Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris

There is a vicious perception that Joanne Harris is a girls author, she writes books aimed at the female audience. Poppy cock is what I say to that. Joanne Harris writes thoughtful novels, in a wonderfully indulgent style (guys appreciate literature too you know), so ignore the perception and give the lady a go. Semi-rant over, lets begin, you must have heard of Chocolat, even if it was also a film which made somewhat of a pig?s ear of a wonderful book (sigh, how many times do film makers do that?) Yes, Joanne Harris wrote that book and it was a charming read, whilst also being slightly provocative at the same time. The follow-up has a similar ...  Read the complete review

I've been meaning to read "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris for a while now but as I tend to buy most of my books from charity shops and I live in a town with a tiny library, I don't always find the books I'm looking for. But when I recently came across "Blackberry Wine" by the same author, I read the blurb on the back and thought it sounded like an interesting story. Jay Mackintosh is a writer who has been blocked since his hugely successful first novel "Three Summers With Jackapple Joe". He now lives with his media-hungry, shallow girlfriend Kerry and spends most of his time drinking and reminiscing over past events. However a chance ...  Read the complete review

Blackberry Wine is one of a series of food related books written by Joanne Harris, more recognised for her bestselling books, Chocolat and Five Quarters of an Orange. The theme of all three books is gastronomy and each has its' merits as modern literature, whilst being different in their own ways. The style of Joanne Harris's work is distinctively different from many that write on the subject of rural life in France, and very authentic in the way it deals with interaction between french villagers, and this book is no exception though takes a very different stance from her other stories. It would be difficult to explain how the author wrote the book from the ...  Read the complete review

For those of you that don't know, I'm a bit of a fan of books. Well reading in general actually, magazines, newspapers, crisp packets, whatever. Writing a review of a book however is a completely different kettle of fish and up until now I've been a bit chicken about doing it. I've wanted to, you know ?. I just haven't done it. There are very few books where I've struggled to get into the story and wrap the characters around myself. Blackberry Wine was one of those rare books where I felt I really had to plough through the first few chapters until I got to a point where I could look forward to picking it up again next time. I always ...  Read the complete review

My mum bought this book for when we went on holiday to France, and she said that it Was Really strange, but quite good, so I decided to read it as well, when we got back to England. I haven't seen chocolat or read any other books by Joanne Harris, so I cannot make a comparison, but that can be a good thing though, because I can review it as an individual book in its own right. <The plot> The story starts off with a struggling writer, Jay, who about fifteen years ago wrote a bestselling novel based on his youth in Yorkshire, Jackapple Joe. He is uninspired, and writes trashy sci-fi novels and teaches in a university; on top of this he has a trashy ...  Read the complete review