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BOOK COVER: Thanks for the Memories

I'm not one of the biggest fans of Cecelia Ahern's books - okay, I've only actually been able to finish one of them (PS I Love You) - but I love this cover so much that it could almost convince me to read the book.

We've already told you what this latest book is about, so all that's left to say is that it's out on April the 1st. Although that may be a joke...

Related posts: PS I Love You review | Cecelia Ahern archives

FRIDAY FLICK: P.S. I Love You

I went to see P.S I Love You this week. It's adapted from the Cecelia Ahern novel, which I haven't actually read (gasp!)

Anyhoo, if I was a proper film critic, I would proceed to eviscerate this film. The tone is all over the place - pathos, comedy, tragedy, and slap-stick mixed up in a stomach-churning manner.

The book is set in Ireland, but the film is largely set in New York (no surprise, there) and Scottish actor Gerard Butler plays the Irish husband, Gerry, with a supremely dodgy accent. 

The facts of Gerry's illness and eventual death from a brain tumour are glossed-over to get straight to the important business of Hilary Swank looking immaculate and wistful as Holly, the young widow.

The pace is a tad slow with constant flashbacks to the seemingly-perfect Gerry, and the Hollywood version of Ireland is laughable (Holly's new Irish love interest, William, sings in a pub, works on a farm and part-time as a coastguard. Okay, then.)

I would also say that the idea of a dying man setting up a load of letters for his future widow, with advice on getting on with her life like 'go and do karaoke' is one of those things that you will either view as desperately romantic or pathologically-creepy. I must admit I lean towards the latter...

However, despite its faults (or perhaps because I'm a soppy soul) P.S I Love You still managed to tug my heartstrings. I loved Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon as Holly's sassy best friends and Kathy Bates was brilliant as her mother. In fact, Hilary Swank really showed her true acting worth in a heart-breaking scene between Holly and her mother.

And yes, I cried. A little bit.

Related posts: PS I Love You trailer | Hilary Swank injured in filming

BOOK NEWS: Thanks for the Memories by Cecelia Ahern

We've mixed feelings about Cecelia Ahern here at Trashionista. Although I enjoyed PS I Love You and I love the TV show Samantha Who (which was, at least, Ahern's original idea), we haven't enjoyed her other books (like A Place Called Here). But her new one, due out in April, sounds interesting.

How can you know someone you've never met? Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn't. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair.

When she leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, Joyce moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of deja vu is overwhelming her and she can't figure out why!

Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets attractive doctor Sarah, who persuades him to donate blood. It's the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time. [That one line is almost enough to put me off the book - Keris]

When Justin receives a basket of muffins with a note simply saying thank you,he is sure someone is playing a trick on him. But then a series of gifts begin to arrive. Intrigued and disturbed, Justin is determined to find out who is sending them. What he discovers will change his life forever. [via Amazon]

More Cecelia Ahern

PS I Love You trailer

PS I Love You is the only Cecelia Ahern book I actually enjoyed, but I'm not sure about the film. I don't understand why they couldn't find an Irish actor... (I had thought Gerard Butler was Irish, but it turns out he's Scottish!).

Related posts: Is anyone watching Samantha Who? | Hilary Swank injured in filming

Is anyone watching Samantha Who?

I've seen the first two episodes and I really like it, mainly because Christina Applegate is so engaging.

I'm not a huge fan of Cecelia Ahern's novels, but I'm on board with the screenwriting (which I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear!). She's good!

Related posts: Cecelia Ahern's television show | Where Rainbows End | P.S. I Love You

TUESDAY THREE: Imaginary friends

I had one named Mr Corbett. Once, I left my grandparents house and, on the way home, said I’d left him behind. My dad said, “That’s okay, he’s running behind the car.” What on earth am I blethering on about? Imaginary friends! This week we look at three books featuring characters that may not exactly be, you know, real.

Lois Winston’s Talk Gertie to Me features Nori, who, in just one day, loses her boyfriend, best friend and her job and gets home to find that her mother has turned up unannounced for an indefinite stay. Before too long her childhood imaginary friend Gertie emerges to dispense straight talking advice. Gertie isn’t a physical presence, but a voice in Nori’s head, and the whole book is great fun.

Shannon McKelden's witty debut, Venus Envy, finds Venus/Aphrodite/goddess of love in the Seattle area, having to matchmake mortals to appease her father (that'd be Zeus). She's horrified to find her latest challenge is Rachel, who is so damaged by previous disastrous relationships that she's sworn off men for life and fills her time with good works instead. Luckily for Rachel, Luke - a hunky local firefighter - has taken a shine to her and isn't willing to take no for an answer. With Luke already interested and Venus there to help, what could possibly go wrong? Ha.

We haven’t actually reviewed Cecelia Ahern’s If You Could See Me Now, but it’s the story of Elizabeth Egan who has everything under control apart from her irresponsible sister Saoirse. Elizabeth has to take care of Saoirse’s six-year-old son Luke. One day, a stranger unexpectedly comes into their lives. Ivan is carefree, spontaneous and always looking for adventure - everything that Elizabeth is not. In no time at all, he has crept under her skin and started to change her life in ways she could never have . She knows barely anything about Ivan - who he is and whether he is everything he seems. But it turns out he might just be a little bit magical...

