Review: Anticipation by Tanya Moir [Jan]

Janine is a successful real estate agent who also buys derelict houses too do up and sell.  This time she buys an island to live on and while doing it up tells the story of her life, switching from her present life; to her childhood with her mother; to her recent past with her husband.  Her mother was obsessed with genealogy and finding out about her ancestor’s lives.  She used to tell Janine idealized stories of their lives, viewed though rose-coloured glasses.  Then she gets sick and Janine continues the search and recording their stories.

This is a very well written book with a tightly wound, fascinating plot that moved seamlessly between the different time periods.  You have to concentrate at first to keep everything straight but as the story continued, you got a better understanding of the story.  The character of Janine is strong and likeable, with minor character real and believable.  The stories told of ancestors are very realistic and enjoyable.  Buy this book and read it cover to cover.  It’s great.

The talented author is a New Zealander and the book is set in the Invercargill of the past and present-day Auckland.  Her second novel, this is a compelling read and raises the question of how much of our past and future we want to know.

Title: Anticipation
Author: Tanya Moir
Published: Vintage, 2013
Reviewer: Jan

Trying to figure out social media

Are you perplexed by social media?

Not quite sure what the (grand) kids are on about when they talk about Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, YouTube?

Thinking you want to start a blog, but not sure how?

Thinking that social media might help out your family history search? 

Want a hand to figure it all out?

Check out the following to get you started :

• The rough guide to social media for beginners
• Social media for seniors
• Social networking for the over 50s in simple steps 
• Blogging for creatives : how designers, artists, crafters and writers can blog to make contacts, win business and build success
• Teach yourself visually Facebook
• #tweetsmart
• DNA and social networking : a guide to genealogy in the twenty-first century 

 Looking forward to seeing you online!

It's a mag, mag, world

I love magazines. There is something about their shiny covers and flickable pages that makes them so satisfying to read.

Books, of course, will always be my first love but magazines come a close second. It's a love affair that goes a long way back.

The first magazine I can remember reading was Bunty. It was the most perfect magazine for a seven year old reading fanatic such as myself, filled as it was with stories about boarding schools and girl detectives. I so wanted to be like the girls in the stories I read. To share in their adventures, to solve crimes and to have midnight feasts while trying not to be caught by the headmistress. It all sounded so wonderful.

As I got older other magazines came and went. There was My Guy and Oh Boy and Tiger Beat but the best of them all was Jackie, it was the ultimate teen girl mag and throughout my teens I followed this magazine with a dedication that only a teenage girl can have as each week I eagerly waited for the latest issue to arrive only to devour its contents within a few hours.

Now days my reading taste has changed a little but when a shiny new magazine hits my hands I still get that same thrill. They are to me, glossy, bite size pieces of joy.

So here's to magazines. Long may they live and continue.

SciFiNow : the premier sci-fi fantasy horror & cult TV magazine

It probably comes as no surprise that I include this title as one of my favourites. After all the latest issue has Dean and Sam, the boys from Supernatural on its cover (sign...) which is reason enough to read it.

It is though a bloody good magazine, filled with articles about all the latest in the world of sci-fi, from Supernatural to Promenthus to interviews with writers such as George R. R. Martin.

Now go away while I study this magazine with the intensity it deserves.

Writing magazine
A recent discovery for me and one that I am enjoying immensely.

If you're into writing and books and reading then I recommend that you read this as it will open you to all kinds of aspects of the written world from how to write a good crime novel to publishing your own e-book to where authors get their ideas from.

It's fascinating stuff.

Good reading : the magazine for book lovers

Another magazine aimed at those who love everything about books and reading. Being an Australian publication it has a slightly more local flavour and is filled with lots of reviews of upcoming books.

If you're anything like me, you'll come away with an ever increasing list of books that you'll want to read.

Empire

Empire has been around awhile, since 1989 in fact. That it's survived when so many other magazines have fallen under the blade is probably a testament to how good it is.

Like Sci-Fi Now this is a mag that I look forward to and read from cover to cover. No skimming articles here, instead I work my way through each and every little tidbit, often with a pen by my side so that I can take note of any movie that I decide that I just have to see. As you can imagine this list, like my book list, can get pretty long, actually make that really long...

Who do you think you are? magazine.

As you probably know from my last post I've been doing my family tree for some time now and like all family treers (okay so it's not a real word) I need all the help I can get in how to find that elusive and sneaky relative who refuses to be found.

Family history has become big business in the last few years and Who Do You Think You Are has been partially responsible for the sudden interest in finding one's ancestors.

Tying in with the show is the magazine which contains much more than what is shown on screen. There are Q & A sections, book reviews, hints and tips on where to go next; the amount of detail that is covered is endless.

BBC Good Food.

Now, though I'm not much of a cook I am a bit of foodie. In fact I love food; the smells, the colours, the taste, it's tantalising stuff.

I love looking through foodie books and magazines too. Everything always looks so perfect, so eatable, that it makes me wish that I could cook just so I could try some of the amazing recipes that are featured.

My favourite foodie magazine is this one, with its brightly filled pages and meals that make my mouth water. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Family Matters: Genealogy and Such

"Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you."
- Mark Twain.

Families are funny things and family history, the desire to know one's ancestors, even more so. Those that do it, love it with a passion and those that don't, think that watching paint dry would be more exciting.

Me?

I kind of fall in the middle.

I've been doing my own family tree for quite a few years now. A school project that got just a little of out of hand (understatement of the year). My history teacher would be so proud or perhaps horrified that it's taken me this long to do an assignment.

My family background is pretty typical. English, Irish and Scottish. There are Yorkshire men and Cornish men and a few others in between. Their generally a hard working lot with miners and cloth merchants and sailors and soldiers making up most of the mix.

Sadly there are no murderers or runaway lovers or an unclaimed castle (or two) waiting for it's rightful owner which has been just a little disappointing. I long for an exciting ancestor. Someone like Rob Roy or Dick Turpin; alas my fore-bearers are a pretty tame lot, still I live in hope.

Maybe one day I'll find out that Great-Great Auntie Loveday (and yes I really do have an ancestor with that name) was the secret mistress of a king or even a lord or that perhaps she was hung for killing said lover.

Until then I have to make do with the ancestors I've got and though they may not be exciting they are still interesting to me.