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.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins was one hard book to get a hold of.  I think after the second Hunger Games Movie, Catching Fire, people snapped this book up in double time.  But I did finally get a copy of it, which pleased me, because I really wanted to know what happened to Katniss, Peta, the other victors... and President Snow.

Below is the cover of the book and the blurb on the back of the book.

I read this book over three days, or nights rather.  You know that attempt to read one chapter before you go to sleep... and the next thing you know it is 3:30am and your eyes are falling out of your head!

While I was compelled to keep reading as I wanted to know how Katniss' story would end, I did not find this book as engaging as the first two books.  Now I don't know if that is because I had watched the movies of the other books before I had read those books or not.

However I did find this book irritating.  Katniss is obviously one messed up girl after her two experiences in the arena.  But she is now determined to be part of the revolution and bring down President Snow and the regime.  However, for much of the book, she is a blithering mess in a cupboard or being drugged to calm her out of a psychotic episode that she has spun into or injured and in hospital.

But Katniss is never really allowed by the leaders of the uprising to fully participate.  They use her as the Mockingjay to rally the citizens of all the other districts, but control her, stage manage her appearances and actions.

There is a great piece where Katniss and her other victors and rebels break free from the leaders of the resistance.  Katniss leads the group in a cat and mouse advance into President Snow's territory.  This is when Katniss shows her true ability to lead, and the victors and rebels with her show their dedication to her role as the Mockingjay.

The book does resolve the story of Katniss and her family and friends.  But don't go expecting a flowers and confetti ending.  Suzanne Collins throws the reader some curve balls right up to the end.

My Brother's War by David Hill

Each year I do a focus on Anzac Day in my classroom.  I'm always on the look out for great books that can communicate the New Zealand experience in the wars New Zealanders have gone to.  I also am a bit of a war novel junkie and have a slight obsession with war documentaries on the History Channel.

Last year the book I purchased as my main focus was My Brother's War by David Hill.

I bought this book last year to add to my Anzac Day resource collection.  I bought it at one of my favourite bookshops, Wright's Bookshop in Cambridge, which always has a great range of children's and young people's literature, a great range of New Zealand authors, and a great range in non-fiction as well.  I rarely leave this book shop without a purchase. 

I read this book to my class and then some children choose to read it themselves afterwards, and one child even bought the book herself.  When children want to re-read or buy the book for themselves, I think that is a great endorsement to the book itself.

David Hill is a well known and established New Zealand author who has written a number of novels and is a well known contributor to the School Journal.  He is a trained teacher and has been published internationally.  These are the links to his Penguin Books profile and his New Zealand Book Council profile and an interview with the Christchurch City Libraries.

The blurb on the back cover reads as follows:

My Dear Mother,
Well, I've gone and done it. I've joined the Army!
Don't be angry at me, Mother dear. I know you were glad when I wasn't chosen in the ballot. But some of my friends were, and since they will be fighting for King and Country, I want to do the same.
 
It's New Zealand, 1914, and the biggest war the world has known has just broken out in Europe.

William eagerly enlists for the army but his younger brother, Edmund, is a conscientious objector and refuses to fight. While William trains to be a soldier, Edmund is arrested.

Both brothers will end up on the bloody battlefields of France, but their journeys there are very different. And what they experience at the front line will challenge the beliefs that led them there.

A compelling novel about the First World War for 9-12 year olds.

The following text and the picture above comes from the Penguin Books New Zealand website:

Penguin Group (NZ) is proud that David Hill’s novel My Brother’s War has won the 2013 Junior Fiction category at New Zealand’s prestigious New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. The award was announced at a ceremony held in Christchurch last night. My Brother’s War was also the winner in the Children’s Choice Junior Fiction category.

My Brother’s War was released in August 2012 with great success. The compelling novel about the First World War – for 9-12 year olds – follows the lives of two brothers; William who eagerly enlists for the army, and his younger brother Edmund, a conscientious objector refusing to fight. While William trains to be a soldier, Edmund is arrested. Both brothers end up on the bloody battlefields of France, but their journeys there couldn’t be more different.

