Murder by Death

Things are so awful everywhere right now, I thought I'd take a moment and, you know, post something that's actually book related on BookLikes.  

As you know, we in Australia are under a 'draconian' lockdown, which essentially means the pubs and bars are closed because they have to be and nobody else is open because they're smarter than the government.  Ahem.  Just before the 'lockdown' was scheduled to begin at noon on Tuesday, I received my belated (due to extenuating circumstances unrelated to the pandemic) birthday box from the bff living in The Netherlands:

It's pure coincidence that my birthday box resembles most people's idea of a emergency provisions box and probably reflects my introversion more than anything else.  There's a jigsaw puzzle sort of hidden in there, some chocolate (Tony's!), nutella, and two books.

The two books - she was so excited about these that she almost gave the game away way back in November.  Upon opening them, I was a tiny bit confused:

They gorgeous books, but they're in German.  I don't speak or read German of course; I'm an American and the closest I come to bilingual is a northern and a southern american accent.  Then I opened them, and it took me a couple of minutes but I got it.

It's the inscriptions inside the covers:

Specifically, the dates:  they were each inscribed to someone on my birthday and MT's birthday, respectively, albeit 100 years ago or more.

She swears she stumbled on them by coincidence but she's still outdone herself and pretty much guaranteed a lifetime slot in worlds bestest, most thoughtful friend.  I am humbled, and gobsmacked.