97. ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I was asked by a friend a couple of days ago, (shout out here to the lovely Goz), whether I’d ever received a love letter. After thinking about it a little while I concluded that No, I hadn’t. So lets bypass how unromantic this is for me (a boo hoo!) and tell you that this made me think about the latest book on my list - which is ALL about the love letters, with the main character writing one at least everyday. Love in the Time of Cholera in fact could probably not be written by Mr Marquez if he wanted to write again and set it in the modern day, as I’m not entirely sure if love letters are still even written these days? This is not a rhetorical question, if any of you readers have either written and sent a love letter, or received one, I’d like to know. And I mean letter letter, not a love ‘email’, or a love ‘text’, or any other form of written romance via a social media network. Anyone? Or have you all received hundreds and its just little old tragic me?!

So anyway, I seem to digress. Yes, this book is in its most simplistic terms, all about love. First love, married love, illicit love, lost love, fast love, old love, new love, and of course everyone’s old friend, unrequited love. Love is at the very heart of this tale which follows three characters over a span of more than 60 years, as they experience love in all its lovely deliciously heartbreaking forms. Florentino is the epitome of a hopeless romantic, which at different times is sweet, disturbing and annoyingly frustrating. He is besotted with Fermina and basically lives his life to love her but is denied the opportunity and so often looses his way.. As long as we bypass the bordering on paedophilic relationship he has at one point in the book (which is somehow not as disturbing as it sounds), he is painfully romantic, and just a little bit OTT. Set in the Caribbean, this book takes you on a wonderfully vivid journey through the lives of these characters as they grow and change along with the world around them, and into their different roles throughout their lives.

If I am learning anything as I make my way through this reading list, its that the old adage that ‘you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover’ is proving quite true, although in my case I shouldn’t judge on its title. I wasn’t looking forward to reading Love in the Time of Cholera at all - thinking that it would be epic, dusty, heavy and for some reason full of soul searching and death. And it’s not. It’s poetic, wildly romantic and even funny. I can see why so many people voted for this one – I’ve literally just finished it on the train (see pic below – wonderful lighting courtesy of Arriva Trains Wales) and as I write I’m already looking forward to reading this again in the future. I expect as it covers all forms of love, as the reader you’d enjoy and identify with different aspects of the story at different milestones in your life making it one to keep re reading until you can no longer find your old lady reading glasses. So, a good one. Hurrah!

98. 'Girls in Love' by Jacqueline Wilson

This is the first of four books in the top 100 by Jacqueline Wilson, which goes to show how influential and much loved children's books are! I adored her books when I was younger, particularly The Story of Tracey Beaker and The Bed and Breakfast Star and I read Girls in Love when it first came out when I was about 12.

Having just read The Princess Diaries, it was difficult not to compare the two books, as they are so similar. They both begin a series of teenage novels, and like The Princess Diaries, Girls in Love is a story about Ellie and her two best friends, as they navigate their way through their first boyfriends and the troubles of high school. It also deals with the usual teenage issues; boys, friendship troubles, absent parents - but also more interesting and applicable issues like going clubbing for the first time, drugs, drinking, lying to parents and (shock horror) having sex. These issues are not dealt with so frankly in The Princess Diaries, and I think this is more to do with Wilson being a British author, and therefore dealing with issues more appropriate to British teenage girls, with both a frankness and warmth. As a reader you really like Ellie as a character, as well as her friends, and you want them to make the right choices which I suppose is the moral for the teenage audience.
The narrative was a little weaker than that of The Princess Diaries however, but they were both good and I would recommend them both to young teenage girls.

What strikes me most about these two books however is who exactly voted for them?! Not because I think they don't deserve to be in the top 100, but as these are relatively new novels they would not carry the nostalgic vote of the adult audience which a classic like The Secret Garden might have, and these are not aimed at ages in which a parent would read these books to their child, and I doubt 12 year old girls were voting in the Big Read...so with this in mind its interesting that they appear in the list at all - but I'm glad they do. I certainly enjoyed these more than Salman Rushdie...but maybe that says more about me!