David is one of New Zealand’s most highly regarded authors for children and young people. His books have been published internationally and he has won awards for his writing in this country and overseas. David was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004.

Margaret Thompson, Managing Director of Penguin Group (NZ) stated “We heartily congratulate David Hill and are delighted to share in his remarkable success.”  25 June 2013

My class was very excited when the news came through that My Brother's War has won the Junior Fiction category in the New Zealand Post's Children's Book Awards, as well as the Children's Choice Junior Fiction Award. 

The thing I found intriguing about this book was exploring what happened to conscientious objectors.  This link will take you to NZ History for a more detailed description of what a conscientious objector is.  I knew that those who were not enlisted often received white feathers and that conscientious objectors were arrested and put in jail and did hard labour.

What I did not know was that these conscientious objectors were then forced into the army and with no training sent to the Western Front in World War I.

Those who continued to resist were then subjected to what was known as 'field punishment no.1' - a brutal punishment devised by the military hierarchy, which Edmund is subjected to in this book.  TVNZ showed a movie on Tuesday 22 April 2014 called Field Punishment No.1, based on a book of the same name, based on the experiences of Archibald Baxter, New Zealand's most famous conscientious objector.  In fact, Archie is also a significant character in My Brother's War.

Even though My Brother's War is aimed at children aged 9-12, I think even teenagers and adults will thoroughly be engaged in this book.  I think it is a good book to engage boys with, however it was the girls in my class who re-read it for themselves.  It certainly opened my eyes to an area of war very rarely discussed, an area that has been touched upon lightly over the years.  This is definitely a book worth a read in my opinion.

Girl of Shadows by Deborah Challinor

Deborah Challinor is a well known New Zealand author and historian.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction books, notably historical fiction and history books about Vietnam soldiers and the consequences of their service in the Vietnam conflict on the health of them and their subsequent children. 

 

I've read a number of her books and enjoyed them, and as soon as I can get my boxes out of storage and unpack my books and get them back on my shelves I will review those books too.

 

Currently Deborah Challinor is living in New South Wales Australia, writing a series of books based on four girls transported to Sydney Australia as convicts from London.  Girl of Shadows is the second book of that series, and I have previously reviewed the first book, Behind the Sun.  You can read more about Deborah Challinor and her books on her website.

 

The first book Behind the Sun was released in 2012, and this book was released in 2013.  So I am anticipating that the third book of the series will be released in 2014.... and I can barely wait as I have enjoyed the first two immensely.

As the characters were firmly established in the first book, Behind the Sun, this book quickly gets stuck into the action.  Only Friday, Sarah and Harriet are in this book, after the tragic loss of Rachel, and they are haunted by the revenge they took on behalf of poor Rachel.

Many other main and secondary characters return in this book, and some new ones are introduced.  One reoccurring character is Bella Jackson, who knows of their secret revenge and is blackmailing them.

The doctor from the Isla pines for Harriet, who will not make anything of his advances because of his actions after Rachel died.  Harriet has fallen on her feet though, being placed with a family who are also tailors and dressmakers.  Her artistic talents are soon discovered and put to use.

Sarah has fallen on her feet working for Adam Green, the jeweller, but his wife Esther is a thorn in her side.  Sarah decides to take matters into her own hands where Esther is concerned, and this has results that surprise even her.

Friday is working in a brothel that has rather high standards and she is popular.  But she fights the demons of her actions with booze and bears the burden of the blackmailing.  She knows someone is out to get her and her friends, but she can't quite put her finger on it.

This book engrossed me and took me on a journey to Sydney 1830.  It certainly is not the Sydney I'd like to visit, but to read about what this town was like so early on in its existence and to compare it to the Sydney today is quite fascinating.

The story is still full of Challinor's descriptions of the times and places and people, but the plot moves a long at a pace to keep you engaged.

And then it is the end of the book, and you realise that the next book in the series is not yet in the shops and probably won't be for another nine or ten months, and you grieve that you are leaving these characters prematurely, before you know their fates.....