BB FANS

I hope you enjoy it Fel. I wont tell you that the boat sinks then

Beware that it is one of those books that you say 'I'll just read one more section' (couldn't really say chapter because they are only a few pages aren't they ) and then 10 sections later decide that you had better actually go and do something.... or maybe that's just me?!

I started reading this over the weekend and am really enjoying it - it is well written and moving..
however - before anyone else points it out and embarasses me - I thought it was a true story and was starting to get quite wound up and indignant (and that was only on page 48!) what a spiv

well I have finished the book at last (on the bus on the way back from a school trip to Glasgow!)

I must confess that I did greet at the end - particularly in the epilogue part where the sister was talking about the grieving process
*none of the kids noticed tho as it was dark *

I enjoyed it a lot and am about to read The Pact now I think

Oh I enjoyed The Pact felicity. Both of them intersting story lines I think.

totally off topic but how can people do that?!

Glad you enjoyed it Fel. I was nearly in tears at the end and have a swinging brick for a heart so it doesn't shock me that normal people would

Reading two other books at the moment (one being a French play ) but do intend to read more of her's when I get a chance.

Salem Falls

Another page turner by Jodi Picoult. So much so that I read the entire 500 page book this weekend. It is rather like The Crucible (I had to study and act that out at school, Oh the memories!) A group of teenage girls practise witch craft and a man is falsley accused of rape. It deals very well with issues of false accusations and witch hunts and how a persons perception of another can be changed by hearsay etc. Of all the Picoult novels I have read I think this one and The Pact have been my favourite. After that comes Songs of a Hump Backed Whale which was her first novel and then My Sisters Keeper which was good but the ending annoyed me as I felt it was an unlikely cop out. Trailing at the end is Vanishing Acts which was dissapointing. Anyway Salem Falls is brilliant

Sorry I just geeked out there for a few minutes

Sounds wonderful HC, I'm yet to buy another Jodi Picoult book as I have a few to read and don't have enough time or money at the minute but it was going to be 'The Pact' next, shall maybe choose this one before.

We did 'The Crucible' last year too, I really liked it.

The Pact is good too Jezi both are very good reads. I have a copy of Plain Truth which Ellie said was boring and she didnt like. I'm yet to pick it up and argue with her about it but I will get around to it one day

I read Salem Falls yesterday and absolutely hated it. (sorry HC). I felt it was formulaic, extremely poorly written, cliched and full of the most awful methaphors. I started to underline the phrases which stood out as the most crass, but gave up before I had even finished the first chaper, as there were so many of them. I'm afraid unlike 'Her Sister's Keeper', I couldn't even appreciate the plot. Obviously as the author herself admits, it is an updated copycat version of The Crucible, but in a totally vacuous style, and this story has been done so many times, since The Crucible, that it held no surprises for me. No, not even the final lines, which I had guessed by about chapter 3. I think this author is a bit of a one-trick pony, but doesn't even have the depth that, say someone like Anne Tyler has. She writes formulaic books also, but in a simple, less schmalzy way which makes them ring true imo. This author seems to be trying so hard to be descriptive and inventive, that instead she is coming across as totally over the top. She also fills the books (well at least the 3 I have read so far) with far too many characters. This detracts from the main characters of the book, well for me anyway. All in all, a crap read for me.

so you liked it then?


I wasn't reading it as some great book critic I'm not clever enough! but I really did enjoy it and think it's a subject that is still valid. She admits it was like the crucible in the notes in the back but I didn't have a problem with it.

I know what you mean about her books being similar but if you read the first one she wrote it is nothing like the others. Not a court room in site.

I don't know if there is any such thing as a great book critic HC. I think anyone who reads books is a critic and all opinions are valid.

I guess I have been reading a lot less than normal these days and I really don't want to waste my time reading something which I think is a bit rubbish. (though I admit it's better than anything I could write ) I think this subject has been done so many times and she didn't really add anything new to it. Also it is hard to read a book and enjoy it when you really couldn't care less about any of the characters, and when they seemed more like sterotypical cariactures, which was the case for me with this one.

I don't mind books being similar, most detective fiction, like P.D James is formulaic and I can still enjoy them. The same with Anne Tyler and various other authors. I think for me, this book was too full of cheesy descriptions and over the top metaphors and it didn't flow. Phrases kept jumping out at me, that had a similar reaction to someone scraping their nails down a blackboard.

I'll take your word on the first book, but won't be reading it anytime soon.

I haven't read this but I have read The Pact by the same authour. Imensely enjoyed it. Anyone read it? What did you think?

I can't figure out for the life of me the way it ended though

I'm reading that at the moment Brian but haven't done so for a week or so as I've kinda misplaced it Once it's found again though I will report back!

I enjoyed The Pact Brian. What I like about this author is she tackles slightly offbeat issues. Some of her books can be a bit samey but but if you bear that in mind and don't mind so much about that then you can get an enjoyable read from the majority of her books (imo)