Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins

Don't you just love reading books about places and people that are similar to you, that give you the fantasy that you are similar to the person in the book and that scenario just might happen for you?

Well that is what Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins did for me. 

Danielle Hawkins is from Otorohanga in the Waikato/King Country.  Yep!!  Another Kiwi author based in rural Waikato!!  Who would've thought that country life could be so inspiring to a writer?  This is the second book Hawkins has published, and to give you a clue, I enjoyed it so much I went out and purchased her first novel Dinner at Rose's which I will also review soon.  This NZ Herald article from May 2012 gives you an insight into Danielle Hawkins.

So here is the cover of the book and the blurb on the back... I hope I'm not the only one who was intrigued by the cover of the book:

The lead character, Helen McNeil, is a small town rural vet in the Waikato, recently returned from her OE and not long out of a long lasting relationship that had fizzled.  After many years away due to university and travel, she is adjusting back into the community where she grew up and has relatives seeping out of every nook and cranny - some of whom are rather painful.

Her cousin makes her attend a party on a night that she is the on call vet.  And as the back of the book describes, in her attempt to avoid the dullest girl in town, Helen literally trips over an All Black.  She doesn't even recognise Mark Tipene's name when they strike up a conversation in the dark shadows.  Mark is impressed by this lack of recognition, and soon begins his pursuit of Helen.

The fact that Helen is always on call (so it seems), that it is calving season, and that she seems inept at talking to the male of the species combined with Mark's eagerness leads them on some interesting first dates.  It will also give the reader some appreciation of some of the more gory parts of being a vet than the average cat or dog owner wouldn't ordinarily think of.

Of course it is not all smooth sailing for Helen and Mark.  There is a major problem that soon tests their relationship, and lack of communication and assumptions compound it.  But these issues do not stop the very interesting support characters from introducing some hilarious scenarios into the book and that is probably what makes this book so funny and readable (apart from the romance of course).

I loved this book so much I read it twice in three weeks (I've never done that before) and it promoted the fantasy that so many girls in New Zealand have.... an All Black falling in love with them.... even in the back blocks of no where!!

The Life and Art of Lynley Dodd by Finlay Macdonald

Wow!!  This was a spur of the moment purchase.  I had not even heard that this book had been published at all.  But back in March I was trawling through Paper Plus in the Downtown Plaza in Hamilton, trying to hunt down the third book in the Hunger Games series, and my eyes rested upon this volume.

I'm not a fanatical biography reader, my previous biographies read being mainly All Blacks Josh Kronfeld, Tana Umaga and Mils Muliaina, so this is new territory for me.  However Lynley Dodd is a New Zealand treasure and her books are must haves in my opinion - not just as a teacher or an aunty - I enjoyed them before I became either.

The Life and Art of Lynley Dodd by Finlay Macdonald (another writing legend of New Zealand) is just gorgeous.  Feast your eyes on the front, back and inside covers for starters:

  

The inside covers were actually a mini autobiography which Lynley Dodd produced in 1995 for In Flight magazine.

Macdonald has had access to pictures, notes and letters right back into Dodd's childhood.  There are scribbles she did at primary and secondary school, beautiful drawings from Art School, the doodles she did as an art teacher and young mother.... it is all there, cataloguing her evolution to become one of New Zealand's most beloved authors and illustrators.

All the way through the book are the mock ups as well as the final illustrations that make it into a published book by Lynley.  She discusses her obsessive perfectionism she has towards the pictures and words, how even when the book is sent off to the printers and arrives in its final form that she can barely look at it because she knows she want to re-draw all the pictures again. 

Her long time collaborators Ann Mallinson (publisher until 2009) and Margaret Cochran (designer) talk about her high standards and the degree of the control she and her small team have asserted to keep the Hairy Maclary brand from being diluted and exploited.

Throughout the book there are excerpts from various books that I couldn't help but read out loud to the cat because the language is so much fun.  Scott Optican (associate professor of law from Auckland University) informed  Lynley in 2009 as she received a distinguished alumni award from the University of Auckland that she was using anapaestic tetrameter as her method of writing rhyme.  Lynley responded that she did not know what that was and was surprised by his observation.  She said she 'just wrote what sounded good to me'.  This timing is used by Dr Seuss and in the story The Night Before Christmas.  It seems Lynley has used it by instinct and it is a timing that works beautifully for a child's picture book.

This book is a beautiful insight into one of New Zealand's most celebrated children's authors.  She is not only celebrated by children, but by parents and teachers as well, as there is so much in her books that endears them to adults too.

It gives a real eye-opener into what it takes to produce a book to the standard which Lynley Dodd has set for one of her children's books.  It is also and insight into the evolution of an author and how they approach their work.  It also shows that New Zealand authors can foot it on the world stage and can create books that are beloved around the world.

