Book Review: What Days Are For: A Memoir By Robert Dessaix

This is a book review of What Days Are For: A Memoir by Robert Dessaix that was published on 1 October 2015 by Random House Australia.

Robert Dessaix is best known as a writer of literary non fiction (memoirs, essays, biography and autobiography) but has also published two novels, several short stories and one play. Robert was born in Sydney and now lives in Hobart, Tasmania with his partner Peter Timms who is also a writer.

This is a memoir and musings from author Robert Dessaix who reminisces about his life as a young boy and now an older man, as he lays in a Sydney hospital  recovering from a heart attack.

When Robert comes across Philip Larkin's poem "Days" he begins thinking about what his days have been for, what and how has he loved and why. This memoir is told from Robert's view of the world which come in flashbacks from his young school days to tales of travelling the world and his inner thoughts and feelings about his friends and family.

I often had to read the sentences in this book again as it's very thought provoking and your mind needs to be present or you won't take it in. It's the kind of book you need to think about as you read it, it's not an easy reading novel, but it is witty and insightful.

I haven't read any of Robert's previous books, perhaps if I had I would have understood and enjoyed his writing style more. I found it hard to get into and difficult to follow, and for that reason I didn't really enjoy this book.

I recommend this book to intellects and Robert Dessaix fans.

I give this book 2 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

What Days Are For can be purchased from the author here and Random House 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 Random House Australia to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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[Image via Random House Australia] 

Book Review and Preview: Garden Made By Stephanie Rose

This is a book review and sneak preview of Garden Made by Stephanie Rose that is due to be published by Roost Books on 27 October 2015

Stephanie has a very popular blog Garden Therapy and her blog posts and projects have been featured in Woman's Day and Apartment Therapy to name a few. Stephanie spends her time as a gardener, writer and artist and lives in Vancouver, Canada with her husband, son and tiny dog.

Garden Made is a book of creative projects made for the garden or with plants and herbs from the garden.

There are more than 40 projects and they are split into chapters for each season of the year, so when it's spring you can head to the spring projects and see what projects suit what is happening in the garden then.

These projects can be for the home, garden or to give as gifts. There's a good variety with some easy and take just minutes or hours and others are more involved and might take a weekend to achieve.

What I liked about the projects is that they weren't just made to look pretty, they were made by the author who has a good good knowledge of the garden and the environment so it has useful tips to ensure that the projects will turn out and last.

Stephanie was never a gardener, but when she was home sick for over a year she gradually turned her brown thumb into a green thumb, here and there, as she learnt about gardening and taught herself how to grow things. From there Stephanie's talents evolved to create the projects that are found in this book.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes to be creative and it will suit everyone from beginning black thumbs like myself to experienced creatives and gardeners. This would also make the perfect gift for a creative gardening friend.

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 pass up the last tim tam for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Garden Made can be purchased direct from the author here or Roost Books

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

You can visit the author's website here

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

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[Image via Roost Books]

Our Wedding Cake Of Cheese + DIY Mini Bunting Topper

Remember how I wanted my wedding cake to be made of cheese?

Well here it is!

The wedding venue sourced the cheeses for us and they were top quality and tasted amazing. There were 5 layers of cheese to make up the wedding cake stack - from top to bottom they were:

Affine au Chablis - A rich and creamy French cheese

Lobethal triple cream brie and Lobethal brie - Both were creamy and delicious

Black Sticks blue - A delicate crumbly blue from the UK

Isabella Two Sisters - A buttery aged gouda from Holland

There was about 6kg - 7kg of cheese for 100 guests and we had about half leftover which we've been happily giving away to friends and family and otherwise storing in the fridge for the next cheese and wine night!

The cheese wheels were stacked from large to small and displayed on a beautiful round wooden board.

The cake table was decorated with gum leaves and honky nuts from my parents farm, candles, fruit, breads and crackers ... it looked amazing.

