... Bookends is the second of hers I have read.
I would love to say it was as brilliant as Jemima J, but it wasn’t. It isn’t un-put-down-able either. It took me a couple of weeks to read it, instead of a couple of days. But it is a very good read though. You might struggle with ... Read review
After working on her career at a top London advertising agency for the best part of a ... more
decade, Cath yearns to leave and open her own bookshop. Lucy, married to Cath's old Uni buddy, Josh, longs to run a cafe. So when a suitable site comes up, the girls ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
After working on her career at a top London advertising agency for the best part of a ... more
decade, Cath yearns to leave and open her own bookshop. Lucy, married to Cath's old Uni buddy, Josh, longs to run a cafe. So when a suitable site comes up, the girls ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Having worked her way up to the stressful top of a London ad agency, Cath yearns to open ... more
her own book shop. As luck would have it, Lucy, wife of Cath's old uni friend Josh, longs to run a café. Together they find a suitable site and Bookends is born. A...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: A good read, almost 400 pages, great characterisation Disadvantages: A bit slow going in the middle
...other novels from the library. Bookends is the second of hers I have read.
I would love to say it was as brilliant as Jemima J, but it wasn’t. It isn’t un-put-down-able either. It took me a couple of weeks to read it, instead of a couple of days. But it is a very good read though. You might struggle with it a bit in the middle, but the last third is a page-turner.
I think the best thing about the novel is ... ...really feel you know exactly what they look like and how they behave, even the minor characters.
The book centres around Cath, who is overweight, disinterested in fashion and adamantly single. When she was at University, she was best friends with Portia, Josh and Si. Following an incident one evening, the friendship with Portia splits up and as we catch up with Cath some years later, she has had no contact with Portia for some ten ... more
You might have read my opinion on Jemima J by Jane Green, which I wrote in February – well, you probably haven’t, as it only got 12 reads on Ciao (20 on Dooyoo and a crown!). Unfortunately, book reviews get very few reads on opinion sites. Anyway, that was the first Jane Green book I had read, but it was so wonderful that it prompted me to borrow all her other novels from the library. Bookends is the second of hers I have read.
I would love to say it was as brilliant as Jemima J, but it wasn’t. It isn’t un-put-down-able either. It took me a couple of weeks to read it, instead of a couple of days. But it is a very good read though. You might struggle with it a bit in the middle, but the last third is a page-turner.
I think the best thing about the novel is the wonderful characterisation. Everyone is so well described that you really feel you know exactly what they look like and how they behave, even the minor characters.
The book centres around Cath, who is overweight, disinterested in fashion and adamantly single. When she was at University, she was best friends with Portia, Josh and Si. Following an incident one evening, the friendship with Portia splits up and as we catch up with Cath some years later, she has had no contact with Portia for some ten years. She is still best friends with Si and Josh though, as well as Josh’s wife, Lucy.
Cath and Lucy decide to go into business together, opening a bookshop-cum-café. I can well understand this, it is an idea that appeals to me too. I found it very interesting to follow the business from a mere aired thought between friends on its long journey to realism.
Of course, I am not going to give away too many of the book’s secrets, or there would be no point in you reading it, and I do hope you will. But I can give you a few tasters, dangling some luxury chocolate in front of your face…
Portia resurfaces, now well-known as the writer of a Friends type TV drama series. But are her motives honourable, and is the TV series really based on people very close to home? Are Josh and Lucy as happily married as they appear to be, or is Josh having an affair – and if so, who with? Will Cath ever find true love? And what appalling revelation awaits Si?
After a few pages, you will really care about the characters and want to know what happens to them. From a lovely front cover design, you will happily follow the friends you will grow to know on their journeys through almost four hundred pages of their lives. No, it isn’t as good as Jemima J, in my opinion, but it is still a great book and one I would recommend, especially to thirty-something women like me!
Advantages: Engaging, well-written, funny at parts, brings up some serious issues Disadvantages: Can drag on at times, some clumsy links
Bookends follows the life of Cath - a hugely disorganised, scatty, well-meaning thirty-something who's entire wardrobe consists of black who has lost all motivation for her job in advertising. She has had bad experiences with men, and as a result has built up a barrier, preferring to seek comfort in her friends.
She and her group of close-knit friends are seemingly happy - there is Si, Josh and Lucy in their group. Si is her bitchy gay best friend, ... ...City, and Lucy is the likeable, maternal wife of Josh, the mother of his son, Max, who dislikes Cath immensely.
Cath has always wanted to open up a cafe/bookshop, but she has never had the guts to quit her advertising job and go for it. Lucy manages to persuade her it is a worthwhile idea, and they set about opening a bookshop/cafe with the help of a hunky estate agent called James...
