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Jul 11, 2011

Mathew rated it:

Rosamund Pilcher is consistently marketed via book jackets covered with flowers. I'm not sure why. On the surface, Pilcher's stories are nostalgic and evocative of magical other places where good things always happen to good people; but her novels and characters are consistently rich, complicated, and subtle. I've not read another author who could draw the infuriating imperfections and dysfunctions of family so accurately, or so compassionately. It's easy to admire, then almost despise, and More...

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Dec 16, 2009

Rachael rated it:

There's something about this book that always makes me resolve to move to Cornwall, bake lots of bread and have an enormous flower garden, and spend the rest of my days painting huge swathes of light on the beaches. That aside, this is one book that I regularly read every six months and love each time. I don't know how to describe it. Just go read it.

0 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2008

Richard rated it:

a novel set in England during WWII and into the supposed present. This is one of Lynnette’s favorite books so I wanted to read it to try to understand what she likes. It is written with a definite woman’s point of view in terms of language and emphasis. I did like the book; Pilcher is a very good writer with depth in her characterizations and descriptions of places and people. The story is about an older woman, Penelope, who reflects back on her life. She has three older children, two who More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2007

Lynne rated it:

Rosmund Pilcher is someone I discovered on holiday in Cyprus. I had finished reading all the books I had taken, and in the hotel there was a BIG book by here called Winter Solstice. Because I had nothing else to do I started to read it.
the story is about a woman of 60, ex actress who is involved with a man, of a certain age, who has just lost his wealthy wife and only daughter. The woman takes him under her wings, and he is kicked out of his house by the step sons. the plot involves a ho More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2009

Corrie rated it:

This book was originally given to me by my friend Pam to give to my grandmother. They are both huge Maeve Binchy fans and Pam thought my grandmother would enjoy this book also. Pam loved the story. It turned out that my grandmother had already read it. She also loved the story. So, I put the book on my shelf and there is sat - for years. Recently, my neighbor, totally out of the blue, mentions that she is rereading one of her favorite books - The Shell Seekers. So, I figure I should read More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2010

Heather rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 19, 2010

Stephanie rated it:

You really can't judge a book by its cover.

People have recommended Rosamunde Pilcher's books to me for years, and I refused to read them because all the covers looked like they had been marinated in mothballs. But after spying "The Shell Seekers" on the BBC's "The Big Read: Top 100 Books," I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. Annoyingly, several people had put it on reserve at the library before me, so by the time I received it, I wasn't nearly as enthu More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2009

Jill rated it:

I read this because it is one of my moms favorite authors/books and I wanted to be able to discuss it with her while she is still around. It was very enjoyable and amusing book about a family and the issues one has to deal with as a parent ages. The struggle between letting the parent be independent and still be safe is always a tough one. The thing I took away from this book was the importance of letting a person be who they are no matter their age and limitations.
Penelope (the matria More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Harmonybites rated it:

Pilcher delivers an engrossing family saga of a British family through four generations. Mostly set in the mid-1980s, it weaves in tales going back to World War II. At the center of the tale is sixty-four year old Penelope Keeling, the daughter of a renowned painter. She possesses only one finished painting of his, "The Shell Seekers" which two of her three grown children covet. The eldest, the "tiresome" Nancy Chamberlain, grew up reading the likes of Barbara Cartland and Ge More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 19, 2009

Abeer rated it:

I thought this book would be better for all its NYT Book Review (and other) praise, but it wasn't. Ostensibly a sprawling family saga centring around matriarch Penelope, it's basically the same 2 or 3 characters with different names playing out over three generations.

If you're a "good" character, then you're independent, stubborn, glossy haired, tall, beautiful. You love France, holiday in Spain, dream of Cornwall, and believe in children out of wedlock and monied bohem More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2011

Maggie rated it:

Let's be clear: this is not a great work of literature. Some of the writing is clunky, most of the characters are unutterable snobs and are called Cosmo or Dunbar or Munro or similarly odd names. BUT Pilcher is a truly great storyteller, and this book weaves a spell. The Cornish setting helps, of course, and so maybe the reason I scored it so highly was that I chose to read it - re-read it, actually - whilst on holiday down there recently. Porthkerris is a thinly-disguised St. Ives, and Pi More...

