Gift ideasfor mum

For the rest of us, Mother’s Day is our chance to salute mum for her hard work and always putting everyone else first, but finding the right way to thank her is not always easy. Instead of wandering around, vaguely thinking about the usual perfume and slippers, why not head to the nearest bookshop? Not just another ‘thing’ to put away in a drawer, a book is a special gift. A book brings with it memories, ideas, adventures, exotic travel, romance, inspiration, laughter, illumination, best of all, escape from routine and work, the chance like Alice In Wonderland, to step into another, magical world.

If your mother has fallen for his Gallic charm, accent and culinary skills on My Kitchen Rules, then she will adore Manu’s French Kitchen. As good to look at as it is to read, it includes all his family favourites, “excellent, but often simple dishes” such as My Mum’s Quiche Lorraine, French Style Potato Salad, Chocolate Tart Souffle and Mum’s Upside Down Caramelised Upside Down Apple Tart.

Off to France again for My Family In Paris, a story with stunning photographs about Australian mother and wife, Jane Paech, who lived the dream and moved to the French capital with her family. Jane’s deeply personal account embraces the food, the shops (including kitchenware shops that will make you drool), the places to go, things to do, the eccentricities of chic Parisians and the realities. “It may sound glamorous, but the life of a trailing spouse can be difficult and lonely, especially when there’s a language and culture to learn,” writes Jane.

If Italy is of more interest to your mother, why not offer her a trip there via the pages of Un Amico Italiano: Eat, Pray, Love in Rome by Luca Spaghetti (yes, his real name). Luca is the Italian who introduced Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert to Rome and then featured in her bestselling book. This is Luca’s story of how Elizabeth, her friendship and book changed his life, of growing up in Rome and of his intimate knowledge and passion for the eternal city and all it offers.

Certain things leave footprints on childhood memories. For French-born chef, Manu Feildel, his memories revolve around food and his mother. “Although she worked full-time and pretty much brought my sister and me up on her own, Mum always had made-from-scratch meals on the table for us, seven days a week,” writes the chef and TV judge in his new book, Manu’s French Kitchen. “My mum was such a talented cook and my recollections of her food, and time spent around the family dining-room dinner table, are the reason for this book. It’s a tribute to my mum.”

For more things Italian and food, glorious food, there’s Mangia! Mangia! Written by friends, Teresa Oates and Angela Villalle who have both been brought up in Calabrian-Australian families in Melbourne surrounded by fresh produce and a passionate food culture, this exuberant celebration of Southern Italian Food includes great family recipes passed down through the generations. They include delicious sounding honey and almond biscuits and potato, zucchini and green beans in olive oil and whitebait fritters.

Lioness, the latest novel by Katherine Scholes, internationally bestselling author of The Hunter’s Wife is set amidst the grandeur of the Africa wilderness. Love, loyalty, what it really means to be a family – and what it takes to be a mother – lie at the heart of this moving and heart-warming story that opens dramatically with a disaster, a lost child and a set of human footprints among those of a lioness and her cubs.

Tucked In by acclaimed artist Meredith Gaston, is a great gift for a special mum who is tucked in bed – or likes to be. Bed needn’t be a place just for sleeping – there are many amazing adventures, thoughts and creative possibilities and Tucked In encourages the reader to create their own art and explore ideas. From advice on how to get a good night’s sleep to the meanings of dreams and bed ‘essentials,’ this whimsical, beautifully illustrated book guides you through a world of fluffy slippers, cuddly doonas and bed-time bliss.

If your mother is a foodie and enjoys peeking inside the homes of the rich and famous, she will love the Guillaume

cookbook by celebrated chef Guillame Brahini. Filled with magnificent photography, inspiring menus and recipes (including a great one for sangria, poached salmon with dill mayonnaise, orange madeleines and pistachio pesto), to suit every style of entertaining, from a formal dinner in Leo Schofield’s heritage manor in Tasmania to a laidback lunch in the Pittwater home of Heidi Middleton of sass & bide. (All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the late Professor Chris O’Brien’s Lifehouse at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital).

For mothers who have green thumbs or simply like looking at gorgeous gardens and dreaming, Kate Herd’s Kitchen Garden is a great, life enriching gift, a journey around Australia to 18 diverse kitchen gardens blending practical tips and advice on how to grow herbs, vegetables, fruit and flowers, in even the smallest backyard.

If mum could do with some fun, then she is sure to love Style Notes, a collection of witty, perceptive essays on modern living and fashion by popular author and journalist, Maggie Alderson. Who else but Maggie would write about the infuriating ‘Miss Grabby’ at the baggage carousel and the stress of buying a curtain rod? Or list among Great Clothing and Style Mysteries: How do earrings put away as pairs become solo? Why do hems fall down and buttons drop off only when you are in a horrendous rush?

