Journal Entry 1 by Caroley from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Friday, June 25, 2010

Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but here she was, stuck in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient street beneath York Minster, with sensible and sardonic Patrica aged five, greedy cross-patch Gillian who refused to be ignored, and Ruby...
Ruby tells the story of The Family, from the day at the end of the nineteenth century when a travelling French photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, like flowers in amber, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby's own life. 

Journal Entry 2 by Caroley at Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Friday, August 13, 2010

I really enjoyed this. I loved the quirky way it started, it intrigued me and drew me in straight away. I liked the Footnotes that kept delving back into the past giving you the history of Ruby's family. I thought the way that they weren't necessarily set chronologically was much better as it added to the mystery.
And if we're talking about mystery, there's Pearl. From the start you suspect that there's 'something', and you just have to keep reading to find out what. You have an idea early on, but you need it confirmed, you need to know and the author keeps dangling the truth just out of reach, almost to the end. Clever.
Oh I really loved this book.