did that happen?) has made this all by himself. There were a couple of small mishaps. The first was that he iced it while the cake was still hot and still in the tine which made it a bit awkward to get out of the tin when I got home. When I was cleaning up the mess all the mess, I took a look at my sieve  and was wondering what the stuff stuck to the bottom of it was. Turns out that he added the vanilla essence to the icing sugar while he was sifting it which I must confess made me laugh, but even despite those mishaps the cake still turned out pretty well!

We are at home on a Saturday night tonight, and I think that we are going to try her Choc-Chunk cookie recipe next.

If you happen to be looking for a really easy, really tasty basic chocolate cake recipe, then look no further as this one fits the bill!

Cake
300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
350g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
35g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
350ml (1 1/3 cups) milk
150g butter, melted (preferably not unsalted butter)

Icing
200g (1 1/4 cups) icing sugar mixture
2 tbsp cocoa powder
30g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease a 23cm (base measurement) square tin and line the base with baking paper.

2. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients. Whisk gently, gradually taking in the dry ingredients from the side of the bowl. Keep whisking until the mixture is smooth.

3. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then run a knife around the edge to separate the cake from the tin. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

4. To make the icing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add the melted butter and vanilla extract, and enough milk to get it to a paste consistency, stirring vigorously until smooth. You may not need all the milk. If it is too thick, add more milk. If it is too runny, add more icing mixture.

5. Once the cake has cooled, smother the top with chocolate icing.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.  

BBAW Day 4: Romance by the Sea

Today's BBAW prompt:

One of the best parts about book blogging is the exposure to books and authors you might never have heard of before. Pimp the book you think needs more recognition on this day. Get creative! Maybe share snippets from other bloggers who have reviewed it or make some fun art to get your message across.

I am, however, going to be a bit naughty creative and instead of spotlighting a book, I am going to spotlight a group of authors! 

Last weekend I attended an event called Romance by the Sea. It was held in Queenscliff which is a town about an hour and a half away from me, and it was a fund raiser for a charity called A Cottage by the Sea which is a not for profit organisation which provides disadvantaged kids with opportunities they might otherwise might not have had.

The event was held at the gorgeous Queenscliff Hotel - amazing inside and out!

There were approximately 40 people all up at the event and it lasted all day, including lunch (amazing, amazing food at the lunch!) and a dinner if you wanted to stay, which means that there was lots of opportunities to get to chat to the authors who are around.

Among the authors in attendance there were bestselling authors like Stephanie Laurens and Keri Arthur, favourite authors like Sarah Mayberry, authors who I have read and enjoyed and wanted to read more of like Anne Gracie, Marion Lennox, Fiona Lowe and Jennifer Kloester plus some other authors who I either own books which I need to read still or who I need to discover like MJ Scott, Lilian Darcy and Carol Marinelli.

For me, one of the definite thrills was getting to have a chat with Sarah Mayberry, who writes fantastic contemporary category romance. As soon as there is a new book out by her, I grab it and inhale it and then have to wait for the next one!

The program was really interesting with Stephanie Laurens kicking off talking about the Books We Love to Read and why we should read the book we love to read - basically a discussion of literary fiction vs general fiction vs genre fiction and why it is okay to love reading genre fiction!

Other topics include Anne Gracie talking about the universal romance hero, Jennifer Kloester talking about the ongoing appeal of Georgette Heyer and more. There were panels talking about how Mills and Boon is anything but the same old story and formula written to order, asking the question what makes a great romance.

We were given a short time to wander around the town when there were readings that were held in the local bookstore which is in a converted church and the local art gallery, where there was some amazing art, and back at the hotel

Anne Gracie about to read

Inside the Barwon Bookseller store which has been converted from an old church.

Stephanie Laurens

Keri Arthur having just finished her reading

M J Scott reading

Sarah Mayberry - I managed not to squee too much when I chatted to her!

Fiona Lowe and Marion Lennox

The final sessions were asking the eternal question - where do you get your ideas from and then closing with what makes a good sex scene. I did take notes for all the sessions, but this post would be humongous if I actually included all of those as well!

