Book review: Miss you - K. Eberlen

I will truly miss Tess and Gus, after being "with them" from when they were. 18 till their mid thirties. A slow burner, this novel slowly introduced you to the lives of this guy and girl, who both but separately go through loss, love, adulthood and keep missing each other for a heartbeat.

They are both very human, with qualities and negatives points of their characters. But they both become so familiar page after page, year after year.

And I loved the settings, London especially, it is a novel that clearly states its love for the city and that makes you want hop on a train and go discover it. 

Even if the title shouts romantic book, in reality it's not, it's a novel about life and choices and just things that happen and how you deal with them. 
A really good read, engaging and sap and happy and very down to earth. 

Overall rating:  8     Plot: 8     Writing style: 7      Cover:  7,5

Title: Miss you

Author: Kate Eberlen
Publisher: Pan McMillan
Pages: 480
Publication year: 2016

The plot

Today is the first day of the rest of your life is the motto on a plate in the kitchen at home, and Tess can't get it out of her head, even though she's in Florence for a final, idyllic holiday before university. Her life is about to change forever - but not in the way she expects.Gus and his parents are also on holiday in Florence. Their lives have already changed suddenly and dramatically. Gus tries to be a dutiful son, but longs to escape and discover what sort of person he is going to be.For one day, the paths of an eighteen-year-old girl and boy criss-cross before they each return to England.Over the course of the next sixteen years, life and love will offer them very different challenges. Separated by distance and fate, there's no way the two of them are ever going to meet each other properly . . . or is there?

The author

Kate Eberlen grew up in a small town thirty miles from London and spent her childhood reading books and longing to escape. After studying Classics at Oxford University, she had lots of different jobs before training to teach English as a Foreign Language with a view to spending more time in Italy, a country she loves. Kate is married and has one son.

Book Review: The colour purple - A. Walker

"I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way...I can't apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to... We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful...We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose.” 

I don't know why I have not read this novel before! I heard about it of course but I just managed to pick it up the other week when I spotted it at my local library.
Such a great novel! Set in the 30s in Southern US, it's a great and very nude and crude picture of the African American society of that time.
Celie is the main character and, through her letters to God first and then to her sister Nettie, we follow her life from her teenagers years until her sixties.
The letters she writes, in a sort of diary, are quite candid in how she describes the physical, sexual and psychological violence she is subjected to by her stepfather and then her husband.
But Celie is strong and keeps going until she finds love and support in the unexpected figure of Shug Avery, a blues singer and Celie's husband lover, who encourages Celie to reach her freedom and independence.
It is a great story of hope and strength of character. It is also a shocking overview of how the black community was still treated, and women in particular, not even a hundred years ago.
A must read, an ever green classic.

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.” 

Overall rating:  9     Plot: 9     Writing style: 7,5      Cover:  8

Title: The color purple

Author: Alice Walker
Publisher: W&N
Pages: 288
Publication year: 1982

The Plot:

Set in the deep American South between the wars, THE COLOR PURPLE is the classic tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls 'father', she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker - a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.

The Author:
Alice Walker won the Pulitzer prize and the American Book Award for The Color Purple. She is the author of many bestselling novels, essays and collections of poetry including Meridian, By the Light of My Father's Smile and The Third Life of Grange Copeland.
She lives and teaches in San Francisco