What to do on these freezing days? So cold even the teapot needs to wear a hat? Bank up the fire, brew a pot of tea, put up your feet and r-e-a-d. Bliss. And what better to read than the
fiction category of the Montana NZ Book Awards? The
first book of fiction , too, of course - [oh those tropical waters where The Blue was swimming only a year ago...]
I am rather proud of the fact that I am
exactly half way through the joint fiction lists already [total of seven books and I've read 3 1/2: see full lists below]. I've read
Crocus Hour, and
10 PM Question in the fiction list and am now in the middle of the snappy blackly-humorous London world of
Novel about my Wife. In the First Book category I've read
Misconduct only.
If you need encouragement, here it is:
A TEA COSY FICTION CHALLENGE.
Read all seven novels, email me [marymac21ATgmailDOTcom] with a scan of the docket from the purchase of
at least one of the books dated from today onwards [July 6], answer a quick quiz to show you have indeed read the books, and ....
YOU WIN a gorgeous tea cosy like the one at the start of my post made by my friend Audrey Shearer. Note, you can't be associated with the Montana NZ Book Awards in any way. Just a virgin reader with a cosy-less teapot....
LATE CHANGE: Given the fact that the Montana Awards are announced in just over a fortnight [July 27] and cold weather clearly makes people sluggish, I will accept any FIVE novels from the list of Fiction finalists and Best First Book of Fiction as entries in this competition. Btw - I have finished Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins and it is a seriously wonderful read. Do not miss it. The Rehearsal calls....
And a recent update on my progress with the Tea Cosy Fiction Challenge here. Now here are all the books. Good luck.
FICTION
10 PM Question - Kate De Goldi Longacre Press
Acid Song - Bernard Beckett Longacre Press
The Crocus Hour - Charlotte Randall Penguin
Novel About My Wife - Emily Perkins Bloomsbury
The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton Victoria University Press
FIRST BOOK OF FICTION [HUBERT CHURCH PRIZE]
Misconduct - Bridget van der Zijpp Victoria University Press
The Rehearsal -- Eleanor Catton Victoria University Press
The Year of the Shanghai Shark - Mo Zhi Hong Penguin
Well, finished Novel about my Wife by Emily Perkins. And oh what a joy -a novel that is gleefully dark, deliciously tense, packed with incisive personal and social observations and laugh out loud funny. Sad, too. Powerful. Crafted. Bloody amazing.
