As we promised, here are the details of the paperbacks in our book haul (yes.. we just buy THAT many books) so lets get to it…..
The first thing I noticed about Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was the vibrant cover, I work in a bookshop so every once in a while something will catch my eye from the other side of the room and this was definitely one of them.
Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn’t stick out more if she tried.
Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book – he thinks he’s made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor… never to Eleanor.
Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you’re young and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.
When I read the blurb I got a Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist (by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan) kind of vibe from. Books about young couples who fall in love via music is always something I want to read about so I just had to get it. I’m reading it currently and I’m in love with it and I’ve heard a lot of amazing reviews about it (and talks of a possible film production) so I can’t wait to carry on reading…
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The second paperback we have is All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr which was bought after our local Waterstones had it labelled as “The best book you’ll read this year” and if that isn’t a bold statement, then I don’t know what is.
“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”
For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes.
The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazi’s invade Paris.
And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth.
In this magnificent, deeply moving novel, the stories of Marie-Laure and Werner illuminate the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
The cover is absolutely beautiful (as you can see above) and the blurb makes it sound amazing so it is definitely going to be next on my reading list.
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We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver is next, I saw the film version of this book first and I was fascinated by the storyline of it. And just recently I was looking through Amazon and found the book and thought if it’s anywhere near as eyeopening as the film then it must be worth a read.
Eva never really wanted to be a mother: certainly not of the boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who tried to befriend him. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with Kevin’s horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband. Uneasy with the sacrifices of motherhood, Eva fears that her dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so drastically off the rails.
The storyline is slightly different to the film, in which Kevin kills his father and sister in the film as well as his fellow students (to punish his mother for not loving him). It’s a dark, controversial and unsettling book but it’s a brilliant story.
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Finally it’s Make a Christmas Wish by Julia Williams. In all honesty, I had never heard of Julia Williams but I was in Sainsbury’s and saw this book and thought ‘oh my goodness’ it was so cute, I most definitely judged this book by it’s cover but I’m certainly not disappointed with the story either!
Last Christmas, when Livvy was knocked down in the supermarket car park, she certainly wasn’t ready to actually be dead! So for months now she’s floated on the edge of afterlife, generally making a nuisance of herself.
And she’s not ready to go just yet. She’s furious about the new woman in her husband’s life and she’s worried about her beloved son who doesn’t seem to be adjusting to life without her at all.
This Christmas, Livvy is given one last magical chance to make everything right. Will she take it and giver her family the perfect Christmas?
Doesn’t it just sound magical? Watch out, over the next month you will be getting a post about it!
Lucy
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Elle Hache 