Books - hopelessly addicted!?

[Sabine]

I´ve seen something about the movie "The Da Vinci Code" on TV today. The cast is really cool, Tom Hanks, Jean Reno and Audrey Tautou are among the actors. They said that making the movie was really expensive, therefore they hope that it´s gonna be successful. But, the movie has also been criticised a lot, because of its discrepancies with the Bible.

Concerning Elizabeth´s future, I also thought about Elizabeth and Benjamin becoming a couple, but as he returned to America at the end of the book and as he didn´t want to live in such a small town at all, I thought it would not be such a good idea. Although I also thought that they would be a great couple.

[cynthia]

Benjamin! That was it... Well, maybe he gets to the USA again and finds out that he misses Elizabeth and he returns for her... Elizabeth returned for her family, maybe he will do that for her... And what abour Saoirse (hope I wrote it right, me and names)? Will she stay away like her mum before for or???

[SingleTunePoet]

Okay, first of all, Cynthia, welcome to our little reading group.

Alright girls, fasten your seatbelts, here I go again!!!

I just finised reading “Where rainbows end”. Which means I can proudly say that I read all three “Aherns”.

Well, after reading “Ps, I love you” I thought:
“Now this is the best book ever, the other two can´t be that good.”
Then I finished reading “If you could see me now” and thought:
“Oh, maybe I was mistaken, maybe this one is the best one.”
Then I read “Where rainbows end/RosieDunne” which left me all:
“Oh no, now which one is the best one?!” My answer to that:
They are all the best one in their own ways. I could never possibly say which one I love best out of these three. All of them are fantastic and I am looking forward to the fourth book SO very much! I can´t wait! (PA-LEASE release it tomorrow!!!)

As I believe, the writing style in each book differs so much and yet it doesn´t differ at all. That sounds bizarre, doesn´t it? But it´s the truth. Cecelia Ahern manages to keep a healthy balance between the creation of something new and the maintainding of the tried and tested way.
Your realize you`re reading “an Ahern” when you read it, if you get what I mean.
I also noticed that there are these certain phrases or words that certainly are by far Cecelia´s favorites because they occur in each book.
What´s for more, the characters described in each book are so lovable. You grow to love them, whether you want to or not. You even love the nasty, stupid characters because Cecelia manages to describe them in such a way, that you still love it when they suddenly occur in a scene. (I mean, come on girls, Greg was such an a…hole but the fact that he was being called “whatshisname” all over again made me laugh so much that I somehow had to like him being mentioned.)
Also certain character traids of persons in one book will automatically remind me of characters from Cecelia´s other books.
And last but not least I love the fact that describes the magic of Ireland in her own little way.
The most important fact however is that all three books sort of opened my eyes! I never finished reading a book hers without drawing some kind of knowledge or recogniton about life from it. If you feel like life sometimes lets you down, go ahead and read “an Ahern”, that´s my strong advice, really.Though “If you could see me now” sure is the one book that opened my eyes the most.

As for “Where rainbows end”, there´s one thought that just came to my head today when I finished reading it. At first I thought it so stupid to suddenly have an epilogue in another writing style. Suddenly we are being ripped away from the Emails and letters to a third person narrator. And I was like: “Hey, hey, what the heck? What´s she doing that for now?!” After only a couple of seconds though, I realized how GENIUS that idea was. Because we suddenly get to comprehend that we, as the reader, have been reading the book with Rosie´s very own eyes, as she´s been reading all those little messages herself, all night long. (Plus, not to mention, a beautiful happy end. All that was missing were the violin´s being played somewhere in the background *lol* Yes, a girl needs to be romantic.)

And last but not least I´m going to answer Caro´s question about “If you could see me now”. What does the future hold for Elizabeth?
Do I even have to add anything to Sabine´s answer to that question?! She answered it so perfectly well, how could I come up with even better ideas? Caro, what would your answer to that question be?

Conclusion: Cecelia Ahern, you have a fan.

As for Chris Golden that Cynthia mentioned. I do not think that his types of books will ever be my first choise to read. I´m not so much into books like that. Somehow the only books who TRUELY made me love them are those of the Ahern kind, yet different...uhm...how to explain this. But frankly, my all time favs list consists of Barbara Wood and J.K. Rowling and Cecelia Ahern and writers like that...maybe that´s also the reason why I never went to the bookstore to buy "the DaVinci Code". I can´t see myself reading it, though I´d like to whatch the movie though.

But, ladies, what do you say, I have a vision of us attending the premiere of the first Ahern movie! And in my vision that premiere´s in Dublin.

[SingleTunePoet]

Oh, to answer your question from my point of view, Cynthia. I believe that Saoirse won´t ever truely return home. She´ll drop by occasionally and then go away to lead her life again. As much as I´d love for her to come home and catch up with the family, I guess that she´s just not that type of person.

And I also believe that Elizabeth and Benjamin won´t end up as a couple. I just don´t see that one coming. I don´t even know why but I have that feeling. I believe both Benjamin and Elizabeth are at a sate in their lives from which they´ll move on...into different directions. I believe that they´ll stay in touch though. As in Christmas cards and things like that. Maybe there´ll be an occasion when they´ll even end up doing business together, working on the same project. But to my mind, they´ll stay "just" friends.

[Sabine]

Swanny, what you´ve said about the end of "Where rainbows end" is exactly what I thought when I finished it. I also was like, "what is she doing there" and then suddenly you start seeing the book from a completely different perspective.

But, I have to correct what Swanny has written in the post above: Cecilia you have a lot of fans here on the board!!!

Oh yes, I will attend this movie premiere in Dublin!!!

I also don´t believe that Saoirse will return. She will for sure come back occassionally, but only to turn everyone´s world upside down.

