On Jacqui's Bookshelf ...

Just starting to read ... Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
Synopsis: Absorbed in her own failings, Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara tries to do the right thing and - against all habit and comfort - moves the family into her own home, upending her life in the process.

Just finished reading ... The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Synopsis: At a suburban BBQ, a man slaps a child who is not his own. What unfolds is a powerful haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children and the fury and intensity that family can arouse.

Jacqui's Review: Best book I've read by an Aussie author. Explores people's everyday life, their thoughts, emotions, secret desires. Christos has an amazing way of showing you the world from each characters perspective. Highly recommended. 5 out of 5.


Just finished reading ... The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Synopsis: Watching from her place in heaven, Susie sees her happy, suburban family devastated by her death, isolated even from one another as they each try to cope with their terrible loss alone. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet.

Jacqui's Review: Part slasher thriller, part fantasy, part love/romance, this book dishes up a bit of everything. Overall though, I felt rather sad reading this book. I couldn't help feeling the disappointment Susie experienced in 'missing out' on her life and having to live it through observation. And the emptiness she left behind that her family & friends never really came to terms with. This book was not an uplifting experience. 2 out of 5.

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