And don't forget that the movie (a musical!) is currently in “active production” with Hugh Jackman as the star.

TUESDAY THREE

Thanks to the new Thursday Trailblazer feature, the Thursday Three has become the Tuesday Three. And I thought I’d celebrate the move with a look at books featuring ... death. (I really don’t know how to celebrate, do I?)

P.S. I Love You, the debut novel from Cecilia Ahern, examines what happens when young love ends too soon. Holly is devastated when her childhood sweethearts Gerry dies of a brain tumour, but soon finds that he has left her a set of envelopes - one labelled to be opened on a specific day each month. Each envelope contains a task to help Holly move on with her life. And each message ends with the words 'P.S. I love you'. A lovely, sad, and funny book.

The reissued version of Marc Levy’s If Only It Were True, Just Like Heaven is about Lauren, a resident in a busy ER department, who crashes her car and ends up in a deep coma. A few weeks later Arthur moves into a fabulous new apartment. Imagine his shock when he finds a girl in his closet ... a girl who is amazed that he can see her and hear her ... a girl who tells him that her body is lying in a coma on the other side of town - yup you've guessed it, it's Lauren. The book’s great and so’s the film.

How Will I Know  by Sheila O’Flanagan explores the relationship between a bereaved mother and her daughter. Following her husband Bill’s tragic death, Claire’s life revolves around her daughter Georgia. While Georgia is getting to grips with a first boyfriend, Claire is rediscovering the world of dating herself.

Irish book awards

Cecelia Ahern and Marian Keyes are going head to head in the Irish Book Awards, the shortlist for which was announced last week. A Place Called Here is up against Anybody Out There in the popular fiction category. Also shortlisted are Maeve Binchy, Ross O'Carroll Kelly and John Banville (writing as Benjamin Black).

The overall winners will be revealed on March 15. [via Irish Independent]

Cecelia Ahern's television show

Cecelia Ahern’s star just keeps on rising. She has apparently successfully pitched a TV series to the Hollywood producers of Desperate Housewives and Lost.

ABC Television will be making a pilot show of the series, which will be called Carpoolers and revolves around a group of suburban guys who carpool to work together every day.

Cecelia developed the idea with Hollywood screenwriter Don Todd, who has written the script and will be executive producer for the pilot. Ahern will also work as producer of the show, adding Hollywood big wig to her already impressive list of achievements. [via Unison.ie]

But that's not all ...

Cecelia’s pilot Sam I Am (previously The Memory Trace) has been picked up by ABC. Sam I Am is a comedy about a woman who wakes up from a coma with amnesia and has to rediscover her life, her relationships and herself. [via Cecelia's web site]

Related posts: A Place Called Here / Where Rainbows End / P.S. I Love You / P.S. Hilary Swank injured in filming

BOOK REVIEW: A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern

To some, Cecelia Ahern is a modern weaver of fairytales and her fourth book A Place Called Here certainly has a touch of magic about it.

It tells the tale of Sandy Shortt, a private detective in charge of a missing persons' bureau, who is obsessed with searching for people and possessions which have mysteriously disappeared. While investigating the disappearance of Donal Ruttle she finds herself in a place called 'Here', which just so happens to be the very place lost things go - be it the odd sock from the washing machine, your much needed passport, or any one of the hundreds of people who just vanish each year.

'Here' is where the reader really has to wilfully suspend their disbelief.  To be honest, the concept that everyone and everything that has ever gone missing just happens to exist in a parallel village just didn't quite work for me. But, in the spirit of giving Ms. Ahern the benefit of the doubt, I ploughed on.

While 'Here' Sandy meets up with many of the people she has spent the last 24 years searching for and in turn sets about seeing if she can find herself. While all this is happening Donal's brother Jack is searching for Sandy in the real world and finding out all about her sometimes troubled past.

With this book you keep waiting for it to get great. The potential is there, but it never quite kicks off. Imagine if the Wizard of Oz ended with Dorothy's house landing on the wicked witch and you get an idea of how frustrating this story is.

From a writing point of view, it sometimes smacks of 'trying too hard'. There are moments of wonderfully beautiful prose, but other sections are clumsy and disjointed.

Nonetheless it is unoffensive and if you really can make belief in an alternative universe (or village) then A Place Called Here could be for you.

[Claire Allan]

Rating: 2 out of 5

Like this? Try After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell

P.S. Hilary Swank injured in filming

Back in July we told you that Hilary Swank was to star in the movie version of Cecelia Ahern's P.S. I Love You. Well, filming has already started, but it seems things aren't quite going to plan.

While filming a striptease scene, Swank needed stitches in her forehead after she "became snagged on co-star Gerald Butler's suspenders". Suspenders is American for braces. I hope. If not, this film is sounding very different to the book ...

The film also stars Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Bates and Gina Gershon and is due for release in 2008. [via Playfuls]