This is my extra copy which I'll send out on a perpetual bookray for others to enjoy one of my favourite books. You can see the other copy here. Please PM me if you're interested in joining.

Here's a list of the participants:

yvonnep, Netherlands
Roadrunner, Texas
Tamster33, California
sstich79, Kentucky (skipped)
Brideofmessiah, Missouri (no reply)
Alrescate, Missouri
LaughAtlantis, Massachusetts ***
Davitraka, Florida
sarajenni, New York
maddymonkey, Illinois
jmg49, Canada
Wandeca, Canada
fio-dagua, Portugal
kymberlie, Texas
kellyhp, Texas
Ri, Canada
noraneptune, Maryland
lshsmom, Oregon
hathyia, Malaysia
MaiSpritt, Denmark
Clawdia, Spain
DianeO, England
Derfel1, Pennsylvania
ladyofunicorns, New Mexico
katalirob, Georgia
alarob, Alabama
spaceystacey, New Jersey
torksoul, England
vicki9170, Florida
schmetterling, North Carolina
toadee, United Kingdom
lim1bd, United Kingdom

1. Please make a journal entry showing that you have
received the book as soon as you get it.

2. When you receive the book, please also PM the
next person in line to get his or her mailing address.

3. Make a journal entry letting us know what you
think of the book including a favorite quote if
you like. Journal when you are sending the book
to the next BookCrosser.

4. Mail the book to the next person on the list.

Happy reading everyone!

That certainly is a book! It arrived today and I hope I'll be able to finish it in a week. Well, I better start reading...:-)

Mixed feelings. Ambiguous feelings. Yes, I liked the book but I'm glad I finished it. Sometimes it was funny but somewhere around page 350 I had enough. But I kept the reading going. I loved the women in the book: Arsana, Clara, Irie and Niece-of-Shame Neena. No, I didn't particularly like Joy and Hortense. I liked Archie, who couldn't make a choice without a coin. Loved that bit. My sympathy for Sam faded away. Millat and Magid were really good-for-nothing-sons. Both. They annoyed me. Josh annoyed me. And that makes reading a hard job. Smith should have made her book about a 100 pages thinner. I really don't have to know everything about everybody.

Quotes? Oh, you can make a lot. I have chosen one from the thoughts of Alsana about 'being involved'.
"Involved happened over a long period of time, pulling you in like quicksand."
"Involved is neither good, nor bad. It is just a consequence of living, a consequence of occupation and immigration, of empires and expansion, of living in each other's pockets... one becomes involved and it is a long trek back to being uninvolved."
This page, 376, gave me a lot to think about!

And now the book goes to Roadrunner. Thank you tutmarie for sending the book out.

I just received this from Yvonnep in the Netherlands. GREAT postcard - thanks! I'm just finishing up another bookring book and will get to this asap. I have Tamster's address and will get it to her as soon as I've finished. Thanks Tutmarie for sharing. I've wanted to read this book for the longest time!

I FINALLY finished this book. I'm going to echo yvonnep in my comments. I loved the first part of this book but she seemed to lose control towards the end. Most of the characters became a bit tiresome although I did like Irie (and I really like her name!). She has a very good ear for dialog and some of it was laugh out loud funny and spot on.

My quote (from Alsama): "But I cannot be worrying-worrying all the time about the truth. I have to worry about the truth that can be lived with."

This book is off to beautiful San Francisco to visit tamster33. From one Bay Area girl to another . . .

Received today. I have a few other ray books in front of this, but I'll get to it as soon as I can and pass it on. Thanks!

Update: I promised to get this book out by May. I've read about half of it and I've enjoyed it, but I just don't have the time to finish it right now. I've PM'd brideofmessiah for her address (SStitch79 already got a copy elsewhere), so as soon as I get it, I'll send it out. Thanks for the opportunity to read this. I hope to find another copy someday so that I can finish it. Sorry to have kept it for so long.

Released on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 at Mailbox in San Francisco, California Controlled Releases.

Sent today via media mail to Alrescate, since brideofmessiah never returned my PM's.

I was so glad to see this arrive today. I've been looking forward to reading this! I have a couple of rays in front of it but I will get to this as soon as I can.

**Update June 20, 2004**
I got through the other bookrays I had before this book and finally got started on this last night. It is a very quick read so far; I manged to go through about 150 pages before I fell asleep. I'm hoping to have this finished soon.

While this book didn't live up to the hype I quite enjoyed it. I became very involved with the lives of the characters & kept reading to see what would happen to them. I thought the last two pages were a bit lame but I liked the way Smith brought the final threads of the story together with Samad & Archie.

I imagine I will check out other work from this author.

I have the next person's address and should be able to mail this out by June 28th.

**Update** Mailed June 25th.

Just got the book in the mail from alrescate... will journal once I read it!

OH MY GOSH!!!

I found this book in a backpack in my closet this week - I thought I had mailed it out months ago! I'm so sorry about the delay; I will send it out tomorrow.

*smacks self in the forehead*