Craft Display at the Library

A couple of months ago we had a craft display at the library. Some of my crochet toys were included! So here is a picture of it. It's not a great picture as the display was in a glass cabinet and I was having trouble with reflections.

The two yellow chickens, the owl, the red egg and the cat were all crochet by me.

The jumper and the scarf were done by another talented staff member.

Blog Revamp 2012

I started this blog in 2010 to document the reading I was doing for some reading challenges I'd signed up for... For the first year it worked ok... and the second year started well but then it and my reading just went by the wayside. I've been celebrating the National Year of Reading 2012 by ... not reading *sigh*

Instead I've been crafting... it started with crochet cats and via owls and rabbits I'm back to knitting again. I've been told I should blog about my crafty things. I thought there a lots more challenges that I set myself that perhaps the blog could be revamped to include everything that I do.

So I decided I would revamp the blog to be about well life really and all sorts of challenges I face whether voluntarily or involuntarily... Posting regularly for this blog is definitely a challenge I face. To be precise a lack of motivation is a challenge that I need to overcome.

Welcome to the first post of my revamped blog! Hopefully it will be the first of many. I hope you enjoy.

Jason Akermanis: Open Season - Jason Akermanis with Gary Smart

Jason Akermanis: Open Season
By Jason Akermanis with Gary Smart
Hardie Grant 2010
pg 338
About the bookNo longer restrained by contractual obligations and free to speak at last, Aker reveals a no-holds-barred look at a stellar sporting career, including behind-the-scenes details of Aker's falling out with Leigh Matthews, his move to the Western Bulldogs, run ins with fellow players, and his thoughts on the game. Interwoven throughout is the personal story of finding and reconciling with his biological father - a married man with a family of his own who lived next door. Told with trademark honesty and passion, this
tell-all memoir is a must-have for all footy fans.

My ThoughtsI never liked Jason Akermanis as an AFL player. He was one of those characters of the game who fans love to hate and as a Sydney Swans fan I loved to hate him... well not hate really, but I did think he was a bit of
a tosser. I think he did bring something to the game that wasn't there before. He brought excitement and wasn't afraid to be an individual. His handstands after a win became a trademark move, and apparently fans loved it! But he also brought controversy.

Most of us only got one side of the story when he was release from both the Brisbane Lions and Western Bulldogs. Me even less so because I didn't pay that much attention to what was being reported in the media. I remember in 2006 when it was rumoured the Swans were interested in him, I was becoming interested in not being a Swans fan if he joined them. Never did I think I would ever read, let alone buy and enjoy a memoir/biography of him.

I think what I liked most about the book was that it was so easy to read. I sat down on Sunday morning and surfaced only for food and natural breaks and had it read by early evening. It was so nice to be able to do that. It was interesting to read about the behind the scenes politics that go on at a football club, and the jealousy between players. Sometimes you can tell when a team member is on the outer - they don't tend to get the ball - but most of the time spectators don't get to see it.

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Rockdale Reader Book Group selection for July 2011

About the Book
The Life of Pi is about Piscine Molitor Patel. An Indian boy who grows up in a zoo in the town of  Pondicherry. When he is 16 his parents decide to give up the zoo and move to Canada. The animals are sold to other zoos around the world and Pi's family travel on the cargo ship with some of them. One night there is an explosion and the ship sinks. Pi gets thrown into a life boat and is followed soon after by a zebra, Richard Parker, a spotted hyena and an orangatan. Soon there is only Pi & Richard Parker.
They spend 227 days at sea before reaching Mexico. While at sea, Pi struggles to maintain dominence to stay alive. Once they reach Mexico, Pi is interrogated by 2 men sent by the Japanese owners of the ship company seeking answers as to why the ship sank.

My ThoughtsIt is very hard to read a book that is so well know. The story everyone knows about The Life of Pi doesn't really start until a third of the way through and so I was reading about the zoo thinking where is the boat?
Where is the tiger? Also, I find it hard to read for a purpose. So although I really enjoy the book when I sit down to read, it is the making time to sit down and read that is the problem! Enough gripes about my laziness onto a review.

I really enjoyed reading The Life of Pi. Pi is an engaging character with a bit of a quirky sense of humour. The story of how Richard Parker gets his name made me giggle and I had to close the book and find a quiet corner so I could calm down. I enjoyed the first section that was about Pi's early life in Pondicherry at the zoo. His interest in becoming a Christian, a Muslim and a Hindi at the same time created an interesting conundrum. I loved the scene where all three of the religious elders came along to say why he couldn't join the others. And I don't think it was properly explained why he couldn't! This started the religious theme that continued through out the book... apparently... according to some reviews... I don't read to actively deconstruct books and pick out these kinds of themes. I read to escape.

