Joanne Harris

[BookStop]

I re-read Chocolat last month - just as charming as I remembered - and got the hankering to see what else Ms Harris had written. Luckliy my used bookstore had Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, and Gentlemen and Players, so I bought them up.

I've already read 2 of them just this week! Usually I don't go for reading one author's works in quick succession, but dang it, the woman is brilliant, and I am completely enamoured with her novels.

I stayed up until 0230 this morning finishing Gentlemen and Players. I wasn't going to sleep without knowing who was behind the ruckus at St Oswald's. I really had no idea who the culprit was and what the culprit had done right up to the end.

Anyone else a fan?

 

[Celine]

Me! *Jumps up and down*

If you liked 'Chocolate', you really have to read it's sequel 'The Lollipop shoes'. It's far better than I expected it to be and she used the fantasy element - Vianne being some kind of witch - more. The first chapter (or prologue) is absolutely brilliant.
Recently I found Runemarks in the fantasy section of my favorite bookstore. Haven't finished reading yet - it's not quite as compelling as her other novels and completely different (different setting, characters etc) - but it's very well-written.

 

[GOLLUM]

Who is Joanne Harris? Never heard the name and doesn't sound as if it's strictly SFF or am I wrong here? Please elaborate.

 

[mygoditsraining]

Joanne Harris is an author who has written some very popular novels which although not all are "hard fantasy", many have strong elements of the fantastical or otherworldly about them.

I believe she'll be appearing at Birstall Borders near Leeds on the 15th March as part of the Huddersfield Literature festival.

 

[Celine]

She's great at creating atmosphere in her books - I can't explain it any better. Very French - at least, the way you see France in movies, the way you imagine it to be - and sometimes a bit magical. In Chocolate, her most famous book, Vianne Rocher and her daughter are always taken by the wind to new places, more or less forced to travel. At the beginning of the novel, they are taken to Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, a very small and conservative village on the French countrysite. Vianne uses some magical rituals and - more important - she opens a chocolaterie that seems to have an abnormal kind of attraction to the villagers.

 

[GOLLUM]

Cool....I may investigate further.

Cheers...

 

[BookStop]

I don't have The Lollipop Shoes yet, but I am definitely going to try it. I've loved everything I've read so far.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I saw the movie Chocolat and liked it very much. Her Holy Fools, which I read, is quite different but also very good.

If you liked 'Chocolate', you really have to read it's sequel 'The Lollipop shoes'. It's far better than I expected it to be and she used the fantasy element - Vianne being some kind of witch - more. The first chapter (or prologue) is absolutely brilliant.

You intrigue me, Celine. It looks like I will definitely have to hunt down that book.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well, it took a while, but I finally have a copy of The Lollipop Shoes under it's alternate title The Girl With No Shadow (and I've read far enough to find it highly amusing that this particular book should go by more than one name). A few chapters in, and so far it looks good.

 

[Nesacat]

I've read all her books and like them very much. The most recent read was Lollipop Shoes.

She's got a fantasy novel out called Runemarks ... I just bought it and have not read it yet but it sounds interesting. Here is what her website has to say about it:

Runemarks is set in a universe of nine Worlds, not unlike that of Norse legend. Five hundred years have passed since Ragnarók, and the world has rebuilt itself anew. The old gods are no longer revered. Their tales have been banned. Magic has been outlawed, and a new religion – called the Order – has taken its place.



The Order is a crusading religion. It works from an ancient text – simply called The Good Book – and its ultimate mission is to bring Perfect Order to all the Worlds. This means an end to Chaos, to magic, to superstition, to false belief, to dreams, to stories (except for the stories in the Good Book) as well as to Faëries, goblins, dwarves, witches - and of course any old gods who still happen to be around.



In a remote valley in the north of Inland (the “civilized” part of the Middle Worlds), lives a girl called Maddy Smith. She is the heroine of our tale, and she is nearly fourteen years old. No-one in the village likes her much; she is reputed to be imaginative, she tells stories, talks to goblins and worse still, she has a ruinmark on her hand, a sign associated with the Bad Old Days.
What the villagers don’t know is that Maddy has skills. According to One-Eye, the secretive Outlander who is Maddy’s only real friend, her ruinmark – or runemark, as he calls it – is a sign of Chaos blood, magical powers and gods know what else...



And now, as the Order moves further north, threatening all the Worlds with conquest and Cleansing, Maddy must finally learn the truth to some unanswered about herself, her parentage, and her powers.



What lies under Red Horse Hill, that barrow of the Elder Days? Why do the goblins gather there? Who is One-Eye, her old friend, and what is he afraid of there? Most of all, what is the Whisperer, that artefact of the Elder Age that must be found – before someone else does?



One-Eye says that a war is coming; a war between the old and the new. But will rune magic be enough to combat the Examiners of the Order, and what is the source of their secret weapon, a devastating power known only as The Word?

 

[GOLLUM]

Thanks Nesa.

I obviously need to get out more......what with all these new authors I know nothing about....

Does sound interesting though I must say.

Cheers....

 

[BookStop]

Thanks for posting that Nesa. I don't care for fantasy, in general, but I do like to try it occasionally thinking that one of these times i'll find a read i enjoy, and this sounds like a good book to bet on. i love Joanne Harris' style.

Is this a YA book? It sounds just like the type of thing one of my girls woud really enjoy, so maybe it can be one of the rare books we both read and discuss...
*poof - off to track it down*

Nice - it looks like it may be age appropriate for all the kids, so we are definitely getting a copy - thanks again nNesa for suggesting it, I'd not thought to actually look at what all Harris had written that I'd not read. *hmmm cover looks fimiliarm, i'd better not buy a copy until I'm sure I don't already have*

FYI - Lollipop SHoes or Girl with no Shadow is on sale for $6 HC at Amazon.

 

[Nesacat]

BookStop ... it is indeed a book for young adults. I started on it last night and I like it. It's good reading with fine characters.

Another writer who did a fantasy novel for young adults is Jeanette Winterson with Tanglewreck. I love her regular fiction and she did a wonderful job of Tanglewreck.

 

[BookStop]

It's killing me that i can't remember where I've seen Runemarks. It's just been int he last week or 2, but I can't fins it here in the house... I'll have to ask the kids. Probably one of them has the book squirreled away on thier shelves somewhere.

I love reading well written YA. I say I don't read that much fantasy, but I guess I do now that I think about it. I recently read the Graveyard book by Gaiman, and am currently reading American Gods, also fantasy. I read lots of Alice hoffman which usually have afantasy element. I guess I'm just picky and really want books to be well-written. Harris hasn't disappointed me yet, so I am definitely going to try Runemarks once I can find it.