Of Mice and Maltesers - aristocat's book

[aristocat]

i chose this book simply because it is one of my favourites and wanted to share it with you

IMO it is beautifully written and a great story too

hope you like it too

Just received it today.

I think the reason that I have by-passed this book even though I have read almost everything else by the same author is that it is something if a different genre for him.

Also I have read the blurb before and figured it was something that would make me cry.

Have read the first few pages and have had to put it down as the girls want to play - so will have to wait until they are i bed. I do find that the short chapters in other books by this author mean it can be hard to put down these books - and several hours can pass into the early hours of the morning!

Initial thoughts are that the blurb kind of gives too much detail but, as those details are actually given in the first few pages, I will hold back and see what I think when I have read it all.

Good choice.

Oh and I am really looking forward to the chocolate too. Have never seen it before but dark chocolate and rum/raisin are amongst my favourite things.

So, great author and great chocolate!

Well done!

I have finished it. I said his style of short chapters made it hard to put down. I even read the last bit this morning whilst DD1 was watching Beebies!

I did like it. I think one of the main pulls actually was that I knew of all the places that were written about as I used to live in Boston and visited both New York (many times) and Martha's Vineyard.

I still think the blurb gives too much away but then, as you find everything out so quickly I guess it doesn't matter.

To be honest I guessed correctly what was going to/had happened. I even predicited the method in which it would happen! But that didn't make the book any less enjoyable. I didn't sneak to the end to see if I was correct, I just wanted to see how the author got it there.

I liked the change in narrator - especially the last narrator who joins in as I had wondered how that was all going to be wrapped up.

It was interesting to thin how the author enjoyed writing this book as it is very different from most of his others. It is a very calm book - does that make sense? Everyone in it doesn't seem to have any negative feelings, get angry or anything which makes it quite a nice read. Very relaxing.

As for the chocolate - that is delicious. Great that it is dark chocolate too - my favourite but DP can't stand it so won't sneak any! (He never buys chocolate for himself but snaffles any of mine that he finds in the house!)

Thank you aristocat. I enjoyed the book and am still enjoying the chocolate.

Got your book aristo (many thanks to Dysgu)-will be starting it this week so will report back.

glad you liked it Dysgu

having great fun with the book swap club !!!

Getting this onto my threads. I started reading the book last night, and agree with Dysgu about the short chapters sucking one in. I've never read anything by this author, but I had read about him, and have been quite interested in the way he works.

It's not the sort of book I would usually choose, so it's good to read something different!

Ok, well, I'm whizzing through this. I'm not really enjoying it though. Don't be offended aristocat, it's just not my thing at all, but that's why I like bookclubs - I read stuff I'd never usually pick up.

I'm finding the characters annoying in the extreme. Suzanne is smuggity mcsmug with her 'I am such a great mom' stuff. Even if you were writing an open and honest diary for your child, would you really go into details about sex the way she does? (Well, I wouldn't!). I don't like product placing - why do we need to know that Katie is taking photos with a Canon camera, or such and such has a Lexus SUV? Katie is so one dimensional, even paint would slide off her.

More later when I've got to the end!

Finished it last night - not hard to guess how it was going to end up, I thought it was so obvious that it couldn't possibly turn out like that, but then it did IYSWIM!

PLOT SPOILER BELOW!!!!!

I didn't like it. I thought it was mawkish, unsophisticated and sentimental, with unconvincing characters who were lacking in complexity. And the ending was quite far-fetched - I mean, this guy was supposed to be madly in love with Suzanne, and so soon afterwards was with someone else, and then married her. Unlikely if he'd even just split up with her, unbelievable if she and his son had died IMO.

Maybe it was all making me feel a tad inferior with its descriptions of perfect life, etc (well, ok, apart from Suzanne's heart condition, nowt perfect about that!), but really, are there children younger than one who can walk, talk, use a toy vacuum and pretend to tidy up, amongst other things? I must have a word with DS, he is sadly lacking if so!

oh dear whinegums sorry you didnt like my book

good job we are all different isnt it

am not in the least offended as this is what the book swap is all about.

Aristocat, don't be sorry - it is indeed a good job we are all different!

oh dear - I didn't like it either. It was a bit like one of those American movies for television they show in the afternoon, for me - all a bit unremittingly Waltonsy with a cast of perfect people. Very predictable too.

Mostly I didn't like it for playing on parents' worst fears of losing their children and/or partner. It left me rather tearful and worried. I don't like TV and films that do that either, but there are a lot of those sorts of programmes/films, so I must be in the minority.

On the plus side - I did like the sound of Martha's Vineyard! And it is true about the juggling balls - but I think most people are aware of that really - unfortunately most people have a mortgage to pay and can't make the choice that Suzanne did so easily.

never mind stickylf - better luck next time

just bumping this thread so it can be found

I've just finished it! I have read a book by him before (Mary, Mary it was called, I think) and it was a real psychological thriller that scared me half to death!

This kind of book isn't one that I would normally read or buy, but it was really refreshing to get a nice short easy-to-read book this month. It was just what I needed.

I did enjoy it, but in the same way that I would enjoy an entire tub of Hagen Daaz - good at the time, but far too sweet and makes you feel guilty afterwards for not choosing something more worthwhile.

