Il giardino delle pesche e delle rose

When Peaches for Monsieur le Curé landed on my doorstep for review I wasn't particularly enthusiastic. I remembered seeing the movie Chocolat quite some years ago (purely because Johnny Depp starred) and not being overly impressed, however with a few pages of this novel I was hooked and hated having Leggi tutto

Have you ever received a letter from the dead? Well, Vianne Rocher did and that is where the story began… This book was so different to the previous 2 and not what I was expecting at all. Although, it’s probably a good thing to keep the story interesting and engaging.I found it highly addictive, as I Leggi tutto

I am fascinated by the character of Vianne Rocher, not least because I live with her real counterpart! And rarely, at least in my experience, has an author created a character who so evidently has a life of her own. But, if Vianne seems to have 'channelled' her way into Joanne Harris' writing, she h Leggi tutto

For me, the problem with that book is similar to one with Blueeyedboy: there is not enough of the story. Actually, I think that in BEB there was no story to speak of, only inventions for the sake of them, and here there could well have been, should the narration be more straightforward and not so st Leggi tutto

Oh I do love Joanne Harris. Actually more to the point I love Vianne Rocher. How can this book not be a resounding success? When it starts with "someone once told me that, in France alone, a quarter of a million letters are delivered every year to the dead. What she didn't tell me is that sometimes

I'm still not sure I really wanted anything more to be added to Chocolat -- remembering my second read of The Lollipop Shoes leaves me distinctly unimpressed, however compelling Joanne Harris makes her writing while you're actually reading it -- but as usual I was bewitched for a while. I'm not enti Leggi tutto