Book Chat Issue #46

Best books and an Aussie Christmas

Hello reading friends

I love reading all the ‘year in review’ posts from my fellow book lovers, but I was tempted to give it a miss this year as I already did a mini round-up in Issue #41.

Back in October my favourites were The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, and All My Mothers by Joanna Glen. These are wonderful books and you should check them out if you haven’t read them yet.

Book Chat Issue #41

However, I’d like to mention a few other books that I loved and you might also enjoy. The People on Platform 5 is a warm and funny comfort read about an assorted group of characters who become friends by accident. Careless is a coming of age book about two 15-year-old friends dealing with teenage pregnancy, racism and the care system and Pigeon English is a sad, funny and true book about an 11-year-old Ghanian immigrant who lives in an inner-city estate in London. Both Careless and Pigeon English deal with some tough themes, but are moving and memorable.

What was your favourite book this year? I’d love to know.

An Aussie Christmas

If you don’t live here in Australia, you might be interested to know how we celebrate Christmas (food wise.) It’s very warm here (around 85 degrees F), so our Christmas spread is usually some kind of roasted meat accompanied by a variety of salads. Many people eat prawns and other seafood, but this year we had baked ham and it was delicious.

Baked ham, potato gratin, nectarine salad, mango salad

We’ve been hosting Christmas lunch for our extended family at our home for about 30 years, but this year we went to my son and daughter-in-law’s place. They live in a cottage near the water so we ate lunch on the verandah. It was brilliant having the day off and not spending all day in a hot kitchen. For dessert we had pavlova, another Aussie favourite. What a blessing to be able to spend a relaxing day with loved ones, eating beautiful fresh food. We are so lucky.

Book Club News - I’ve picked the first book!

You’d be amazed at how much time I have spent mulling over what we should read for our first online book club meeting. I wanted something not too heavy and not too light (a Goldilocks book), so I’m happy to announce that I’ve chosen The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Set in a bookshop, it tells a story of grief-stricken bookshop owner whose life is turned around by an unexpected package. It might be a bit soppy, but I love books about books, and who doesn’t love a happy ending?

If you’re new around here, let me explain that the book club is for readers of Book Chat. It’s free and you don’t need to register or sign up. We’ll have four meetings a year, the first being in March at a date to be advised.

I’ll send out all the information to subscribers in a separate message, but for now please find a copy of the book and start reading. If you haven’t yet subscribed to this newsletter, please sign up so you never miss an issue.

That’s all for now!

I hope you all get a chance to have a little bit of time to yourself in this busy holiday season.

Happy reading and look after yourself,

Marg xxx