Three books I'm looking forward to this year....

2013 is going to be a vintage year for my bookshelf, with a hat-trick of new novels by some favourite authors due out. I am not going to be able to restrain myself from pre-ordering all three in hard-back. In date order, they are:

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell, due out February 28.
It's July 1976. In London, it hasn't rained for months, gardens are filled with aphids, water comes from a standpipe, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he's going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta's children - two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce - back home, each with different ideas as to where their father might have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share.

As a writer I think Maggie O'Farrell gets better and better, and her last book, The Hand That First Held Mine, had me enthralled throughout and bereft when I'd finished. Can't wait for this next one.

BOOK REVIEW: I Don't Know How She Does It (Allison Pearson)

Kate Reddy is a hedge-fund manager and married mother of two. She has it all – except for time.

We meet our heroine, having taken a night flight home from a meeting in Sweden, squashing shop-bought mince pies to make them look homemade for her daughter’s school fair.

While Kate excels in her high-flying financial career, we are privy to her ever-evolving to-do list, as she tells herself, Must remember: Angel wings. Quote for new stair carpet. Nanny’s Christmas bribe/present. Emily wants baby Wee-Wee doll. (over my d. Body). Office party what to wear? Black velvet too small. Stop eating NOW. Leg wax no time, shave instead. Book stress-busting massage.

Her husband, Richard, is an amiable architect who lives life on a different time setting to Kate. Nanny Paula is unreliable and her children are delightful, just not when they’re smearing Weetabix on her Armani suit.

Saturday Is Caption Day

There are a million and one things I could write about the arrival of our precious new baby Benjamin. It's too much to put into words. Plus, I tried typing while feeding and it's not good for the latch :).
However, I'm anxious to introduce him on the blog, so I'll let the picture do the talking with my first ever #SatCap.

Here are my two boys. A three-week old Ben seems to be examining his older brother intently. But what does that enigmatic expression say about Max's thoughts?!

REVIEW: The Deep, Hull

Rays at The Deep

Octonauts, to your stations!

If this phrase prompts dramatic music to chime in your ears, and conjures images of Captain Barnacles and his crew in their fleet of aquatic vehicles, then you're probably the parent of a young child who would love to visit The Deep.

With one such four-year-old, I was delighted to be offered the chance to visit and review the award-winning aquarium in Hull by MoneySupermarket.com's vouchers site for family days out and days out discounts.