bethany725

This book sounds really good.. I'm going to put it on my TBR list.

Ohh, Poppyshake.. I love how ordered and tidy they are! Soo pretty

Marian Keyes, Jane Heller, Jane Green.. all some of my favorite chick-lit authors. Hope this helps!

Quorn nuggets tonight, with a side of roasted broccoli and mushrooms.. A little disjointed, but it's going to be a busy night for us both, so I'm just throwing whatever together.

I was looking around the site the other day, and saw that for a couple of years, someone started a "Where are you in your reading for this year?" thread, and it was interesting to see how many books people had read, and some of their favorites! Thought I'd start one for this year, since we're 3/4 of the way through it. (I hope there's not on in existence already.. I didn't see one!) Books Completed: 40 Gave up on: 3 Some of my favorites from the year: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte The Book Thief - Markus Zusak The Other Side of the Story - Marian Keyes The Ivy Chronicles - Karen Quinn Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver The Luxe - Anna Godbersen Handle with Care -Jodi Picoult

I remember exactly which quote you are talking about! I totally understand what you mean.. I'm only like 2/5 of the way through the book, and there's so many lines that I am keeping track of to write down and keep! It's wonderful, isn't it?

Peace, I started reading this today and am LOVING it. I've made it to page 119 so far and hope to get some more done tonight. It's such a great story so far, and I love the way Setterfield uses words.. It's almost magical, no?? Thanks for the other suggestion, too.. I've heard good things from several people about this, including you!

Thanks, Dan! I had so many questions still at the end of this story that writing all this junk out helped! Thanks to you guys for taking the time to read my thread.

Spaghetti for us tonight.

Aww, thanks, Mac! It makes me feel better about literally opening my head and dumping it all in a heap on this thread. Good to know there are others who go about it just the same way! EXACTLY. EXACTLY. And EXACTLY! That's totally it.. It feels like the old days when chick-lit was barely making it on the boards. You are so right. I'd say still pick it up and give it a try.. Especially if you've read any Shreve and liked her. She wrote one of my favorite stories ever ("Fortune's Rocks") but the last 2 books of hers I read just haven't done it for me. I'm chalking it up to a "It's not you, it's me" thing.. I really do think it's just me!

I loved this book, too, MissWhitlock.. Such a great story! If you haven't already read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by the same author, pick it up -- I liked it even more.

Our friends are making us congee tonight.. New dish!

Despite my love for this book, my husband falls straight into your camp, Ceinwenn. He put it away shamelessly and hasn't looked back.. You just can't blame anyone for not continuing to read something they're not enjoying!

Mini Review of Testimony by Anita Shreve Synopsis: At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora's box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices--those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal--that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment. I have to say I'm a bit torn on this one. I really enjoyed the story, the plot line kept me reading, and I feel like it was a pretty solid read. But it left me feel like something was missing.. maybe it's that there wasn't that much closure provided to me, and I still had a lot of unanswered questions after the final pages were turned. I felt like the book should have/could have had a bigger impact on me, and it's hard to put my finger on just what cause me to feel this way.. but (as my for my sake as anyone else's) I'm going to ramble a bit here and try to sort through it in my head. What could have been better for me: 1. The book isn't that long in length (305 pages) but introduces LOTS of characters.. probably 20 or so, at least half of which are responsible for providing at least 1 chapter of narrative from their own points of view. In that few pages, with that many story-tellers, it's hard to get as much depth from most of the characters as I would have liked, and I think that could be what led to the feeling of lessened impact for me. It became more of a 'surface' story, without much in the way of how many of the characters really FELT. 2. This ties pretty closely to my first point, but I'm rambling, so this is what ya get. The constant changing of point of view and perspective slowed down the suspense of the story. I wanted to keep reading the story, sure, but it hit me towards the end that I wasn't in any suspense, despite the fact that a huge scandal occurred and the readers aren't given that many details, , and other intriguing storylines are woven into the threads of the story. All that drama could lead to some pretty good intensity and suspense, but the ever-changing style of the narratives slowed that suspense down to where it was pretty much nonexistent for me. The book has enough strengths to where I wanted to keep reading regardless, but.. I could have done with some of that left in there. 3. The lack of closure: Tons more questions where those came from.. I don't want to take anything away from this book.. Like I said, I did enjoy the reading, and I certainly had no trouble finishing this book. And I don't think it's even necessarily a bad thing that I leave a book still thinking about it, wanting closure, or asking questions. From what I've read on the internet from other readers, fans of Shreve REALLY like this book, and place it up there among another popular, "The Pilot's Wife." I liked this book, but can't help but think about what it may have been in the hands of other authors, maybe Jodi Picoult.. Even though she often tells stories from multiple POVs as well, the suspense and continuity usually still has its rightful place in her books. I felt like a bit more exploration could have been done, more depth could have been provided, and more closure could have occurred. The potential was definitely there, and I wanted it to blow me away.. but it just fell a TINY bit short for me. Despite all this, I'd say if you're a fan of Shreve, pick up this book. You may just love it. I have to give it a "like"... But still a good book that I would recommend. My Rating: 8/10

