C'mon deliver the letter, the sooner, the better... Part 6

Books 17-24 for The Postal reading Challenge

Book 17-The Brothers of Baker Street by Michael Robertson
The second in a series, this one was probably a bit more realistic then the 1st. The letters are still arriving addressed to Sherlock Holmes.
 Reggie is working on a case involving one of London’s Black Cab drivers who is accused of murdering two American tourists, and at time it seems like he has made the wrong decision taking on the case, but it all works out in the end.

Book18- Love, Aubrey by Suzanne La Fleur
Aubrey is an 11 year old girl who lost her father and sister in a car accident. Her mother, unable to cope with the grief, leaves Aubrey alone. Eventually her grandmother arrives and takes Aubrey home with her. Aubrey writes letters to her sister's imaginary friend as she learns to adjust to her new life without her sister, father or mother.

Book19- Return to Sender by Zoe Barnes
The main character in this book works as a Postlady. Her father is the local parcel delivery man.
A bit of a light hearted book, after a few heavier ones.
Holly has started thinking about having a family one day, but first she wants to find out more about her birth mother. She hires a private investigator and doesn't plan on falling in love with him!

Book20- Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole
I loved this book, though it reminded me a lot of " The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", (which I also love.) Spanning 2 wars, it tells, in letters, the love story of Elspeth and David.
I looked up where Skye is on a map, and added it to the list of places I'd love to see one day.

Book21- The Burley Cross Postbox Theft by Nicola Barker
This book had far too many characters and it took me longer to read as I kept flipping back through trying to work out how they were all connected.
Someone steals the mail from the postbox, then dumps it in a nearby lane and 2 police have to read through the mail in the hope of finding out who stole the mail and why.
A funny idea but far too complicated, some laughs especially the letter concerning local dogs and their business, but mostly, just too long and involved.

Book22-The Household Guide to Dying by Deborah Adelaide.
I had read this before, but I received a copy in the mail as part of a Bookcrossing Bookring. So I decided to re-read it as it had been a few years since I read it.
I really enjoyed this last time I read it, but this time I hated it. Life experience has changed my opinion and I just wanted the main character to stop wasting her time she had left. I found the idea of a Household guide to dying tasteless and sad.

Book23-Airmail by Kate Fitzpatrick
A friend send me this (and a few other books) for the reading challenge. This one took me a long time to read, I found it tedious and dull. It may have helped if I knew some of the names mentioned, but probably not. Even with all the places the 2 sisters went and all the fun they had, I still found it boring.

Book24-Worldwide Adventures In Love by Louise Wener
A bargain book I picked up in Kmart for $3. Teenagers Jess and her sister Margaret are intrigued by their neighbour and her house full of interesting things. When Edith's house burns down, their mother suddenly leaves their father and Margaret develops an eating disorder, Jess tries to hold everything together. Nobody knows Margaret has Edith's letters, telling of her travels as a young woman and also of a secret she's kept to herself.



And some photos of recent outgoing mail

I also created a Pinterest Board for my Postal Reading Challenge books-
http://www.pinterest.com/wombles/postal-reading-challenge/

C'mon deliver the letter, the sooner, the better... Part 5

Firstly some photos of mail, incoming and outgoing over the last few months-

 My collection of stamps, mostly from KikkiK, Typo and Spotlight.

Postal Reading Challenge Book 14
The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson
I enjoyed this more then I expected to. Rather unbelievable in places, but an interesting read. I rather liked the idea of someone answering letters from years before. I wonder if people really do get letters addressed to fictional characters?
I've just realised as I've looked this book up on Goodreads, that this is a series! I'm happy to see that, I'll have to look for more of them now.

Postal Reading Challenge Book 15
The Perks of being a wallflower.
I will admit to seeing the movie before reading the book, and I really think people should do it in that order. The book explains so much more then the movie.
I read this as an ebook, (which I'm still not overly thrilled with and can't read more then one at a time of) as I didn't want to wait for a library copy.
My daughters best friend is always talking about TPOBAW and quoting lines from it. I am surprised I'd never heard of it before now.
I'm a big Rocky Horror fan so I loved those parts of the book. I downloaded lots of music from the movie and the book.  (2 different soundtracks really)
I think Charlie probably needed some more help. Probably in a 2013 setting he would have gotten more. 
I liked Charlie and I hope he was happier eventually.

Postal Reading Challenge Book 16
Going Postal by Nathan Millward
In this case Going Postal isn't a Terry Pratchet novel or a killing spree!
A Bookcrossing  friend of mine sent me this for the Postal Reading challenge, she didn't mention that Nathan buys his postie bike from my home town!
Nathan decides, when his visa runs out, that he will ride a postie bike home to England. 9 months and 18 countries!
Nathan has a website thepostman with a map of the route he took and pictures etc.
 I loved reading about all the different places, but thought the last part of the book was a bit rushed, there was not as much writing about Europe as there was about Nepal and India.

