The Children’s House is Alice Nelson’s third book: her first was a novel called The Last Sky (2008), which was followed by After This: Survivors of The Holocaust Speak (2015).  I haven’t read The Last Sky, but based on its blurb and my reading of After This, (see my review) it seems to me that Nelson is drawn to the melancholy.  She writes about exile, displacement, abandonment, loss and survival.

Just as After This chronicled the hope and healing of Holocaust survivors, The Children’s House concludes on an optimistic note.  But what lies at the heart of the novel is the contrast between the helping professions and the power of love.  The story is peopled by damaged characters: two children raised in the impersonal world of an Israeli kibbutz and then by a mother too remote to offer love; a boy scarred by his mother’s abandonment when new love took her to the other side…

I bought myself a Playmobil Advent calendar this year, because – I’d had it on my wishlist for ages – and things like this didn’t exist when I was eight – and I wouldn’t have had one even if they had – and it was a fiver cheaper than the last time I looked – and I’m thirty-three and I have a job that pays me money and I can buy frivolous things if I feel like it.

And then it came to Advent, and I opened the first two doors, and put the princess together, and the sledge, and immediately felt massively guilty because – I had bought things I don’t need – and where was I going to put it? – and we have a house inspection on Saturday – and what am I, eight? – and little bits of plastic that will get lost and trodden on

I have heard quite a few Americans talking about moving to Canada, (including yours truly on occasion).  But I never hear Canadians talking about emigrating to the USA.  So I was very surprised when these guys showed up in force on Holler lakes. They haven’t been here before.

I also rarely see Canadians squabble amongst each other, but these guys certainly do! We were hanging out with a congenial group of happy gooseys, when all of a sudden, an invading nautical army launched themselves across the lake, to drive the peaceful gooseys away!

Come to think of it, they do kinda remind me, just a bit, of Canadian hockey players……

Anyhoo, the hockey player geese certainly did not hesitate to ram their way ashore and displace the more peaceful gooseys.

There was lots of hissing and honking, shoving, and general mayhem, just like a hockey game!

The peaceful gooseys were…

We’re lucky here in Melbourne that we can eat almost any cuisine in the world: there are Iranian restaurants serving Persian cuisine all over the city, and that’s probably true of the other Australian capital cities too.  But if you like the cuisine it’s not so easy to find a good recipe book to try making your own at home.

Pomegranates and Roses: My Persian Family Recipes (2012) is an ideal introduction to Persian cuisine.  Published in the UK, it is based on the premise that Persian cooking is unfamiliar, so there are explanations about unfamiliar ingredients and techniques, and there are suggestions for substitutes if some of the more exotic items are unavailable.  (Cranberries, for example, can be substituted for barberries, but they are available online from Herbies).

The book includes the family story that seems obligatory for recipe books these days, and there are B&W photos…

O what a lovely starter book for #6Degrees this month, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol tra-la-la-la la, la-la-la!

I love Charles Dickens’ novels.  Unlike most people, I didn’t begin with A Christmas Carol or The Pickwick Papers, I began at age ten with A Child’s History of England, set as an eye exercise for me by an ophthalmologist who had specified that I had to read something with small print for 15 minutes every day.  My parents had the complete Odhams set in their distinctive red boards with an impossibly small font (size 8 or 9, I think), so that’s what I read!

(This edition also included under the title Christmas Stories, a rather un-Christmassy collection comprising

• The Seven Poor Travellers
• The Holly Tree
• The Wreck of the Golden Mary
• The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
• The Haunted House
• A Message from the Sea
• Tom Tiddler’s Ground
• Somebody’s Luggage
• Mrs…