Over all, this was such a fabulous day and special kudos should go to the organisers. I will definitely be buying a ticket if they have this event again next year, especially seeing as we were able to raise quite a large sum for this good cause.

So you may wonder how I am going to link this to the post topic today? Me too.. actually, no, I do know how.

All of these fabulous authors devoted their time and energy to a fantastic day at a gorgeous venue. So if you happen to be thinking about reading any one of their books, or if you fancy taking a chance on some fabulous Australian romance authors, then please do take some time to choose and enjoy one or more of their books! No matter whether you love contemporary romance, paranormal romance or historical romance there is an author here for you!

BBAW Day 3: What does book blogging mean to me (with a special guest)

Today as I was thinking about what to write for this post, I came up with a few different words, all very worthy, that I was going to expand upon. Words like friendship, validation, encouragement, entertainment, and so many more.

Instead though, I want to give an example of the kind of thing that makes blogging so much fun.

Several years ago now, Kristie J from Rambling on Romance started a crusade to get as many people as possible to watch the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South starring the scrumptious Richard Armitage. Now I was prepared to like the mini-series and I did. What I didn't expect was to get completely hooked, and to still be completely gaga over Richard, mainly because I don't tend to get obsessed with specific actors normally.

Since then, I had the DVD player that revolted when I tried to put anything other than a Richard Armitage disc in, I have watched the lovely RA read bedtime stories, The Vicar of Dibley, Captain America, Robin Hood and more, and I can't wait for The Hobbit. More than 4 years later watching North and South and The Vicar of Dibley still bring me joy on a regular basis.

Whenever I happen to see someone discovering the mini-series, I still get excited and it invariably leads me to rewatching more clips. I can pretty much do the final scene of North and South word for word.

Just tonight I happened on a conversation about Richard Armitage on Twitter, which had me thinking about the various famous scenes and then suddenly I found myself watching the final scene of North and South again (sigh) and then all of The Vicar of Dibley wedding specials. And here's the thing. I actually really needed a laugh. As in really needed a laugh because I was in danger of becoming a bit morose tonight. And this moment is something that I can directly attribute back to the influence of bloggers and blogging not only back when my obsession started but also now, just in having a conversation with friends tonight.

Whilst using this as my example does mean that I can insert gratuitous Richard Armitage pictures here, the fact is that I could have talked about the discovery of some of my favourite authors, some of my favourite books, some great friends and so much more to illustrate my point.

If I have to summarise really briefly though, it would be this.

Blogging makes me happy!

And let's face it, you can't ask for more than that for something that you have stuck with for as long as I have, and that I can't see stopping anytime soon!

Library Loot: September 12 to 18

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

A bumper haul of library books this week, but I think that will be the last one for a while. I really, really need to read some of the books I own! Famous last words I am sure but that is my intention.

Here's what I picked up last week:

Just One Taste by Louisa Edwards - The third book in the Recipe for Love series

Omamori by Richard McGill - Misfit was raving about this book a couple of weeks ago, and it sounds like something I would enjoy so I requested it through interlibrary loan. One issue though - it's a massive, massive tome

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - The readalong that is currently being hosted at Estella Society was the prompt I needed to borrow this book again.

The Wedding Season by Su Dharmapala - I requested this book after hearing the author speak at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore - This will be one of my RIP reads.

Broken Harbour by Tana French - New Tana French! Yay!

Nine Days by Toni Jordan - I have been meaning to try Toni Jordan's books for a long time now. This is her book that has just come out and it has a WWII setting which is right up my alley!

Claire has Mr Linky this week, so head over to share your Library Loot link

BBAW Day 2: Interview with Heather from Capricious Reader

Welcome to Day 2 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week which is interview swap day!

Over the years I have participated in these kinds of events I have always been matched up with new to me blogs which has always been fun, and some of those blogs have made it onto my must read daily blog list. This time  though I was totally thrilled to end up being matched up with someone who I have been following for many years, who I consider a bloggy friend - Heather from Capricious Reader.

True to form we ended up with more of a conversation instead of an interview as such! You can read the first part of our interview discussion chat over at Heather's blog. Heather's thoughts are in purple and mine are in black.

Marg: Has blogging changed the way you read?

