Month: July 2025

Book magnet

Everyday we’re either repelled or attracted by what we experience – or somewhere along the continuum from one to the other. Felix is very cute until he brings in a rat. I began this morning’s paper with anticipation only to put it down with distaste. I link these opposing feelings to the kinds of books I’ve been reading. I was a little repelled (that’s NZ-speak for very repelled) by aspects of a book of short stories titled Surplus Women by Michelle Duff. It’s literary fiction, after all the author won the International Institute of Modern Letter’s fiction prize in 2023. The book reminded me of Margaret Atwood’s short stories collected in Bluebeard’s Egg which I puzzled over at university until it clicked that the women were supposed to behave like that and never see the error of their ways – so we wouldn’t make the same mistakes, perhaps? With both authors the writing itself is the most attractive feature.

I am never without a book and, ever indiscriminatory (within limits), looked forward to slipping into the more comfortable, but somewhat mis-named, genre of ‘cosy crime’ to give me a break. I decided on May Day by Jess Lourey and embarked on a sometimes attractive sometimes repellent adventure set in the small town of Battle Lake, Otter Tail County, Minnesota (all real places). It’s attractive for the hilarity and social commentary and somewhere on the spectrum to repellent for the food, weird Americanisms (‘a couple moments’ instead of ‘a couple of moments’ is just one example) and quirky characters – reminiscent of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, but engaging for its freshness*. I’m too entertained to be bothered by the sneaking suspicion (i.e. awareness) that the writer knows too well – and manipulates – her reader, but that is perhaps the same for all fiction writers; part of the writer’s craft. Of course, May Day turns out to be the first of a Book by Month series. The first was cheap on Amazon, after which the price of each book quadruples. So I looked it up on the library catalogue and have downloaded all ten books in the series for free and have 14 days to finish them. A fest of alternating attraction and distaste. I’m up to July.

*Both Evanovich and Lourey get a lot of laughs out of the antics of elderly folk – but then, so do I. When I took Mum (aged 96) to have a blood test on Thursday she announced in the waiting room that her stockings were falling down and proceeded to hoist up her neat tweed skirt to make the necessary adjustments. (Luckily, there were only three people in the waiting room, a man intently involved with his phone and two others hastily heading out the door. A courier driver at the counter had his back to us and was taking his time.)

Contemplative colouring

The first page of colouring is complete, although I could add more shading and deepen some colours. For example, the sky could be more evenly shaded and darkened since the stars suggest it is night.

Eventually, I will look for a wider range of colours. The coloured pencils I am using are Crayola blenders, which are double-ended with a slightly different shade at one end which can be blended with the other, and Faber-Castell watercolour pencils which give a paint effect when you go over the top with a wet brush. So far, I’ve used them dry as the illustrations have fine details and I go over the edge quite a lot as it is! I know now that trying to keep inside the lines was part of learning fine motor skills as a child.

I find myself happily colouring in silence rather than listening to podcasts or the radio. There’s just the soft rasp of pencil on paper and a ‘clink’ as I drop it back in its ceramic pot where the pencils ‘chatter’ together as I select the next. The paper is smooth to touch and sturdy, so that pressing harder to deepen the colour doesn’t show on the reverse side.

I am considering attempting a less ‘busy’ illustration to colour next – when I’ve finished the book I’m reading.

Colouring in

Choosing – or is it chewing – his colours

When colouring-in books for adults began to appear in shops I was a little scornful, even to the point of imagining the kind of person who might use them. I’ve noticed a pattern in my life: I make a judgement about someone and before long I find it applies to me just as much.

The colouring-in book I bought last week attracted me with its delightful illustrations based on rooms. I have a thing for rooms. It would be like doing a jigsaw, I thought, only it would take up less space, involve choosing and mixing colours, and would last for years. I could listen to podcasts or even audio books while I coloured in.

I’m looking forward to colouring these steam punk pages

As you can see, even Felix has developed an interest.

Vibrant Maximalism

Stepping into this shop is like stepping into a different world, an Aladdin’s cave or Moroccan souk (not that I’ve been in either of those), full of rich textures and vibrant colours; a feast for the senses.

The shop is curated with colourful woven bags, oversize fabric and wallpaper sample books, books on interior design – with a maximalist vibe – yards of braids including bobbles, re-dyed sari fabric for knitting or weaving, and shelf upon shelf of cushions. On a large table are beautiful books about design and crafting by NZ artists published by Koa Press, an independent publisher based in Christchurch. There are nice touches like wooden chairs, stacks of leather suitcases, and old sewing machines. The owner has a work space at the back with an overlocker and sewing machine, and was working as we happily browsed. She paused to chat and answer questions. As well as doing interior design (including the colour scheme and fit-out of the shop) she makes all the cushions. Wow!