My favourite character was Richard Parker. Despite Pi's father's warning he is anthropomorphised... and yet still remains a menace through the book. I enjoyed the scene where the boat has just sunk and Pi sees Richard Parker swimming. He decides to rescue him and calls him to the boat. We don't know
who Richard Parker is (or at least if I did, I had forgotten)

"I threw the lifebuoy mightily. It fell in the water right in front of him.
With his last energies he stretched forward and took hold of it.
'hold on tight, I'll pull you in. Don't let go. Pull with your eyes while I
pull with my hands. In a few seconds you'll be aboard and we'll be
together. Wait a second. Together? We'll be together Have I gone
mad?'
I woke up to what I was doing. I yanked on the rope.
'Let go of that lifebuoy, Richard Parker! Let go, I said. I don't want you
here, do you understand? Go somewhere else. Leave me alone. Get lost!..." p99

There is a twist in the last section of the book, which I would really like to talk about. However I don't want to give it away to people who haven't read it yet...

When God was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman

About the Book
Spanning four decades, from 1968 onwards, this is the story of a fabulous but flawed family and the slew of ordinary and extraordinary incidents that shape their everyday lives. It is a story about childhood and growing up, loss of innocence, eccentricity, familial ties and friendships, love and life. Stripped down to its bare bones, it's about the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister.

My Thoughts
I love this book! This is my favourite of 2011 so far, by far. I feel like Elly has become a close friend over the course of the novel and I really didn't want to finish the book because it means that the friendship has moved on. This, I think is one of the main ideas that moves through the book. The idea that you can be close friends with someone for a period of time and then it moves on. You can come back to friendships and pick up
from where you left off... or work through the pain of losing the friend for a while.

I missed her. I would always miss her. I often wondered how it would
have been if we could have experienced the coming years together.
What would have been different? could I have changed what happened to
her? We were the guardians of a secret world; a lonely world without
the other. For years i would flounder without her. (p162)

It also examines the close relationship between Elly and her brother and how they knew each others secrets. That even though friends come and go, family is always there and how noone knows all your secrets like family.

You see, you were the only person who knew everything.
Because you were there. And you were my witness. And you
made sense of the fed-up mess I become every now and then. And I
could at least look at you and think, at least he knows why I am the
way I am. There were reasons... (p308)

The book covers a lot of major events of the 70's, 90s and 2000's. Most of them I don't remember where I was or what I was doing. The main exception being 9/11 when I was somewhere between Heathrow and my cousin's apartment in Dublin when the North Tower came down, and watching in a haze of jet lag as the 2nd tower came down. When I read her description of her morning in London, I remembered that I was in London too, although just passing through. I think this part was the most moving of the whole book. I'm not
going to go into details because I don't want to spoil your reading experience of it.

The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens

This was the June book for the Rockdale Readers book club


About the Book
The Old Curiosity Shop tells the story of Nelly Trent and her grandfather as they wander the English countryside, north of London, trying to evade Daniel Quilp. Nell's grandfather has borrowed money from Quilp to support a gambling habit and has lost everything, including the curiosity shop.


My Thoughts
Is it wrong to blog about an unfinished book? I have read it before, but when rereading realised there is only 1 scene I remember at all! The scene is where Richard Swiveller wakes up the Brass' Lodger who has slept for 26 hours and wants to charge him twice as much as everyone else because he has slept twice as long.

'Have YOU been making that horrible noise?' said the single gentleman.

'I have been helping, sir,' returned Dick, keeping his eye upon him, and waving the ruler gently in his right hand, as an indication of what the single gentleman had to expect if he attempted any violence.

'How dare you then,' said the lodger, 'Eh?'

To this, Dick made no other reply than by inquiring whether the lodger held it to be consistent with the conduct and character of a gentleman to go to sleep for six-and-twenty hours at a stretch, and whether the peace of an amiable and virtuous family was to weigh as nothing in the balance.

'Is my peace nothing?' said the single gentleman.

'Is their peace nothing, sir?' returned Dick. 'I don't wish to hold out any threats, sir--indeed the law does not allow of threats, for to threaten is an indictable offence--but if ever you do that again, take care you're not sat upon by the coroner and buried in a cross road before you wake. We have been distracted with fears that you were dead, Sir,' said Dick, gently sliding to the ground, 'and the short  and the long of it is, that we cannot allow single gentlemen to come into this establishment and sleep like double gentlemen without paying extra for it.'

