Emma

Oh, I'm just not the type of person who likes to read long-winded prose! There's nothing actually wrong with this book, but I found myself so distracted when reading it, often having to read the same page two or three times, before I actually digested it. The day-to-day life of the rich in Regent England is just not fast paced enough for me. Yes, there were amusing conversations, yes, there was wit, people were misunderstood in their actions and words, to add some interest, but ultimately it was a run-of-the-mill story of people who have high tea, dinner parties, balls and picnics. People die, people get married, the two main characters are aloof towards each other and yet end up as soulmates - you know the usual Austen story!

The story was not riveting, but I was pleased that after all the dithering around,

everyone lived happily ever after.

My rating **

Jessica

I adored this book! I am disappointed now that I waited so long to read it. It had been sitting on my shelf for about two years!

I was in the mood for an Australian story and this story is set in the early 1900s in NSW. Jessica is treated by her father as the boy he never had, and he takes her shearing. There she meets shearers, Jack and Billy, who become her best friends. An accident early in the story leaves one of the men with a head injury while the other goes off to war. Jessica discovers she is pregnant and her sister says she is too, although she is not. Jessica's mother and sister are vicious to her and they are not very nice to other people either. Quite evil, in fact. Jessica's father at least has a heart, but even he becomes entangled in his wife's web

of lies and betrayal.

This is a novel of hardship and determination, with a beautiful story of everlasting love between Jessica and her sweetheart.  There is also a very powerful story of Aboriginal rights, which is mostly played out near the end of the book, and almost seems like a separate novel altogether.

Courtenay links it back to Jessica's story in the end.

This is a magnificent tale with vivid characters, an intriguing storyline, and a pertinent study of values. Jessica's mother is one of the most self-obsessed villains in literature, and Jessica is one of the most memorable female heroes. This is a must-read book!

My rating *****

The Next Always

Jonathon gave me this book for Valentine's Day - gotta love him! I'm always happy to read a book about a hotel, or a house or a shop, and this book has all of them! And it has a gorgeous cover.

The story is about the three Montgomery brothers, Beckett, Owen and Ryder, who are renovating the Inn  at Boonsboro, as well as creating a gift shop across the street for their mother. The brothers are friends with two of the shop owners in the street, Clare, who runs the bookshop and Avery who runs the pizza restaurant. These two convince the men to employ their friend Hope as the Innkeeper, which makes three women for three men...can you see where this is going?

Anyway, this is the first volume of a trilogy and in this book we only see the relationship build between Clare and Beckett. Beckett has adored Clare since they were fifteen, and Clare is now an army widow with 3 young sons. A creepy guy in town, who also went to school with them all, harasses Clare, adding an edginess to the story. There is also a ghost in residence at the Inn, and that adds another interesting layer.

The Next Always is a fairly light book, although there is some discussion of death and abuse. The camaraderie between the brothers is quite realistic, and mostly lowbrow with quite a bit of swearing and blokey banter. The female characters seem to be only after one thing, which makes them a bit shallow. The writer paints a vivid picture of the characters and town, however there is much day to day minutiae described, and quite a lot of detailed discussion about renovations, which I mostly skimmed over. 

I was mainly entertained by the ghost story and the stalker story. I loved that the rooms in the inn were named after famous literary couples such as Elizabeth and Darcy. I would read the next novels in the series, because I like the story of the inn and the bookshop. The characters are pretty loveable too. 

My rating: ***

Barefoot

This was a great read for the beach! I'm glad I chose to read it in the middle of summer.

Vicki, her sister Brenda, and Vicki's best friend, Melanie go to the family cottage in Nantucket for the summer. Vicki has cancer and needs looking after, as do her young children, Blaine and Porter. But Brenda is desperately trying to write a screenplay, and Melanie is newly pregnant and has morning sickness all day. So they hire a young nanny Josh, to watch the children all week, until Vicki's husband Ted visits on the weekends. The boys take to Josh straight away, as do each of the women, in their own way.  There are lots of broken hearts and secrets withheld, and it is interesting to see who ends up with whom.

Vicki's story of cancer and chemotherapy is very honest and harrowing, and her concerns about how her family will go on without her are quite difficult and yet touching to read. Brenda's experiences teaching literature at university brought back fond memories of my own uni studies, and Josh's clever nannying techniques were like the ABC guide to parenting!

This is a book about choices. While we are often warned to think before we act, in this story the heart simply wants what the heart wants. And that works out for some. But not all.

My rating ****

Sole Survivor

This is my first read of the year! Yay!

Sole Survivor is a book about three people living on an island off New Zealand in the mid 1960s: Red, 'the madman', who works from dawn to dusk to keep his mind off the atrocities he witnessed while working on the construction of the Burma Railway; Angus, a cantankerous retired policeman who has little time for anyone yet longs for a son, and Rosie, a disenchanted doctor turned market researcher who inherits a shack on the island and is determined to make a new life away from the rat race.

