Well, well, well… I should under-estimate myself more often.

I came to July not sure if I would read even one book with all the wonderful distraction of the Greytown Festival of Christmas, but here I am, with five excellent books to share including: Our Evenings​ by Alan Hollinghurst​, ​The Book of Guilt​ by Catherine Chidgey​, Abundance​ by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson​, Read Yourself Happy​ by Daisy Buchanan​, and Books & Islands in Ojibwe Country: Travelling Through the Land of My Ancestors​ by Louise Erdrich

June was a little lean on the reading front, but what I did read this month I enjoyed including: Northbound by Naomi Arnold; Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire, Delirious by Damien Wilkins and Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

Mrs Blackwell’s reading adventures for the month of May 2025 including: Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones, The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, Chinese Parents Don’t Say I love You by Candice Chung, Heartburn by Nora Ephron, Air by John Boyne and Fahrenheit-182 by Mark Hoppus.

Scenes from our MD Paper Pop-Up event, May 2025. This international travelling show made two stops in New Zealand and we were thrilled to be on of them!

Mrs Blackwell’s reading adventures for the month of April 2025 including: The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce, The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett, and Who is Government? by Michael Lewis.

Mrs Blackwell’s reading adventures for the month of February 2025 including: The Siren’s Call by Chris Hayes, Three Days in June by Anne Tyler, and Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Mrs Blackwell’s January 2025 reading adventures including: Madam by Antonia Murphy, The Coin by Yasmin Zaher and the first three books in John Boyne’s Elements Series; Water, Earth and Fire.

Greytown’s shops make it a wonderful spot for a gentle day of shopping. We boast more than 60 independent shops, cafes and restaurants on our lovely, wide Main Street brimming with preserved Victorian architecture.

Mrs Blackwell’s reading adventures for the month of November, 2024.

October was a fantastic reading month for me, I enjoyed every book I read this month, a great spread of fiction and nonfiction.

A departure from my usual video-based monthly reading log - September's instalment is also a tour of a few North American bookshops.

It's my fiction peak for the year! During the month of August I choose four books from the Booker Prize long list.

Join Mrs Floss and Mrs Blackwell on a tour of the 12 fantastic bookshops participating in the 2024 Wairarapa Bookshop Hop.

Here’s a run down of the books Mrs Blackwell read in the month of July 2024.

Here’s a run down of the books Mrs Blackwell read in the month of June 2024.

In direct contrast to the busy and festive month of December, January is almost always a great reading month for me in terms of volume.

The undemanding first few days of the year, combined with multiple public holidays, and the extra day in a 31-day month, all add up to plenty of reading hours to be embraced. Here’s what I read in January 2024:

One of the (many) great things about Wairarapa is we have 13 fantastic bookshops all within an easy 30 minute drive of one another, so it's entirely possible for you to hop around all 13 bookshops in a single day. Here’s your guide to all the bookshops.

Every Monday and Tuesday morning in July, August and September I've been the “summer intern” at Dudley's Bookstore in Bend, Oregon. Here’s how it went!

If you’ve tried (and failed) at keeping a journal or diary in the past, a commonplace book might be a good alternative. They’re something like a scrapbook for your thoughts, a place to collect notes, quotes, poems, and facts that you may wish to refer back to in the future.