In New Zealand we have just emerged from COVID-19 lockdown.
We are counting ourselves very lucky to live on this beautiful island at the
bottom of the world, where our government decided to enter lockdown by ‘going
hard and going early’. Our reported COVID numbers are now very low and we have
been able to emerge from our house-bound bubbles and interact with friends and
family again.
We had about two days warning before going into a level 4
complete nationwide lockdown. It was a weird, panic-fueled two days. From
my library workplace I packed my car full of everything I could think of, so
that I could remain productive through this time and get a backlog of book
cataloguing and processing done at home. My little Toyota Corolla was packed to
the gunnels as I drove off, not to return to my library again until six weeks
later.
I was just going to pop in on this blog to talk about some
fantastic new books I’ve been reading - but really, in the times we are in, one
can’t just make a post without commenting on the climate we have been living through. I had also planned to abandon this blog this year, as I have
started a new one specifically for Pinehurst School – but I haven’t quite been
able to let go. I will keep dropping by to write short reviews about my
favourite books. Putting the right book in the hand of the right reader has
always been my great passion.
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For some, lockdown has been a time when they’ve enjoyed the chance to get a lot of guilt-free reading done. Others found they just couldn’t settle and watching Netflix became the easier option. I need to read a lot to keep up with my job – so I steadily chugged through my to-be-read pile. I discovered some new favourites and discarded some half-read. In my next few blog posts I will cover reviews about the favourites.
I particularly enjoyed having time to savour the beautiful 'Where the Crawdads Sing' by Delia Owens. All the hype is true on this fiction novel, for adults or older teens. It's just beautiful.
Zinga rating 5 stars
