King Arthur Movie Tristan

'Chocolat' by Joanne Harris

rated: 3 out of 5






I enjoyed this book. It was a soft, easy read. It starts off slow at first, then begins to take off. I have seen the film version and liked it alot, maybe even more than the book. The movie is different from the book in alot of ways.



Vianne Rocher and her 6 year old daughter Anouk
come to the village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes.
Vianne opens up a tempting chocolate shop, called 'La Céleste Praline', during Lent no less, and across from the village church. The priest Francis Reynaud begins to preach against Vianne and her chocolate shop and discourages the villagers to enter or befriend Vianne. Vianne is also a bit psychic. She makes friends with a few of the villagers and Gypsies who come to town as well.


I enjoyed how the chocolate is described in the book, I did crave it. Vianne makes all kinds of goodies, and from scratch, the old fashioned way.

'There is a kind of alchemy in the transformation of base chocolate into this wise fool's-gold, a layman's magic that even my mother might have relished. As I work, I clear my mind, breathing deeply. The windows are open, and the through-draft would be cold if it were not for the heat of the stoves, the copper pans, the rising vapor from the couveture. The mingled scents of chocolate, vanilla, heated copper, and cinnamon are intoxicating, powerfully suggestive; the raw and earthy tang of the Americas, the hot and resinous perfume of the rainforest. This is how I travel, as the Aztecs did in their sacred rituals: Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia. ....The food of the Gods, bubbling and frothing in ceremonial goblets. The bitter elixer of life.'

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this book has also been reviewed by: book-a-rama