The murder is almost incidental in this fantastic, absorbing book. It is far more the story of Berendt's love affair with Savannah, the quirky, larger than life characters, and the sweltering heat, than the true crime story it purports to be. The court scenes are as vividly drawn and amusing as the rest of the set pieces in this book, though.

Releasing into BOOKRAY soon - PM if you would like to join!

I am starting a bookray to release this book – please send me a Private Message including your screen name and country if you would like to join (please specify if you are NOT willing to ship overseas).

*I will make a list below of members in the order the book will travel (this may be amended later depending on shipping preferences/location etc).

*The current and previous owners of the book will be shown on the list in bold, with the current owner also marked with an arrow (>).

*Please make a journal entry when you receive the book, then read, review and release the book within 1 month of receiving it, to keep the circle turning.

*When you are ready to release the book, send a PM to the next member on the list asking for their postal details.

*When the last person on the list receives the book, you can keep or re-release it as you prefer!

BOOKRAY MEMBERS
1. TangledThreads (UK – will ship internationally)
2. camis (UK - prefer to ship within UK)
3. MissBagpuss (prefer to ship within the UK but will ship internationally)
4. minx2012 (UK - will ship internationally)
5. GlasgowGal (UK – will ship internationally)
6. chivers (Brazil – prefer Brazil, USA, Canada)
7. apaola (Brazil - will ship internationally)
8. JesseBC (USA – prefer to ship within US but will ship internationally)
9. barker-tx - (USA – prefer to ship within US but will ship internationally)
10. carpediva (USA - will ship internationally)
on way to
11. book-bugger (USA - will ship internationally)
12. spaceystacey (USA - will ship internationally)
13. BecFromMD (USA - will ship internationally)
14. indymomto2 (USA - will ship internationally)
15. princess1984 (Canada - can ship within Canada/USA)
16. katilo (USA)
17.

(Shipping order not yet finalised so above sequence may/will probably change)

Released on Monday, February 02, 2004 at In the hands of Royal Mail! in Postal release, England United Kingdom.

Forwarded to camis, the first member of this bookray. Hope you enjoy it!

Received from tangledthreads today - thank you! Am looking forward to reading this just as soon as I've finished the book I'm on at the minute.

A thoroughly enjoyable read. Berendt paints a fascinating insight into the lives of Savannahians; their quirks, foibles and beliefs. The characters are (mostly) larger than life and some seem almost caricatures of the people they supposedly portray.

The crime is almost incidental to the study of personalities, yet adds a number of new and bigger personalities to compliment those already introduced.

Prior to reading this, I knew that a film had been made of the book, but now I am unsure whether I would want to see it in case it detracts from the book.

Thanks for starting this bookray - I will be sending on to the next on the list shortly.

i really enjoyed this book. however, the characters are all so bizarre that i find it extremely hard to believe the author's note that everything in the story is true. i'm sure in some cases a huge amount of artistic licence must have been used.

nevertheless, it's great fun to read. as other journal entries have said, the murder is almost irrelevant. predominantly, the book is a celebration of people and the idiosyncrasies and eccentricities that make us all unique.

it is now on its way to the next person on the bookray list, minx2012.

Release planned for Wednesday, February 25, 2004 at bookray in By post, Sent to another BookCrosser Controlled Releases.

bookray - sent to minx 2012

Before long my housemates are going to start charging my books rent, so rapidly are their numbers increasing. I have tried explaining that many of them are just visitors, and - like this one - will be read v soon (nightshifts are very good for this, and I've got some more coming up at the end of this week) and sent on their way...
Thank you Miss Bagpuss (and tangledthreads for yet another cool bookring)!

I've only got about fifty pages left to go with this, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I knew a film had been made with the same name, and that it had received mixed reviews; indeed when a couple of my friends at work saw me reading it they said they hoped it was better than the film.
The characters are utterly compelling; those like Chablis are deeply attractive and intriguing but at the same time cringe-making, and you just know that any chapter she's in is going to have you covering your eyes in embarrassment for the narrator.

An extra layer of richness and spice is added to the novel by the way Berendt dips into the history of the city - and the country when needs be - to explain the backgrounds of some of the people with whom he crosses paths. I'm a sucker for a well-constructed trip into history (must be my mum's interest in genealogy coming out), but it's all done so well, painted so vividly that while there might be a heavy splodge of artistic licence in there, you don't care, you just want to get deeper into it all.

Berendt's note at the beginning says tourist numbers to Savannah have shot up since his book, and then the film, came out, and it's not hard to see why. You couldn't help but want to pack a bag and head for Armistead Maupin's San Francisco; when books set in New York give the city as important a role as any of the biological characters, they've had me itching to find my passport; Berendt definitely achieves the same for the 'beautiful woman with the dirty face'.

Received in the mail this morning.
Thanks Minx2012 and tangledthreads.

*** UPDATE - May 22nd ***
This has finally reached it to the top of Mount TBR! Will journal more once done.

I thought this was a wonderful book and I loved the stories and the characters brought to life by Berendt. The people are colourful to say the least! I loved Chablis going to the Ball, the wonderful Minerva with her purple glasses, and Joe and his never ending scheming! Absolutely fantastic! Now I just want to jump on a plane and pop off to Savannah and see the goings-on for myself!

Released on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 at BOOKRAY in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.

Sent to apaola today

I received this book this afternoon from GlasgowGal. Thanks! I´m really looking forward to reading it.

This was a great book. All the characters are very interesting, specially Minerva ... she's really unique!!! All the reading made me feel like visiting Savannah just to see if I can find these characters in real life.
Thanks tangledthreads for the oportunity and for everything else.

Sent to book-bugger yesterday.

I'm afraid this book got lost on my bookshelf, along with a few other bookcrossing books. I apologize to those out there waiting to read it and to those who have wondered what happened to it. I'll be sending it out to spaceystacey on Tuesday.