When these three characters get together sparks fly and blood boils, but their antics are completely endearing and it is a joy to read of their interactions. The sideline story of Japanese trawlers illegally obtaining fish from the island's shores is political and quite exciting, but I preferred to read about the everyday adventures of the three characters and the irony in having to work so hard to live a simple life.

Fantastic character portraits, and a positive message. Good reading.

My rating ****

Books I Read in 2011

I'm pretty pleased that I read 70 books this year. There were only a couple of duds in all of these. The ones in red are books that are HIGHLY recommended by me as they are unforgettable!

January

1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

2. The Only Way is Up - Carole Matthews

3. Crime and Punishment - Fyoder Dostoevsky

4. Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult

5. April Fool's Day - Bryce Courtenay

6. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

7. Call of the Wild - Jack London

February

8. Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

9. All That Remains - Patricia Cornwell

10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

11. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

12. A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey

March

13. The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

14. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

15. At Home With the Templetons - Monica McInerney

16. I'm a Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson

17. The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

18. The Alchemist's Secret - Scott Mariani

April

19. Silent Country - Di Morrissey

20. What to do when the doctor says it's IBS - Leigh Forston

21. The Secret - Rhonda Byrne

22. Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly

23. Nim's Island - Wendy Orr

24. Mum had a Kingswood - Tim Ross

25. The Book of Tomorrow - Cecelia Ahern

26. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

May

27. Adventures in Caravanastan - Greg Bearup

28. The Inheritance - Robin Hobb

June

29. Timemachines Repaired While-U-Wait - K.A. Bedford

July

30. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Scaffer and Annie Barrows

31. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

32. Dewey - Vicki Myron

33. Coach Yourself to Wealth - Shirley McKinnon

34. Where's your Wow? - Robyn Spizman And Rick Frishman

35. Getting it Right - James Hoy

36. Follow the Other Hand - Andy Cohen

37. Eight Steps to a Remarkable Business - Paul McCarthy

38. Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children - Jen Storer

August

39. Who Switched off my Brain?- Dr Caroline Leaf

40. Bulletproof your Business Now - Andrew Griffiths

41. Be a Party Plan Superstar - Mary Christensen

42. Noah Barleywater Runs Away - John Boyne

43. The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein - Peter Ackroyd

44. The Help - Kathryn Stockett

45. Summer School - Domenica de Rosa

46. 365 Thank Yous - John Kralik

47. The Art of Possibility - Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

September

48. Nothing to Lose - Lee Child

49.Weather - Julie Capaldo

50.Time of My Life - Cecelia Ahern

October

51. All He Ever Wanted - Anita Shreve

52. Lessons in Letting Go: Confessions of a Hoarder - Corinne Grant

53. The Awakening - Bevan McGuiness

54. The Magician's Elephant - Kate DiCamillo

55. Beastly - Alex Flinn

56. 29 - Adena Halpern

57. Dirt Music - Tim Winton

November

58. My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor

59. Dear Fatty - Dawn French

60. On the Street Where You Live - Mary Higgins Clark

61. Don't Let Her See Me Cry - Helen Barnacle

62. Molly's Millions - Victoria Connelly

63. Eleven Hours - Paullina Simons

December

64. Breath- Tim Winton

65. Tully - Paullina Simons

66. The Zahir - Paulo Coelho

66. Upside Down Inside Out- Monica McInerney

67. Testimony - Anita Shreve

68. World's Weirdest True Ghost Stories - John Beckett

69. Gone Tomorrow – Lee Child

70. Secret Lives of Dresses – Erin McKean

The Time of My Life

Cecelia Ahern's books just keep getting better and better!

The Time of My Life is set in a world that is completely like ours except for one thing; when life becomes stagnant and you are all but withdrawing from everyone, your Life steps in, literally. And in Lucy's case it is in the form of a dishevelled looking man who needs her to improve her situation for him to look and feel better! Lucy's Life has been messed up since she broke up with her last boyfriend, who she still obsesses over. She is dissatisfied in her job, she invites no one to her untidy home, she disappoints her family members, especially her father, and, she lies about things to make herself feel better. But Lucy's Life wants her to change all that, and he believes things will change when she stops telling lies.

The Time of My Life shows what happens when Lucy begins to reveal the truth about herself and her true feelings. It is filled with hilarious, believable scenarios, with lovable characters, and an eye-rollingly smarmy ex-boyfriend. It will make you consider if your own life is firing on all cylinders, and if you are being true to yourself. A fun, fulfilling read, that makes you think.

My rating: ****