Book Club Book Review: Useful By Debra Oswald

It was my turn to pick the book for book club for the month of July and I chose Useful by Debra Oswald

Debra Oswald is a writer for stage, television and fiction. She is the co-creator and head writer for two of my favourite TV shows - Secret Life Of Us and Offspring. She is the author of 3 'Aussie bite' books, 6 novels for teenagers, and this her first adult novel.

This is the story of Sullivan Moss - depressed, overweight and wanting to leave this world he unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide. When he survives his suicide he decides to do something useful for this world and donate a kidney to a stranger in need.

The story starts off slow as the characters in Sully's life become known and then the second half of the story you are drawn in as the momentum builds and there's a lot of action happening to keep the pages turning to the end. I didn't find any of the characters particularly likable (other than the young boy and the dog!) but I feel that it's the writer's intention as it goes with the theme of the book.

In the beginning I didn't like Sully very much, he was self absorbed, lazy and didn't care about his friends or himself. His character as a loser was portrayed perfectly. But as the story unfolded I started to cheer for Sully and wished he could see that he is worthy and has a place in the world.

I admit I did have high expectations of this book being that the author is the creator of one of my favourite TV shows Offspring. I enjoyed the writing style, it was modern, sometimes brash, and funny. It did give me some heart warming moments throughout and I appreciated that the ending was realistic and not a happily ever after fairytale.

I recommend this book to Debra Oswald fans and anyone feeling down about themselves or suffering from depression, you may feel some similarities with this story and it may help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I give this book 4 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Useful can be purchased from Penguin Books Australia

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Penguin Books Australia to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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[Image via Penguin Books Australia]

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Kerb Appeal - With Earl The Letterbox And Numbers

Now that we have installed a fence and gate around our limestone courtyard we are looking at the finishing touches to add kerb appeal to the front of the house.

Starting with replacing our cute little mail box which I can't believe is still standing on it's rusty pole in the ground, it's been knocked over more than once by trucks reversing into it and then dumping sand on top of it (true story!) plus it's not lockable so our mail isn't secure either.

Letterbox shopping is serious stuff, we went to half a dozen shops trying to find one we liked the look of and that could be installed in fence slats.

These were the top two we found in Bunnings ..... Earl and Soho.

We picked Earl because the letter slot was covered so it would keep the mail dry, nobody likes soggy wet mail! I also like the large slot for junk mail and my magazine subscriptions.

We got out the cordless saw and cut a hole in our newly installed fence panel which was just a little terrifying as you can imagine, all that work to install the fence and then we were cutting a hole in it! 

Thankfully Mr P knows what he's doing and we didn't make any mistakes and the letterbox fits in nicely.

It is pretty heavy, we put a heap of screws in it to hold it secure and it's lockable with 2 sets of keys which is just what we wanted for our mail - safe, secure and dry.

Isn't Earl handsome .... !

Now that the mailbox was in we needed some shiny new house numbers to finish it off and so the mailman would put letters in there - for a week the mailman was still using our old mailbox until we took it away!

Only certain types of numbers are suitable to be screwed into brick, most numbers were stick-ons which wouldn't last for long out in the elements in the rain so we went for the screw in type.

Funny enough the numbers went through the checkout at different prices, apparently the 6 is worth more than the 1, but I got them both for the cheaper price of course .... I am the Bargain Queen after all!

We used the sticker template to measure and centre and get them straight on the brick pillar and then drilled them in. 

Nice and shiny and not too big or showy, I think they suit the pillar just right. 

I think the new letterbox and numbers make a great first impression and adds kerb appeal too!

Our next project out here is to start on the courtyard's garden and landscape design and turn this patch of sand and weeds into a garden with lawn and plants.

Operation kerb appeal is underway!

Sharing with link parties:
Curly Crafty Mom - Motivational Monday
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
The Dedicated House - Before And After Wednesday




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[All images my own]

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Slow Cooker: Roast Recipes

In my slow cooker I have cooked curries, hot pots, pasta sauce, stroganoff, vegetables all sorts of dishes but I have never attempted a roast dinner. 

For our Sunday roasts I usually fire up the Weber BBQ or the BBQ rotisserie because the smokey BBQ flavour you get is amazing. But for something different I'd really like to try a roast in the slow cooker this weekend.

Here are some delicious roast recipes for the slow cooker ....

Slow Cooker pork roast with lemon and sage stuffing

Sicilian Veal Pot Roast

Slow Cooker Roast Beef

Spiced Chicken with Lemon and Dates

Slow Cooker Guinness Lamb Shanks

My Sunday roast is sorted, I'm going to try the spiced chicken with lemon and dates roast this weekend.

What are you cooking in your slow cooker?




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[Images via Taste 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

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Book Review and Preview: Dinner Solved By Katie Workman

This is a cookbook review and sneak preview of Dinner Solved by Katie Workman that is due to be published by Workman Publishing on 11 August 2015.

Katie is the author of The Mom 100 Cookbook, the founding editor in chief of Cookstr.com and a food writer publishing articles in magazines and websites. Katie lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

This is a cookbook aimed to tackle the problem of pleasing everyone at the dinner table without becoming a short order cook.