The books still on my Postal Reading Challenge "To be read" pile.

Under an old brass paperweight Is my list of things to do today................

Making : a corkboard display for the entry
Cooking : Canned soup for a lazy dinner
Drinking : Pepsi
Reading: "what to do when someone dies" Nicci French
Wanting: to find a Balmoral Kitchen hutch secondhand.
Looking: at houses on Real estate.com.au
Playing: smurfs village
Wasting: lots of out of date jars of stuff from the fridge.
Sewing: nothing, hopefully one day soon.
Wishing: for time back
Enjoying: hearing Miss H say "oh dear"
Waiting: for surprises in the mail
Liking: the cooler weather
 Wondering: why everyone is so crazy about Offspring.
Loving: the 3 day weekend coming up
Hoping:  to go to the Ekka
Marvelling: at Miss H "counting" 2,3 at 20mnths
Needing:  a hug
Smelling: mandarins
Wearing: purple and grey
Following: the herd
Noticing: the grass looks good cut really low
Knowing: there's the zoo to look forward to
Thinking: about things left unsaid
Bookmarking: recipes into Evernote
Opening: the mail
Giggling: at silly internet jokes
Feeling: relieved

From Meetmeatmikes

Get a message to her

I read about Willow on Facebook this morning. It would be great if Willow got some mail from different countries.
http://frogpondsrock.com/2013/05/letters-for-willow/
I'm sure it would make her day to get more then 100 pieces of mail.

Downtown Stroller Town, Take a Stroll Around...

"Then we stop off at the corner and she pulls up next to me
A sporty crimson red MacLaren Techno XT
Me I'm sitting pretty in my Bugaboo Frog
Swivel wheel suspension so I sleep like a log
And my five point harness keeps me buckled in tight
And the XT's gunning as we wait for the light
And the wheels start spinning"
Stroller Town
Johnathon Coulton
(Who'd have guessed there is a song about prams? )

I've never owned a Maclaren or a Bugaboo for that matter (I just don't get the Bugaboo thing!) but I have owned roughly 20 (ish) prams over the last 21 years and 5 babies.

A Jane bribon, a jogger from Bigw, a beautiful foreign pram (beautiful but not very long lasting), 2 different double prams, and quite a few Steelcraft prams.

So when I was pregnant this time, after an 11 year break, I went straight to the Steelcraft website and the Strider caught my eye straight away. I barely looked at anything else after that, I'd seen some people with Striders at the Baby expo in Brisbane and loved the look of them. (If I'd spent more time looking I may have been lured away by Baby Jogger).

I ordered one online and when it arrived I told my husband - "A woman designed this pram"! So many great features! I loved the big basket, the water bottle holder down the bottom and the bag on the back of the seat.

The Strider is heavy though, and even though I've rarely folded mine and we don't drive so I don't have to fit it in a car, after 18 months it seemed very heavy once you put an 11 kg toddler in it.
Miss H didn't like how it made her sit back, she was always trying to lean forward in it. When she was a baby I always though she looked uncomfortable when the seat was laid back, the seat shape is just not quite right somehow?

I also have an Emmaljunga I bought secondhand for $50. I'd always wanted one and thought it was a steal for $50. We used it as a bassinette during the day in the lounge room for the first 2 months or so, and have never really used it with the seat part attached, but I can't bear to part with it.
I also bought a cheap umbrella fold lay back stroller from Target as a traveling pram, if we were going somewhere that would mean folding up the pram and for using on Brisbane buses etc. I put a lot of time into choosing the right stroller too, it had to lie-back, have a basket, have a liner and have a rain cover. I thought I'd ticked all the boxes until the first time we used it in the rain and discovered the rain cover hangs from the edge of the hood, so the rest of the stroller gets soaking wet! The wheels spin on shined floors like the ones in shopping centres too, so it just annoyed me from the start.

So when I started making noises about wanting another pram, my husband said "Do you really need to buy a new pram?" and then "Well why don't you try and win one then?".
So I spent a while the next day searching for competitions to enter. A week later I found my name listed as a winner. I'd won a Rozibaby pram!