Heather: Absolutely!!

Right after I got out of college, I was so burned out on reading. I majored in English, so I spent two years reading books, dissecting books, and writing writing writing. I used to read such crap back then! Then I found blogging and all of a sudden, I was hearing about all the great books and was reading all the great books. It really helped me find what I enjoy reading.
Marg: One of the things that I think has changed about blogging is that there is so much more to blogging than just the blogging now. There is Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and so much more. How do you keep up with all the other stuff?

Heather: All I can say is Thank God for my iPhone! I can’t get on anything at work any more (once upon a time I could get on Twitter) (miss those days!), so now at lunch and breaks I check in on things. Twitter does email me now when someone mentions my handle (most of the time), so that helps too. And once the kids are in bed, I’ll hop on for a bit if the mood hits.

How do you keep up?

Marg: I have become selective about what I do.

Whilst I loved Pinterest and spent a lot of time there when I first joined I now haven’t visited there for months. I used to play a lot of Facebook games but that has stopped. So really now I focus on blogging, on Facebook and Twitter. Nearly everything else has gone by the wayside. Oh, although recently I have become a little bit attached to Instagram.

Even with those decisions made, I am still behind on blog reading!

What are the best books you have read this year?

Heather: Oh, now we get down to the good stuff, eh? :)

Let’s see, I’ll just list them, shall I? Because there are SO MANY.

• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, excellent historical YA epistolary/WWII espionage thriller
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, YA sci-fi dystopian kind of thing
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton is incredible! Especially for an 80s child like me!
• The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, a fine example of a book I would have never read before book blogging, which is so sad! I love this series fiercely
• Lips Touch, Three Times by Laini Taylor, great collection of 3 short stories, all of which I adored
• Railsea by China Mieville, so glad I finally read a Mieville. He intimidates me!
• The Stand by Stephen King, a direct influence of book bloggers. I would have never read this and it’s probably on my all time fave list now
• The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan, I’m convinced. The woman can do no wrong.
• Every Day by David Levithan, I feel a fierce, protective love for this book. So good.

How about you?

Marg: I just finished the Margo Lanagan last week (although here it was called Sea Hearts) and thought it was fabulous! And yay for The Wise Man’s Fear.

Other highlights for me include (but are not limited to)

• Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - completely absorbing, heart breakingly good story.
• Legacy by Susan Kay - I thought I was all Tudor’d out, but this book showed me that I could still love a well written account of Elizabeth I’s life. 
• Fables series by Bill Willingham - I have been wanting to read these for ages, but finally started them this year.
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - Ugly, sobbing crying but oh so good.
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - such amazing imagination.
• The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots by Loretta Hill - Rural fiction is currently a huge seller in Australia and this is one of the better ones I have read
• Ride with Me and About Last Night by Ruthie Knox - Sexy contemporary romance from a new author that is really good reading.
• The Siren by Tiffany Reisz - The publicity for this book was very firmly targeted at the Fifty Shades of Grey crowd, but in my opinion it is a much better book
• Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier - it’s been years since I have read DdM but I should really make more of an effort as I have enjoyed the books I have read by her.
• Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti - awesome short story collection which is part of the Twelve Planets series.

Heather: Oooo you have some great books in there! A Monster Calls and The Night Circus in particular. And you know how much I love Fables. It’s been so long since I’ve read Tudor book, for the same reasons. I thought I was Tutor’d out. Now I’m thinking I should look that book up! And I can’t wait to hear what you think of the Margo Lanagan, no matter the title. :)

Marg: The longer I blog, the more involved I find myself getting in the community. Recently you and Andi relaunched the Estella Society lit magazine. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that project?

Heather: Of course I do! Andi and I loved doing The Estella’s Revenge E-Zine, but school for her, new parenthood for me, made it hard to continue it, so we shut it down a few years ago. Now, she’s out of school, my kids have gotten older and a touch more self-sufficient, so we decided we wanted to bring it back. As we talked (and this went on for like nine months, our new daughter so to speak) we realized one thing we really wanted to do was bring the book blogging community together. You know, that “playground” aspect we have in our tag line. We wanted somewhere for book bloggers to come to get to know each other, have readalongs, readathons, learn tips and tricks about blogging and just relax. Seems like every other month or so our community gets up in arms about something and we want to get away from that, although we will tackle it if something should come up. You know how Andi likes her snark!