For those who like to be swept up by love, passion and heartbreak, then there’s Belle, the moving and dramatic story of a young woman’s attempts to redeem herself after being sold into prostitution at the age of 15. The author, Lesley Pearse, is greatly

loved around the world (and by-the-way in real life, has a great shoe collection).

Whether your mother is a keen beginner or a passionate, lifelong baker, she’ll produce stunning results every time with Alison Thompson’s collection of mouth-watering recipes in her new book, Bake. The expert baker and pastry chef shares everything she knows about baking, including all her absolute favourite recipes for breads, pastries, cakes, muffins, scones, biscuits and slices and desserts. Full of great tips and simple, step-by-step instructions, this book really is the baker’s bible and buying it for mum will earn you heaps of brownie points.

If like most women, your mother has a very hectic life and can’t be poring over long lists of ingredients, taking hours to get meals on the table for the starving hordes, then Jamie’ Oliver’s new book, Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals is not just the perfect gift, it’s a life-saver. With his great ideas, easy recipes, clever short-cuts and tricks, Jamie makes cooking beautiful, tasty food after a long, hard day, ‘easy-peasy.’ (And maybe dad can try out Jamie’s book, as well – hint, hint).

For thriller lovers, Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen, is an exciting addition to the growing pantheon of classy Scandinavian mystery writing. The story, involving a disenchanted detective, his unusual assistant and an intriguing cold case about a missing woman politician, will have mum putting up the “Do Not Disturb” sign as fast as you can say “Happy Mother’s Day.”

Few books in the world of women’s fiction have been as eagerly anticipated as Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards. A lyrically written, powerful family drama, it is every bit as gripping as Kim’s first novel, the much loved The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, which sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

And for a classy love story that lifts romance to new heights, The Voyagers: A Love Story by Mardie McConnochie, is a superb Mother’s Day gift. An American sailor arrives in Sydney in 1943 hoping to spend more time with a woman whom he shared three magical days with before the war, only to find she has been missing for almost five years. Across the seas and the great stages of war Stead searches for the one woman he has truly loved…

From everyone at Penguin: A very Happy Mother’s Day. We hope you are thoroughly spoiled and that you get to sit back, relax and enjoy some great reading from Penguin!

Thankfully, Manu resists showing off with fancy or technical dishes that none of us will ever cook. Instead, his first cookbook is page after page of simple, accessible recipes that make you think, ‘I can do this!’

Most of the flavoursome, rustic dishes are his mother’s, the rest, classic French bistro dishes that will impress guests without you being in the kitchen all night. They include “the quickest dessert on earth to pull together,” poached pears with chocolate sauce. The book is beautiful to look at too, with its smart red and navy blue livery of the French national flag and great photographs that include portraits of Manu and his son, to whom he dedicates the book: “For my son Jonti – everything I do is for you.”

A cookbook you will love – and use – forever.

Gorgeous, three hatted French chef, Manu, conjures up delicious French food to enliven everyday cooking and boost your dinner party repertoire.

Stunning photography and food for every occasion from formal dinner to laid-back lunch, clever twists and chef like touches, make this a blueprint for entertaining by a master. We meet Guillame the family man with recipes he cooks at home and Guillame the celebrated chef, showing us how to recreate some of his exquisite signature restaurant dishes such as his legendary Paris mash. Just as interesting, the exclusive peek into some of Australia’s most beautiful houses, with seven of his closest friends allowing us rare access to their homes to-die-for, Leo Schofield and his divine heritage manor in Tasmania and Heidi Middleton (of sass & bide) and her dreamy Pittwater home, among them.

A very special book, great for browsing, sighing over – and cooking from. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the late Professor Chris O’Brien’s Lifehouse at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Too tired, too busy and so over entertaining you can’t even be bothered to do much of it these days?

Then don’t open Guillame’s long-awaited debut cookbook as it’s so inspiring you’ll immediately want to throw a party

and you’ll be making lists before you know it.

F rom the gorgeous green and red

cover featuring two women wearing aprons – and great grins – to the exuberant Eat! Eat! title, this joyous celebration of delicious Southern Italian food is a ‘must-have’ for all food-lovers.Based on methods and recipes lovingly passed down through the generations of a Calabrian/Australian family, there’s a homely authenticity and sense of abundance and generosity that sets this cookbook apart from others. All the recipes are tried and true, from drying your own tomatoes to cooking a magical Bolognese sauce and there’s a good sprinkling of sage advice, such as this from co-author Angela Villalle:

The lessons I take from Mum’s approach to cooking

is to have confidence to make a recipe your own: learn from those around you and then apply your personality so the dish becomes your creation

Authors Teresa Oates and Angela Villella talk about their book

As Alison Thompson says in her introduction, baking is one of the most satisfying of the culinary arts: “We learn new skills each time we try a new recipes. But best of all, baking brings us together, both in the kitchen and at the table – I love watching the smiles as people take their first mouthful and eat with joy.” Alison, a pastry chef for 15 years and a passionate baker for as long as she can remember, pours all that expertise and love of baking along with her absolute favourite recipes into Bake - and it shows. The recipes all sound delicious. Some are from friends and family, others passed down from Alison’s great grandmother, “a wonderful cook” and

helpful tips and comments are scattered throughout the recipes that include French Apple Tart, Lemon Meringue Pies, Cornish Pasties and Bacon and Caramelised Onion Quiche. If you love baking or would love to learn but like most of us your bookshelves are bulging then try to re-arrange so you can squeeze in a copy of Bake.

