Book Review - Chocolat by Joanne Harris

I don't know why it has taken me so long to get around to reading this book! I love the film and I have actually borrowed the book at least 3 times and never even opened it. Until this time. When I couldn't put it down.

And I loved it.

Joanne Harris skillfully paints wonderful characters and invokes magical imagery with simple words. The village setting really could be in any time - it is only the outside world that dates the novel. Harris draws from myth and legend as well as shrewd observation to give us not just a beautiful and satisfying story but also a mystical version of a moral tale. It's a great read, but don't expect it to bear much resemblance to the film - or should that read the other way around??

Chocolat reads as a modern day fairytale - but with the dark bits left in - and is well worth a read.

Book musings...

I have recently become addicted to Chick Lit. Like most other addictions it has come to me gradually - a little bit Of Louise Rennison here, and a little bit of Bridget Jones there... until eventually it is all i am reading! At first, I was ashamed of my little personal problem, but now I shout it out from the rooftops! I am a chick lit fan!!!! Well, perhaps not shout, maybe more of a little "hey, I'm really enjoying this book".

So, why do I like it? When I have been a hard core fantasy buff all these years??? I'm not really sure. They have escapism in common, but not much else. One purports to deal with real life (but how many sexy gardeners do you know who routinely take their shirt off in chapter 14?? Not enough, that's how many!) and the other has magic in it that tends to happen at just the right time... hang on.... maybe they do have more in common that is evident at first glance LOL.

Like all genres, there are good and bad books, some more 'fluffy' than others. And as the characters get older it's called Hen Lit!

Some that I have found good are - Sophie Kinsella, Helen Fielding (of course, the founder of the movement!), Melanie La'Brooy, Lousie Rennison (teenchiklit) and Ilsa Evans.

And if these are all out at your library, put them on reserve and ask your ever-helpful librarian to recommend something new!

Book review: Youse Two by Andrew Daddo

Twins Josh and Jack Pickering are impossible to tell apart. Well, by everbody else, anyway. In reality, they are, of course, quite different.

Andrew Daddo has written a rip-snorter of a boys' comedy that will have the reader trying very hard to hold in their laughter during silent reading times. While the humour is obviously directed at boys it will be enjoyed by both boys and girls of all ages.

Watch out for the sudden ending. I'm not quite sure what happened there...

Check out the book here.