We’re still in our infancy, but we are having so much fun and the response has been terrific. Really, more than we ever hoped for.


Marg: Thanks Heather! This was fun!

BBAW Day 1: Appreciation Day

The daily theme for today is:

Appreciation: There are no awards this year, but it can still be hard to navigate the huge universe of book blogging. Share with your readers some of the blogs you enjoy reading daily and why.


BBAW is back for another year, albeit in a more pared back format that in previous years. One of the things that has gone by the wayside are the awards, which I do think is a good thing in a way. I always felt a bit uncomfortable with some of the nomination processes and at times with the results but there were also lots of really deserving blogs that were given focus as a result of the process. Even on the year where there are no awards I am still torn as to what I thought of them!

Today though, it is a chance for me to give my own awards. I did something similar last year and I am really trying not to repeat my responses, even though I assure you that I do still value people like Kelly, Heather, Bree, Beth and Sarah! I also really wanted to spotlight some Australian bloggers this year as well.

The How Does She Do It award goes to

Shelleyrae from Book'd Out!

Shelleyrae gets through a ton of books, and seems to manage to review them all as well (something I gave up trying to do years ago). She is also involved in other events around the blogosphere as well. I don't know how she does it as well as being a mum and all round nice person!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next award is the Wow, Look how Lucid and Detailed That Review is award goes to

Dani from Alphareader

I can't tell you how many reviews I have read by Dani where I have been blown away at the breadth and depth of the review!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The It Must Be Time for a Catch Up award goes to

Lisa from ANZ Litlovers! 

We only met for the first time face to face at last years Melbourne Writers Festival and we have met up a few times since. Even though we read very differently most of the time in terms of genre and focus, we still never run out of things to talk about (and we don't only talk about books!). Besides, she just got back from a dream holiday so I am looking forward to living vicariously through her! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My final award for this year is not so much for a blogger but rather an event (although the founder, Elizabeth Lhuede) deserves a huge amount of kudos!

The Event that Significantly Changed my Reading for the better this year goes to

Australian Women Writers Challenge

Most years since I began blogging one of my aims has been to read more Australian authors. I would read 10 or 12 and been happy with that. This year though, participating in the Australian Women Writers Challenge has inspired me to really pushed me to read more. So far this year I have read more than 30 books by just Australian women authors, and there are also a few male authors to add to that total! This also had the added effect of meaning that I have had a bumper year for the Aussie Author Challenge hosted by Booklover Book Reviews as well!

Sunday Salon: Melbourne Writers Festival Part 3

Melbourne Writer's Festival has actually been over for a week but I haven't yet written up my last two sessions, so that is what I will be doing for today's Sunday Salon post! I actually have another author event to yesterday and had a fantastic day out, but that will have to wait for next week I guess.

You can read my first two MWF posts here and here.


Between the A Fine Romance session and my next session, Bree and I went off hunting for more Mali statues (I will put up a snapshot post of more of these in due course), then it was time for A Conversation with John Boyne!


While I own quite a few John Boyne books the only one I have actually read is The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. Before the session had even started it was one that I would remember fondly as I ran into someone I knew who lives in Sydney but had come down to Melbourne for a couple of days and had decided to attend a few MWF sessions while she was down here. It was a lovely surprise to run into her!

Like A Brief History of Montmaray (which I reviewed on Friday), The Boy in Striped Pyjamas has been  recently republished as a Vintage Classic which was quite an honour for Boyne.

The first question asked Boyne about where he started writing and he explained that he started writing contemporary fiction which really was about himself. There are a lot of Irish writers writing about contemporary Ireland and so he had to recognise his own strengths which include that he loves to research.

Boyne was asked about his book Mutiny on the Bounty, particularly because there is such a strong Australian connection to that story. He talked about how, prior to recent Hollywood portrayals, Captain Bligh had a pretty good reputation but the modern twist to the story seems to be that Christian Fletcher was the good guy which confused him.

