Books for everyone

Chick lit ...

The Dog Who Came in from the Cold
by Alexander McCall Smith
Hachette, $29.99
Review by: Elisabeth Marrow
This is the second volume of stories about Alexander McCall Smith's London residents of Corduroy Mansions.
This collection follows on from the huge success of the 44 Scotland Street series. McCall Smith has moved house to a crumbling four-storey mansion in Pimlico.
Like all his writing, this novel is like a warm bath on a cold night - it is impossible not to be drawn in.
The delicately drawn characters evoke a gentle humour.
From William French and his dog Freddie de la Hay, which is conscripted by MI6, to the romance between Caroline and James, and the protective love between Berthea Snark and her brother Terence - there is a wonderful collection of characters in this delightful read.
I felt that as the story progressed and the tale moved to Fort William, though, the light improved and the story rang truer than before.
In fact, as they boarded the train in London, the atmosphere started to relax to the point where I felt as if Isabel Dalhousie (from the author's The Sunday Philosophy Club series) was in the next compartment.
This volume is definitely of the quality we have begun to expect from McCall Smith, but without the complete innocence and eccentricity of the Scottish brood (which I think makes all the difference).

... for kids ...
Daizy Star and the Pink Guitar
by Cathy Cassidy
Penguin, $16.99
Reviewed by: Ashleigh Webb, 9
After a girly sleepover full of giggles and coke, what could possibly go wrong?
It's Daizy Star's birthday sleepover. Just when life couldn't get any better, it doesn't. Instead, it gets worse. Starting with the cake.
Dad's a health freak, so the cake is roasted linseed and other disgusting, gritty things.
And, even worse, Dad has decided they should move to Malawi!
With the whole family against him, and Beth - Daizy's sister - threatening to run away to the circus, Dad goes alone for a look. Daizy's only hope is to win the Battle of the Bands, but Daizy's friends are not so sure ...
... NZ read ...
Memoirs of a Gossip Columnist
by David Hartnell
Penguin, $45
Reviewed by: Graeme Barrow

There are all kinds of gossip - inane and boring but harmless; inquisitive and intrusive; salacious, garnished with schadenfreude; and the snide and  nasty. Then there is gossip about well-known people -  stars and  celebrities (Hartnell makes a valid distinction between the two)  - the sort of information most people are interested in and which keeps the number of women's magazines at  a surprisingly high level.
Hartnell occupies a special place in the New Zealand media. There has not been another like him.  He is a star/celebrity in his own right here,  and is  well known in the UK and US as well. His columns had flair. He knew the people the public wanted to know things about. He wrote well. And, perhaps most importantly, there was always an absence of malice. Hartnell was never cruel. He never "outed" people.
Hartnell grew up gay in 1950/60s New Zealand, with all the bullying and trauma that entailed. But he had determination and ambition. He went to London, where he became a sought-after makeup artist, and then to the US, where he rubbed shoulders with the stars and began his entertaining writing about them.
His column series,  I'm not one to gossip, but ..., remains the best of its kind. This memoir shows why. Packed with photos of the glitterati (and of himself with many of them), this is a thoroughly diverting book - interesting and entertaining.