by Cally Taylor

***~~ (3/5)

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Book Synopsis:

Lucy Brown is about to marry a wonderful man. Dan is handsome, caring and funny. Lucy has never been happier, she is about to get everything she has ever wanted.

But, on the eve of her wedding, Lucy dies in an accident.

Lucy has a choice to make: she can go to heaven and be separated from her soul mate, or she could be with Dan forever…as a ghost.

Lucy will not leave Dan, and she makes her choice. But things are not quite so easy for Lucy. She has a task to complete before she can become a ghost. First, she has to find true love for a total stranger.

My Book Review:

I was really excited about reading this book after seeing that it received 10/10 reviews on chick lit websites, beating Bridget Jones’s 9/10. (I love Bridget!) However, although I enjoyed Heaven Can Wait, I didn’t love it like others did. To me, Briget Jones still leads the pack by miles.

I enjoyed the fantasy of the story: Cally Taylor’s vision of heaven, limbo, tasks and ghosts. I particularly liked Lucy’s housemates from ‘The House of Wannabe Ghosts’. Brian, the endearing smelly train-lover and Claire the petulant young goth.

You know when you read a synopsis or watch a movie trailer and it basically tells you the whole story? I wish I hadn’t read so much about this book before I actually read it. I removed the last sentence from the synopsis above, so that there will be a bit more surprise in the story for you. I think my biggest issue with this book is that that last quarter of the story is rather predictable. Its a case of the reader being a step ahead of the character.

I’m still waiting for another book to overtake my esteem for Bridget Jones but until then, if you enjoy this genre or need a fun, perk-me-up read, definitely give Heaven Can Wait a chance.

x Julie

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Reading Like Rabbits

p.s. I know I’m constantly raving about it, but if you haven’t read Briget Jones’s Diary, you’re missing out. She’s a menace to herself but she’s lovely.

Click here to read my review of Bridget Jones’s Diary.

by Jhumpa Lahiri

****~ (4/5) Fiction / Short Stories

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Book Synopsis:

9 short stories that reveal the lives of Indians living at home, or abroad, but nevertheless isolated, steering their way through the murky path between tradition and the new world that has evolved around them. These stories which are eloquently and subtlety told by Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, will speak to anyone who has experienced the longings of exile, or the isolated confusion of an outsider.

My Book Review:

I generally don’t read short story collections, they never really appealed to me. I like to travel along the long arc of stories with the characters and really immerse myself in a book. Short stories always seemed to cheat me of that depth. I did enjoy reading the book The Interpreter of Maladies. Though short story collections are still not my cup of tea, and I did end up wanting more of an investment in each story, I understand why it won the Pulitzer Prize.

Each story was a world of its own, entering the lives of real people and their displaced lives. As the book synopsis says, Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories are ‘understated’. They are quiet and domestic, but also therefore identifiable and honest in their portrayal. All 9 stories are unique and independent of each other in very satisfying ways, jumping across continents and content. I appreciated all the stories, but the two short stories that stood out the most for me are ‘This Blessed House’ and ‘The Third and Final Continent’.

Jhumpa Lahiri also wrote The Namesake, and though I haven’t yet read the book, it makes a great movie.

x Julie

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by Shel Silverstein

***** (5/5)

Children’s Fiction

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Book Cover Synopsis:

“Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy. So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk…and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree and the tree gave and gave.

This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another’s capacity to love in return.

Why I love The Giving Tree:

The Giving Tree is my absolute favourite children’s book. Its a children’s book, but it’s content is sophisticated and will touch the heart of any adult.

It is a love story between a boy and a tree. The tree possesses unconditional love for a young boy, and the boy, like all of us, grows up and wants more and more from life and the tree. With its simple black and white drawings, The Giving Tree is extremely moving and has powerful messages relating to the environment and the nature of love.

When my mother read The Giving Tree to my sister for the first time, she ended up in tears. It is a heartbreaking, but beautifully told story, that gently teaches us valuable life lessons.

This is the most powerful children’s book I’ve ever read. It would be perfect as a gift or as a teacher’s resource.

x Julie

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by Helen Fielding

***** (5/5)

Fiction

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Book Cover Synopsis:

Bridget Jones wants to have it all – and once she’s given up smoking and got down to 8st 7lbs, she will. Bridget Jones’s Diary is about a year in the life of a single girl on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement. A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something? Bridget Jones is everyone’s favourite Londoner. This is your chance to reacquaint yourself with the funniest, most heart-warming young lady ever to grace the pages of a Picador book.

Why I love Bridget Jones’s Diary:

I do love Bridget. She’s gawky, clumsy, does insanely stupid things, doesn’t look perfect, is terrible in love, kind, loyal and therefore adorable. Her quirky language and desperate measures to improve her love life, career and general appearance are both identifiable and amusing. There are some priceless moments of humour in that book.