The narrator in Mutiny is a young cabin boy. Boyne likes to have a narrator or main protagonist that is naive to the situation that they are coming to and in a way that takes the place of the reader and also puts them next to a person of authority.

He was asked about his use of young boys as main characters to which Boyne responded that there is something universal about boys who are 8 or 9. There is no interest in girls etc to take into consideration. It's a nice age.

Boyne was then asked about changing between writing for adults and for children. He admitted that it was not really part of the plan. Even Boy wasn't meant to be a children's book, but he did always feel as though teens could have read his adult books. He talked about the fact those terms, adult vs children etc, are often media or publisher terms. For example, a book like Treasure Island was written as a book, not as a crossover book! He doesn't really mind who is reading his books, whether they be adults reading his children's books or vice versa, just wants readers!

He did say that he felt that his naivety about the 'rules' or writing for children really helped his books. He likes to gradually reveal the plot and is conscious of not writing down to kids. He relies on the kids being intelligent readers and that they don't believe that the only thing that is important in books is vampires!

The discussion then moved onto The Absolutist which Boyne admits is a much darker book in direct contrast to the lighter nature of his previous book. This book was inspired by a demonstration by descendants of those soldiers who were absolutists or who were shot during WWI for deserting when they were shell shocked. He then realised that he had never read about conscientious objectors or gay soldiers.

In closing he mentioned that his favourite author is John Irving, that his new book is partially set in Australia so he came to live here for a few months while he was writing, that the parents in the new book are truly terrible. The audience asked him about writing Boy and he said he knew 3 things - that there was a boy being taken away from a place of safety, that the two boys would meet and the ending. He also touched on the movie adaptation during his talk.

To be honest, I could have listened to Boyne talk for hours longer! Not only because of the Irish accent, but also because there seemed to be so much of interest to talk about!

The final event on that day was the Twelve Planet Press event. Unfortunately my phone was nearly flat so no photos from this event. I have been a Twelve Planets books fan since the series started (you can see my reviews of the books here) and so it was great to have a chance to hear readings by the authors from the books I had already read, but also short readings from the upcoming books in the series that don't necessarily even have titles yet! Kerry Greenwood, author of the Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman series was the special guest and it was fun to see her in person, and Jason Nahrung, author of the book Salvage that I own but still haven't read also read!

The whole event had a really fun vibe and it was great to see a few familiar faces in the crowded room.

Originally my plan was only to attend one day of the Festival, but I knew that I was a little disappointed that in restricting my attendance in that way I wouldn't get to see Susan Johnson speak. She wrote the book My Hundred Lovers which I read and enjoyed earlier this year as part of a readalong. In the end, I went with the one more session won't hurt so I was up early again last Saturday heading into the city for the Sex and Sensibility session which also featured Emily Maguire and Chris Flynn.

The host started talking about banned books in Australia which have tended to be banned due to explicit obscenities including sex. Whilst in contemporary genre fiction sex can be explicit and detailed that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case in literary fiction.

Each of the authors then read from their books. Johnson read the scene that I have previously shared as a Weekend Cooking post, and Emily Maguire well too, but Chris Flynn stole this section of the session for me because of his coyness about reading around the juicy bits but not the actual juicy bits. He got quite embarrassed about it, and explained that by saying that he didn't really feel as though it was something that was designed to be read in public to a large group of people, but rather that it was a contract between the author and the reader directly.

Each of the authors was asked about the origins of their books.

Susan Johnson talked about being interested in writing a story from the book out. The original idea was to just encompass the lovers but it was too difficult and so it was expanded to include all different levels of sensuousness. She originally had the idea for the book in 1997/98 but it was only once she went to see AS Byatt and Doris Lessing speak and they talked about how no one has written a female Casanova that it clicked for her.

Chris Flynn talked about how the sex was actually the first scenes that he wrote. He wrote 8 different drafts of the book in third person looking back but it wasn't working. There was one paragraph in that 8th draft that ended up being the seed for the entire 9th draft which became the book. He found the sex and the scenes about books the easiest to write. While the sex is still there, a lot of the book stuff was edited out although there is still a flavour of that there.