Note: The ‘measures and temperatures’ section warns that all oven temperatures in this book are for fan-forced ovens. So if you are using a conventional oven, you have to add 20o C to the temperature specified in the recipes.

Jamie’s successful because his recipes always work and buying the ingredients don’t involve a massive shopping odyssey. Ultra-busy himself with a young, demanding family, Jamie knows that we’re all running to

keep up with life in the 21st century and that whilst everyone loves eating good food, getting it onto the table isn’t always easy

especially on week nights. This book is Jamie’s blueprint for making that possible. It involves a collection of simple but

great recipes with specific instructions on how to work in a kitchen using some fabulous chefs’ short-cuts and

tips to make us faster, more efficient multi-taskers who can create delicious meals every night with

minimum fuss and hullaballoo.

Jamie Oliver didn’t become one of the world’s most popular chefs and cookbook authors because he’s famous and on TV.

Quick dinsin 30mins

If you’ve ever thought about turning an idle corner in your garden into a paradise of herbs, vegetables, fruit and flowers, here is the book that will make it happen. It is that inspiring. Each of the 18 kitchen

gardens featured show different ways the ugliest desert-like, weed-laden plot or boring bit of the garden can be transformed into something very practical and beautiful. It’s about deriving a great deal of satisfaction – even joy – from being able to walk out the backdoor, pick fresh produce you’ve nurtured and grown and then cook with it. It saves money, helps the planet and looks good.

Full of great tips and sage, down-to-earth advice from a passionate, expert gardener, this book is your passport to your own backyard paradise.

in 30mins

Eyewitness Travel Guides are packed with photographs, illustrations and maps so your holiday

starts the moment you open the guidebook.

With over 125 destinations these guides show you what others only tell you.

E y E w i t n E s s t r av E l

GrEat LOCAT ONS GrEat TIMES

Opening in the teeming streets of London in 1910, the sounds, smells and sights all vividly recreated with rich, vibrant descriptions and wonderful characters. The heroine is innocent, 15 year old Belle, who is brutally kidnapped and trafficked to Paris as a prostitute. As the plot races off to New Orleans and then returns to the French capital, each city provides a rich backdrop but it’s the harrowing experiences of clever, brave Belle that absorbs the reader. Eventually, a combination of commonsense and determination empowers her to set her own course.

From one of the world’s best-selling authors, comes this lively, colourful and fast-paced story...

GrEat LOCAT ONS

How To Grow Plants In Pots is full of great practical tips and exciting design ideas for growing plants on a patio or tiny balcony, indoors and out. For Mum, this handy guide will work like a magic wand, transforming a jumble of pots full of tired looking plants into a garden with impact and style and she will love it. Another great gift for any mum who loves their garden, is The Royal Horticultural Society: Gardening Through the Year in Australia. The ultimate reference book to a full 12 months of horticultural tasks, it’s the one book no gardener should be without.

Discover more at dk.com.au

Luca Spaghetti is the charming Italian friend who introduced Elizabeth Gilbert to Rome in her bestseller, Eat, Pray, Love. He took her everywhere on the back of his Vesper, through the traffic laden, cobble-stoned streets, past the famous landmarks, deep into the heart of the city, its rhythms and rituals. Now Luca’s written his own book, a touching and entertaining memoir that recaps his time with Elizabeth, the profound impact their friendship had on his life and reveals what life is really like growing up in the Italian capital, with food, family, football and church, the great influences and a surname that makes others tease the hell out of him. From Luca’s mad obsession with America and American music, to his pride in Rome and its eternal beauty, this very well written and deeply charming story of life, love, food and friendship the Italian way, is an excellent read.

‘...a natural-born storyteller.’ELIZABETH GILBERT

From the heart of Africa, land of tangerine sunsets and sweeping vistas, comes a

wonderful story with a cast of characters so real they almost leap off the page. There is no more dramatic beginning to a book than the first chapter of this one, when a lost child comes across a lioness and her cubs. The frantic search for the child takes you deep into the African wilderness and the life of a young Australian woman, Emma, who is visiting Tanzania to retrace her mother’s footsteps - a mother who left her as a small child for her work in Africa. The search tests Emma in ways she hadn’t expected and she not only finds herself facing truths about herself, but is unsettled by an unscheduled attraction to a handsome African. From out of the heat, the dust and the danger, emerges a seriously good story that explores some of our most potent family bonds.

