Loved, Loved, LOVED this - anything that tells of a broken man who yearns (and tries unsuccessfully, thankfully) to be with his dead True Love, throws in some long-buried Native Indian secrets and a mother desperate to make her son as happy and normal as he can be whilst living under very abnormal conditions, allows dead people to return and fall in love and you have the making of another FABULOUS story from the white-witch of storytelling, Jodi Picoult. So far, none of her books have disappointed and I'm now at the stage where I'm rationing myself so that I don't read them all before she's written another. It's like a fix.
'One Moment, One Morning' by Sarah RaynerThe cover of this book had beckoned me for a LONG time... anything which alludes to a cup of tea, however tenuous and I'm hooked. Sad but true. And the premise is a pretty good lure too. A passenger on a morning commute to work witnesses the heart attack of another passenger and from then on it's just a case of letting the 'snowball effect' take over. Emotionally moving, emotionally revealing and a totally riveting read; four people's lives' come cataclysmically together and it's so well-done I actually felt a little voyeuristic in parts. Fabulous stuff.
No, NOT written by my cousin (this only works if you know I have an American cousin who was born Elizabeth Haynes but I HAD to mention it).
This gripped me so hard I actually lost sleep over it. Through both the reading of it and the way the psychological suspense kept swirling about in my head even when I'd lain it down to rest of an evening. It's just so utterly convincing and the storyline so compelling that I actually wanted to leap into the book and rescue the MC myself. If you've ever been in a relationship and thought 'wow - this is just TOO GOOD to be true' - then chances are, this is your gut telling you it actually MIGHT be. made me question all sorts of stuff and look at a lot of situations from a different perspective. SO good.
'A Day Called Hope' by Gareth O'Callaghan
Not my usual kind of 'thing'. I picked this up at the Dr Barnardo's shop down the road - TWICE and flicked through the pages before deciding any self-help book which tells me how somebody else coped with depression would probably only make me feel worse because they'd clearly overcome it sufficiently to write a book about it. I decided to do a typically OCD thing and buy it IF it was still on the shelf next time I went there and - subconsciously or not - it was.
Not living in Ireland I don't know Gareth O'Callaghan as a Radio RTE Presenter but some of the feelings he described he felt were unnervingly familiar (seeming to 'have it all' on the outside and quietly dying inside) and I wanted to see how he'd fought through them. I liked his determination and decision to get through his dark days but I kind of switched off once physical exercise was highlighted as a key turning point. Because this is something I KNOW I'll never do, unless I get a personal trainer on prescription and somebody holds a gun at my head every time he turns up at the door in his spandex. (Note the 'his'!).
And the day I finished it was the day I had my psychiatric assessment and we all know how well THAT went, right? (maybe another post for another day if anybody really wants to hear about it).
'Keeping Faith' by Jodi Picoult
I know. A (cheese 'n') Picoult sandwich! What? Well, it made me smile.
A little girl whose make-believe 'friend' turns out not to be just any old angel, but actually the leader of All Angels Everywhere, is going to hold my attention for however long it takes for people to start taking notice and listening to her. Religion and the way it can touch non-believer's lives has always held a fascination for me and I WILL read, watch and listen to anything which will convince me there is a God. I've no idea what that means but I'm sure my counsellor will have a field day if the subject's ever touched upon.However, I deviate as usual. I ADORED this book. I loved the little girl and her innocence and I adored the simmering romance between the little girls' frightened mother and sceptical TV presenter hoping to de-bunk yet another nutcase jumping on the Stigmata bandwagon. This book will be RE-READ, I guarantee it.
Currently, I'm reading 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker.
The Girl is studying this for A-level Eng.Lit and as part of my clinging-on-for-dear-life-to-the-past mentality, I got my own copy (we're even on the same page at the moment - how vicarious can you get?!) so we can, as the exams ask, 'discuss'. And I'm actually quite liking it. I've even read all the Foreword and the background and the Bio on Bram Stoker and (typical of me) very much liked the way he seemed to be a closet homosexual who pretended to take as his girlfriend, every sister of whichever male obsession he was currently... well, obsessed with at the time. Canny, eh?
So, it kind of makes me warm to the guy. I mean, he was clearly in touch with his feminine side and yet he wrote this darkly sinister story about a Tranny(lol)sylvanian Count who swept Lizard-like about the walls of his castle and drained the blood of every lily-skinned female who crossed his path.
Even more entertaining is the fact - albeit in diary/letter-form - the story is actually written in First Person - which wasn't exactly the Norm for Gothic works.
I'll keep you posted.
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| Fangs but no Fez...'Jus' like that!' |
3 comments:
I haven't read any of these yet, but a few have been on my TBR list for quite some time! Thanks for the reviews. :)
Yes! Into the Darkest Corner is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I'll be looking up the other books you've reviewed too. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Ladies - you're very welcome! x
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