Summer time (supposedly) so I suggested we read a summer book. Not a book set on a beach but the classic summer read - light hearted, and dare I say it chick lit. Gulp!
It was a bit of a risk asking a book club to review a book that normally, at least I, would steer clear of and perhaps some of us had preconceptions that were never going to be overcome.
The book wasn't your standard however. For a start it was told from a teenagers point of view about a teenager - not your normal career women who is disastrous in love then. It also started off with the main characters (Tamaras) dads suicide and Tamara and her mothers resulting bankruptcy and removal from the family home. Not your usual summer read by the pool huh?
The book then kind of took on your more usual chick lit format, introducing a love interest that had disastrous consequences. Yet it still twisted away from the norm by introducing The Book of Tomorrow. It was here that I think it lost some of us who found the concept of a book that predicts the future just one step too far. I didn't mind it actually, it wasn't the be all and end all of the book and if you just went with it rather than questioned how and why, it fit into the story quite well. Others in the group whlst not minding the appearance of the book didn't like the lack of explanation about it wanting a reason no matter how far fetched it was rather then the book just being presented to them and then being removed.
We all agreed that the underlying story about the hidden family history was quite interesting but was brought to an end quite quickly. I think some of us would have preferred the book to have been more focused on this side of things but then it wouldn't really have been a chik lit book.
I also find there is a certain style/theme that seems to come out with books based in Ireland. Maybe it comes from reading too many Maeve Binchy books but it always seem as though a nun has got to be present somewhere and Dublin has to feature!
We spent a bit of time talking about what we thought of reading a book from a teenagers point of view. This coupled with the magical element seemed on the face of it highly aimed at children. Did it manage to be an adult book? We thought it did although couldn't pin point exactly why. We discussed how it was unusual for a book from a teenagers point of view to be marketed as an adult book. There are a number of books (Harry Potter and Twilight being the main ones) that have teenagers as the lead characters and that have been popular with adults. But all of these were marketed first as childrens books. The Book of Tomorrow however (to my knowledge) never was.
Overall I think peoples minds had perhapsed been made up before they read this book proving that you do sometimes judge a book by its cover. It was disappointing but that was the risk I suppose. I found it delivered way more than your usual chick lit found free glued to your summer magazine and to lump it in that catogary is an insult to Ahern. This isn't the first Ahern book I have read and although I would say its probably the one I have enjoyed the least I wouldn't be put off from reading other ones.
Scores were far ranging this monthbut we levelled it out with a 6
PS for those of you who haven't realised Ahern was the author who wrote PS I Love You.
It was a bit of a risk asking a book club to review a book that normally, at least I, would steer clear of and perhaps some of us had preconceptions that were never going to be overcome.
The book wasn't your standard however. For a start it was told from a teenagers point of view about a teenager - not your normal career women who is disastrous in love then. It also started off with the main characters (Tamaras) dads suicide and Tamara and her mothers resulting bankruptcy and removal from the family home. Not your usual summer read by the pool huh?
The book then kind of took on your more usual chick lit format, introducing a love interest that had disastrous consequences. Yet it still twisted away from the norm by introducing The Book of Tomorrow. It was here that I think it lost some of us who found the concept of a book that predicts the future just one step too far. I didn't mind it actually, it wasn't the be all and end all of the book and if you just went with it rather than questioned how and why, it fit into the story quite well. Others in the group whlst not minding the appearance of the book didn't like the lack of explanation about it wanting a reason no matter how far fetched it was rather then the book just being presented to them and then being removed.
We all agreed that the underlying story about the hidden family history was quite interesting but was brought to an end quite quickly. I think some of us would have preferred the book to have been more focused on this side of things but then it wouldn't really have been a chik lit book.
I also find there is a certain style/theme that seems to come out with books based in Ireland. Maybe it comes from reading too many Maeve Binchy books but it always seem as though a nun has got to be present somewhere and Dublin has to feature!
We spent a bit of time talking about what we thought of reading a book from a teenagers point of view. This coupled with the magical element seemed on the face of it highly aimed at children. Did it manage to be an adult book? We thought it did although couldn't pin point exactly why. We discussed how it was unusual for a book from a teenagers point of view to be marketed as an adult book. There are a number of books (Harry Potter and Twilight being the main ones) that have teenagers as the lead characters and that have been popular with adults. But all of these were marketed first as childrens books. The Book of Tomorrow however (to my knowledge) never was.
Overall I think peoples minds had perhapsed been made up before they read this book proving that you do sometimes judge a book by its cover. It was disappointing but that was the risk I suppose. I found it delivered way more than your usual chick lit found free glued to your summer magazine and to lump it in that catogary is an insult to Ahern. This isn't the first Ahern book I have read and although I would say its probably the one I have enjoyed the least I wouldn't be put off from reading other ones.
Scores were far ranging this monthbut we levelled it out with a 6
PS for those of you who haven't realised Ahern was the author who wrote PS I Love You.
For some reason it wouldn't let me post the links to amazon (or anywhere else for that matter) that I normally include. So sorry if your missing your easy fix of looking at the book as your reading
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