Katherine Scholes, the internationally bestselling author of The Hunter’s Wife, spent a great deal of her childhood growing up in Africa, lending her African set novels an unmistakable stamp of authenticity.

‘One of Australia’s most respected women’s fiction authors’ COURIER-MAIL

from the bestselling author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

T h e

L a k e o f

D r e a M sa nove l

K I M E DWA R D S

This is the second, much anticipated novel by the author of one of the best loved books of all time, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter.

Beautiful writing and intense emotions that surface in sometimes the smallest details, power this riveting story of family, memory and the past. a minor earthquake and a small car accident are the two incidents that send Lucy Jarrett back home to upstate New York,

where she reconnects with family – and an old flame. But it seems that one small fault leads to a bigger, more shattering series of shocks when Lucy accidently comes across

some objects locked away and becomes curious about their place in family history.

The Voyagersa love story

MARDI McCONNOCHIE

A deeply romantic novel that makes you care – really care – about the

fate of two young lovers cruelly separated. Stylishly crafted and eloquently written, one of the joys of this story is that the couple in question are fully realised, deeply likeable characters, who, well … just seem so right for another. He’s a handsome American, a genuine guy who cannot forget the three magical days he spends with the bright, talented Australian girl he meets in Sydney on shore leave. So much so that when she goes missing, he spends years looking for her. And never gives up. She is young, starry eyed, in love and very much a victim of the prudish, narrow-mindedness of the 1940s. There’s a mystery and some war drama and action, but mostly it’s one big, gorgeous romance that sweeps you away.

Praise for Coldwater:‘Mardi McConnochie’s electrifying first

novel is beautifully sustained’ The Age

Once Britain was seen as the home of the classy detective mystery, but now it seems that Scandinavian writers are rapidly gaining a reputation for first class thrillers. And it’s not just the weather – always glacial – but the originality of the plots and the flinty, well drawn characters that is winning over the readers. This totally absorbing story begins with – and keeps returning - to someone being held captive. We see, hear and suffer everything as they do, but we don’t know who they are. The other story arc follows a very smart detective who is finding it hard to get his life together again after a colleague is shot and paralysed. The detective is assigned a very strange assistant and put in charge of cold cases in a basement, one of which is a curious case of a missing woman…

Now a major australiaN televisioN miNi-series

Ti m Winto nc l o u d s t r e e t

Could you share a haunted house with eight strangers and a talking pig?

Well, sometimes you don't get a choice.Australia's favourite novel is a funny, heartbreaking story

of making-do and yearning to belong. Now a major television miniseries, Cloudstreet will live with you long after you've

turned the final page.

A deeply personal account of six years spent in Paris by an Australian mother, wife, passionate foodie and wide-eyed tourist

as she comes to grips with the joys and difficulties of life in a foreign place not being able to speak the language. From the right place on the left Bank to find exceptional croissants and sugar-topped brioche to handling a runaway daughter who hates her new French school, from a winter so cold the dog wee freezes in the street, to the best fromagerie in Paris where you can buy the cheese Vacherin Mont d’Or (“made from the milk of cattle that graze on the Swiss side of the Jura mountains”), Jane gives us an insider’s view of Paris, one greatly enriched by her vivid writing style, astute observations, funny friends and the unexpected that keeps bobbing up in the fine detail.

Stunningly photographed, this is one of the best foodie/travel books of the year – don’t miss it.

Meredith Gaston is a gifted artist who has done all the illustrations for this charming,

quirky book which by the way, comes with its own bookmark. Her highly original idea is to enjoy your ‘tucked in’ time, whether you are there under doctor’s orders or your very own whim. Make the most of it, she writes encouragingly, by using time in bed to dream, think and become creative.

From sleep-inducing foods to magical meanings behind dreams, from nurturing recipes such as hearty, healing chicken soup to organising the bed ‘essentials’ or setting a tea tray, this book transforms the bed into not only a place for sleeping, but the chance to make the most of every new day.

So…snuggle back, relax and enjoy!

Women love Maggie’s writing for different reasons. For some of us, it’s that we recognise inside Maggie beats the true heart of a passionate shopper who can fall in love with a hat, handbag or just right belt and never ever be happy until it sits snugly in her wardrobe.

Yet Maggie has her deeply practical

side as well and with it, a real talent

for suggesting small, nifty touches that

can transform the ordinary into eye-

catching. Maggie also understands

that not everyone has a size 10 model’s

figure or long legs and the ability – or

desire - to spend all day in killer shoes

(although some of us quite like to try).

This delicious collection of essays about

life and fashion is Maggie at her best -

frequently hilarious, always charming

and very perceptive.