Her website is worth a look.

A Different Kind of Power

At the end of her memoir, Jacinda Ardern imagines giving advice to a young girl who doubts herself.

The things you thought would cripple you will in fact make you stronger, make you better. They will give you a different kind of power, and make you a leader that this world, with all its turmoil, might just need (pp131-132).

It was hard to put this book down (in more ways than one). It answered a lot of questions I had about what it was like being Prime Minister, a sensitive, principled, idealistic and female one particularly. No ghost writer was involved here, but surely a good editor. It is very well written and well structured; parts of it echo and link, particularly character-forming moments from early in her life which serve her well when making hard decisions later. It goes well beside Michelle Duff’s biography, which gives the political and social context more than it gives details about her life.

I looked through my 2020 diary to find mention of Ardern’s government and the covid response and was shocked to find there was very little. And yet it occupied our daily lives and our thinking in all her years in government. My journal did a better job, thankfully, and I had slipped newspaper cuttings into it which are interesting to read now. Something else in my journal caught my eye. In November 2021 I was reading Deborah Levy’s first memoir Things I Don’t Want to Know and had copied down this extract where it occurs to her that like other women she is ‘on the run’.

We were on the run from the lies concealed in the language of politics, from myths about our character and our purpose in life…The way we laugh. At our own desires. The way we mock ourselves. Before anyone else can. The way we are wired to kill. Ourselves. It doesn’t bear thinking about (pp158-9).

I remembered Ardern writing in the memoir that she was ‘on the run’ from one thing to another in her life. She discusses with a friend their shared tendency to ‘run away’ from things. The honesty of her self-evaluation is an admirable aspect of the book. When she decides to leave Helen Clark’s office and go to New York she worries that she could not be sensitive and survive in politics.

Was I running away? Probably. But that was better than staying and facing up to the fact that I couldn’t do something (p122).

In the Acknowledgements, Jacinda Ardern thanks her mother for going through ‘endless journals’ for her. Clearly, the family kept better diaries than I, and it explains the careful details of Ardern’s early years and highlights the collaborative spirit of her family who have supported her and her own family consistently.

It seems like a completely different time we lived through during Ardern’s two terms as Prime Minister – certainly a contrast to the current government. An article I found tucked into my journal describes the change as ‘Retrograd’.

People whose outlay involves enormous houses, multiple properties, private schools and expensive cars will demand tax and rates cuts, while furiously complaining about public services…Mention you’ve waited hours for an ambulance, or that mental health services are stretched to the limit, and they’ll be indignant. They will blame the government. Then they will briskly use the tax cut to transport the family to a holiday in Europe. This is Retrograd, where you take it all for yourself, live your best gated life, enjoy the paradise of your own scorched earth.

-Charlotte Grimshaw, Listener, 26 March 2022

A Different Kind of Power gives me some hope that these days won’t last – before climate change beats us to it.

For Felix fans

Felix has been caught on camera a few times recently.

He often rides on the tray of Mum’s walker.

A couple of times he’s put an end, literally, to Mum’s knitting. He recently wrecked a raffia placemat. Before long, he and Mum are friends again.

Here he is watching the All Blacks v France game on Saturday:

And, tonight, relaxing by the fire:

Ta-da! Jigsaw completed

Jigsaws can be frustrating and annoying sometimes, especially if there are huge areas of one colour. This one was a delight. It’s The World of Miss Marple – one of ‘The World of…’ series. Last winter I completed The World of Jane Austen. I have The World of Charles Dickens and The World of Shakespeare yet to do, but at this point I’ve resolved to do just one each winter. Fun though it was, I became a bit obsessed and all other plans were swept aside. I develop ‘jigsaw eyes’ too; seeing details of buildings or gardens as if I’m looking at a jigsaw.

Saturday. What’s this about, then?
I completed characters before I had all the edge pieces
Wednesday. Being reminded to pay attention to Felix.
This morning
Done by lunch time

The World of… series comes with a poster of the finished jigsaw and, on the reverse, the characters are explained and which book they appear in. This Miss Marple jigsaw also listed the clues dotted about the puzzle, the books they occur in and the publication dates. They are jigsaws to keep and to treasure.

My Jane Austen shelf, with jigsaw