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May 17, 2011

Sarah rated it:

There was a time when I would have given this book five stars. It is still a good read, but I've sort of fallen out of love with the characters.

The novel moves back and forth between the present (late 1980's) and World War II, with each chapter concentrating on a particular character. The novel follows Penelope Keeling, the daughter of bohemian artist parents, her highs and her lows, her children and her husband and war-time lover.

<spoiler>Whilst the main characte More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 13, 2011

bonny rated it:

I'll always remember the feeling that I had when I first read this book. I wanted to live like Penelope, the main character. I loved the extended family with all their accepted imperfections and the domestic descriptions by Rosamunde Pilcher. It's not great literature, and sometimes reads like a well-written romance (not my cup of tea), but it's just one great story and one of the few books that I've ever read and re-read.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Christine rated it:

I'm not sure I completely understand why The Shell Seekers is on the BBC's Big Read list - it's good, but it doesn't feel all that special to me. The story centres around one older lady, and her extended family, with each chapter following a different character to build a bigger picture and tell the history of the protagonist.

It's an interesting enough story, it's always fun being presented with a group of characters and gradually finding out how they got to be who they are and what ma More...

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Nov 24, 2007

Words rated it:

A middle school counselor lent me this book - I moved shortly thereafter and never gave it back to her. But! I'm almost purely a science fiction/fantasy reader, but this is the only piece of fiction that I've read and re-read over and over again through the years.

The characters themselves, their desires, how they relate to each other are so well rendered and familiar...the story is like comfort food to me. :)

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Jul 17, 2011

Megan rated it:

Another book that I really enjoyed because of the characters - the main character, Penelope, in particular. The story is another of those sprawling family stories (in both time and space and characters), which in general, I enjoy very much, as long as they are skillfully told and executed.

The ending however, reminded me uncomfortably of the ending of the Bridges of Madison County, which I hated beyond all measure. (The best thing I can say about that book is that it was such a fast More...

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Dec 16, 2009

Loni rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. I am not sure if it was because I was reading it while visiting my mom, in Idaho or not, but it really has left me thinking about how important relationships and time are and how insignificant "things" are. I also left me with a great desire to stand on the shores of a beach and walk back to my house with an armful of flowers!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 21, 2011

Kirsta rated it:

I picked this up for a bit of nostalgia. This book is forever linked in my mind to my grandmother. This book was a fixture in her sitting room, perhaps because the blue Hermes floral cover matched the decor. Or maybe the decor was built around the book jacket? Hard to say and I'm unsure whether the book lingered because it was such a nice accessory to all that 80's splendor or whether she read it multiple times. It turns out, everyone in my life read this book and apparently there was a min More...

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Mar 01, 2010

Tierney rated it:

This lovely novel was the first I'd read by this author, but I have a feeling it won't be my last. The heroine, Penelope Keeling, is such an eminently likable woman that I actually wish I knew her. Taking place in the London area in 1984 (contemporary for when the book was published), the story takes its turn focusing on the lives of each major character, with particular attention to Penelope's three adult children. The history of Penelope herself is the crux of the novel - for a time the reader More...

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Aug 29, 2011

Samantha rated it:

It doesn't matter what I read before this novel and what i will read after; this book is so intrinsically linked to childhood memories of St Ives in Cornwall, which is where I spent many holidays as a child. Cornwall has a magical and nostalgic feel and this book is all of that magic realised.
The central character, Penelope is a fiercely independent woman with a carefree, bourgeouis approach to life. This characteristic alone is so endearing, although Cornwall itself becomes almost personi More...

