#ThrowbackThursday. Five Quarters of the Orange

Harris, Joanne "Five Quarters of the Orange" - 2001

I loved this book. It book has a lot of issues, history, recipes, family tragedy, mother-daughter relationship, description of small village life, even though in France, I think this applies to anywhere in the world.

We discussed this in our international book club in February 2003.

Read my original review here.

Harris, Joanne "A Cat, a Hat and a Piece of String"

Harris, Joanne "A Cat, a Hat and a Piece of String" - 2012

I'm not a fan of short stories. And this book didn't change my mind. In the introduction we are told that some of the stories link together. And they do but only very few and the link is quite small (except for the Faith and Hope stories).

The only stories I liked were those of the old ladies who stood up to the "carers" in the nursing home who cared for nothing but themselves (Faith and Hope Fly South, Faith and Hope Get Even) and the stories about Africa were not too bad, either (River Song, Road Song). I wouldn't have minded a whole book about those characters but like this, it lacked something.

This has been the first book for a long time that I was inclined to abandon. I just always hoped the stories would get better. They did not.

From the back cover:

"Stories are like Russian dolls; open them up, and in each one you’ll find another story.

Come to the house where it is Christmas all year round; meet the ghost who lives on a Twitter timeline; be spooked by a newborn baby created with sugar, spice and lashings of cake.

Conjured from a wickedly imaginative pen, here is a new collection of short stories that showcases Joanne Harris’s exceptional talent as a teller of tales, a spinner of yarns. Sensuous, mischievous, uproarious and wry, here are tales that combine the everyday with the unexpected; wild fantasy with bittersweet reality."

Harris, Joanne "Blackberry Wine"

Harris, Joanne "Blackberry Wine" - 2000

I have read several books by Joanne Harris. My first one was "Chocolat" in which I was a little disappointed but probably due to the hype around it at the time, I just expected it to be more. Her reads are nice, that's probably about the best I can say about them, they tell a little about French life, usually with a foreigner thrown in, contain recipes, are a little on the chick lit side but not entirely because they rarely are about love.

So far, I have also read "Five Quarters of the Orange" and "Coastliners", and the latter has been my favourite.

Until I read this one. "Blackberry Wine" is an interesting story about some old wine, an old farm, everything old, really. It reminded me a little of Isabel Allende and her magic realism stories.

Easy but good read.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Jay Mackintosh is a 37-year-old has-been writer from London. Fourteen years have passed since his first novel, Jackapple Joe, won the Prix Goncourt. His only happiness comes from dreaming about the golden summers of his boyhood that he spent in the company of an eccentric vintner who was the inspiration of Jay's debut novel, but who one day mysteriously vanished. Under the strange effects of a bottle of Joe's '75 Special, Jay decides to purchase a derelict yet promising château in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. There, a ghost from his past waits to confront him, and his new neighbour, the reclusive Marise - haunted, lovely and dangerous - hides a terrible secret behind her closed shutters. Between them, there seems to be a mysterious chemistry. Or could it be magic?"

Harris, Joanne "Coastliners"

Harris, Joanne "Coastliners" - 2002

If you have read any of the other books by Joanne Harris, you will probably expect recipes. Well, there are none. Although it still is her style, she describes a French village, a woman who returns there after having lived in Paris for ten years and is confronted with her past. So, nothing new there. But the story is very interesting, you can't wait to find out what happened, how everything will turn out.
Nice read.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"On the tiny Breton island of Le Devin, life has remained almost unchanged for over a hundred years. For generations, two rival communities have fought for control of the island's only beach.

When Mado returns home ot her village after a ten-year absence, she finds it threatened, both by the tides and by a local entrepreneur. Worse, the community is suffering from an incurable loss of hope. Taking up the fight to transform the dying village, Mado must confront past tragedies, including the terrible secret that still haunts her father."

I also read "Chocolat" and "Five Quarters of the Orange", and "Blackberry Wine".

Harris, Joanne "Chocolat"

Harris, Joanne "Chocolat" - 1999

I read this book quite a while ago when everyone was raving about it. Actually, it was one of my former book club reads. I liked it all right but couldn't possibly think why everyone was just praising it so much. The story itself was not so absolutely new or interesting, the writing was alright but nothing of the ordinary. As I said, it was alright but that was it.

Then I happened to watch the movie. Don't remember why because usually I wouldn't necessarily watch a movie after I didn't like the book in the first place. But I watched it and I loved it. Probably due to the actors, they were all great. This is the only story I can think of where I liked the move better than the book.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Chocolat begins with the arrival in a tiny French village of Vianne Rocher, a single mother with a young daughter, on Shrove Tuesday. As the inhabitants of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes clear away the remains of the carnival which heralds the beginning of Lent, Vianne moves with her daughter into a disused bakery facing the church, where Francis Reynaud, the young and opinionated curé of the parish, watches her arrival with disapproval and suspicion."

We read this in our Dutch International Women's Book Club in 2000/2001.

I also read "Five Quarters of the Orange", "Coastliners", and "Blackberry Wine".

Read more about her other books here.

Harris, Joanne "Five Quarters of the Orange"

Harris, Joanne "Five Quarters of the Orange" - 2001

I loved this book.

The story of the family, the history, the main character trying to come to terms with everything that happened in her past.

This book has a lot of issues, history, recipes, family tragedy, mother-daughter relationship, description of small village life, even though in France, I think this applies to anywhere in the world.

I liked this book better than "Chocolat"  though I think I just expected too much of that one because of all the praise it received at the time. I also read "Coastliners", and "Blackberry Wine".

We discussed this in our international book club in February 2003.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Returning to the small Loire village of her childhood, Framboise Dartigen is relived when no one recognizes her. Decades earlier, during the German occupation, her family was driven away because of a tragedy that still haunts the town.

Framboise has come back to run a little cafe serving the recipes her mother recorded in a scrapbook. But when her cooking receives national attention, her anonymity begins to shatter. Seeking answers, Framboise begins to see ther her mother's scrapbook is more than it seems. Hidden among the recipes for crepes and liquors are clues that will lead Framboise to the truth of long ago."

Read more about her other books here.