Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #319881 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Marie Claire
‘Delightfully original … Charming and darkly funny’

Red Magazine
‘Both hilarious and heart-warming … original and captivating’

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‘An innocent eccentric, Verity is an engaging narrator, and this is a charming, sweet and strange book’

Customer Reviews

Read beneath the surface...
This book was published in the US as The ABCs of Love. Whatever the name, it's not an easy book to describe. It's written in an almost diary format, but the entries are alphabetically arranged. So, we have a few thoughts on Ambition, Ants and Attitude, before moving on to Baked Beans, Best Friends.. etc. In this way, Verity tells her story. It sounds odd, but it works.

We find out a little about her past, her feelings about her best friend's affair with a married man, then also Verity's own love affair, also with a married man.

On the surface, this appears to be your usual `chick lit' type book, just told in an unusual way. However, Sarah's skill is the way she writes her narrator.. she has captured a rather naive, easily-lead young girl, along with all her thoughts and feelings. It can be read as a rather straight-forward little tale, or if you look for it, you will find a lot more told between the lines. It's a book that will make you smile, then make you think.

Original!
This book's a bit like the tardis; it looks like an innocent, light read from the outside, but inside it's packed with mind-expanding ideas and quirky features. The voice is really engaging and the structure clever and daring. While it's possible to read 'Something beginnning With' in one sitting, the themes and questions Sarah Salway raises stay with you for a long time afterwards.

A Pleasure from A to Z
This is one of the finest books I have read in a while; I loved it. It is miles ahead of all other chick lit out there, because apart from being entertaining, funny and utterly engaging, this novel is also insightful, touching, and beautifully written. Written in alphabetical glossary entries, each short section tells its own story, and the vignettes add up to a lovely book that is as smart as it is sweet. I would highly recommend this one to anyone, not just "chicks". There is really nothing out there quite like it.