Rating: 
Summary: Engrossing and suspenseful...
Review: I read *Five Quarters of the Orange* with my work book club last month, and I can't say that I've enjoyed a book club book more than this one. After reading and enjoying *Blackberry Wine* last year, I knew that I'd never be unhappy with anything by Harris. Orange is no exception.Framboise is the youngest of three children who live with their migraine-prone mother, Mirabelle, in Nazi-occupied France. Cassis, the eldest son, is clever, Reine-Claude, the middle daughter, vain and proud, and Boise, tomboyish and impressionable. Mirabelle, though an impeccable chef, treats her children with disdain and apathy when not succumbing to her headaches, leaving them with free rein to run the countryside. In town, Cassis and Reine-Claude meet up with and collaborate with the Nazi guards in town, providing small bits of information with them in exchange for chocolate, magazines, and other specialty items. Tomas, the friendliest guard, seems to capture them under his spell, and he becomes more of a father figure to the children than Mirabelle herself. Events lead to some disastrous conclusions, and as Boise returns to her home decades later, she must face the past head-on, with only a few friends to assist her. The novel started off rather slow, but once things started happening, it was tough to put it down. This is a great book for club discussion or for pleasure reading. One of these days, I will finally get to read *Chocolat*!
Rating: 
Summary: A Feast of Fiction
Review: This story switches back and forth between Framboise growing up with her siblings in occupied France during WWII and her life years later in her 60's, as a cafe owner with children and grandchildren of her own. Framboise is reminiscing of her complex childhood with her dysfunctional mother. I say dysfunctional because her mom had an illness. She claimed every time she smelled the scent of oranges, or had an orange around her, it would make her come down with these blinding headaches. She would have to go to bed for days on end sometimes and the kids would be left to their own devices. Frambiose goes on to tell then of their days growing up while her mom was debilitated, and often almost intolerable to live with. Later, after Frambiose's other dies, she leaves a scrapbook to Framboise written with a lot of recipes over the years, along with many of her mother's secrets. It was one of the most different books I have read, and overall I enjoyed the book.
Rating:
Summary: Simply beautiful
Review: Gracefully written, this book revived my love of reading for pleasure. It is the kind of novel one reads again and again - reminiscent of the "Anne of Green Gables" series from my much younger days, a beautiful story of love and intrigue, yet with a soft maturity that's new to my reading experience. I don't know how to do justice to its sparkling story and gentle style, other than to emphatically recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: intriguing
Review: This is the first book I've read in years that I have truly enjoyed. The writing is beautiful. Joanne Harris' characters were rich- and I loved the names. Very clever. And it was an interesting story.
Rating:
Summary: The Year's Most Lucious Release
Review: Taken with the color, scent, taste and delicious sounding French names of food, Joanne Harris uses them as her inspiration for the tastiest of novels. Having said that, I worry that readers might be mislead by the title and all the hoop-la over the food in this novel and in Joanne Harris's previous book called "Chocolat." This book is a fine period piece set in France during the German occupation. It is about history. It is about man's inhumanity to man. It is about pleasurable innocence and its bitter loss. It is about how people sometimes let who they think they are rule their lives and their hearts.
This may easily be one the most satisfying and unsettling releases of the year. Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"
Rating: 
Summary: Five Quarters of the Orange
Review: I HATE this book. I have to read this for my bookclub and HATE it. It is BORING, wordy, did I mention BORING ? Will never read another book by Joanne Harris again.
Rating:
Summary: Bitter Turns Sweet
Review: At 64 years old, Framboise returns to the French village of her birth--- a village she, her brother Cassis, sister Reine-Claude and their mother left as disgraced exiles during the German occupation of France. Enbittered by the events that took place that year she was nine years old, she hopes against hope that the village will not connect the froggy-faced little girl with the grandmotherly woman she has become. Luck is with her---she purchases the old farm where she once lived and by utilising her mother's mouth watering recipes found in an old scrapbook, she opens a marvelous creperie, popular with both the locals and vacationers alike. When her food is reviewed by a famous culinary critic, her weak nephew and his ambitious wife, also restauranteurs, slither in, questioning her owneship of her mother's scrapbook, desiring its recipes for their own failing big city endeavor. Furious, Framboise refuses, triggering an attack meant to destroy the success of her creperie and simultanoeuly reveal the secret that has shamed and haunted her for her entire life.
Ingeniously woven throughout the modern story is Framboise's first person account of her ninth year. Harris' style is fast-paced; her revelations are amply yet masterly metered out to keep the reader thoroughly entranced until the last page. The book is not overly long, yet Harris manages to finely draw her characters: Mirabelle, the migraine suffering mother, Tomas,the sly Black Market manipulator, Paul, the one person in the village that recognizes Framboise, and Framboise hersef, strong and bright, ever the leader, not realizing what her cleverness will orchestrate.
I found this novel much more interesting and entertaining than Harris' other popular novel Chocolat; the format seems more complete--the structure more satisfying and the ending neatly tying up all fragments and substories. Like Chocolat, it is a novel meant to be read with a fine glass of red wine and a square of good European dark chocolate. Harris' food descriptions utterly tantalize, her knowledge and love of food is evident in the way in which she allows her characters to safely emote through the food they create when they are unable to facilitate speech or gesture. After 'sampling' some of Mirabelle's culinary delights, I admit to purchasing a book on how to make homemade cordials!
Rating:
Summary: I Highly Recommend
Review: Five Quarters of the Orange Past and present converge to tell the tale of love and life lost during the Second World War. Set in the Loire Valley of France, Joanne Harris has created a beautiful story that bring the characters to life and draws the reader in. Framboise Simon returns to the village of her childhood to reconstruct the way of life she lost during the war. Her only legacy from her long deceased mother is a scrapbook of recipes which on closer examination also holds the key to the truth of her past. Framboise is haunted by her memories as she grows closer to the truth that will ultimately set her free. Intrigue, suspense, love and hate are all rolled into this wonderful story. Truly a book I'd recommend to friends.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: If you read Chocolat and liked it, you will definitely like Five Quarters of the Orange. It's a great story and a great read. Joanne Harris does a great job with her characters and I love her usage of food in her stories and her in depth descriptions. A wonderful book!
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Reading
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I literally could not put it down. It is beautifully written and the story is captivating. I am looking forward to reading more of this authors works.
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