Say You Love Me by Marion Husband

Say you Love Me is a Harrowing story exploring the life long trauma of parental sexual abuse. Delving into each different charactor Husband grips the reader into the repelling, mulit-dimensional lives each affected in their own way from the abuse.

So many issues are raised through out the book, both obvious and implied, including the rold of adoptive parents in the aftermath of abuse, life-long damage and coping strategies and retrubution and forgiveness.

Two brothers, both very different, cope with the childhood abuse only one of them had to endure at the hands of their father. Not lacking love from their mother, but the vital protection she should have provided them they have to learn to cope in their own ways. Each charactor endures abuse in one form or another and even after they have been removed from the situation they seem never to have the closure they so desparately crave.

Husband has highlighted a situation none of us really want to accept happens and yet does it in such an impartial vocabulary as to make it even more horiffic. She opens many doors to a world most of us can never understand but can only feel repulsion towards those who abuse and tourture.

From a personal perspective I found the neighbour's charactors very frustrating, although they knoew abuse was happening (although not to the extent to which it was) they didn't inform the athorities. I think this is a lesson to us all that sometimes imnding one's own business in all cases is not always the right thing to do.

Husband has written other novels including The Boy I Love and it's sequal Paper Moon

7/10 - a very harrowing read.

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

"If you suddenly had a friend that only you could see or hear, what would you do?"

I can't say this account on the back of the book didn't intrigue me slightly, but I never imagined I would enjoy the book as much as I did. Sophie Kinsella is known for her wit and charming writing style so although I knew she wouldn't (and didn't) disappoint the content of the book, judging from the summary on the back cover, was slightly different to her usual subject area.
Luckily I don't judge a book by the cover and off I delved into the pages.

Sitting in her Great-Aunt Sadie's funeral, a woman whom she knows nothing about, and lets face it couldn't care less about, Lara wonders where her life has gone wrong. Her business is failing, her relationship has failed and her best friend has left her in the lurch, not only that but here she is at some funeral with a family she can't stand for a distant relative she never even knew......when suddenly in her ear she hears a voice. "Where is my necklace" bellows the voice, and while no one else bats and eyelid, Lara realises she can see a 1920's girl standing before her frantic for her lost necklace, and only Lara can help her.
Her hilarious story begins, first she has to stop the funeral must to the dismay of her family, then the adventure really begins. Along the way Lara and Sadie, the ghost of her dead Great-Aunt embark on a rollar-coaster ride, who had me laughing aloud.
Are things really how they seem? What will be uncovered along the way?

I know Kinsella's books are generally held under the "chick-lit" umbrella but I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a bit of laughter in their life. It is an easy and enjoyable read and one of the rare books that I would happily read again.

10/10 I only wish it has gone on longer!!

Remembrance Day by Leah Fleming

Leah Fleming is another author whose work I had not read before, and after having Remembrance Day passed onto me I gave her a shot.

The first part of the story is set just before and during the time of the First World War, in the quaint Yorkshire village of West Sharland. Selma, the daughter of a proud Blacksmith, and her brothers, and Guy and his twin brother Angus cross paths over a tragic accident, beginning an intertwined and life-long relationship. Not the usual love story of two lovers crossing the divides of society which were so much more pronounced in those days, but one of recklessness, deceit and heart-break.

Twin brother Angus, refused entry into the army on medical grounds, takes his opportunity to deceive the army and without his brother's knowledge, takes his place while Guy is home after an injury inflicted in battle. Meanwhile Selma, still in love with Guy is led to believe he is no longer interested.

Paths cross on the to her side of the channel and Angus (posing as Guy) does a wrong against Selma's brother Frank, who has saved his life many years before. As the village hundreds of miles away hear the rumors circulating they turn against Selma's family and she is forced by her parents to start a new life in America.

Part two of the book covers her American adventure and the link Selma and Guy still have through, believe it or not, their children who have both been posted to England in the second world war after America became involved.

If you want a realistic and likely tale, then this is probably a little far-fetched for your liking but if you love to curl up on a cold evening with the fire on and a hot drink and get absorbed in a gripping tale then you will love this. Narrated by Selma as an old woman finally witnessing the erection of a war memorial, disputed upon for so many years, her story unfolds.