I rarely read books twice over, but I have read Bridget Jones at least three times. I read it when I want to feel better and have laugh. A curious thing happens when I am reading her diary – I tend to start thinking like her, seeing things from her point of view. It’s weird but rather fun, and I feel safe with the knowledge that though I understand her, I’ll never be quite as ridiculous.

The movie of Bridget Jones’s Diary is just as good, one of the few adaptation films that I think lives up to the original. With the charming Colin Firth, dashing Hugh Grant and a Renee Zellweger with a decent amount of flesh on her, what’s not to like.

The sequel, Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason, is also enjoyable, though her first diary is still top of my light reading book list.

So if you need cheering up or just want a bit of a laugh, I highly recommend reading Bridget Jones’s Diary.

It would be great as a gift for a girl friend (if she hasn’t already read it).

x Julie

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New Moon

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn

by Stephenie Meyer

****~ (4/5)

Fiction

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Book cover Synopsis:

When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.

What Bella doesn’t realize is the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself and those around her at risk. And, it might be too late to turn back. . . .

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight will have readers riveted right until the very last page is turned.

Why I love these books:

I have to admit I was hooked on the Twilight series. I read book after book after book. I would pass them onto my mother and she gobbled them up like candy too.

Stephenie Meyer is not the best writer in the world, she writes popcorn. But the popcorn she writes is so buttery and thrilling to swallow that before you know it you’ve read all four books and seen the movie twice.

Meyer’s writing got much better as she developed the series. The first book was rather infuriating with the repetitiveness of how gorgeous and amazing Edward was and how Bella didn’t deserve his beauty and did I mention his amazing body? Blah blah blah on and on for a few hundred pages of the same gaga drooling. It’s the plot that draws you in. The world of vampire culture that Meyer creates is thrilling, dangerous and utterly addictive. It’s a fantasy world filled with vulnerable magic powers and deathly enemies. It roams from fighting inner demons to significant battles.

I think the most compelling aspect of the Twilight series is the fact that it is set in our world. Bella is a normal, slightly awkward teenage girl who goes to a regular high school. The only difference is, vampires in disguise are also on the attendance sheet. It’s the world that you always knew was lurking round the corner, just past the corners of your eye.

x Julie

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Train Man

by Nakano Hitori

Translated by Bonnie Elliott.

****~ (4/5)

Fiction / Biography (Train Man is supposedly based on true internet chat forum conversations)

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Book cover synopsis:

“The story of the Train man who fell in love with the girl, Hermes.

The best selling internet-generation love story from Japan.’

Train Man is lifted directly from Japan’s 2-Channel chat forum, the world’s largest message board and the most popular website in Japan, handling a million posts every day.

On the web you can say what you feel and be who you want, no strings attached. But sometimes the web escapes into reality and the truth becomes more amazing than fiction.

When a nerdy young guy saves a girl from a drunk on a train and posts the story on a net forum, it’s just one message among millions. But somehow the thread keeps unwinding and through the other messengers enthusiasm ‘Train’ is spurred on to get it together with the girl ‘Hermes’.

Train continues to update his virtual friends as his relationship progresses and they continue to offer him advice – some good, some awful. Hermes knows he’s got helpful friends, but what will happen when he reveals just who these friends are and what he’s been telling them?

Nakano Hitori (meaning ‘one of us’) was the name used by an anonymous messager who first collected Train Man’s adventures into a single complete and magic thread. Since then Train Man has become a Japanese social phenomenon, generating a hit movie, a TV series, stage play, five manga relisations, a guidebook and three companion books. The true identity of Train Man remains a closely guarded secret.

My Book Review:

No one really knows if Train Man is fiction or reality, but I’d like to think it’s closer to reality. Train Man is a charming and extremely endearing love story told through posts on an online chat room full of computer geeks. Boy meets girl, but is too shy to approach her on his own, so he asks for help in the chat room. It’s a truly contemporary tale which demonstrates the modern mode of community support in action.

The story is printed in the form of posts on the forum.

Eg:

’733 Name: Anonymous Post Date: 14/03/04 21:28

What’s goin’ on man?

734 Name: Anonymous Post Date: 14/03/04 21.28

>> 731 did you get a girlfriend?’

It takes a little while to get used to the style but once you get past that you’ll be hooked. Train Man is quite clueless about how to deal with a girl but his chat room buddies (often as inexperienced), all have some sort of advice to give. They seem to be living vicariously through Train Man, eager for him to succeed. They sometimes stay up waiting up late into the night to find out how his dates with ‘Hermes’ went. Because the story is told from the chat room, neither the netizens nor the reader can go with Train Man on his dates, we can only find out what happens when Train Man returns and writes about it.

The translation is sometimes a tiny bit jarring using words like ‘the old geezer’, which to me, is very colloquially English. I found it hard to imagine young Japanese men/women saying ‘geezer’.

Because of Train Man’s inexperience, he is very cautious in his progress with ‘Hermes’, so it takes a while for things to develop. Train Man is a fun read if you’re looking for a tender love story, or need some help ‘getting out there’ yourself.

x Julie

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- Reading Like Rabbits