For Emily, her book started very differently to where it ended up. Emily had a moment of peace in Temple of Literature in Hanoi and that is when the character came to her. She did think about writing a book where the character found her own peace but realised that had been done before, so instead she takes a character who has already found her peace and then disturbs that peace.

The authors then moved on to talk about the power of sex which is still evident in the news headlines of today. Susan Johnson talked about sex being a powerful, instinctual force. There is still potential for sex to overthrow everything and it makes us uncomfortable (examples include Bill Clinton and Dominic Strauss-Kahn.)

Chris talked about the power of sex to heal his character. His main character had come from a very violent place and sex enabled the character to explore a very different side of himself.

The next question talked about the sense of place in the novels.

Chris talked about Thailand being known for sex tourism and being shocked by it when he was there.

Emily's book is set in Vietnam where there are sex tourists, but only for certain groups of people. For example, it is no good for a Western woman over 30 and so it was a very safe place for her character, Misha to be in, until the main male character turns up.

Susan talked about France being important as a setting because sensual life is very much integrated into life there, and it is classless. Chris jumped in here and agreed with this having spent a couple of years living there as a young Irishman.

The questions then moved onto the bad sex in fiction awards (about which a comment was made about the high profile names which appear on the list - almost a Booker shortlist!)

Emily Maguire talked about the fact that there is some confusion between writing about sex and erotica writing and that it is not by accident that this award came out of England.

The authors were then asked about whether there is a fear of tipping into pornography

Emily talked about writing in a way that is deeply empathetic, compassionate and human. She takes stuff that would be easy to laugh at or call freaks but then show the deepest need to be seen. With every sex scene, there needs to be a reason to be there, not just sex for sex sake. It is a way to get to the core of a person.

Susan talked about female authors writing to take apart the patriarchal notion of what pornography is.

The conversation then moved into a discussion of how readers often assume that the characters must be telling the author's personal stories. Emily talked about being sent explicit photos after her first book and being congratulated by readers for getting herself out of that terrible relationship (that she was never in but her character was). After several books people realise that she can't be all of those characters so she mustn't be any of them!

Chris had had people assume that his book must be a diary of his own time in Thailand and that the sex must be based in reality and had people make judgements to his face about that.

Susan talked about how she has quite a direct style but most of what is in the book is nowhere near personal. She is looking more for an authentic emotional truth rather than an actual truth!

We then moved onto audience questions. The first was about how much pressure there was from publishers to include sex scenes. Emily and Susan said there was none, but Chris talked about how he had shortened a scene and when the editor realised it they asked for that additional orgasm to be put back in.

The conversation moved on, almost inevitably, to Fifty Shades and there were several comments made (the term erotic nonsense may have been uttered). Susan Johnson talked about how sex sells, but the fact of the matter is that no publisher really knows what is going to make a bestseller until it has already happened. Emily also talked about the fact that there is lots of interesting stuff happening in fan fiction.

There was then a question about sexual freedoms and repression (at least that's what I think the question as about) which led to a discussion about how the Pill is one of the biggest achievements in humanity as for the first time in history it gave women control of their own reproduction. Whilst we can see immediate impacts we may be too close to be able to see long term impacts.

There is no taboos about what you can write about but rather sex is really important base to show characters and development.

Emily Maguire then talked about Jane Eyre being one of the hottest books but it is about the repression of the times. One of the difficulties in writing contemporary is that the characters don't have those restrictions.

Chris talked about how he notices if the real deal of life is absent from contemporary novels and he becomes suspicious of the reading experience. By the real deal he gave the examples of sex and also boredom.

The final question talked about the language used for sex and how to make it original. In other words how to avoid the cliches and the over the top euphemisms.

Chris talked about sometimes having to use euphemisms but it does depend on the character. His character in this book is very frank but whatever language is chosen it should be for shock value. He did try to temper the scenes by including humour.

Susan talked about it being difficult to write about sex well and it will be better if it comes up organically rather than trying really hard.

In closing Emily said that it has to come from the character. If you are trying to be pornographic or turn the read on it can be too cliched. It needs to be rotted that character's sense of what turns them on.

