Journal Entry 1 by boreal from Dunedin, Otago New Zealand on Saturday, December 11, 2004

I shouldn't really register this as it's a Christmas gift and I am not going to write the BCID, but since I thought it was such a great book I would would write a review of it.

This is a semi-autobiographical book that tells of Kates/the authors life through the books she has read -from the Little Red Hen to Owls do Cry, school jounals to Alice Munro.
I found it very readable. I especially enjoyed her story of growing up in Oamaru (a place I know well as I went to High School there) it was a lovely snippet of New Zealand in the 1950's and 60's. The recipes, splattered with food, held together with a rubberband, spilling out of the kitchen drawer, could be a description of my mothers recipe collection. I too was an avid reader from an early age and when I got to high school and like Kate, was confronted with the set text I found it as much a of a shock to the system as she did.
After university in Dunedin Kate travels to England where she lives for several years and then on to Canada where her first child is born. Rather than learning about pregnancy and birth from the medical texts she turns to novels for information -women who have actually gone through the experience.
While I have read some of the books mentioned there are many I haven't and there are some that I will add to my reading list.
I hope the person who is receiving this enjoys it as much as me (I am sure she will! ) and someday I might buy my own copy so I can read it again.