Everyone loved the idea of the cake of cheese and were hovering around it until we cut it and they could eat it! We cut the cheese at the start of the night and the staff took it away and cut it up and served it on small cheese platter boards that they placed on the tables around the venue with condiments like crackers, fruit and quince.

Another important part of the cake was the the cake topper.

Initially I wanted a personalised cake topper with silhouettes of Mr P and I and our furbaby Lexi but unfortunately the top wheel of cheese on the cake was quite small and wouldn't be big enough for that style of cake topper.

I needed something smaller and decided sticks holding up a string of bunting would be the better choice and the rustic look will suit the cheese too. 

I had a friend who is a bunting queen help me make the topper - she's made metres and metres of fabric and paper bunting over the years and I knew it would be in good hands with her creativity!

The silk paper used for the bunting was a gift from my matron of honour from her travels to Vancouver - I have also framed them as art for the living room. I used gold and white papers which matched in with our wedding colour theme.

The string is from my Mum's sewing kit and the skewers I already had. The wooden embellishments are from The Reject Shop and cost $3 which is all I spent on making the topper! 

Now don't mind the potatoes ..... they were supporting the topper while we worked on it!

The paper was cut into triangles and folded over the string and glued down, the top of the bunting was not glued so we could move the flags around the string until we were happy with how they looked.

Once we had the two layers of string and bunting the right size I glued the string to the wooden skewers and left it to dry overnight.

The next day I used my hot glue gun to attach some wooden hearts to the skewers where the string was tied to secure them. The hot glue gun has become my latest craft obsession!

I really love how the topper turned out and it looked perfect sitting on top of the cheese.

It was extra special that it was handmade by my friend and I.

I would definitely recommend having a cheese stack for your wedding cake!

What I loved about it was it can be cut any time of the day or night and it will be eaten, it's cost effective it worked out cheaper than if we had a sweet wedding cake and it's unique I received so many compliments and comments about the cheese it was one of the highlights of the wedding!

What do you think of our wedding cake of cheese?



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[All images my own]

Honeymoon Travels: New York USA

Mr P and I had the most amazing honeymoon touring around the USA we made memories we will remember for our lifetime!

We visited 6 places, stayed in 4 hotels, 1 apartment and 1 lodge and caught 11 planes over 3 weeks.

Our first stop was New York City

New York has been on my bucket list forever and I was so excited that this was our first destination. Although we left less than 24 hours after our wedding, the flight took 24 hours to get there, so on arrival we were exhausted and excited all at once!

We wasted no time jumping into the Big Apple and seeing what all the fuss was about. There is so much energy in New York, it's bustling with people and traffic, it truly is a city that never sleeps.

We stayed in our own apartment in the middle of trendy Manhattan off 5th Avenue opposite the Flatiron Building. We had everything we needed at out front door it was in a prime location. All I needed was a laptop and a cigarette and I could've been Carrie Bradshaw aka Sex in the City!

The apartment I booked through Airbnb was fantastic and a lot cheaper than a hotel stay - I would highly recommend looking into this kind of accommodation if you ever visit NYC.

We were spoilt for choice on what to eat in NYC! It become a morning ritual for Mr P to have Dunkin Donuts and I'd have a bagel with cream cheese and coffee and sit in Maddison Square Park and watch the squirrels and people go by. We also lined up for the Shake Shack burgers here which were delicious.

Reading the Slice Harvester recently which lists all the pizza places in New York was handy too. We found some delicious pizza places, our favourite was when we ordered pizza to go and took it back to our apartment for a pizza party for two, relaxed with a movie and drinks, listening to the bustling city streets outside. It's moments like these that create memories that I'll remember forever!

There are some great roof top bars around NYC which are worth a visit to escape the busy streets, admire the view and have a drink and recharge. We went to Eataly an amazing food market and visited their rooftop bar which is also a microbrewery and was the perfect way to spend a few hours and enjoy a few coldies on a hot day.

