Somebody has nominated this as a future read for my book club, and I picked it up cheap just in case it happens.

It seems odd to describe a woman who sees the world so clearly and differently, in words (however lovely). Light and images tell so much more. I suppose that words are better at directing readers to the tiniest detail, that they might have missed in a photograph. I don't know whether Lucy Strange, companion of Isaac Newton and pioneering photographer, was a real person, but this story of her short life was a very good read. Initially I was irritated by the frequent switching between points of view. (I thought, if you need to sift through so many lives to find enough interesting bits to fill a book, then why tell their stories at all?) It grew on me, though - I don't think that I will be wild releasing it immediately. Some day, perhaps.

I love Lucy's vision. The descriptions of the things she sees and the way she sees them are so vivid. I want to go to India now (I just asked my boss if I could go next week, but he said no).

Adding this book to Megami's "Decade of Literary Fiction" bookbox. May you travel far, little book. You deserve it.

Acknowledgement - I couldn't finish this book, so I am not reviewing it per se, just commenting on what I didn't like.

This book suffers from 'creative-writing workshop' syndrome. I don't know if Jones has ever been to one of these workshops, or done a creative-writing course, but it just has that feel to me. The description doesn't feel like it is there to describe objects or events, but rather there for the sake of showing off the writer's descriptive skills - it is extraneous and distracting. And the children characters are given the personalities and viewpoints of mature adults, which always annoys. And, for the first 50 pages or so, the whole story feels falsly constructed, a hard to describe 'ugh' that put me off reading it.

Didn't pass the 50 page test for me.

RELEASE NOTES:

Picked up at the meet-up. Looks like it could be interesting. Adding to Mt TBR.

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I loved the descriptions, the flow of the language while I was reading it, but looking back on it now, a few days later, there's not much of the story that has stayed with me.

RELEASE NOTES:

Off to a new home. It was selected on the VBB.

Yay! Look what I received in the post yesterday.

Thank you AmberC.