[cynthia]

Now I need to pick up my copy of "Where rainbows end" soon. Though I just started another Golden book. His way of writing is surely different from Ahern's BUT they have one thing in common: the books are almost impossible to lay away and NOT think about it. When I am reading them it is like my mind wants to be on the next page already because I want to know what will happen, how will it end, will everything be ok.... That is how I got to finish "If only..." at 2:30am. I just could not put it down. "Ow only 30 pages left, that is easy" haha.

So I guess, after I finish my Golden novel, I will grab my copy of "Where rainbows..." and get into Ahern again! She is by far one of my favorite writers. BUT, Swantje did not mention her, I also love JK Rowlings HP work
The Lord of the Rings books are also great. Though harder to read when you are not alone, because of the big vararity of characters and scenes.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels take you to his fantasy world. (Anyone knows his work?). He has different "sets" of maincharacters, a group for every part of his Discworld. Sometimes they collide and get together, other times he just puts his focus on one part of the Discworld.
The Dan Brown books are a good read for sure. And what I thought funny, is that many of them are set within a 24 or 48 hour timeframe. It is sooo detailed that it is hard to get that the DaVinci code (certainly not a novella) takes place within such a sort time. It has been over a year since I read the books though....
And I love John Grisham's books. They are really different from the fiction worlds and all, since (a bit like Ahern's books) the stories are set in real places on this globe.

OK, enough rambling....

Ok, about Benjamin and Saoirse. I guess they will not return for good. But most people think that, so it would be funny is Cecelia decided to get them back again. I do think that Elizabeth will focus on a colorfull and happy life with Luke and finally meeting someone that wil close her curtains at night...

[Sabine]

I need a new Ahern asap. I´m thinking about what book to read next and can´t think of any that´s good enough. The only thing I wanna read now is another book of Cecelia.
What shall I do now??? I need something to read!!!

[cynthia]

Owwww *hugs* to Sabine.....
What to read now? Hmmm it is hard for me to say, since though we both love Ahern books, I am also into the dark fiction books and I think you are not.... I could say that the 2 books by Ellen DeGeneres are very funny. Swantje has read the first one I believe and she liked it. Those books alway smake me laugh... I also love "Witches Abroad" by Terry Pratchett. It is a novel of the Discworld series, in which 3 witches will journey through the Discworld, having to deal with several fairytales. It is also very funny...
I hope this has helped you a bit.....

[snookyjojo]

uhuhuhuhuhuhu! Don't read such books Sabine! I know what you're going to do afterwards! She'll be sooooooo scared that she calls Swanny and me very single minute at night, just to make sure that she's not dreaming! hahaahahaha.

Uhm...you could read "Pfauenprinzessin" bei Indu Sundaresan! Really liked that book. it all depends on true facts and is about a woman in the Mogul time in India. Historical, but very well written, i really liked it. it's a really nice love story, and was also a bestseller.

otherwise i'd say: Take PS, I love you and read it from the back to the front!

[SingleTunePoet]

I was so bored every free minute this weekend and I constantly thought how much I´d love to read another Ahern!!! Gladly, I still have one short story of hers here that I did not read yet but I am keeping that for tomorrow morning when I´ll be on the train, tired and bored. Some Ahern magic will most likely cheer me up then!

[cynthia]

Haha.... Only the Golden books can be a bit spooky Caro. "Witches Abroad" is very funny. They meet all there fairy tale creatures and have to get through to their point of destination one way or the other....
I still have an Ahern awaiting me. But I want to finsh the Myth Hunters first...
Too bad the weather is not that sunny anymore.... I love to sit in the sun and read....
Ah well....

[SingleTunePoet]

Now, as planned, I read "The calling" by Cecelia Ahern today. How much I´d love that one to be turned into a whole book! It is a great short story (The first time I TRUELY enjoyed a short story. I love short stories but somehow 99% of them don´t satisfy me. I know that sounds bizarr.) but I´d sure love to read the whole story more detailed. Take part in the main character´s life, see how she moves out, how she meets her husband-to-be...

[snookyjojo]

hola swanny!!!!! HUHU!
What is the story about? I don't have it and nooo money to bus it! So please tell me chica! ;D

[Sabine]

So, thank you all for great tipps of what to read next. I will think about what you´ve posted, haha. I definitely need a grabbing book by next week. When I will have finished my exams for the time being tomorrow, I really need something to read. But, I haven´t yet decided which book I will choose.

But, hahaha, Caro, I will take care that I won´t start reading something too spooky. I really know what you´ve described there and it´s probably true; I would surely react like that, hahaha. So, I´ll try to let you both sleep at night, haha ;D

Hm, I´ve already considered to read the Harry Potter books again. I mean the next book is coming for sure, and I always have the problem that I don´t remember what has happened in the predecessor books.

[Sabine]

Swanny, I´m reading "The Calling" now. What have you done with the others stories in the book that are before Cecelia´s? You haven´t already read them, have you? It´s half of the book... that would scare me, haha. Or have just skipped them??? Hahaha, you probably don´t want to read them, because I´ve already told you of the contents, haha

I haven´t read much of the story yet, because then I fell asleep, so I don´t know yet, what it´s really about and if I´ll like it. But, it´s once again a completely different story. And, this time it also takes place in a very different time. So, I will probably finish it sometime this weekend.

Caro, this short story is part of the book "Irish girls are back in town". It´s a book with short stories of Irish women writers. The book is really great. Some of the stories are really strange, others are really unpredictable and others are really great.
There are also other books like that, from authors of other countries, but it´s always women writers. The other books are called:

• Scottish girls about town
  
• American girls about town
  
• and the predecessor of the Irish girls book is Irish girls about
  town (there´s no short story of Cecelia in this book, but the
  other authors of the second book are also represented in the
  second one)