A case of too many books, not enough time. As a result, this is going out to Colorado to join several others in the M-Bag to the Netherlands.

Caught for the m-bag going to The Netherlands. Marci’s box came while I was away on business. What a great welcome home box! I'm very concerned, as I want to read almost EVERYTHING in this box ;)

Another book from the great big surprise bag full of wonderful books. Thank you so much!
To be left at an OBCZ, or handed to another Bookcrosser.

Hmm... looks nice!

Bookring!

The list:
Suzy26
Olifant
eMeReS
janna2
dutch-flybaby

I received this novel in the mail yesterday. Looks interesting. Thank you for sending it to me, Moem, and thanks to MarciNYC and Antof9 for sending this book in an M-bag to the Netherlands. I will let you know what I think of it before long.

From the back: Ruby Lennox begins narrating her own life at the moment of her conception, and from there takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of a girl determined to learn more about her family and the secrets it keeps. Kate Atkinson’s dazzling first novel named the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year in England, is a darkly comic, deeply moving story of family heartbreak and happiness.

This book is made up of 13 chapters and 12 footnotes. In the chapters Ruby describes her life from the moment of her conception in 1951 till the moment of her mother’s death in 1992. The footnotes contain third person narratives about Ruby’s great-grandmother, grandmother and mother and various other family members. Sometimes it is hard to keep all these family members apart. The footnotes do not follow any chronological order, but they are always related somehow to the preceding chapter. In the beginning you think this is just a nice, straightforward story about a little girl growing up, but you couldnot be more wrong. There is much more to it than you think at first and there are some nice twists in the tale. The story is very funny, sometimes downright hilarious (the chapter about the holiday in Scotland made me laugh out loud), whereas some parts are really tragic and deeply moving (for instance chapters 4 and 11). All in all I liked this book very much and it is amazing to think that this was Kate Atkinson’s debut novel. I definitely want to read her other books.

Book was sent to Olifant today.

Book has safely arrived in Utrecht. Thanks!

Erm... it is a TRING, isn't it, Moem?!

TRING or not, just read this book! I would recommend it to people who like dark humor and family saga's. I started and couldn't stop. And as Suzy26 writes: funny, hilarious, tragic and deeply moving.

Book will be sent to eMeReS, as slow as possible :-)

Behind the scenes at my museum: I seem to have started a collection of ring books, this one found a mate in the mail as well :)

I am tempted to sneak a little peek to get the feel of the book, but Olifant's entry seems a fair warning against that. Since, at the moment, I am last in line for this ring, I will give priority to the ones with more people waiting.

But I do hope that it won't be too long before I can get into this, it looks really good!

Due to circumstances it was long before I got into this book, but I am glad that I waited for a good moment to start reading. What a wonderful book, I can only join the praise of the previous journalers. The jumping back and forth between the generations was a bit confusing, especially since I am never good with names. But it also emphasised the way in which the various histories are intertwined, I really loved that theme running through it all.

A few years ago I ordered another novel by Kate Atkinson (Emotionally Weird) through a bookclub, but I never got round to reading it. I even had it marked to register and release it unread through bookcrossing, since it had been gathering dust for a while already. I think I will still release it, but not before I read it. Let me know if anyone of you is interested as well, I can make it a ring then.

Let's see if more readers can be found for this one as well.
Edit: new readers have been found, I will hand the book over to janna2 this afternoon in Castricum.

Thanks to MarciNYC for sending the book to the Netherlands and to eMeRes for taking it to the meeting in Castricum yesterday. I'm looking forward to read this book.

What a lot of things can happen to a family in four generations and that all described in a fascinating manner! I liked the book very much and hope that dutch-flybaby will enjoy the book as well.

I found this book with my mail today. It did not seem at all like a book I would read, but I'm always willing to try new authors (it must have been something moem wrote that made me want to read it, because it is on my bookringlist). This sure makes me curious!
Thanks for the beautiful postcard janna2 :-)

I'm not into dark humor I suppose, becauase I did not find anything funny about this book. I rather thought it was sad that Bunty married the man she did because she couldn't find anyone better. Doubly sad because she was so angry about life instead of making the best of the situation in which she had placed herself by marrying George and having children. I stopped reading at page 155 (btw I did like the style of writing in the footnotes much better than in the other chapter), I could not stand reading more of this family 'tragedy'.
I hope to see moem at the meeting at OBCZ-Kaketoe on november 19th, so I can return the book to her then.

The book arrived home safely. Dutch-flybaby handed it to me at the meeting today. Thank you, ring participants!

This book will be released at an OBCZ, soonish.

RELEASE NOTES:

Op de plank. Kom maar halen.