I don't remember it the first time I read it, but The Old Curiosity Shop is quite a comic novel. The characters are caricatures, and get into silly situations. In this reading my favourite parts were of Kit's first couple of meetings with Mr & Mrs Garland and their headstrong pony Whisker.

The old gentleman, the old lady, the pony, and the chaise, came up the street in perfect  unanimity, until they arrived within some half a dozen doors of the Notary's house, when the pony, deceived by a brass-plate beneath a tailor's knocker, came to a halt, and maintained by a sturdy silence, that that was the house they wanted.

'Now, Sir, will you ha' the goodness to go on; this is not the place,' said the old gentleman. 

The pony looked with great attention into a fire-plug which was near him, and appeared to be quite absorbed in contemplating it.

'Oh dear, such a naughty Whisker" cried the old lady. 'After being so good too, and coming along so well! I am quite ashamed of him. I don't know what we are to do with him, I really don't.'

The pony having thoroughly satisfied himself as to the nature and properties of the fire-plug, looked into the air after his old enemies the flies, and as there happened to be one of them  tickling his ear at that moment he shook his head and whisked his tail, after which he appeared full of thought but quite comfortable and collected. The old gentleman having exhausted his powers of persuasion,  alighted to lead him; whereupon the pony, perhaps because he held this to be a sufficient  concession, perhaps because he happened to catch sight of the other brass-plate, or perhaps because he was in a spiteful humour, darted off with the old lady and stopped at the right house, leaving the old gentleman to come panting on behind.

A few of the regular bookclubbers found it hard to get through The Old Curiosity Shop. So the discussion went sideways a bit, in that it wasn't about the book so much, but about the times and Charles Dicken's early life. We did talk about some of the memorable characters before getting
waylaid again by how far Nell & her Grandfather walked in a day. It sounded like they went a long way. This lead the conversation into talking about the perception of distances, how Australian's think nothing of driving 2 hours to get somewhere, where as in other countries this is a big deal. The group did say that Richard Swiveller seemed to be the most fully drawn of the characters and he seemed to grow over the course of the novel. The consensus of the night was that  Charles Dickens was no Jane Austen, which some of the group members preferred. 


I think I enjoyed the supporting cast members stories more than Nell and her Grandfather's. I enjoyed reading about Kit and his mother. I didn't really get very far into the novel though. I think I am up to just after Kit starts working for the Garlands and Nell and her Grandfather have just
met up with the lady in the caravan.


Despite not getting very far, I do recommend this book. It's not one of Charles Dicken's best novels, but it is one that you don't assume that you have already read because you know the story so well. What Dickens does best is to present the life of the lower class and this is done well in The Old Curiosity Shop.

A Post of Unfinished Books

The trouble with borrowing library books is that they have to be returned. Most of the time it's ok, because I can renew them, and I get to finish the book. For popular books it's a bit more difficult though because people go and reserve them! So, one of the books I was reading in May had to be returned unfinished... and a couple of other books had to be returned as well. I just don't know what's wrong with my reading this year. It seems to take forever to get through a book and I'm just not that patient anymore.

I've been abandoning book club books as soon as the meeting is over so Shadow of the Wind, The Secret Scripture, Possession and The Old Curiosity Shop are all going unfinished. Luckily the first and the last are rereads, so it's not like I don't know what happens... and I found a rather good summary of Possession which covered all the major events in a tenth of the time it would take me to read the book. I was on holidays when Secret Scripture was discussed and really couldn't get into it at all.

Other books become victim to my Book Club reading because I have to drop what I'm reading to read the set books. Victims of this include: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua, which is also had to be returned because there are reserves on it, and... well actually I don't remember any others. Books that I own also suffer the same fate, but are much more easily picked up again - The Complete Polysyballic Spree by Nick Hornby is one of these. However, it is suited to being picked up, read and put down.

I do have a policy that if I can't get into a book by between 50 - 100 pages then I'm ok with abandoning it... I can always try it again later when my frame of mind has changed. Some books I have to be in the right mood for and won't enjoy it if I force myself to read it. I think that's what happens with some of the book club books.

We've had discussions in book club about where people stand on finishing books. Many of the group members are strict book finishers. They feel like they owe the author the courtesy of finishing... I wonder why... I wonder if it is a generation thing? What do you think?