Armchair BEA - Authors I've Had the Pleasure to Meet.

Thanks to my job in an Indie bookstore, I have had the pleasure of meeting lots of authors over the past 6 years. Some visits are arranged by the publishers. But many of them are pop in's - just to say 'hi' and to sign a few books.

Local author Hannah Richell - author of The Shadow Year & Secret of the Tides. 

 Local author Jennifer Walsh has written 2 children's books set in our suburb called The Tunnels of Tarcoola and Crooked Leg Road. As Jenny Spence she has also written an adult crime novel, No Safe Place.

 Local author Steve Worland has written 2 crime novels, Velocity and Combustion.

Another local author (and actor), Steve Bisley wrote his memoirs last year, Stillways.

It was shortlisted for this years NSW Premier's Literary Awards Non-Fiction.

 Sydney based crime writer Michael Robotham popped in to sign copies of Watching You.

 Sophie Masson is an award winning children's author, with too many titles to list!

 Melbourne based author, Graeme Simsion (aka Rosie Project) has popped in a few times too :-)

 I was delighted to host a storytime with The Gruffalo a few years ago!

(sorry for the fuzzy pic - I asked one of the kids to take the photo.)

New Zealand writer, songwriter & musician Craig Smith entertained us with his hit song and books Wonky Donkey and Willbee the Bumblebee a couple of years ago.

 One of my favourite author events was last years launch of Josephine Moon's The Tea Chest.

It was a high tea on the 15th floor overlooking Sydney's Botanic Gardens.

Josephine was charming and wrote a lovely piece about booksellers on her blog (click link above).

There have been so many more wonderful author events, including a trip to the Opera House to hear Edmund de Waal discuss The Hare With the Amber Eyes. 

I am very fortunate, I know. 

Writing this post for Amrchair BEA has reminded me of how much I love my job!

Armchair BEA 2014

I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

I'm winding up The Wharton Review, I'm a third of the way through my latest Classics Club spin book & I'm waiting for Angela Carter Reading week next month.

Surely I can fit in Armchair BEA as well?

The Introductory post asks us to answer five (out of ten) questions as a way of getting to know each other.

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? Where in the world are you blogging from? 

I'm a 40-something bookoholic from Sydney, Australia. 
I've been blogging for 4 years and 11 months. 
Up until 6 years ago I was a preschool teacher. I'd been teaching for 18 years...but I burnt out. I was at a loss about my next career choice. While I was dithering about, I picked up a temporary job at my local indie bookstore. 
Within 6 mnths I was managing the kids section of the shop and I'd started my own book blog as a way to assist teachers and parents in selecting appropriate books for their children.
However, I found this type of reviewing very constraining and ultimately, unsatisfying. It was taking the pleasure out of reading! 
As a result, my blog has now evolved into a more personal book journey.

2. What genre do you read the most? I love to read because ___________________ . 

I love historical fiction and the classics. I love to read for the pure joy and escapism. I also love to read for knowledge - self-knowledge as well as the bigger, wider world of knowledge about the meaning of life & man's inhumanity to man.

3. What was your favorite book read last year? What’s your favorite book so far this year? 

It's not easy to pick just one favourite for 2013 so my favourite children's book was The Cloud Hunters by Alex Shearer and my favourite adult book was 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Although 2013 was also the year I read my first Pym (the beginning of a lifelong love affair I suspect!)

2014 - children's favourite by far Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Australian author Karen Foxlee. The adult choice is a tie between The Railwayman's Wife by another Aussie author, Ashley Hay and the Anne Tyler classic, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

4. Share your favorite book or reading related quote. 

It may be a little obvious or predictable, but one of my all time favourite books is To Kill A Mockingbird and my favourite quote from it is...

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... 

Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."

5. If you were stranded on a deserted island, what 3 books would you bring? Why? What 3 non-book items would you bring? Why? 

3 book; 1 deserted island?

Persuasion by Jane Austen & To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee because they are my favourite rereads & 1001 Books You Must read Before You Die so that I could remember all the rest!

3 non-book related items?

First up - Mr Books (for all the obvious reasons!) 

Secondly, my pocket knife and third - a mixed pack of vegetable and herb seeds.

You can follow me on facebook, twitter and Instagram.

I'm looking forward to my first Armchair BEA - a great way to travel without jetlag!

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

The Literary Blog hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase.

Each week a new question is posed - this week the question is....

What one literary work must you read before you die?

That's easy - for me it's Vikram Seth's 'A Suitable Boy'.  

I loved this book from start to finish (which means that I loved this book for quite some time...it took about 2 months to complete!) and I wanted everyone else to read it and love it as much as I did!

It was full of drama, history, memorable characters, pathos, humour, love and grief. I was genuinely upset when I finally finished the book - I missed the characters like they were real friends and family members. I carried the book around with me and declared to my book group that I wished to be buried with it when I died!

This book popped into my hands during the middle of my Indian reading phase (obsession). I had already read The God of Small Things, several books by Anita Desai, A Passage to India by E.M. Forster & Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie. 


By the end of A Suitable Boy, I was dreaming about India. What seemed so exotic and alien early in my reading had become familiar and knowable.

I think that's why books like this are so important. 
We only ever get to live one lifetime each; through books we can experience hundreds. 

Anything, any book, any author, any character that allows you to  

"climb inside of his skin and walk around in it"

is important. 

For me, A Suitable Boy was one of those book. Just as Harper Lee opened up the deep South during my teen years, Seth - and India - captured my 30's.

I still find myself thinking about Lata and Amit to this day, wondering what they're up to, hoping they're okay.
So you can imagine my delight, when 2 years ago I learnt that Seth was writing a sequel called 'A Suitable Girl'.

I have high hopes it will be published next year so I can add it to my personal list of books that I must read before I die.

Happy Reading!



Later -

I'm such a dill !!
I didn't check the date on the above Blog Hop properly. Turns out the March dates were for 2011!!

But I had so much fun putting this together, I've decided to keep this here anyway. 
I will join in another (up-to-date!) Literary Blog Hop soon :-)

Much later -

I will also include this as a cheat's post for Armchair BEA 2014!