Reserved for Book Box No:1

I was a bit unsure about this to begin with, but got hooked pretty quickly. Not "unputdownable" IMO but a flipping good read all the same. I found Sebold's concept of heaven most unusual, and one i'd never heard of/thought about before.

On her way home from school on a snowy December day, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.
As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams", where "there were no teachers... We never had to go inside except for art class... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue".

The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow".

Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings.

Released on Sunday, July 11, 2004 at Bookbox in Bookbox, A Bookbox Controlled Releases.

Part Of A Book Box - See

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1837065/caffcaff/book_caffcaffs-Book-Box-No:-1-caffcaff

Taken from Caffcaff's Book Box No.1. I've been planning to read this for some time, so I was delighted to see this in the bookbox!

I think I subconsciously avoided this book for quite a while, as it was so hyped that I felt sure I would be disappointed.
And I was delighted to be proved wrong.
We know from the very first sentence that the 14-year-old narrator Susie Salmon is dead, raped and murdered by her neighbour George Harvey. So we also know that this book can never have a conventional 'happy ending', although the story is far from a grim wallow in grief.
It is heartbreakingly moving in parts - the bit where Susie's father catches sight of her reflection in the broken glass of his bottled ship collection had me in tears (embarrassing as I was on a bus at the time), but it is untimately uplifting in its portrayal of Susie's individual heaven and enduring closeness to her family left behind on earth.
For once, it's a book that more than lives up to its hype.

The book is now on its way to Canada on the first leg of its journey as an international bookray.

Participants:

HoserLauren - Ontario, Canada
AceofHearts - Ontario, Canada
Pauloca - Portugal

RELEASE NOTES:

Received the book in the mail today.
Thanks for the postcard!
I'll start reading this book this weekend (it will be a nice break from studying :) )

Wow!
A beautiful story of loss and longing, both from Earth and Heaven. The concept of the narrative from Heaven is unique and gave an insight into everything happenning on Earth that couldn't have been explained otherwise.
This is one of the better books I have read this year.
Thanks arturogrande for sending this along!

I'll pass this on to AceofHearts on Friday.

rec'd today.
I am looking forward to reading this book

What an interesting concept of heaven! I found the book to be fascinating in exploring how different people grieve. The father is bent on showing his grief, whereas the mother withdraws. However, in the end the loving relationship brings them together. Lindsay just keeps going and Ruth is the one that bothered me. She just seemed to want to be haunted but was it because of her brush with Susie?
Mailed today to Portugal
Thanks to Arturogrande for the great read

Got it today from AceofHearts.
Thanks! Hope to read it soon!

Sorry to have kept it so long.
I am going to start a new ray with it.

Bookray:

hank-chinaski (Germany)
Agrippine314 (Germany)
iggi1812 (UK)
QueenSissi (Portugal)
glade1 (USA)
GeminiKitten (USA)

It's on its way to Germany, to hank-chinaski.

And there it is! Came in by air mail! Gosh, Pauloca, how much did you pay for it?! Great many thanks, gonna read it ASAP.

I'm sorry to say so, but I don't like this one. I read up to chapter 5 and then flipped through the rest of the book to see if it would improve, but it only seemed to get worse. Difficult to put my finger exactly on what I don't like about it, I reckon it's too sentimental and in a way too "girlish" for my taste. Probably would have read it anyway, but with 12 or so rings and rays on my hands I'm glad for any book I can pass on.

Now off to Agrippine314 by snailmail. Never mind my negative journal, enjoy!

I received this book today, thanks a lot for to all who joined in sending it through the world so that it finally came to my place.
I'll take the book on a small trip to the Northern Sea next week so that it gets to see a bit more of the world, and of course I'll send it on as soon as I finished reading it!

I really liked this book a lot, although the reason for Alice to be in heaven certainly is terrible, the story has a comforting tone and I would like for the Author's idea of heaven and the way we might still be in contact with the dead to be true.

Thanks again everybody for allowing for me to read this book!

RELEASE NOTES:

A friend from London who came to see me for the weekend will post it today.

Arrived last week - sorry forgot to journal. I'm reading it now!

I've finished this and am posting on to Queensissi. I'm not sure about it. It was a fairly easy read but there was something I just can't put my finger on that I didn't like and I wouldn't call it a page turner.

I liked the way it explored how people deal with grief in different ways but I found some of the characters quite disturbing and not just the murderer! While there was an exploration of grief the characters were not developed enough to allow the reader to see why they dealt with loss in the way they did.

it arrive here today!!! Thanks, everyone!
I'm looking forward to reading it...

Coming with me on vacations and ot will be sent to glade1 from Koeln.

It was a very harsh description of a rape though the story was very "beautiful". It also depicted a good vision of after-life-death...

Received in the mail today, all the way from Portugal. It's behind a couple of other bookring books. More later...

Okay, so I journaled to say I had received this book and then decided to take a look at the beginning of it--next thing I knew I was halfway through it! I had several bookring books ahead of this but I couldn't put this one down. I found it to be a beautiful story of the possibilities of heaven and of people surviving grief. The narrator's point of view made it quite interesting.

SPOILER COMING!

The idealist in me did want to see ol' Mr. Harvey get caught, though, and I'm sorry the family wasn't allowed to have that satisfaction, but a trial and all it entailed might have made it even harder to let go and move on. The part at the end where Susie takes over Ruth's body for a while was a little freaky, too, but I suspended my disbelief and went with it...

Will PM Geminikitten for an address and get this moving.

Update 8-22-05: I have been unable to reach GeminiKitten through PM's or an ISO on the Bookring forum. As she was last on the list, I will hold on to this book a little longer in case she turns up. If I don't hear anything for a while, I will release this or start a new ray.

RELEASE NOTES:

Left on table in West Lobby.