There are 100 recipes in this book and they use a 'fork in the road' recipe solution which makes it easy to turn one dish into two, such as mild and sweet ribs for the kids that can become spicy ribs for the adults.

What I really liked about this book was that Katie's personality came through as funny and witty, it was like she understands fussy eaters, and wants to please the kids as much as the adults. I also liked that there were photos of every dish so you know what each dish is meant to look like, this is so important in cookbooks, but sometimes lacking.

As the book is American, some of the ingredients are not familiar to me but the recipes look easy enough to adapt to different ingredients found elsewhere, be it Australia or anywhere else in the world.

As I only had the Kindle ereader version of the book, I will need to add a hard copy of this book to my bookshelf at home to really make use of the tasty recipes inside.

I recommend this book to any home cooks with fussy eaters that want to get dinner on the table that everyone will eat.

I give this book 4 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Dinner Solved can be purchased direct from Workman Publishing

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Workman Publishing to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter


[Image via Workman Publishing]

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Courtyard Ideas: Outdoor Decorative Screens

Now that our front courtyard is fenced in we are ready to landscape and design the garden. 

Mr P and I have spent a few evenings out here lately working out our design .... me with a nice big glass of wine and Mr P a bottle of icy cold beer ..... it definitely helps get the creativity flowing!

Our first task is to hide the 3 rubbish wheelie bins and we plan to do this by moving them to the far corner of the courtyard and sit them behind a decorative screen.

So now I'm on a mission to find a beautiful decorative screen that will last outdoors in our harsh climate and give enough privacy so the bins don't show through. 

These are some of my favourite outdoor screens ....

The first few screens are from Bunnings and cost $99 a panel but as we need 2 or 3 panels to screen the bins.

 I've also been scouting Gumtree because you never know I might get lucky and find someone's trash is my treasure!

Which one is your favourite?

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[First image my own - All other images via Pinterest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]


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DIY Wedding Stationary Inspiration

I've been spending the last few weeks pouring over wedding blogs, stalking Etsy shops and pinning away on Pinterest like a crazy woman in an attempt to narrow down my wedding stationary design.

I'll admit it was easy to get swept up in all the beautiful designs and prettiness! 

While I like to get my craft on and be creative, I don't have fancy craft equipment, nor do I want to bribe my bridal party to spend hours making fiddly invitations with me, so I'm trying to keep them fairly simple and inexpensive to do myself.

I had such great success with DIY-ing my Engagement stationary that I'm going to use the Avery products again for the wedding.

But I want the designs to look different from one another and a bit more fancy as it's the wedding stationary.

When it comes to the complete wedding pack and what to include there's a lot to think about and trust me I'll never look at another wedding invitation the same now that I know how much time and effort goes into it! 

This is what I want to include in our wedding pack: 

Invitation 

Reply Postcard

Social Media information

Gift information

Belly band

Envelope

Address and Return address labels

Monogram labels

Phew that's a lot of designs and stationary when you list it all together!

I did a lot of research on the layout of the invitations, from formal to casual styles, there is a lot to consider even down to what order names are listed and what not to put on the invitations but to provide separately (ie: extra information such as gifts, social media, wedding apps, accommodation etc).

Once I was happy with the design of the invitation and after multiple draft print runs and Mr P's approval, I used that same design on all the different stationary - the font, size, colours, and our monogram initials which I downloaded for free from Wedding Chicks. 

Now that I have my designs all worked out I'm on the look out for pretty paper to make the belly bands (a new word I didn't know existed until a few weeks ago!), envelopes and embellishments.

Then I can hit the print button and share our wedding stationary pack with you!

Did you DIY your wedding stationary?

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[All images via Pinterest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]



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Book Club Book Review: Cutting For Stone By Abraham Verghese

My Book Club's book choice for the month of June was Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

This is a story about Siamese twins Marion and Shiva born from a secret union between an Indian Nun and English surgeon. The scene is set in Addis Abad in Ethiopia in the mid 1900s onwards.

The story is narrated by numerous characters including the Indian Nun and English surgeon (the twins parents) but mostly the first born twin Marion takes over the story and we hear his every thought in life from a young child to when he's a middle aged man and the pages are filled with such detail you feel you're on this life journey with him.

There are many meanings in this story - from the people of Ethiopia, it's leaders and politics, medical treatment and controversial practices, studying and school and the willingness to learn, but the main focus of the story throughout is about family. The love of family and what they will do for each other because for them family is the people in their community, their helpers, cooks and cleaners all form part of their close family unit.

This was a really long book and it took you through daily life in a missionary hospital in town, there was a lot of surgery and medical terminologies which made a lasting impression on me and at times I found very difficult to read. I can only imagine how long this book must have taken to write as it is full of such detail that would've needed to be meticulously researched.

I enjoyed this book and was moved by the messages in it and I wanted to score it higher but it just had too much medical jargon and was about 200 pages too long at over 500 pages it was a very lengthy book to get through.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in medicine and the life and culture of Ethiopia.

I give this book 3 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

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[Image via Angus and Robertson]

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