I chose all black as the options and air filled tyres in the 3 wheel design. The Rozibaby arrived this week and I have been testing it. So far I love the way it moves, it feels so light that I keep checking MissH is still in there! I can push it with one hand! It doesn't feel like I'm pushing a huge weight. It has the same floorspace in length as the Strider but it a bit narrower, so it fits better down aisles and on the bus.
MissH seems to like the seat, it's a bit more upright then the Strider.
The basket doesn't hold as much, there's no bag on the back and no water bottle holder or liner. The rain cover is quite good with a window which MissH might like as she hates raincovers. I used the suncover today and it is very easy to put on, the Strider one always confused me.
I can't see MissH as I'm pushing the pram, there is a bit of a gap between the seat and the handle. The brakes are a bit fiddly to get used to and need to be checked as the pram would keep rolling very easily.
It's a bit easier to tip backwards then the Strider was. I haven't actually folded it up yet, but from what I can tell from the Rozibaby website, the seat has to be removed to fold it.
The negatives are definitely made up for by the lightness, it's at least 4kg lighter then the Strider and so much easier to push. 

I'd never heard of Rozibaby before I entered the competition, though there was one used in episodes of "House Husbands", with all red options. There are accessories available on the website, like a handy travel bag for the pram.

I'm not sure I'm ready to part with my Strider just yet (though the Target stroller's days might be numbered) but so far I'm pretty happy with the Rozibaby.

C'mon deliver the letter, the sooner, the better... Part 4

Book 11 for the Postal Reading Challenge-
Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel
A teen fiction book I borrowed from the library. I found this a bit tedious at times, but of course that would because it's a teen book! Told in letters, blog posts and postcards, this book tells the story of Colby, sent away for summer to her crazy Aunts house. At the beginning of the story Colby is just worried about what her new "cool" friends back home are doing and whether she will lose her place with the cool kids.
By the end of the book she has a much better attitude and actually enjoys her last few weeks on the small Greek island.

Book 12 for the Postal Reading Challenge-
The Scrapbook of Frankie Platt by Caroline Preston
I found this book at the library, a different kind of book. Told in real scrapbook style with movie stubs, letters, notes, pictures and tickets etc. Not your regular fiction book that's for sure. An easy read, I read it in an hour or two (with interruptions by small children!).

Book 13 for the Postal Reading Challenge-
The Captain's Daughter by Leah Fleming
I didn't read this for the Postal reading challenge originally but it has quite a lot of letters in it, so I'm including it now. I've read a few Titanic books, this one being among the best, though the Titanic is only the beginning of this story told over 3 generations. What would you do if you were passed a baby you thought was yours in a lifeboat at night and didn't realise until the dawn came, that she wasn't your baby? When nobody stepped forward to claim the baby May decides it must be fate that she has lost her Ellen and been given this orphan, so she keeps her and raises her as her own and keeps her secret until her deathbed.
I really enjoyed this book, seeing how the secret affected the lives of these families.

C'mon deliver the letter, the sooner, the better... Part 3

Book 5 and 6 for the Postal Reading Challenge
"13 Little Blue Envelopes" and "The Last Little Blue Envelope".
I really enjoyed these two books, they reminded me a bit of "Dash and Lily's Book of Dares" and "From the mixed up files of Mrs Basil e Frankweiler".
One thing though that bugged me all the way through both books is - What about her parents?? She calls her uncle all the time to let him know she's ok during her travels but there is no mention of her calling her parents and only one or two mentions of them at all. Very strange!
I enjoy these books about teenagers going on adventures, a bit like slightly more grown up versions of Trixie Beldens and Enid Blyton books I guess!

Book 7
"Tom the Outback Mailman"
This is a kid's picture book, but it's based on a real story about Tom Kruse, (not Tom Cruise!) a mail carrier on the Birdsville Track in outback Australia. Tom battled floods, heat and sand to deliver the mail to lots of towns along the track. There's also a documentary about Tom titled The Back of Beyond.

Book 8
"Stitched Postcards"
A non fiction book about making postcards from material. I think my sewing skills need a bit of work before I attempt to make postcards but there are some beautiful ideas in here. I have been lucky enough to have received 2 stitched postcards in the mail from swaps at Swapbot.

Book 9
"The Boy next Door"
I've read all 3 of this series now and I think this one is the funniest! The email format was a bit annoying in the beginning but I got used to it. I don't think anyone's boss would really email them to tell them to get out of the toilets! The celebrity references were amusing as they were all a bit dated. I actually laughed out loud a few times reading this one.

Book 10
"Daddy Long Legs"
This book about an orphan who is sponsored by a trustee annoyed me a bit. In real life if you found out the thing Judy finds out at the end (no spoilers!) you'd be pissed! She accepted it happily but I think most people wouldn't be so accepting. Maybe the time setting makes the difference, and I guess it's not like she could do anything about it. These days he might be sued for false pretenses!

So now I have acheived- 

Snail Mail Level:   Read and review 8 books with a postal theme.

and I'm well on my way to-






Parcel Post Level: Read and review 12 books with a postal theme.