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Feb 12, 2008

Steph rated it:

I can read this book once a year (and I usually do!) and never get sick of it. The characters are wonderful, the plot is interesting and the writting is very good. I've read a few others by Rosamonde Pilcher - this is my favorite! A good book for curling up by the fire and reading a weekend away.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2009

Stacy rated it:

This story is told half through flashback and half in the “present”. (It’s a little dated - when the author describes the clothing, it’s all very 80's.) It was a suitable read for a cold winter’s night when I wanted to escape to England. I certainly learned more about British English, rich in phrases such as “She smelt the heather and the primroses”, “We none of us throw anything out”, and “Don’t let us go back to the cottage!”

Penelope is an interesting character and at times I admir More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2011

Tcrotteau rated it:

I read this book several years ago and really loved it. I need to reread it and see if I still love it as much. It is a book written from the persective of an old (70ish) woman who is still very much full of life and love and reflects her life during the war and then also from her childrens perspective and view her and what they don't know about her later in life. Its immensely comforting, full of laughter and hot cups of tea and good food but a perspective on life that I found almost buddis More...

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Dec 26, 2011

June Louise rated it:

I read this book as it had featured on the BBC Good Reads Top 100 novels, and, always ready to try a new author I hadn't previously come across, I downloaded it onto my Kindle.

From page one I was hooked. It's the story of the family of an under-rated artist, Lawrence Stern, whose works in time become "hot property". The novel, the main story of which takes place in the 1980's, follows the lives of the main characters: Nancy, Olivia, Noel; with flashbacks to WW2 when chapter More...

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Aug 12, 2011

Amy rated it:

I had mixed feelings when I started this book. Honestly, the "modern" sections seemed a little dated. This is oddly reminiscent of classic authors such as Edith Wharton who wrote about issues of class and money. Noel and Nancy were so stuffy, arrogant and selfish, they seemed to have been lifted straight out of "House of Mirth." I don't really feel that bothered me, necessarily, but I had to keep reminding myself what kind of clothes they were probably wearing. All in al More...

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Aug 25, 2011

Kristyh rated it:

I picked up this book after the author was recommended to me, but this is really, really, really not my cup of tea. My problems with the book are as follows:
1. It is too long.
2. The relationships between the characters, and some of the characters themselves, are cliched.
3. Every tiny detail is described, unnecessarily and tediously, to the nth degree.
4. The storylines and time periods chopped and changed too much (I have loved this device in Kate Morton's writing)
5 More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Margaret added it

As this absorbing saga of a modern English family opens, 64-year-old Penelope Keeling is returning to her country house following a heart attack, & her 3 adult children have varying reactions to the news. The narrative is actually a series of deftly interwoven vignettes that shift back & forth in time; each chapter centers on one of the principal players in the family's history. The unifying thread is an oil painting entitled "The Shell Seekers," done by Penelope's father.
~~~~~~~ More...

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Jan 21, 2009

Heather rated it:

What stands out to me about this book is not only a beautiful story brilliantly written and very British, but also the lessons that Penelope had learned in her life and her strength to do what was best for her family and friends. I loved the character developement throughout each chapter giving this story depth and meaning. It needed to be as long as it was to give you understanding of why Penelope was who she was and why her children were the way they were. Very enjoyable-love the art, the b More...

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Oct 30, 2011

J rated it:

This is one of Pilcher's best works in my opinion and I've read many of her books. She weaves a rich tapestry of family-life, story-telling and landscape supreme. There's a magical feel to this story but the reality, the dysfunction and the inevitable humanity of her characters keeps it on the earth in an appealing, nourishing way. You walk away from this book feeling more connected with humanity on levels at once compassionate and aware. She creates the most infuriating characters whose humanit More...

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Apr 01, 2009

Diana rated it:

Connection of one generation to the next…the parent that lives on in the child and the symbols and legacies from the past that come to represent the future. Set in London & Cornwall from World War II to the present. Penelope and her 3 kids, Olivia, Noel and Nancy. Penelope's father was a famous painter who painted the Shell Seekers and other valuable paintings. Penelope lived inPodmore's Thatch with Cosmo's daughter Antonia. Antonia was in love with Danus, the gardner. Penolope left Danus her f More...

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