I picked up this brilliant book from one of the local charity shops last Friday. It has joined an elite band of books that I considered to be truly 'un-put-down-able'. You know the ones - books that you don't want to stop reading, but you never want to end. For 36 hours I cooked with one hand, ate with one hand and completely ignored my husband!
If you haven't read it, the basic story is a 'coming of age' tale about an 11 year old girl in California. Julia has friendship issues, worries about her parents' relationships, deals with bullying at the bus stop and so on. It's the backdrop to the story that makes it so gripping.... At the beginning of the novel we learn that the rotation of the earth has started to slow. No one knows who and no one knows how to deal with situation. As the days and nights stretch, gravity changes and ecological disasters unfold, it's all narrated through the filter of Julia's own view of the world. Gripping stuff!
Other books in my 'un-put-down-able' list are
~ Gone with the Wind (I lost several days to that book when I was a teenager!)
~ The Wine of Angels (the first in the Phil Rickman 'Merrily Watkins' series)
~ The Bronze Horsemen (Paullina Simmons)
~ The House on the Strand (the best Daphne Du Maurier.. but only in my opinion!)
There were others that were great at the time, the Da Vinci Code and The Rectors Wife for example, but lost their impact when their authors started to write more in the same vein and formula.
Have you got books that have hijacked your days?
Stand and Stare... My blog about crochet and crafting; concerts and countryside; cooking, cars and cats.
Hello Jan,
ReplyDeleteWe feel blessed to be able to report that we have lost more days to books than we have had hot dinners, so to speak!
It is, as you say,so wonderful to find a novel that really grips one's imagination so tightly that one never wishes the story to end. And then one does tend to seek out everything written by the same author but it is rare for the same magic to occur again.
Best that both you and your husband get hooked into a book together.....then nobody feels left out!
Angels and Daemons by Dan Brown... I read that first and lost a night's sleep to it! And War Horse. Deceptively small, I started it one evening and was there til 3 am and Harlequin by Bernard Cornwell. I had 3 children under 5 and they had to fend for themselves one summer's day as I lived in the 14th century!
ReplyDeleteI love end of the world books! What is the name of the one you are reading? Maybe I can find it on Amazon?
ReplyDeleteRight now I'm so stressed that I am doing peaceful, light reading. However, I happened across a series of books one time by Marsha Moyer. The first was The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch. Good plot, well written, and I loved the humor. Another of my favorites is Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. So moving.
ReplyDeleteBut really, I'll read almost anything.
I think I have seen this book and it may even be on my wish list. I've had a lot of favorites over the last year 'Calling me Home' Julia Kibler, 'Clover's Child' - Amanda Prowse, 'Reconstructing Amelia' Kimberley McCreight, 'The Painted Bridge' Wendy Wallace to name but a few and I am about to finish a really good not able to put down book by Madeline Reiss called 'Someone to watchover me'. My partner definitely knows when I'm reading a good book as wherever I am and whatever I am doing the book will be with me.
ReplyDeleteAs I only really read in bed, I tend to go for more lighter, fluffier books, ones where I can read a chapter and then put them down as my eyes start to drop. I'm a terrible sleeper though so I'm awake through the night and I'd love to pick up a book but I don't like to put the light on in case I wake Mick, so I think a Kindle would be great. I've put one on my wish list.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of this book but I think I would enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteJan--please tell us the name of the book?
ReplyDeleteIF I had read the title of your post--I would have known--DUH!!! I ordered it.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean! Some books are so good that I find myself trying to read slowly in order to prolong it...while all the time I want to read as quickly as possible, because it is so wonderful. The Phil Rickman was definitely one of those, I enjoyed that totally fresh slice of life and the characters therein. Your new find sounds like one I would enjoy, I'll let you know.
ReplyDeleteOh I so agree ~ and it has been too long since I have read a good novel.
ReplyDeleteI must, now that the weather is warm, find one to sit under a tree with !
Have to agree! When I have a book like this in my hands it adds a little something special to my daily life just to think I have this special read to look forward to when I get time off.
ReplyDeleteKeep well
Amanda :-)
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