ONLY FOUR WEEKS TO GO!

I looked at the calendar this morning and realised it's only another four weeks until Christmas.   Have you made out your list of gifts as yet?   Have you decided on buying books for some of your family members and/or friends this year?


If you know their favourite authors or have some idea of the books these special people like, then email Meryll with requests and she'll do her best to get these books in as fast as she possibly can in time for Christmas.   She'll even give you the names of other authors who write in a similar way.   Don't leave it too long though, because time is at a premium.


For that matter, why not buy yourself a special book as a Christmas gift to yourself!  As the advertisement says, You're worth it!


I've just been introduced to a new author - Rebecca Tope who writes light, entertaining murder mysteries set in the beautiful Cotswolds (U.K.)   She's written a number in the series, and I first got to know her and her heroine Thea in book 4.   I'm now reading book 1, A Cotswold Killing.   They're easy to pick up and you don't necessarily have to start at book 1 - they're all deliciously self-contained!


Thea Osborne is the heroine, a 42 year old widow, who with her beloved cocker spaniel, goes house-sitting in one of many small villages.    Of course there's a body either in the garden, or in a pond, or in the house next door, but the secret is to find any clue that will lead you to the killer before the killer finds his/her way to Thea.

..... Rosemary (an avid reader and regular visitor to the bookshop)

BUILDING UP TO CHRISTMAS!

I love the build up to Christmas, for me the excitement and the planning are the best part of the time. I have been planning the shop display and collecting decorations that match together for a special window. 

There are also gifts other than books (though books do make the best presents). I have bone china mugs with lovely old book spines as decoration $10, a great new type of book mark that stays put in the book without getting lost $6 and nice book plates to stop the whole book from being lost when you loan them $3. My special trick for lending books is to write my name and phone number right after the end of the book in PENCIL. That way when my best friend finishes reading a special book I have loaned her she knows to return it promptly and stays my friend!

There are plenty of new books as gifts but I am sure that a carefully chosen pre-loved book can mean as much as a brand new book.

....... Meryll

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Christmas Gift suggestion

Flying Over the Rainbow – Living in Australia 

- the Bird-Lover’s paradise 

by Liz Davies

A great book by a local author originally from the US. She is an avid bird fan of both wild and tamed birds and is totally in tune with her own birds and her bird visitors.

Lovely descriptions of the bush around her area and of her many contacts with the local bird life.

Many hilarious stories of encounters with cockatoos, parrots and also lyrebirds.

Her deep love of all birds and her sincere interest in wild life makes this very easy reading.

Would make a great Christmas gift

Book available now at Rainy Day Books $20

More on the surprises you find at Rainy Day Books!

This week's window display is of the Royal Family.  Not only books but some knick knacks including mugs and a beautiful limited edition plate of the (then) Princess Elizabeth.

But the main focus of the display is a 3D of Queen Victoria, Prince (later) King Edward VII and Princess (later) Queen Alexandra.   With a venetian blind effect, 1800s print draws the eye and then as quickly changes while you look at it and move your head.

Full on it shows Queen Victoria, move a little to the right and you see King Edward VII.  Move a little to the left and you see the beautiful Queen Alexandra.

So you see, there's always surprises at Rainy Day Books.  This is why people from interstate and overseas telephone and email, and others travel especially from other parts of the State to call in, browse and go away with books that they've been trying to find for ages.  Meryll will search and locate hard to find as well as rare books - as her many friends and customers will attest to.

There's always a surprise!

Following the recent visit of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, it seemed the right time to do a small "Royal" display in the windows of the bookshop.  

So it's not surprising what you find in Rainy Day Books - you'll come away with gift ideas for family and friends every time.

Mountains of Books Bookfest 2011

Well another Melbourne Cup Weekend is over and another Mountains of Books Bookfest has ended.

12 booksellers, thousands of books and hundreds of people all together in one place over a very wet weekend.

The hall and parklands looked lovely and the food supplied by the Kilsyth South Baptist Church was great but the stars of the fair were the books. So many lovely books in such a wide range of subjects. I saw many, many very happy buyers with armloads of special titles that they had long searched for.

The prices ranged from $5 to $500.

Robert Holden was the winner of the door prize – a big basket of books and a $50 voucher for book covering from www.thebookcoverco.com.au

Write it down in your diaries for next year and don’t miss this bookfair. Cup Weekend November 3rd and 4th 2012.