Mini Review of Wedding Season by Katie Fforde Synopsis: Sarah is a wedding planner hiding a rather inconvenient truth – she doesn't believe in love. Or not for herself, anyway. But as the confetti flutters away on the June breeze of yet another successful wedding she somehow finds herself agreeing to organise two more, on the same day and only two months away. And whilst her celebrity bride is all sweetness and light, her own sister soon starts driving her mad with her high expectations but very limited budget. Luckily Sara has two tried and tested friends on hand to help her. Elsa, an accomplished dress designer who likes to keep a very low profile, and Bron, a multi-talented hairdresser who lives with her unreconstructed boyfriend and who'd like to go solo in more ways than one. They may be very good at their work but romance doesn't feature very highly in any of their lives. As the big day draws near all three women find that patience is definitely a virtue in the marriage game. And as all their working hours are spent preparing for the wedding of the year plus one, they certainly haven't got any time to even think about love; or have they? Okay, I sort of dragged myself through this book, unfortunately. I've read a couple other Katie Fforde books, and sometimes the lighthearted, slightly predictable, fluffy chick-lit for which she's known is just the right thing. However, this is my least favorite Fforde book I've read. Here's why: It's a pretty long book at almost 500 pages, and the length is aggravated by a complete lack of twists, turns, or anything remotely resembling unpredictability. I'm not kidding when I say that by page 50 (and that's a generous guess of page number), I knew exactly what was going to happen in the book: who would be paired up with who, what was going to happen to so-and-so, and how the story would wind up. In fact, the book and writing style makes no apology for that, and I'd be really suspicious if the author herself ever claimed to think that any reader could possibly be surprised by any of the happenings in the story. The unpredictability stems from more than just formula chick-lit "happy ending" writing, as the characters are given absolutely no depth at all. The characters' actions and words seemingly serve to do more than divide the characters into "good" and "bad," and each character's perspective placement into those categories is done in no less than one sentence. So incredibly early on, I knew which characters were good, which were bad (no there is no 'grey area' or 'in between' here), and exactly what was going to happen. The biggest problem came in at that point: I still had 430 pages to read and hope against hope that somehow, miraculously, a story with at least one twist or surprise would be developed in the huge span of pages still left to read.Nothing doing, unfortunately. The book ended exactly as I'd expected.. the characters were never blessed with any depth.. and I took 4 days to read a story that could have been told in 5 sentences. I like chick-lit, and I've read, and will continue to read, much of it. But with so much chick-lit and women's fiction options available today that manage to push (and even create new) boundaries of the genre, provide characters that can be complex and engaging, and spin tales that can make readers not only laugh, but really think, this comes in near the bottom of the pack for me. I'll even take some mindless entertainment some days.. but this wasn't entertainment at all. When you take the fun and entertainment out of chick-lit, you're only left with "mindless".. and that's just not a good read. My Rating: 6.5/10

Hi, Tommy! Welcome to BCF. =) With those authors as your favorites, you're going to fit in nicely -- Lots of people here follow those, too!

Hello and welcome!! Glad you joined .

Hi and welcome! Where in Singapore do you live? My husband and I spent a month there for his work not long ago.

Hi Peace! "The Thirteenth Tale" is next on my reading list.. I have it from the library. What'd you think of it? I may have to try out this Salem witch trials book, too.. You make it sound so interesting!