Overall, this was a fantastic session - it was fun, informative, great discussion! And it was a thrill to get to talk to the authors afterwards and to get my copy of One Hundred Lovers signed. I came out of the session wanting to read both Chris and Emily's books!

Bring on the next Melbourne Writers Festival!

After this session, Bree and I walked for what felt like hours finding yet more Malis!


Just Finished

Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan and Strong and Sexy by Jill Shalvis.

Currently reading

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, Mr Chen's Emporium by Deborah O'Brien and The Lady Slipper by Deborah Swift

Next up

The Winter Mantle by Elizabeth Chadwick and The Gilded Lily by Deborah Swift

Restaurant of Love Regained by Ito Ogawa

One of the side effects of participating in Weekend Cooking is that as soon as I see a book that may be just a little bit food related I instantly look at it to think if it may be a potential Weekend Cooking post. As soon as I saw the title of this particular book, I KNEW it would be! And it is such a delightful read whether you are reading it specifically for that purpose or not!

The Restaurant of Love Regained opens when Rinko comes home to find that her Indian boyfriend has not only dumped her but that he has completely cleaned out the whole apartment. Gone are the furnishings, electronics, pots and pans and the other possessions that accumulate so easily. The only thing left behind was a special container given to Rinko by her grandmother. She feels she has no choice but to return home to the small village where her mother still lives. Rinko’s relationship with her mother was, and still is, very difficult so for Rinko this is a step of desperation. Rinko has always had issues with her mother’s lifestyle, particularly her role as mistress to the local gangster boss, so she tries to stay as distant as possible which is not easy given how small the house and village is.

When Rinko returned to the town, she not only lost her possessions and her livelihood, but she also lost her voice, which adds another level of wistfulness to the book as there is not a lot of external dialogue with other characters, but rather Rinko has to rely on written and other forms of non verbal communication. Initially though, her main companion is her mother’s prized pig Hermes who she has to look after as part of the conditions for her staying in her mother’s home.

Needing to find more ways to occupy her time, Rinko decides that she is going to open a small restaurant, which in due course comes to be known as The Snail. It is different from any other restaurant though because rather than have a menu of multiple dishes available to hordes of customers each day Rinko only accepts one booking each day. She then talks to that client to find out what they are looking for, whether it be a lost love, renewed health for a pet, a new love or something else and cooks a meal using the best ingredients available that suit that particular client. It isn’t too long before Rinko’s reputation spreads as someone who can make dreams come true through her food. The big question though will be whether Rinko can make her own wishes come true, once she knows what those wishes may be.

It really is the food that makes this book come alive. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about the locating of the best possible ingredients, the care and time required to prepare a spectacular dish (whether it be simple or complex) or the tastes that come alive as the clients of the restaurant get to eat the food that Rinko has prepared. This would be my favourite part – the eating! Rinko’s food sounds delicious and crosses lots of cultural boundaries. There are lots of mentions of Japanese food but also curries and desserts and so much more.

If there is one aspect of the book that I did struggle with it was with the ending where Rinko found out that she didn’t actually know the truth about her own origins. That part I was okay with, and although sad at the fate of one of the main human characters, I understood what was happening. I wasn’t sure that the fate of one of the non human characters was necessary and even was in context with the rest of the novel. Maybe this was a cultural difference. It certainly wasn’t a moral issue for me, but I imagine it could be for some readers.

The danger with reading a book that was originally written in a different language is that you don’t necessarily know what is the author’s voice and what comes down to translation. There were definitely times during this in this book where I found myself wondering if the writer had deliberately made writing choices or was it the translation getting in the way. For example, at one stage in the book there were five sentences in two paragraphs that started with Then I.... To be fair, these moments were relatively rare but when you start noticing such things you just can’t seem to help but notice it more and in the end I had to go back and count how many Then I sentences there actually were in that short space!

Other than these two small matters though, this was a novel that was full of charm and flavor and was mostly a delight to read. I must give a special shout out to Sam from Samstillreading who originally posted a giveaway of this book! I didn’t win, but I was interested enough to get this book through interlibrary loan.

I did see on a post from Nat at In Spring it is the Dawn that there has actually been a movie made of this book, but I couldn’t find an English translation. It could be quite fun to watch if there is ever a translation done!

