So the time to post comments on
finished last night and we have winners!
And the winners are… everyone who commented! Yes, a big thanks to:
who all took the time to leave a comment.
I’ll email you all to get your postal addresses and send you out some reading material!
I have to confess, I have played hooky from my review reading to take in The Dark Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine – and I am not the least bit guilty! 
Another fantastic read by Vine, I just devour her books now and am forever in the debt of those who recommended her to me! Amazing twisty, turny narratives, brilliant writing. Just some seriously good stuff.
In other BookieMonster news, Mr Monster and myself and Little Monster are moving out of Auckland in 5 weeks. Needless to say I will be a little quiet as this is quite a big move for us and involves a lot of being busy! But it is also a huge step forward for us and we are embracing it with open arms.
And I am not freaking out in the slightest. 
BookieMonster will still be with you, however! I will just have a much nicer view to inspire me as I write. 
Lucky for you though, it means there’ll be more bargains available on Trade Me as we get through stock (moving books is hard work!) so be sure to keep checking our listings: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings.aspx?member=1998646
What are you reading and doing in your life?
Dear Readers, we need your help! We are going to be doing some site design refreshing and giving everything a little zhuzh (pronounced zhuzh) and we’d like to know some of your feedback and thoughts!
So if you would be so kind as to leave a comment with any feedback you have about the site look and layout as it currently is – anything you like, anything you dislike.
I’d also be really interested in what you would like to see in sidebars – that’s those things to the right —>
How do you find things on the site? Do you visit and read the pages or just the posts? Do you find it easy or difficult to navigate around?
Did you know we have a Twitter account? Did you know we have a Facebook page?
Is there something you wish we had but don’t? Is there something you’re sick of seeing?
In summary – any thoughts would be appreciated!
Now, we don’t expect you to give up your opinions without being rewarded, oh no! So everyone who posts a comment between now and 6pm next Thursday (25 November) will go into a random draw to win a random book. In fact, there will be approximately 5 books up for offer, so you get 5 chances to win! And possibly more. Because we really want to know what you think so we’re trying to bribe you as much as possible.
Your winnings will be from our selection and may be a secondhand book or a new book, but we won’t send you out anything really crappy. 
New York Times best-selling author CASSANDRA CLARE will be touring NEW ZEALAND in May 2011!
AUCKLAND / WELLINGTON
Cassandra Clare – author of the best-selling series The Mortal Instruments – will be visiting the cities of Auckland and Wellington between the dates of 12-27 May 2011 and will be a guest author at Auckland Readers & Writers Festival.
Kiwi readers have rushed to embrace her books: City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass, causing each release to break in to the top ten best-seller lists nationally. Cassandra’s legions of fans will be gearing up for the greatly-anticipated release of the fourth book in the sequence – CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS, which will be released shortly before her tour.
“I’m so excited to be heading to NZ in 2011!” enthuses Cassandra. “First off, I’ve never been there and I’ve always wanted to go. Secondly, I get the best fan mail from my New Zealand readers! They’re so articulate, thoughtful and enthusiastic about books! I’m literally counting the days till I’m on my way!”
Hollywood studios are also in negotiations to greenlight a movie series of The Mortal Instruments which is already hotly tipped to rival the phenomenon of the Harry Potter and Twilight movie franchises.
The cover of Book 4 City of Fallen Angels will be revealed to the world in December 2010.
WHO WILL BE TEMPTED BY DARKNESS?
WHO WILL FIND THEIR ROMANCE TORN APART?
WHO WILL BETRAY EVERYTHING THEY EVER BELIEVED IN?
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS BOOK 4: CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS
By Cassandra Clare
Publishing worldwide 5 April 2011
Walker Books Australia
For further festival information and bookings please go to:
Simon’s Cat : Beyond the Fence by Simon Tofield, Canongate, RRP $37, ISBN 9781847674845, Available now.
Oh, Simon’s Cat with your cute little vapid expression, your big eyes, your soft tummy and your little cat bum. I adore thee!
In case you’re not familiar with the internets, Simon’s Cat is an animated little kitty who has taken internets world by storm. Or at least that part of the internets world that is obsessed with cats (it’s a bigger part than you think).
Simon’s Cat is just like your regular everyday kitty – lovable whilst being utterly infuriating and annoying. Clever yet dim. Always hungry.
In his new adventure Simon’s Cat makes his way out into the big wide world of the English countryside for a bit of excitement. He finds hedgehogs (also known in BookieMonster world as hedgepiggies), he finds cows, he finds chickens, he finds foxes, he finds a farm cat, and, most snorgle-worthily, he finds a load of bunny rabbits who become rather attached to him.
I love Simon’s Cat. They are the cutest little cartoons and this is the perfect gift book for any cat lover for Christmas. Charming is an understatement! Totally delightful.
The Paper Garden: Mrs Delany begins her life’s work at 72 by Molly Peacock, Scribe, RRP $55, ISBN 9781921640797, Available now.
I’m going to start this review by diving right in and letting you know straight away what I thought of this book. The Paper Garden is a total delight. From beginning to end, from gorgeous cover to gorgeous cover, it is a joy to read.
So, that kind of gave it away, didn’t it?
The Paper Garden is a biography of Mary Delany – 18th century woman and creator of marvelous and groundbreaking flower collages. Hers was a late-life blooming. She was originally married off in a horribly commercial way to a man much her senior, who she clearly found rather detestable. When he died she was left a widow at 25, and determined to hold on to whatever independence she could.
Fortunately for Mary she found love and eventually did marry again. After her husband died she went through a period of deep grief before she (as the book puts it)
picked up a pair of scissors and, at the age of seventy-two, created a new art form, mixed-media collage.
Peacock does a fabulous job of bringing Mrs Delany’s life to… well, life. She captures some of the real fundamentals of 18th century England in the details of this story – the forced marriage for money reasons, the struggle for women to remain independent and seen as capable without a husband, and the “new” world that was being “discovered” and brought back in the collections of men like Joseph Banks.
At the same time Peacock uses small vignettes from her own life to illuminate the universal truths of many women’s lives – truths which haven’t much changed over centuries. Loss of choice. Grief. Love. Inspiration. Family. Friends. Clothes.
As well as all that, Peacock is clearly of the opinion (as am I) that, despite our age’s obsession with youth, real creativity and a deeply felt life are not just the preserve of the young – in fact they may not at all be the preserve of the young.
And Mrs Delany’s art. It’s fabulous and the book does it real justice with reproductions of several of the collages, close-ups and fantastic production values, that at once manage to make the book seem both intimate and significant. I not only loved reading this book, I loved holding it and admiring it and turning the pages and smelling the ink. It’s that kind of book.
In summary, The Paper Garden is simply a beautiful book, in every way. A perfect gift to yourself, or others.
Extra BookieMonster Blathery Goodness!