This book illustrated not only a story of individuals and families torn apart by the devastation of war, but allowed us to enter into a past where community and strength, honor and grudges were tantamount to survival.

A must for anyone who enjoys a bit of a tear-jerking drama.

6/10 only marked down as it was a little slow-paced for my liking and a little far-fetched for my personal preference.

Coming Home by Melanie Rose

This book was bought for me as a birthday present and claims to appeal to fans of Sophie Kinsella, who I have enjoyed in the past and Cecelia Ahern, who didn't appeal to me so much, so I was interested to see which side of the fence this book swayed me.



Picking it up yesterday I am happy to say I have finished it in the last ten minutes and thoroughly enjoyed it.



It is one of two novels Melanie Rose has written, this one being her second.



After a freak car accident in a snowstorm, the leading lady of the story finds herself suffering amnesia and after being found wandering in the snow with a cat in a box becomes embroiled in the complex lives of her rescuers. Not only that but she begins getting memories, not possible because of their time frame to be hers. Will these memories piece together a larger pictures involving more than just her.



If you enjoy books that are fairly light hearted and full of intrigue then you will enjoy this page-turner. All the characters feel like friends at the end of the book and I was sad to have finished the book wishing it would just keep going.



9/10

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

The last book by Jodi Picoult that I read is the one that I had been looking forward to the most to read. As a criminology graduate the content of this book is right up my street. Reading this book highlighted many of the devastating issues from the Columbine shooting that was so shocking.

Picoult allows us to read an almost behind the scenes look at the mind of the murder of her imaginary school shooting.

Lacy Houghton, a midwife is devastated when her world falls apart after finding out her son has entered his school and murdered ten pupils. As the story unfolds the terrible bullying that he endured and experience he has at school begins to shed light on the terrible situation facing some high school pupils.

It was another book that I found hard to put down, and although she did not by any means justify the murders of the pupils another view point is given as to why these things happen. Perhaps facing these may make us more vigilant of the signs in the future in real life.

8/10

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

This is the second of the three Jodi Picoult books I have read. I started it straight after Perfect match. Normally reading the same author in a row isn't something I generally do as I get bored of the same style and like a variation. However upon reading the back of the book the content seemed so different to the one before I went ahead.

At age 13 Anna is finally worn out with hospitals, operations, transfusions and injections...but Anna is not sick. She was born for the purpose of helping her sick sister who is fighting Leukemia. Through out this book we are given the viewpoints of all the family members in this heart breaking story. The way Picoult shifts our opinion from one chapter to the next depending on whose viewpoint we are reading is done so well.

Anna battles for the rights to her own body, she doesn't want to give up her kidney to her ailing sister, but the battle between the family loyalties are pushed to their raw limits. At 13 Anna is making a decision that will ultimately lead to her sisters death.

As you read the book you feel like you are getting to know the characters and I shed more than a few tears on numerous occasions throughout reading it. Issues none of us want to confront in our life are blasted through with such ferocity yet compassion that those of us, myself included who has not been in a situation even remotely similar can experience the devastation the disease can impose upon a family.

As with the other Picoult book I read there are twists and turns along the way which make it a truly brilliant novel. I can see why it has been made into a film starring Cameron Diaz. Because I enjoyed the book so much I watched the film, which was equally as tearful.

8/10

Top 100 Books...Read more than 6??

The BBC believes that most of us will only have read 6 of these 100 top rated books (seeing the film does not count as reading the book!!!). I will put an 'x' by the ones I have read, feel free to do the same in the comments. Just cut and paste the list and do your own comparison.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6. The Bible X
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9. His Dark Materiels - Phillip Pullman X
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11. Little Women - Lousia M Alcott X
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas HardyX
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller X
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne D Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell X
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky X
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens X
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini X
38. Captain Coreli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres X
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X
47. Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon X
60. Love in the time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold X
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure- Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding X
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Hermen Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Inferno - Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker X
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White X
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom X
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute X
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I Have Read 38 of the hundred so far and I am in the middle of about 4 of them and in possession of many more so watch this space for more reviews on the BBC's top books. Enjoy counting for yourself and sharing it with friends.