The wait is over and today I have opened my first package which is part of my Advent Calendar.
The book is The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris. It’s a paperback in excellent condition. This is the fourth in her series which began with, probably her best known book, Chocolat which is set in a French village when a newcomer opens a beautiful chocolate shop during Lent which tempts the inhabitants away from the fasting of the church.I have read that book and also started book two in the series, The Lollipop Shoes. I have also attempted her stand-alone novel Blackberry Wine. She writes books with a touch of magical realism and featuring female main characters.
This is a very popular author but I had some problems with Chocolat – I felt it was very anti-church and religion. I abandoned the other two books when I tried them because I wasn’t happy with the magic realism element of the story which I thought overshadowed the plot. This leaves me a little hesitant about reading this book, especially if I need to know what happened in books two and three to understand it properly, but the blurb seems encouraging and the whole point of this sort of purchase is to widen my reading diet. I will add it to my to-be-read piles and get to it some time in the next year – I will let you know what I think, in due course.
My additional goodie with today’s book is a coaster featuring the words “Coffee and a good book” which are, of course, two of my favourite things so I am very happy with that.
Anne Is Reading 
Fingers crossed that you enjoy The Strawberry Thief. I have to say that it was only an OK read for me. I’m fairly sure that you don’t need to have read the previous two but the magical realism was too much for me.
Your coaster sounds great though.😃
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The coaster is a nice touch.
I am okay with a bit of magic realism but I thought that Chocolat was very anti-Christian in quite a nasty way – magic good and colourful and tasty, and religion cold and dark and oppressive. I didn’t like that but we will see with this one. It might be a while until I get to it though but keep an eye out for the review.
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To be honest, I don’t remember it clearly enough to say if that was the case in this one. It didn’t hold my interest that well at all. I will be interested to see what you think when you get round to it.
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