We had 3 days in NYC .... I wish we had an extra 3 days as there is just so much to see and do, we walked for miles and tried to make the most of our time there.

On day 1 we did a Free Tours By Foot where you pay the tour leader what you think it was worth at the end of the tour. Our tour lasted 6 hours and took us everywhere from Wall Street, Financial District, Stock Exchange, Trinity Church, World Trade Centre, Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park, SoHo, Chelsea Market for lunch, High Line Park and Chinatown. It ended in Little Italy where the big yearly San Gerrome festival was on and there were more types of cannoli than I've ever seen before!

We mostly walked everywhere but did catch the subway a few times which was a great intro to the metro system as it's always a bit nerve racking catching public transport in a foreign place. Our guide was a real character and told us everything we needed to know from the history to interesting facts to street smarts tips on riding the subway and how not to be an annoying tourist to New Yorkers!

On day 2 we had our first full America breakfast at the famous Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop which kept us fuelled for the whole day!

We went to the Top Of The Rock for amazing views across the city, stood under the clock at Grand Central Station, were dazzled by the happenings in Times Square, ate chocolate at Hershey's Chocolate World. shopped at Toys R Us, and had a well earned rest in Central Park.

On day 3 we went to Brooklyn and had a morning stroll over the Brooklyn Bridge with beautiful views of the city and river. Then we took the free ferry over to Staten Island and back again to see views of the Statue of Liberty. We spent a few hours at Modern Pinball for Mr P and did a bit of window shopping on our last day in NYC.

When they say to wear good walking shoes they aren't kidding. My faithful sandals broke just days into the holiday and I had to take myself shopping for a new pair. The good thing about walking is you don't feel guilty about the delicious food you eat because you've earned it!

I could easily have stayed twice as long in NYC there is just so much to see and do I wish we had more time here. I will definitely be back to do the museums, galleries, shopping, shows and dining.

I hope you liked my happy snaps from Part 1 of our honeymoon in the USA ..... coming up next is our trip down south to Louisville, Kentucky.

Have you been to New York? What did you love about it?

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Check out my other honeymoon travels around the USA here: 
Honeymoon destinations in the USA
Tours around the USA
Part 1 - New York
Part 2 - Louisville, Kentucky
Part 3 - New Orleans, Louisiana
Part 4 - Las Vegas, Nevada
Part 5 - San Francisco, California
Part 6 - Los Angeles, California

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[All images my own]

Book Review And Preview: The Masked Truth By Kelley Armstrong

I'm back on the blog after a magical wedding day and amazing honeymoon around the USA!

I did a lot of reading while on holidays to pass the time travelling .... 11 planes in 3 weeks was a lot of reading time! Here is the first of many book reviews that you'll see on the blog in the coming weeks and stay tuned for a wedding day recap and our travel stories from around the USA.

This is a book review and sneak preview of The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong that is due to be published by Hachette Australia on 13 October 2015.

Kelley Armstrong has been writing since she was a young girl. Kelley has written many series and novels usually about ghosts, demons and werewolves. She lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.

Teenager Riley is babysitting a young girl and hides under the bed with the young girl while attackers break in and murder the girls parents.

To help her get over this traumatic event Riley goes to a weekend therapy clinic with 5 other teens with mental health issues.

The clinic is taken over by 3 masked men who take the group hostage. Riley finds herself in a hostage situation once again and she is constantly reminded of the incident which bought her there.

The mental health issues of all the characters come to light and the story is full of suspense, action, twists and turns from the very start to the end.

All the main characters in the story are young which makes this a modern read. I found the storyline to be aimed towards the younger adult fiction and some parts I found pretty unrealistic. Nevertheless it was still a really great read.

I recommend this book to young adults and thriller seekers.

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

The Masked Truth can be purchased from the author here and Hachette 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 Hachette Australia 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 Kelley Armstrong]