The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Usually, I'm not a big fan of short stories since I prefer to get to know the characters in a book. I like it when their romance evolves gradually, not fast. But sometimes I also like to read short stories, where I don't get the chance to really get to know the characters, but at the same time I do. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of pages to understand a character.Regarding the rating... Whilst reading I found myself thinking if it's a 3 or a 4 star book, but since I found it difficult to put myself in the characters' shoes, I decided that it's more of a 3 for me. I really liked a couple of the stories, most of them I liked and a couple made no impression what so ever. Most of the stories featured women who were already in their thirties, forties or even in their fifties. Most of them had children and more than one of them had either left her husband or vice versa. Since I'm only 22, I've never been married and have no children, less any grown children, I found it really difficult to relate to most of them.In a way, it could be said that most of these stories were love stories. Love stories about couples, love stories about loving oneself... I don't know if it's correct to say the latter, but I really felt that a lot of these protagonists learned to love themselves after years of neglect.One might say that when you've given a book only 3 stars, you don't really recommend it, but I do recommend it. If you're into love stories, into short stories, into stories where the protagonist finds oneself and the sort, read this book. And if you're not not even one of those, read it still. If you don't want to read the whole thing, read my favourite "Mallard and May" by Cecilia Ahern. It's the very first one in the book and it has the biggest twist for a short story I've yet to read. I must not have been concentrating when I put this book on my "to read" list as I did not realise it was a book of short stories. I do not enjoy reading short stories. However, when I saw that Alexander McCall Smith was a contributor I decided that it couldn't be all bad so I waded in. I was entranced from the start. But my feelings about short stories are still with me, ie you just get into the story and it finishes. These stories, however, managed to get the "meat" of the tale across to the reader and provide some food for thought. I could not relate the contents of any of these stories except one, Tokyo Girl Power. This is mainly due to my terrible memory rather than the quality of the stories. Tokyo Girl Power was intriguing, giving a rare view of Japanese life and leaving me pondering on how different are life styles from country to country. In all honesty, I can say I did enjoy this book but wish that the short stories had been long stories!
What do You think about The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society (2009)?
Good for when your busy, but need an intense yet short story to read before you go to bed.
—PMC88
Some of the stories are good, captivating right from the 1st page but some are very dry..
—323818ashwolf
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories by some of the best authors around.
—moneys1
love short stories and ideal for holiday by pool
—strawberries