I didn't like the style of writing or the characters. They were all too apple-pie perfect American family and smug, and it was a bit cliched (IMVHO). I wonder if it was published due to his reputation as a thriller writer? It's a really different to his normal way of writing. I also thought the conclusion was obvious from the start.

Having said all that, I did stay awake to finish it!

What I like about this book swap is the opportunity to read books that I would otherwise not pick up, so thanks for choosing this, Aristocat, and I'm sorry I'm not more positive about your choice.

Hi Aristocat. Book arrived from Mrs Muddle this morning and I have already finished it! (To explain, I have tonsilitis and my star of a mother took both DC's off my hands for the day. Having the book to read really took my mind off my v sore throat).

Well I really, really enjoyed it - I know it was very, very sweet and not a literary work of art - but it worked for me just fine. Gad, did I cry though - a combination of the story and feeling under-the-weather I think!

Also, really surprised to see that it had been written by James Patterson. I had read Kiss the Girls and another one I think and this is a v different type of book.

Will be interesting to see what you think of my book when it comes your way. It's not similar in storyline or setting at all but it has also been described as being a bit one-dimensional, easy to predict etc. I think you either like that kind of book or not and erm, I seem to!

thank you LolaLadybird sooooo glad you enjoyed it.

i know its not a classic but still very enjoyable IMO.
thank you

bump - so it doesn't disappear

Read the book last night - a very sweet book and not one that I would pick up and read if it wasn't in the club..

Personally though, I can't say that I really enjoy this type of book - perhaps it is the cynic in me and a tinsel and Christmas cheer overdose, but love stories and almost perfect people with near perfect lifestyles leaves me cold (I hated Titanic and couldn't bear the TTW)... sorry!

Did chuckle though - my choice of book for the club was mentioned in the book ...

Hello!
I read this in an hour and a half last night - those short chapters dont let you stop reading do they!

I was very worried it was going to be a real tear-jerker, especially as my mum had warned me off it a couple of years ago, and im now rather pregnant and teary anyway. However - i never really connected with the book at all. It read to me like a description of a proposed film.

The whole thing just felt 'flat' to me. I didnt care about the characters, and like Whinegums, i thought that the detail of your sex lives would not be something to write about in a diary for your offspring. I actually do (sporadically) write a diary for my little DS and there is no way i would write like Suzanne.

On the plus side - i too like the sound of Martha's Vineyard (we went to California, Nevada and Hawaii on a huge road trip for our honeymoon, which has put me off America, but this has made me think maybe there are other places in such a vast country that i wouldn't find so vapid) and the fact that i read it so quickly means i dont feel guilty for leaving it to the last minute as i usually do!

I gave a little "ooh" at the mention of itsjusta's book too.

So - thank you aristo as i never would have chosen to read this, and I'm glad i have even though it didn't really 'touch the sides' as it where!

Hi all.
I'm going with the majority opinon on this one...

I read it in less than two hours, mainly because i couldn't engage with these perfect people in their pefect (but tragic) lives. I spent most of the book hoping for a major twist in which it turned out that all was not what it seemed - just so there could be something thought provoking. (I was actually hoping that matt would turn out to be a complete shit after all and that there would be something interesting about women convincing themselves that they've found mr perfect or about how an apparently 'nice' man can lead a double life and cause hurt to those he seems to love.)

To me it felt like the author just 'knocked this off in an afternoon' as there was so little depth or subtlety to any of the characters or to the plot. There was an interesting idea here about finding '2nd love' but it didn't really have anything interesting to say about it. I didn't really feel I got anything out of it that I wouldn't have got from reading a two page summary.

wow - I've been really harsh (again).

still, on the plus side, I did found it made me think a lot about what makes me enjoy a book. I'm not a literary type (too lazy to read 'hard' books) but I do want a book to make me think about something in a new way. I particular like books that have characters that I can identify with that are in situations that are very different to my life.

Oh, and i find it really interesting that aristocat really didn't like my book. In her words... "There was no plot, not much of a beginning and no end." and "There was too much waffle and pages and pages of unnecessary detail."

Seems like we want completely different things from books - maybe you could recommend me some more books that you've hated

oh dear muddleduck what a shame we didnt like each others books

never mind, you might like my next one

I'm sorry to report that I have to agree with Whinegums, Pooter and Muddleduck about this one. I thought it was an awful book, very badly written and terribly cliched. Yes, it's a nice easy read but that doesn't compensate for poorly developed characters and fairly predictable plotting. I really didn't care about any of them - in fact Katie and Suzanne could have be virtually interchangeable, personality wise - and I found myself literally cringing at some parts of the novel (especially the scene where Matt and Katie are reunited gag).

I also thought some of the details Patterson added to the story were bizarre: "He liked a lot of the same things Katie did, or so he said. Ally McBeal, The Practice, Memoirs of a Geisha, Girl with a Pearl Earring..." I felt like he was just trying to up his word count. Or maybe he thinks this is how women actually think (worrying).

Sorry to be so negative Aristocat. Hopefully the next reader will enjoy this more than me.

I'd like to visit Martha's Vineyard though.

Well, I read this yesterday - half on the tube on the way to work, and half on the way back!

I am a cynical old cow so much of the American pie stuff was a bit yuck and I did guess the ending too but I couldn't put it down so the author must have been doing something right, I guess! Not sure I would read something by this author again (but he normally writes thrillers and crime, doesn't he?) It did make me want to go and live in visit Martha's Vineyard though!