She secretly hankers after her old best friend, though she'd ...
jeszikca 05.06.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bookends - Jane Green
Bookends is the fourth novel by Jane Green, whose other titles include, straight talking, Jemima J and Mr Maybe. In Bookends we meet Cath, our narrator, scatter brained, untidy, a failure in relationships due to her emotional walls built up to prevent her getting hurt and who dreams of leaving her job to set up a cafe come bookshop, and settling down with a genuine man. Si, is Cath’s best friend in the world, he is as bitchy as the next woman, ... ...man to settle down with. Josh and Lucy are married and appear to have the perfect relationship, adoring one another and their ‘devil-spawn’ child Max. Cath, Si, Josh and Portia all met at University where they were inseparable despite their differing characters. Supporting one another through all the ups and downs that life threw at them. An event was to change the dynamics of the group and Portia disappeared from their lives. A change ...
LICARUS 04.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bookends - Jane Green
Advantages: You get much much more than your moneys worth Disadvantages: Wow! You long for things to be different for the characters, and might wonder if you picked up the wrong book
This book truly exceeded my expectations when I read it. I bought it, (at full price, very unusual for me!) because I sw the cover, and as I had just started my holidays, thought that it looked truly like the perfect relaxing read. Another of those girly books that my reviews betray an infatuation with. This is what I thought.
Every book gives a reader a standard amount of suspence, heartache, excitement, surprise and happiness, well, its a woeful ... ...them in such measures that you are held captivated by your reading. You fall into the characters world, you miss then when you have completed the last page. This isn't what I expect from a girly novel. I expect to be able to pick up the book when I choose and frequently to bore of it, because thats what I am looking for. Nothing strenuous. How wrong I was to choose this one. Its not that the style of writing is hard going, this is far from true. ...
Fuschia 28.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bookends - Jane Green
Advantages: Good storyline, and charactors Disadvantages: boring in parts, lacks depth
...love. I didn't enjoy Bookends as much as her previous novels but it's definatly worth reading for the great characterisation and storyline. The main charactor gives her job up in PR to run a bookshop and cafe ( very ellen, very New York) and we follow her and her friends several years afting finshing university as they find love. The book raises issues around lesbianism, infidelity and Aids which is great as lots of this type of genre seem to ignore ...
katehop 21.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bookends - Jane Green
...really matter I suppose.
Bookends is essentially a story about Cath. An emotionally stunted thirty something and her close knit group of friends who have kept in contact with each other since university and live like two doors away from each other. When Portia, the glamour puss queen of thier uni group pops back into thier lives it of course creates huge amounts of havoc.
Now this is what I don't get, the reason they lost touch with her in the ... ...anyway, and when she drops back into thier lives it causes upsets that could have very easily been solved by asking what was going on? In that respect I found he plot a litle bit wishy washy but the characters are what keeps you reading.
Cath is a little like me.She's scatty, disgustingly messy and wears alot of black. Worries seemingly continually about her birds nest head but never does anything about it and loves her friends dearly, but definatley ...
scorching 12.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Bookends - Jane Green
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Advantages: The writing style is so honest its like having a chat with a friend. Disadvantages: It has to end!
I hardly ever get time to read nowadays but I recently received an e-voucher for amazon.co.uk and so I chose to spend it on this book (as good an excuse as any I suppose!). As I have just had my second baby I am still obsessed with all things babyfied. So, the fact that this book had 'baby' in the title meant it was a winner from the start!
I really appreciate the rare few minutes that I get to sit down with a good book. This book made it time well spent. Although you may think it was a bit of a bus-man's holiday, with all the nappies and baby food, there was also a lot of humour and the odd glimpse of a more glamourous life for one (and later two)character(s) in New York.
I have also read another of JaneGreen's books, 'Bookends' when I was in labour with my first baby (yes it took that long but thats another op entirely ...
Advantages: Enjoyable good read, funny and sensitive Disadvantages: None unless you don't like this kind of book
and I liked that.
I have read a few books by the author JaneGreen and have enjoyed them all. They have a bit more depth to them than the usual "chick-lit" kind of books. She writes about some interesting characters and really makes them come alive and you feel as if you really know them. I am certainly planning on reading some more of her books as there are quite a few to choose from. It is a book that I would recommend to you.
***** The Author *****
JaneGreen is a former journalist and author of several bestsellers including ?Mr Maybe?, ?Bookends? and ?Life Swap?.
***** Further Information *****
ISBN ? 0-140-29593-3
Pages ? 456
Format ? Paperback
Price - Currently on sale on Amazon for £5.59 (I got mine on ebay for much less!) ...
Advantages: quick and easy read Disadvantages: fluffy, lightweight
.janegreen.co.uk if you care for a taster before you make that all important purchase.
* Other books by JaneGreen *
Straight Talking
Jemima J
Mr Maybe
Bookends
Babyville
Spellbound
Thanks for reading. ...
Portia was not supposed to disrupt their lives, not after ten years. She was the undisputed queen of their group at University, but then she betrayed them and no one has spoken to her since. Now she steps back into their lives and they suspect she has a hidden agenda.
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