Rating 4/5

Returning home from work, Rinko is shocked to find that her flat is totally empty. Gone are her TV set, fridge and furniture, gone are all her kitchen tools, including the old Meiji mortar she has inherited from her grandmother and the Le Creuset casserole she has bought with her first salary. Gone, above all, is her Indian boyfriend, the maître d’ of the restaurant next door to the one she works in. She has no choice but to go back to her native village and her mother, on which she turned her back ten years ago as a fifteen-year-old girl.

There she decides to open a very special restaurant, one that serves food for only one couple every day, according to their personal tastes and wishes. A concubine rediscovers her love for life, a girl is able to conquer the heart of her lover, a surly man is transformed into a lovable gentleman – all this happens at the The Snail, the magic restaurant whose delicate food can heal any heartache and help its customers find love again

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.  

A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper

I first remember hearing about the Montmaray books over at Danielle's blog. There's a certain irony when you find out about books by Australian authors at an American blog, but these things happen! It sounded like my kind of read and so when I was given the opportunity to read it (because it has recently been rereleased here as a Vintage Children's Classic) this seemed like a good time to read the book for myself.

The book is told in diary format with the author of the diary being a young girl name Sophie, or more correctly Princess Sophie of Montmaray and covers the months towards the end of 1936. Once Montmaray was a small but flourishing island nation but the Great War and the subsequent Spanish flu has decimated the population. Now there are only a few villagers who live on the isolated island, struggling to make a living. Of the royal family, Sophie and her sister Henrietta live in the 'castle' along with their cousin Veronica and their uncle King John who is a shadowy character on the edge of their lives who seems to be dealing with some form of madness. The heir to the throne, Sophie's brother Toby, is living in England, going to school and mixing with the best in society. He is accompanied by the housekeeper's son, Simon, who also has suddenly become the focus of Sophie's daydreams.

For quite a while, the diary entries reflect day to day events of what essentially is life in a crumbling castle on a big rock in the middle of the ocean. The people of the island rely on passing boats to communicate with the outside world. If they need a doctor they have to hoist a specific flag to the top of the flagpole and wait for one of the passing boats to stop and offer up assistance. Sophie's younger sister Henry is a tomboy who refuses to sit down and be educated. The castle is falling apart so there are leaking roofs, dwindling supplies and more. All of those worries become somewhat less important when two German soldiers land at the island, looking for a specific artifact that may or may not be connected to the island nation. In the space of just a couple of days, absolutely everything changes for the people who call Montmaray home. The final third of the book morphs into a bit of an adventure story as there is danger and intrigue and just a touch of romance that it is very subtly implied.

Whilst this book covers a lot of ground historically, it is not straight historical fiction. The island nation of Montmaray is fictional and so therefore are the majority of the characters and the role that Montmaray plays in European history. Having said that, Cooper covers a lot of historical ground with mentions including Henry VIII,  Napoleon and the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany along with lots of other historical figures and events. The mix between real events and made up is really well handled and in this new edition there are notes to help young readers know what is real and what isn't.

When a book is well written using the diary format, it is a thing of joy. All too often a diary format can feel restrictive in terms of view point and narrative. In this case, the diary format works primarily thanks to the voice of Sophie which is engaging and charming from beginning to end.

I was trying to fit this book in around other reads and so was intending to read a chapter a day. There were plenty of days though when I ended up reading more than one chapter as this book was more engaging than the other book I was reading!

I was charmed by the characters, setting and historical context, so I will be very much looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with the royal family of Montmaray sooner rather than later!

Rating 4/5

Thanks to the author who supplied a copy of the book for review. She also guest posted for us at Historical Tapestry, telling us why she loves to read and write about 1930's England.

Synopsis

'This is what happened tonight, every single terrible thing that I can remember . . .'

Sophie FitzOsborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray, along with her tomboy younger sister Henry, her beautiful, intellectual cousin Veronica, and Veronica's father, the completely mad King John.When Sophie receives a leather journal for her sixteenth birthday, she decides to write about her life on the island. But it is 1936 and bigger events are on the horizon. Is everything Sophie knows and loves about the change?

This book counted for the following challenges