Finlay Macdonald has approached the writing of this book in the same way that he used to present the television show on books he once spearheaded: gently, factually, warmly.   It is an easy read with wonderful illustrations that relate to the period of Lynley's life being discussed and photos that chart her life.  I've been able to dip in and out of this book over the last six or seven months and soak up the charm it exudes.  As a teacher I am inspired to share parts of this book to demonstrate that professional authors have to work hard to create the books that my students love.

This book is a celebration of not only Lynley Dodd, but one of New Zealand's most beloved characters, Hairy Maclary, and his friends.  I'm so glad I gave into impulse and purchased this book.  I know it is a book that I will dip in and out of for years to come.  This is a book I will cherish.

Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager

I'm not usually one to buy books about politics.  As avidly as I follow, read, comment and live politics, I would not normally purchase a book about politics.

But this book, Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager, was about something I had been suspecting for a while as a follower of politics, so I bought it.  Nicky has had a history of writing provocative books about politicians and their deeds, such as Helen Clark's alleged cover up of GM seeds being imported into New Zealand as covered in the Seeds of Distrust book in 2001, and the expose of Don Brash's dodgy as National Party 2005 election campaign in the book The Hollow Men.

The book is sub-titled How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand's political environment and this book pulls few punches and confirms my worst fears of modern New Zealand politics and commerce.

Alas, due to it being term time and also being actively involved in Election 2014 as a party activist (supporting a candidate), among many other busy reasons, I didn't get past chapter one for a long time.  Finally in the term break I began to read more.  By the end of chapter 5 I had to have a shower.  I felt dirty inside and out, sickened to my stomach.

And that sensation did not leave me at any chapter.

I was horrified at the depth and lengths in which Slater, Farrer, Ede, Lusk, et al, went to discredit credible people, manipulate politics and commercial endeavours, change laws, direct candidate selections, and generally destroy people's lives.  Personally, I have been oiled, and the person I was oiled with is still fighting for her career.  I know others that have lost their careers due to Slater and his devious ways.  And always with lies, innuendo, slander and defamation.

However it did confirm many suspicions I had over the National led government and their tactics since 2008.  This comment by Hager in the Afterword confirmed what I had believed in recent years:

John Key's government was unusually aggressive at attacking and trying to silence scientists, journalists, academics, public interest groups and any other people who publicly criticised its actions.  It cut public funding for a wide array of organisations that represented and advocated for communities.  The essence of democratic government is that the widest possible range of people have their share of influence and an equal chance of being heard.  The politics revealed in this book is about small numbers of people trying to have much more than their fair share.

What astounds me is that even after Hager has exposed Slater and Farrer and their ilk, demonstrated the extent to which John Key, Judith Collins and their staff were involved, the general public of New Zealand still voted the National Party back into government and no action has been taken against Slater, Farrer, Ede or Lusk.  Yet Nicky Hager has his house raided with equipment and documents seized, despite him saying from the day the book was released that he no longer held any documents or electronic files linked to the data given to him by the hacker Rawshark.

In conclusion, this is a book every New Zealander should have read before the election, and if they haven't, it should be compulsory reading now.  It exposes the dark arts of political manipulation and corruption and if there is no changes to the laws and procedures in New Zealand as outlined by Hager in the Afterword then we truly have a corrupt society.

Longbourn by Jo Baker

I wandered into the bookshop before heading to a favourite café for a leisurely lunch.  I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but I wanted an engaging read, and I had left all my current reading material at home before I headed for a quick break to the beach, during which I'd decided not to take the kitchen sink with me.

My eyes glanced over the shelves and settled on Longbourn by Jo Baker.

I am a big fan of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, loving the book, the BBC miniseries (which I have watched over and over), the movie version with Keira Knightley and the Bollywood rendition call Bride and Prejudice (also watched multiple times).  I think I've read every Jane Austen book and avidly watched the movie biopic of her life, Becoming Jane.  Then there are the other spin offs like Clueless and the Bridget Jones' Diary series....

This book focuses on the people below stairs in the Austen class Pride and Prejudice, the characters that are seen and unheard in the book, the miniseries or the movie, who have few lines if any (excepting Hill, who probably has the most to say in any adaptation as the senior servant of the Bennet household).  The description of the running of the house and the lower working class is raw, and at times crass, as it depicts those who do the manual labour of a gentleman's household.

It brings up a few surprises and fills in the back histories about Mr and Mrs Bennet as well as the downstairs characters, and shows Wickham was a lot more debauched than even Pride and Prejudice alluded to.  We see Elizabeth as not so sure about herself as a young married woman, and how Jane and Elizabeth were conscious of giving their servants clothes that they no longer wore or books to read.

I polished this book off in less than 24 hours.  It was engaging.  It was funny, tender... horrific where it needed to be.  It is an honest glimpse into the running of a gentleman's house in the early 19th century and gives more information to the reader about the Napoléon war England was engaged in at the time than any of Austen's books ever does.

I do recommend this book as well worth reading if you are an Austen fan.  It will not taint your previous reading, but it complements and enhances what you enjoyed about Pride and Prejudice as a reader.