Joanne M Harris Books In Order

Publication Order of Chocolat Books

Publication Order of Runemarks Books

Publication Order of Loki Books

Publication Order of Malbry Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Doctor Who: Time Trips Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Author Joanne Harris was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire in the year 1964 to her French mom and English dad, and her parents were teachers of modern literature and languages at a grammar school. The first language she learned was French, causing a divide between her English family, as no one spoke French, and the French family, where there were no English speakers. Both sides of her family had turbulent histories and a tradition for the women to be strong, storytelling, cookery, folklore, and kitchen gardening.

She is Anglo-French, and she writes diverse things, covering aspects of suspense, magic realism, mythology, historical fiction, and fantasy. Harris started writing at a young age, being strongly influenced by Charles Perrault’s work and Grimms’ Fairy Tales, as well as Norse mythology and local folklore.

Harris spent an unsuccessful year as an accountant, which she felt was like spending a year inside a Terry Gilliam film, and after training at Sheffield University as a teacher, and taught modern languages, mostly at Leeds Grammar School, which is a boys’ independent school located in Yorkshire. Harris also spent some time teaching at Sheffield University, lecturing on different aspects of French film and literature.

It was during this time that she worked on quite a few book projects. She had three books published before retiring from her teaching job to focus on her writing work.

“The Evil Seed” is her debut novel and was published in the year 1989 with limited success. It was with her second novel that showed her style developing going from horror pastiche to a literary ghost story.

Some themes explored in her works involve mother/child relationships, identity issues, magic and horror found in everyday things, emotional resonance of food, faith and superstition, outsider in a community, and the joy found in small pleasures. Harris’ writing style focuses on the senses, mainly smell and taste.

She uses the pen name Joanne M Harris to publish her “Loki” series and “Runemarks” series.

Her novel “Chocolat” was adapted in the year 2000 into a movie that starred Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

“Blackberry Wine” won the Salon du Livre Gourmand (France) winning both the International and Foreign categories. “Chocolat”, made it to number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list. It also was given the Creative Feedom Award in the year 1999 and made the shortlist for a Whitbread Novel of the Year Award in the same year. “Chocolat” got her into the “Millionaires Club”, an elite group of writers that have sold a million copies of one of their books within the UK since records started. She is one of four female writers to make the club.

Harris is an honorary Fellow of St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and the Queen awarded her an MBE in the year 2013.

Hobbies include: lounging, strumming, mooching, quiet subversion, and priest baiting. Harris spends far too much time on Twitter, works from a shed on her property in Yorkshire, and plays bass and flute in a band that she formed back when she was just sixteen. She lives with her husband and daughter.

“Chocolat” is the first novel in the “Chocolat” series, which was released in the year 1999. In a tiny place called Lansquenet, a place where not much has changed in a century, Vianne Rocher (a gorgeous newcomer) and her wonderful chocolate shop show up and start playing havoc with Lenten vows.

Every box of bonbons she sells she gives a gift to the buyer: her uncanny perception of the buyer’s private discontents as well as a clever and caring cure just for them. Is she some kind of witch? Quickly, the parish doesn’t care, as it leaves itself to happiness, temptation, and a dramatic confrontation between pagan gaiety during a chocolate festival and Easter solemnity.

Fans of the novel found this to be thrilling and a delight for the senses. The book engages the reader, and is magical both literally, because of its subject matter, and the beauty of how the story is told.

“The Lollipop Shoes” is the second novel in the “Chocolat” series, which was released in the year 2007. Vianne Rocher’s every move has been dictated by the wind, taking her from Lansquenet (the French village) off to Paris and its crowded streets. With a new identity (a widow named Yanne Charbonneau) she starts a choclaterie on a small street in Montmartre. She is determined just to still the wind once and for all to keep both of her daughters (Anouk and Rosette, a baby) safe.

The weather vane starts to turn, and Zozie de l’Alba comes into their life. Zozie (both enigmatic and charming) provides a brightness for Yanne that she needs in her life. While her vivacity and brilliant lollipop shoes impress preadolescent Anouk (who is both impressionable and rebellious). Beneath this new friend’s kindhearted facade there is a sinister treachery. Zozie, seductive and devious, has some plans that are going to shake them and tear their world apart.

Fans of the novel felt different ways the entire time they were reading this. Through certain parts, they were anxious, as to what would happen, and why characters were different here than in the first book.

“Peaches for Monsieur le Cure” is the third novel in the “Chocolat” series, which was released in the year 2012. Vianne Rocher gets a letter from beyond the grave, and does not have a choice but to go back to Lansquenet. It was here that she used to own a chocolate shop and began to understand the meaning of home.

Going back to your past can be dangerous, and Vianne and her kids find the gorgeous French village has changed in some unexpected ways. Like the scent of spices, women veiled in black, and a minaret (which faces the church). Surprisingly, Francis Reynaud (Vianne’s old nemesis) needs her help desperately. Will she be able to work her own magic one more time?

Fans of the novel found that these books make them want to eat, and just enjoy every moment of taking in food, along with family and friends.