Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

This blurb is spot-on. From me I'd like to add: it's a fun, crazy book, with unpredictable twists and turns. Enjoy the journey!

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend

Budo is Max's imaginary friend. But though only Max can see him, he is real. He and the other imaginary friends watch over their children until the day comes that the child stops imagining them. And then they're gone. Budo has lasted a lot longer than most imaginary friends - four years - because Max needs him more. His parents argue about sending him to a special school. But Max is perfectly happy if everything is just kept the way it is, and nothing out of the ordinary happens. Unfortunately, something out of the ordinary is going to happen - and then he'll need Budo more than ever...

So much for the Goodreads blurb of Memoirs Of An Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks. While the premise in itself is original and intriguing, the blurb fails to capture the beauty, quirkiness and heart of the novel. I loved it.

Valentine's Day And Chocolate

Because it's almost Valentine's Day, Here is a give-away from Eve Summers: a box of chocolates to a lucky reader (or two, or three). Simply buy an e-copy of "Not Complicated" and send the invoice number to bestseller at xtra dot co dot nz (email subject: Love Romance!).

For every 10 emails, 1 lucky winner will get chocolates. So your chance to win is 1 in 10 (or 1 in 5, or 1 in 2, depending how many entries I get). Plus the book you buy. Not bad for 99c, huh?

Top 5 Movies 2012

What are your top 5 movies for 2012? Without using Mr Google to prod my memory banks, I can thing of... one... come on, come on, I spent thousands of dollars in the cinemas last year... Life Of Pi can't be the only great movie I got for my money... I remember Wimpy Kid and the latest James Bond, neither of which deserves the Top Five slot... And now that I think of it, Life Of Pi was made in 2012, but it was released in New Zealand in 2013....

OK, I give up.



Right. It's all coming back to me now.

1. Safety Not Guaranteed
2. The Hunger Games
3. Madagascar 3 (what is it with the children's movies?)
4. The Pirates - Band Of Misfits (ditto)
5. Ruby Sparks - I haven't actually seen it yet, because when it was on I had too many deadlines to go out, but I've no doubt that it would have been awesome

Not a great year. What am I missing?